Yet the new regiment had a very peculiar character.

The soldiers were all rigid Puritans.

One of their first acts was to petition the Parliament that all drunkenness, licentiousness, and profaneness might be severely punished.

Their own conduct must have been exemplary: for the worst crime which the most extravagant bigotry could impute to them was that of huzzaing on the King's birthday.

It was originally intended that with the military organization of the corps should he interwoven the organization of a Presbyterian congregation.
Each company was to furnish an elder; and the elders were, with the chaplain, to form an ecclesiastical court for the suppression of immorality and heresy.