USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 21
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Downing Street, London, was named for Sir George when * John L. Sibley, Librarian.
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the office of Lord Treasurer was put in commission (May, 1667), and Downing College, Cambridge, England, was founded by a grandson of the baronet, in 1717.
The class of 1763 was in many respects a remarkable one, fruitful in loyalists to the mother country. Three refugee judges of the Supreme Court, of which number Sampson Salter Blowers lived to be a hundred, and, with the exception of Dr. Holyoke, the oldest of the Harvard alumni ; Bliss of Spring- field and Upham of Brookfield, afterwards judges of the high- est court in New Brunswick ; Dr. John Jeffries, the celebrated surgeon of Boston, and others of less note. On the Whig side were Colonel Timothy Pickering, General Jedediah Hunting- ton, who pronounced the first English oration ever delivered at Commencement, and Hon. Nathan Cushing.
Benjamin Pratt, afterwards Chief Justice of New York under the crown, was a graduate of 1737. He had been bred a me- chanic, but, having met with a serious injury that disabled him from pursuing his trade, turned his attention to study. Gov- ernors Belcher, Hutchinson, Dummer, Spencer Phips, Bowdoin, Strong, Gerry, Eustis, Everett, T. L. Winthrop, the two Presi- dents Adams and the Governor of that name, are of those who have been distinguished in high political positions. The names of those who have become eminent in law, medicine, and divin- ity would make too formidable a catalogue for our limits.
The Marquis Chastellux, writing in 1782, says : -
"I must here repeat, what I have observed elsewhere, that in comparing our universities and our studies in general with those of the Americans, it would not be to our interest to call for a decision of the question, which of the two nations should be considered an infant people."
A University education, upon which, perhaps, too great stress is laid by a few narrow minds who would found an aristocracy of learning in the republic of letters, is unquestion- ably of great advantage, though not absolutely essential to a successful public career. It is a passport which smooths the way, if it does not guarantee superiority. Perhaps it has a
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
tendency to a clannishness which has but little sympathy with those whose acquirements have been gained while sternly fighting the battle of life in the pursuit of a livelihood. Through its means many have achieved honor and distinction, while not a few have arrived at the goal without it. Franklin, Rumford, Rittenhouse, and William Wirt are examples of so- called self-made men which it would be needless to multiply. Even in England the proportion of collegians in public life is small. Twenty-five years ago Lord Lyndhurst said in a speech that, when he began his political career a majority of the House of Commons had received a University education, while at the time of which he was speaking not more than one fifth had been so educated. The practice which prevails in our country, especially at the West, of distinguishing every country semi- nary with the name of college, is deserving of unqualified reprobation.
It would be curious to trace the antecedents of the posses- sors of some of the great names in history. Columbus was a weaver ; Sixtus V. kept swine ; Ferguson and Burns were shepherds ; Defoe was a hosier's apprentice ; Hogarth, an en- graver of pewter pots ; Ben Jonson was a brick-layer ; Cer- vantes was a common soldier ; Halley was the son of a soap- boiler ; Arkwright was a barber, and Belzoni the son of a bar- ber ; Canova was the son of a stone-cutter, and Shakespeare commenced life as a menial.
The historic associations of Harvard are many and interest- ing. The buildings have frequently been used by the legislative branches of the provincial government. In 1729 the General Court sat here, having been adjourned from Salem by Governor Burnet, in August. Again in the stormy times of 1770 the Court was prorogued by Hutchinson to meet here instead of at its ancient seat in Boston. Wagers were laid at great odds that the Assembly would not proceed to do business, considering themselves as under restraint. They, however, opened their session under protest, by a vote of 59 yeas to 29 nays. Urgent public business gave the Governor a triumph, which was ren- dered as empty as possible by every annoyance the members in
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their ingenuity could invent. The preceding May the election of councillors had been held in Cambridge, conformably to Governor Hutchinson's orders, but contrary to the charter and the sense of the whole province. This was done to prevent any popular demonstration in Boston, but the patriotic party celebrated the day there, and their friends flocked into town from the country as usual. An ox was roasted whole on the Common and given to the populace.
The tragic events of the 5th of March, 1770, had occasioned great indignation and uneasiness, which the acquittal of Cap- tain Preston and his soldiers contributed to keep alive. The following is a copy of the paper posted upon the door of Boston Town House (Old State House), December 13, 1770, and for which Governor Hutchinson offered a reward of a hundred pounds lawful money, to be paid out of the public treasury. Otway's " Venice Preserved " seems to have furnished the text to the writer : -
" To see the sufferings of my fellow-townsmen And own myself a man ; To see the Court Cheat the INJURED people with a shew Of justice, which we ne'er can taste of ; Drive us like wrecks down the rough tide of power, While no hold is left to save us from destruction, All that bear this are slaves, and we as such, Not to rouse up at the great call of Nature And free the world from such domestic tyrants."
Harvard has not been free from those insurrectionary ebulli- tions common to universities. In most instances they have originated in Commons Hall ; the grievances of the stomach, if not promptly redressed, leading to direful results. Sydney Smith once remarked, that " old friendships are destroyed by toasted cheese, and hard salted meat has led to suicide." The stomachs of the students seem, on sundry occasions, to have been no less sensitive.
In 1674 all the scholars, except three or four whose friends lived in Cambridge, left the College. In the State archives exists a curious document relative to a difficulty about com- mons at an early period in the history of the College. It is the
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
confession of Nathaniel Eaton and wife, who were cited before the General Court for misdemeanors in providing diet for the students. In Mrs. Eaton's confession the following passage occurs : -
" And for bad fish, that they had it brought to table, I am sorry there was that cause of offence given them. I acknowledge my sin in it. And for their mackerel, brought to them with their guts in them, and goat's dung in their hasty pudding, its utterly unknown to me ; but I am much ashamed it should be in the family and not prevented by myself or servants and I humbly acknowledge my negligence in it."
The affair of the resignation of Dr. Langdon has been men- tioned. In 1807 there was a general revolt of all the classes against their commons, which brought the affairs of the College nearly to a stand for about a month. The classes, having en masse refused to attend commons, were considered in the light of outlaws by the government, and were obliged to subscribe to a form of apology dictated by it to obtain readmission. Many refused to sign a confession a little humiliating, and left the College ; but the greater number of the prodigals accepted the alternative, though we do not learn that any fatted calf was killed to celebrate the return of harmony. This was during Dr. Webber's presidency.
The students have ever been imbued with strong patriotic feelings. In 1768 the Seniors unanimously agreed to take their degrees at Commencement dressed in black cloth of the manu- facture of the country. In 1812 they proceeded in a body to work on the forts in Boston harbor. In the great Rebellion the names of Harvard's sons are inscribed among the heroic, living or dead for their country.
The seal of Harvard was "adopted at the first meeting of the governors of the College after the first charter was obtained. On the 27th of December, 1643, a College seal was adopted, having, as at present, three open books on the field of an heraldic shield, with the motto Veritas inscribed." This, says Mr. Quincy, is the only seal which has the sanction of any record. The first seal actually used had the motto " In Christi
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Gloriam," which conveys the idea of a school of theology, and is indirectly sanctioned by the later motto, Christo et Ecclesia.
The Americans threw up works on the College green in 1775, which were probably among the earliest erected by the Colony forces. They were begun in May, and extended towards the river. An aged resident of Cambridge informed the writer that a fort had existed in what is now Holyoke Place, leading from Mount Auburn Street, - a point which may be assumed to indicate the right flank of the first position. The lines in the vicinity of the College were carefully effaced, some few traces being remarked in 1824. They were, in all probability, hastily planned, and soon abandoned for the Dana Hill posi- tion, by which they were commanded.
The first official action upon fortifications which appears on record is the recommendation of a joint committee of the Com- mittee of Safety and the council of war- a body composed of the general officers - to throw up works on Charlestown road, a redoubt on what is supposed to have been Prospect Hill to be armed with 9-pounders, and a strong redoubt on Bunker Hill to be mounted with cannon. These works were proposed on the 12th of May. The reader knows that the execution of the last-named work brought on the battle on that ground.
Ever since Lexington the Americans looked for another sally of the royal forces. They expected it would be by way of Charlestown, and have the camps at Cambridge for its object. By landing a force on Charlestown Neck, which the command of the water always enabled them to do, the enemy were within a little more than two miles of headquarters, while a force coming from Roxbury side must first beat Thomas's troops sta- tioned there, and then have a long détour of several miles be- fore they could reach the river, where the passage might be expected to be blocked by the destruction of the bridge, and would at any rate cost a severe action, under great disadvantage, to have forced. A landing along the Cambridge shore was im- practicable. It was a continuous marsh, intersected here and there by a few farm-roads, impassable for artillery, without which the king's troops would not have moved. The Lexing-
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ton expedition forced its way through these marshes with infinite difficulty. The English commander might land his troops at Ten Hills, as had already been done ; but to prevent this was the object of the possession of Bunker Hill. He was therefore reduced to the choice of the two great highways lead- ing into Boston, with the advantages greatly in favor of that which passed on the side of Charlestown.
The advanced post of the Americans on old Charlestown road, which was meant to secure the camp on this side, was near the point where it is now intersected by Beacon Street. It was distant about five eighths of a mile from Cam- bridge Common. The road, which has here been straightened, formerly curved towards the north, crossing the head of the west fork of Willis Creek (Miller's River), by what was called Pillon Bridge. The road also passed over the east branch of the same stream near the present crossing of the Fitchburg Railway, where a mere rivulet appears to indicate its vicinity. The works at Pillon Bridge were on each side of the road ; that on the north running up the declivity of the hill now crossed by Park Street, and occupying a commanding site. The ex- istence of a watercourse here may still be traced in the vener- able willows which once skirted its banks, and even by the dry bed of the stream itself. The bridge, according to appearances, was situated seventy-five or a hundred yards north of the pres- ent point of junction of the two roads, now known as Wash- · ington and Beacon Streets. At the Cambridge line the former takes the name of Kirkland Street.
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CHAPTER XI.
CAMBRIDGE CAMP.
" Father and I went down to camp Along with Captain Gooding, And there we see the men and boys As thick as hasty pudding."
T THERE is a certain historical coincidence in the fact that the armies of the Parliament in England and of the Congress in America were each mustered in Cambridge. Old Cambridge, in 1642-43, was generally for the king, and the University tried unsuccessfully to send its plate out of Oliver's reach. In 1775 the wealth and influence of American Cam- bridge were also for the king, but the University was stanch for the Revolution.
We confess we should like to see, on a spot so historic as Cambridge Common, an equestrian statue to George Washing- ton, " Pater, Liberator, Defensor Patrice." Besides being the muster-field where the American army of the Revolution had its being, it is consecrated by other memories. It was the place of arms of the settlers of 1631, who selected it for their strong fortress and intrenched camp. Within this field the flag of thirteen stripes was first unfolded to the air. We have already had occasion to refer to the uprising of Middlesex in 1774, when the crown servitors resident in Cambridge had their judicial commissions revoked in the name of the people. It was also the place where George the Third's speech, sent out by the " Boston gentry," was committed to the flames.
Before reviewing the Continental camp, a brief retrospect of the military organization of the early colonists will not be deemed inappropriate. In the year 1644 the militia was or- ganized, and the old soldier, Dudley, appointed major-general. Endicott was the next incumbent of this new office ; Gibbons,
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
the third, had first commanded the Suffolk regiments ; Sedg- wick, the fourth, the Middlesex regiment. After Sedgwick came Atherton, Denison, Leverett, and Gookin, who was the last major-general under the old charter. These. officers were also styled sergeants major-general, a title borrowed from Old England. They were chosen annually by the freemen, at the same time as the governor and assistants, while the other mili- tary officers held for life.
Old Edward Johnson, describing the train-bands in Gibbons's time, says his forts were in good repair, his artillery well mounted and cleanly kept, half-cannon, culverins, and sakers, as also fieldpieces of brass, very ready for service.
A soldier in 1630- 40 wore a steel cap or head-piece, breast and back piece, buff coat, bandoleer, containing his powder, and carried a matchlock. He was also armed with a long sword suspended by a belt from the shoulder. In the time of Philip's War the Colony forces were provided with blunderbusses and also with hand-grenadoes, which were found effectual in driving the Indians from an ambush. A troop at this time numbered sixty horse, besides the officers', all well mounted and completely armed with back, breast, head-piece, buff coat, sword, carbine, and pistols. Each of the twelve troops in the Colony were distinguished by their coats. In time of war the pay of a cap- tain of horse was £ 6 per month ; of a captain of foot, £ 4 ; of a private soldier, one shilling a day. Military punishments were severe ; the strapado, or riding the wooden horse so as to bring the blood, being commonly inflicted for offences one grade be- low the death-penalty. The governor had the chief command, but the major-generals did not take the field, their offices being more for profit than for fighting.
With improved fire-arms, when battles were no more to be decided by hand-to-hand encounters, armor gradually went out of fashion.
"Farewell, then, ancient men of might ! Crusader, errant-squire, and knight ! Our coats and customs soften ; To rise would only make you weep ; Sleep on, in rusty iron sleep, As in a safety coffin."
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CAMBRIDGE CAMP.
Bayonets as first used in England (about 1680) had a wooden haft, which was inserted in the mouth of the piece, answering thus the purpose of a partisan. The French, with whom the weapon originated, anticipated the English in fixing it with a socket. A French and British regiment in one of the wars of William III. encountered in Flanders, where this dif- ference in the manner of using the bayonet was near deciding the day in favor of the French battalion. This weapon, once so important that the British infantry made it their peculiar boast, is now seldom used, except perhaps as a defence against cavalry. Some confidence it still gives to the soldier, but its most important function in these days of long-range small- arms is the splendor with which it invests the array of a bat- talion as it stands on parade. We do not know of a com- månder who would now order a bayonet-charge, although in the early battles of the Revolution it often turned the scale against us.
After the battle of Lexington the Committee of Safety re- solved to enlist eight thousand men for seven months. A com- pany was to consist of one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, a drummer and fifer, and seventy privates. Nine companies formed a regiment, of which the field-officers were a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major. Each of the field-officers had a company which was called his own, as each of the general officers, beginning with Ward himself, had his regiment. The aggregate of the rank and file was, two days afterward, reduced to fifty. This must be considered as the first organization of the army of the Thirteen Colo- nies, - as they afterwards adopted it as their own, - the army which fought at Bunker Hill, and opened the trenches around Boston.
This Common was the grand parade of the army. Here were formed every morning, under supervision of the Brigadier of the Day, the guards for Lechmere's Point, Cobble Hill, White House, North, South, and Middle Redoubts, Lechmere's Point tête du pont, and the main guards for Winter Hill, Prospect Hill, and Cambridge. Hither were marched the de-
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
tachments which assembled on their regimental parades at eight o'clock. Arms, accoutrements, and clothing underwent the scrutiny of Greene, Sullivan, or Heath. This finished, the grand guard broke off into small bodies, which marched to their designated stations to the music of the fife and drum.
We may here mention that the "ear-piercing fife " was in- troduced into the British army after the campaign of Flanders in 1748. This instrument was first adopted by the Royal Regiment of Artillery, the musicians receiving their instruction from John Ulrich, a Hanoverian fifer, brought from Flanders by Colonel Belford when the allied army separated. Nothing puts life into the soldier like this noisy little reed. You shall see a band of weary, footsore men, after a long march, fall into step, close up their ranks, and move on, a serried phalanx, at the scream of the fife.
Fortunate indeed was he who witnessed this old-fashioned guard-mount, where the first efforts to range in order the non- descript battalia must have filled the few old soldiers present with despair. There was no uniformity in weapons, dress, or equipment, and until the arrival of Washington not an epau- lette in camp. The officers could not have been picked out of the line for any insignia of rank or superiority of attire over the common soldiers. Some, perhaps, had been fortunate enough to secure a gorget, a sword, or espontoon, but all car- ried their trusty fusees. All that went to make up the outward pomp of the soldier was wanting. Compared with the scarlet uniforms, burnished arms, and compact files of the troops to whom they were opposed, our own poor fellows were the veriest ragamuffins ; but the contrast in this was not more striking than were the different motives with which each combated : the Briton fought the battle of his king, the American soldier his own.
The curse of the American army was in the short enlistments. Men were taken for two, three, and six months, and scarcely arrived in camp before they infected it with that dangerous dis- ease, homesickness. The same experience awaited the nation in
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CAMBRIDGE CAMP.
the great civil war. In truth, if history is philosophy teaching by example, we make little progress in forming armies out of the crude material.
If the Americans were so contemptible in infantry, they were even more so in artillery, - as for cavalry, it was a thing as yet unknown in an army in which many field-officers could not obtain a mount. The enemy was well supplied with field and siege pieces, abundant supplies of which had been sent out, while the reserves of the Castle and fleet were drawn upon as circumstances demanded. The unenterprising spirit of the British commander rendered all this disparity much less alarm- ing than it would have been with a Carleton or Cornwallis, instead of a Gage or Howe. An eyewitness relates that
" The British appeared so inoffensive that the Americans enjoyed at Cambridge the conviviality of the season. The ladies of the prin- cipal American officers repaired to the camp. Civility and mutual forbearance appeared between the officers of the royal and conti- nental armies, and a frequent interchange of flags was indulged for the gratification of the different partisans."
The earliest arrangement of this chrysalis of an army was about as follows. The regiments were encamped in tents as fast as possible, but as this supply soon gave out, old sails, con- tributed by the seaport towns, were issued as a substitute. Patterson's, Whitcomb's, Doolittle's, and Gridley's pitched their tents, and were soon joined under canvas by Glover. Nixon's lay on Charlestown road ; a part of the regiment in Mr. Fox- croft's barn. The houses were at first used chiefly as hospitals for the sick. Patterson's hospital was in Andrew Boardman's house, near his encampment ; Gridley's, in Mr. Robshaw's. Sheriff Phip's house was hospital No. 2, over which Dr. Duns- more presided. Drs. John Warren, Isaac Rand, William Eustis, James Thacher, Isaac Foster, and others officiated in the hospi- tals, under the chief direction of Dr. Church. John Pigeon was commissary-general to the forces.
We are able to give an exact return of all the regiments in Cambridge on the 10th of July, 1775, with the number of men in each : -
11*
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
Jonathan Ward, 505.
James Scammon, 529.
William Prescott,
487.
Thomas Gardner, 334.
Asa Whitcomb, 571.
Jonathan Brewer, 373.
Ephraim Doolittle, 351.
B. Ruggles Woodbridge, 343.
James Fry, 473.
Paul Dudley Sargeant, 192.
Richard Gridley, 445.
Samuel Gerrish, 258.
John Nixon, 482.
John Mansfield,
507.
John Glover,
519.
Edmund Phinney,
163.
John Patterson,
492.
Moses Little,
543.
Ebenezer Bridge, 509.
Two companies of Bond's and two of Gerrish's were at Med- ford, Malden, and Chelsea. Phinney had only three companies in camp. This seems to have been before the troops were arranged in grand divisions and newly brigaded by Washing- ton. The aggregate of the troops in Cambridge presented by the above return was 8,076, of which probably not many in excess of six thousand were for duty. Under the new arrange- ment of forces Scammon's was ordered to No. 1 and the redoubt on the flank of No. 2, Heath's to No. 2, Patterson to No. 3, and Prescott to Sewall's Point. On the 10th of January, 1776, when the returns of the whole army only amounted to 8,212 men, but 5,582 were returned fit for duty.
Gridley calls for fascines, gabions, pickets, etc., for the bat- teries, and makes requisitions for the service of a siege-train. The artillery, such as it was, but lately dragged from places of concealment, was without carriages, horses, or harness. There were no intrenching tools except such as could be obtained of private persons, no furnaces for casting shot, - no anything but pluck and resolution, and of that there was enough and to spare.
Armorers were set to work repairing the men's firelocks. Knox, Burbeck, Crane, Mason, and Crafts mounted the artil- lery. Sailmakers were employed making tents, carpenters to build barracks, and shoemakers and tailors as fast as they could be obtained, - the former in making shoes, cartouch- boxes, etc., the latter in clothing the soldiers. Shipwrights were building bateaux on the river. In this condition of ac-
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CAMBRIDGE CAMP.
tivity and chaos Washington found his army, and realized, per- haps for the first time, the magnitude of the work before him. From the Mystic to the Charles and from the Charles to the sea the air echoed to the sound of the hammer or the blows of the axe, the crash of falling trees or the word of command. Another Carthage might have been rebuilding by another Cæsar, and the ground trembled beneath the tread of armed men.
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