[War of 1812]. [Massachusetts. Militia]. Brooks, John - [Broadside] Commonwealth of Massachusetts. General Orders. Head-Quarters, Boston, June 17th, 1815... That His Excellency Be Advised to Issue His Order for the Discharge of All the Volunteer Corps Raised for the Defence of the Commonwealth. .

[Boston], 1815. First edition. 1 sheet ([1] p.). Folio. 35 x 21 cm. An important broadside noting the deficiencies of the volunteer militia. One of two states, this with the fourth line in bold-type. Opens: Commonwealth of Massachusetts. General orders. Head-quarters, Boston, June 17th, 1815. : On the 15th inst. the following order of Council was passed, viz.: "In Council, June 15th, 1815. The committee of Council to whom was referred a resolve of the legislature .. respectfully report--that His Excellency be advised to issue his order for the discharge of all the volunteer corps raised for the defence of the commonwealth ..":--By virtue, therefore, of the powers vested in him, His Excellency the commander in chief hereby discharges from further service, all the volunteer corps .." Brooks of course began by (1) thanking the men for "the generous, patriotic and voluntary tender of services for the defence of the Commonwealth, at the most threatening period of the late war, and the assiduity and zeal displayed by those Corps, in training themselves for usefulness in the field, without expense to the State.." (2) discharge [them] from further service", and (3) ordering "all officers and others, who may have received from the Commonwealth ordnance, arms, or munitions of war of any kind, for the use, or on account of any of those Corps, to cause the same to be forthwith returned to the Quarter Master General, at Boston." But more importantly he used the occasion to make military revisions for the future, noting that "inconveniencies have arisen from restriction the election of company officers to the Wards," which he ordered changed and that "great irregularities" have followed "from the liberty that officers have taken to absent themselves for more than twelve months without leave from their Major Generals, and the still more numerous evils resulting from officers removing their places of residence to such a distance from the bounds of their respective commands, as to render discharge of their duty highly inconvenient, and sometimes, impossible.." He ends by ordering wholesale changes in command structure. John Brooks (1752 -1825), a doctor by training, a Federalist by disposition, served under George Washington during the Revolutionary War, later helped to put down Shay's Rebellion, and at the conclusion of the War of 1812, was elected governor of Massachusetts less than a year after issuing this broadside. Rare. OCLC shows only two locations: American Antiquarian Society (which has both issues) and the Peabody Essex Museum, which has one. Not in American Imprints. A very good copy, old folds, some minor marginal browning and soiling.