Commonwealth Minutemen

The Commonwealth Minutemen is a faction in the Commonwealth in 2287.

History
The Minutemen were founded as a result of the efforts by various small communities to protect themselves against the numerous threats present within the Commonwealth. As the organization expanded, acquiring dividends in both infantry and resources, they first gained recognition after successfully defending Diamond City from a super mutant attack in 2180.

Upon gaining enough resources, the organization eventually assumed control of Fort Independence, transforming it into their main base of operations. Renamed as 'The Castle', the group re-purposed a large portion of the fort into an armory, also erecting a big radio tower in the courtyard to broadcast the signal for 'Radio Freedom', a radio-station with the purpose of notifying all members of the Minutemen about communities in distress and other notifications, to all over the Commonwealth.

After operating for a significant amount of time, in 2247, the Minutemen were forced to abandon the fort, the reason being a giant Mirelurk Queen, as well as her other mirelurks, suddenly assaulted The Castle with the intent to nest in and around it. Thinking it was a super mutant attack, General McGann locked himself deep into the armory behind a myriad of defenses. With this last-ditch effort to protect the armory from being entered, he effectively doomed himself to die by dehydration, a demise hastened by his consuming a fair portion of the bottles in a case of wine. Despite this, his act of defiance prevented the mirelurks from nesting within the armory bastion, preserving it well for future use.

The last leader of the Minutemen, General Becker, was killed at some point after his appointment/election as leader. Upon his death, the Minutemen began to experience internal strife, as the various groups couldn't agree upon a successor. The loss of The Castle only exacerbated the problem, and this disagreement on a new leader caused the political landscape to become incredibly fragile. The entire situation came to a head following the Quincy Massacre, many of the militias making up the group disbanding in disgust or turning to banditry, following the almost inevitable loss of popular (and its attendant material) support.

Following the whole ordeal, only remnants of the Minuteman and their supporters remained. With the exception of Preston Garvey, one of the few survivors to escape the massacre, and thus still loyal to the cause of the organization, the Minutemen had effectively ceased to exist as a cohesive group.

Some small mention of a battle/series of battles between the Minutemen and the Institute is mentioned by Piper, but there are no other reference of this event or chain of events in the game, though this may just point to the Minutemen responding to attacks by Synths on settlements under their protection, or skirmishes between Institute scavenge teams and Minuteman patrols (though it's entirely feasible that such clashes could have escalated to larger engagements, relatively speaking, especially if it concerned anything sufficiently valuable to the Institute.)

Interactions with the player character
Soon after escaping Vault 111, the Sole Survivor comes across the Museum of Freedom under attack by raiders. They must fight their way upstairs, where they are introduced to Preston Garvey, who is leading a group against the raiders. The Sole Survivor later meets with Preston who then invites them to join the Minutemen and the Minutemen questline starts. Throughout this questline the Sole Survivor will be asked to lead the Minutemen and complete tasks to align more settlements with the Minutemen. Eventually this will lead to a quest in which the Minutemen take back their former headquarters, The Castle. With all the Minutemen quests completed, new quests assigned by Preston Garvey will begin to cycle back through previously completed quests. This entails completing the same quests again.

The Minutemen are benign as factions go, and will stay friendly to the player character should they ally with the Institute, Brotherhood of Steel, or the Railroad. However, the Sole Survivor can opt out of any of those factions and work specifically with the Minutemen for the main quest.

Upon completion of the main story with the Minutemen, soldiers from the army will patrol the wasteland. The Sole Survivor will occasionally obtain the quest "Defend the checkpoint." This quest consists of mainly helping a Minutemen patrol defend a checkpoint against synth attackers, raiders, ghouls, or the Brotherhood of Steel, if hostile to them.

Faction war
Depending on the action of the player character, the Sole Survivor may initiate a war against other factions:
 * If the player enters into hostile relations with the Institute, a faction war between the Minutemen and the Institute starts and the player can now enter the Minutemen route of the main quest. This route will lead to Defend the Castle against the synths and later on to the completion of the main quest with The Nuclear Option.
 * If the main quest was finished with the Minutemen or the Brotherhood of Steel and the player is hostile to the Brotherhood, the two factions will go to war. This action will lead to battles across the wasteland. The war will end with Preston Garvey giving the player character With Our Powers Combined, immediately after Defend the Castle. Once the quest is over, the war is over, although surviving Brotherhood members will be hostile.

Notable members

 * General Joe Becker
 * General McGann
 * Colonel Ezra Hollis
 * Lieutenant Foster
 * Brent Savoldi
 * Clint (formerly)
 * Emma
 * Josh
 * Mama Murphy
 * Preston Garvey
 * Ronnie Shaw
 * Sole Survivor (optional)
 * Sturges
 * James Wire (formerly)

Appearances
The Commonwealth Minutemen appear only in Fallout 4.

Behind the scenes

 * The faction is based on the 'Minutemen' who helped fight the British during the Revolutionary War.
 * The University of Massachusetts Amherst sports teams have also taken the name "Minutemen" and "Minutewomen" in honor of the original Massachusetts Minutemen.
 * The original Minutemen from the Revolutionary War were select groups picked from local militias that underwent additional training in order to ready themselves rapidly ("at a minute's notice") in order to protect their fellow citizens, hence the name.
 * In keeping with the nuclear warfare theme of the Fallout series, the name may also be a reference to the LGM-30 Minuteman, a U.S. ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile), which entered service in 1962 and has been part of the American nuclear deterrent ever since.