The Richardson Light Guard of Wakefield, Massachusetts: a Town Militia in War and Peace, 1851-1975 by Barry M. Stentiford

Author:Barry M. Stentiford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2013-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

The RLG, as Company A of the Sixth Regiment, formed up on Main Street in front of the Wakefield Town Hall. The date is uncertain but the Cutler Brothers Grocery that burned in 1911 is absent. The 1895 armory, missing its distinctive third floor, is clearly visible behind the troops on the right. The officer looking at the camera is probably Lieutenant Fred H. Rogers, while the officer walking toward the formation is Captain John H. McMahon (courtesy Wakefield Historical Society).

The new armory stood on higher ground than the old one, and was set back from the street. It was a more imposing structure than the former armory but still looked more like a school than a fort or castle. It was a redbrick building with four white columns in the front and a large attached drill hall in the rear. The drill hall, at 109 feet long, surpassed the old drill hall by twenty feet, and was seventeen feet wider. The new armory was the only one in the Massachusetts with a colonial design on the front, but neither the RLG nor the town of Wakefield had much to do with the planning of the new armory. Whereas the former armory had been built by the town for the RLG, the new armory was a state armory, paid for and owned by the commonwealth. Significantly, the front boasted the initials “M.V.M.,” which of course stood for “Massachusetts Volunteer Militia,” and made no mention of the Richardson Light Guard, nor included the term “National Guard.” An armory built and owned by the commonwealth for the RLG could be closed by the commonwealth, and the RLG, or its descendant, could be moved or disbanded by the commonwealth, or later, federal government.

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