Wareham celebrated the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976 along with the rest of the country. Did you know that one of the first projects of the Town’s Bicentennial Commission was the reactivation of Wareham’s Minutemen and Militia companies? These Revolutionary forces were never officially “deactivated” following the Revolution, but many towns across Massachusetts chose to reactivate.

The Bicentennial Commission nominated John Fearing III as a commander of the reactivated troops. His relative, Major Israel Fearing, commanded Wareham’s Minutemen in 1775. On Sunday, March 17, 1974, in a ceremony held outside Memorial Town Hall, the Wareham Minutemen and Militia companies were officially reactivated, the first in Plymouth County to do so. Approximately 300 citizens and visitors attended the event that included both cannon and musket fire. A fife and drum unit and a group of Revolutionary War re-enactors from Taunton mustered on the front lawn.

A special proclamation of the Board of Selectmen, hand-written on parchment and signed with a quill pen, was read aloud officially reactivating the forces. Twenty-two men were recruited into the new units. The troops received official permission to bear firearms from the Adjutant General of the Commonwealth. The men wore authentic costumes and carried muzzle-loading flintlock muskets and powder horns. They practiced and drilled and admitted more recruits. These local units carried the Wareham banner and took part in several battle re-enactments across New England during the Bicentennial.