USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
E XCEPT Mount Vernon, the shrine at which every Amer- ican means some day to render homage, the house now the residence of Mr. Longfellow is probably the best known of any in our country. It is not to be wondered at that the foot- steps of many pilgrims stray within the pleasant enclosure. The house has often been described, and is an object familiar to thousands who have visited it, and who would regret its disappearance as a public misfortune.
A score of years gone by the writer accompanied a gentleman from a distant State, then accredited to a foreign court, to view the historic localities of Old Cambridge. "Ah !" said the visitor, as we paused before this mansion, " there is no need to account for the poet's inspiration." Be it our task, then, after repeating something of its history, to stand at the entrance door, and, like Seneschal of old, announce in succession those who claim our service in the name of master of the historic edifice.
Standing at some distance back from the street, the mansion is in the style of an English country house of a hundred and fifty years ago. It is built of wood without, walled up with brick within, giving strength to the building and comfort to its inhabitants.
The approach is by a walk rising over two slight terraces by successive flights of sandstone steps. The first of these terraces is bordered by a neat wooden balustrade. Four pilasters with Corinthian capitals ornament the front of the mansion ; one standing at each side of the entrance, while others relieve the corners. A pediment raised above the line of the cornice rests
13
8
290
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
upon the central pilasters, and gives character to the design. A dormer window jutting out on either side of the pediment, a pair of substantial chimneys, and a balustrade at the summit of the roof complete the external aspects of the house. The verandas seen on either side are the taste of a modern pro- prietor. Yellow and white, the poet's colors, are the outward dress which has been applied to this house since a time when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
One day we stood on the broad stone slab before this door. We had time to mark the huge brass knocker which seemed to court a giant's grasp, but, O Vulcan ! what a lock was its fellow on the other side. The key might have been forged at the smithy of a Cyclop, and would have done no discredit to the girdle of the keeper of the Bastile or of the White Tower.
It was probably the poet's mental stature that made us ex- pect to see a taller man. His handsome white hair, worn long ; his beard, which threescore and six completed years have blanched, gave him a venerable appearance by no means con- sistent with his mental and bodily activity. A warm, even ruddy complexion ; an eye bright and expressive ; a genial smile, which at once allays any well-founded doubts the in- truder might entertain of his reception, make Mr. Longfellow's a countenance to be remembered. Looking into that face, we felt at no loss to account for the beauty, purity, and high moral tone which pervade the poet's productions.
An apparent aroma of fragrant tobacco indicated that, like Tennyson, our host found solace in the weed. The large front room, one of four into which the first floor is divided, and which opens at your right hand as you enter the hall, is re- served by the poet for his study, and here, among his books, antique busts, and other literary paraphernalia, the magician weaves his spell.
The windows look upon the lawn and walk by which you approach the house. The grounds are embellished with shrub- bery and dominated by some fine old elms ; but the eye is soon engaged with, and lingers on, the broad expanse of meadow through which the river winds unseen, and whose distant
291
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY.
margin is fringed with the steeples and house-tops of Brighton. Beyond are the rounded hills and pleasant dales of Brookline, and from the upper windows you may see, on a clear day, the blue masses of Milton Hills. Thus it looked to the early pro- prietor and to Washington, and thus the present occupant, by the recovery of a large portion of the original acres, perpetuates at once dwelling and landscape.
Lighting a taper, our host first led the way to the cellars, with timely caution to take heed of the solid timbers overhead, as we descended the stairs. He made us remark the thickness of these beams and of the outer walls of the building proper. In extent and loftiness these cellars were not unworthy some old convent in which many a butt of good Rhenish - unless ·we do them foul wrong - has consoled the jolly friars for days of mortification in downright bacchanalian wassail. We passed beneath arches where light was never meant to enter, for fear of offending the deep, rich glow of the port, or the pale lustre of the Madeira, - recesses out of which we almost expected to see the phantom of the Colonial proprietor appear and challenge our footsteps.
The house is spacious and elegant throughout. From the hall of entrance the staircase winds to the upper floor, giving an idea of loftiness such as you experience in looking up at the vault of a church. The principles of ventilation were respected by the builder in a manner which savors strongly of a West- Indian life. Not a sign of weakness or decay is apparent in the woodwork ; wainscots, panels, capitals, and cornices are in excellent taste and skilfully executed.
The old proprietor's farm, for such it was, at first consisted of a hundred and fifty acres or more. The Sewall mansion, now that of John Brewster, Esq., was then the nearest on that side, and at the back the grounds embraced the site of the Ob- servatory, where formerly stood a summer-house. From this hill the waters of a spring were conducted to the house by an aqueduct, still visible where it entered the foundation-wall. The greenhouses were formerly on the spot where the new dor- mitory is now being erected ; the capacious barn is still stand-
292
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
ing on the west side of the house. Nothing seems to have been wanting to render the estate complete in all its appoint- ments.
The house was probably erected in 1759 by Colonel John Vassall, the same at whose tomb we have paid a passing visit. His family was a distinguished one, both in Old and New England. In King's Chapel, Boston, the visitor may see a beautiful mural monument, commemorative of the virtues, loy- alty, and sufferings of Samuel Vassall, a member, and one of the Assistants, of the Massachusetts Company. The escutcheon displays the same emblems as the horizontal slab in Cambridge churchyard. The crest is a ship with the sails furled, adopted, no doubt, to honor the services of that brave John Vassall who fought with Howard, Drake, and Hawkins, against the armada of Philip II. The Vassalls were from Cambridge in Old Eng- land.
There could be no fitter name for so stanch a loyalist as Col- onel John Vassall. It is said he would not use on his arms the family device, " Sæpe pro rege, semper pro republica." He took an active part against the whigs in the struggles prelimi- nary to active hostilities, and early in 1775 became a fugitive under the protection of the royal standard. In Boston he occu- pied the time-honored mansion of the Faneuils, where he, no doubt, often saw his fellow-tories assembled around his board. His Cambridge and Boston estates were both confiscated, and not the least curious of the freaks which fortune played in those troublous times was the occupation of the first-named house by Washington, while that of William Vassall, in Boston, after- wards the residence of Gardiner Greene, was for some time the lodgings of Sir William Howe, and also of Earl Percy. Col- onel Vassall retired to England, where he died in 1797, after eating a hearty dinner.
Having witnessed the hurried exit of the first proprietor, it becomes our duty to throw wide the portal and admit a bat- talion of Colonel John Glover's amphibious Marblehead regi- ment. As the royalist went out the republicans came in, and the halls of the haughty tory resounded with merriment or
293
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY.
echoed to the tread of many feet. Colonel John the first gave place to Colonel John the second. Truth compels us to add that the man of Marblehead has left a more enduring record than the marble of the Vassall.
The little colonel, though small in stature, was as brave as Cæsar. His patriotism was full proof. Besides his service at the siege of Boston, his regiment brought off the army in safety after the disastrous affair of Long Island, where they showed that they could handle ashen as well as steel blades. He was a great favorite with Lee, with whom he served two campaigns. It was Glover who, after the ever-memorable passage of the Delaware, made the discovery that the thickly falling sleet had rendered the fire-arms useless. Meaning glances were exchanged among the little group who heard the ill-omened announce- ment. " What is to be done ?" exclaimed Sullivan. "Nothing is left you but to push on and charge," replied St. Clair. Sul- livan, still doubtful, sent Colonel William Smith, one of his aids, to inform General Washington of the state of his troops, and that he could depend upon nothing but the bayonet. General Washington replied to Colonel Smith in a voice of thunder, " Go back, sir, immediately, and tell General Sullivan to go on !" Colonel Smith said he never saw a face so awfully sublime as Washington's when he spoke these words.
Knox, whose superhuman efforts on that night to get his ar- tillery across the Delaware entitle him to lasting praise, pays this tribute to the brave men of Glover's command : -
" I could wish that they [he was speaking to the Massachusetts Legislature] had stood on the banks of the Delaware River in 1776, on that bitter night when the commander-in-chief had drawn up his little army to cross it, and had seen the powerful current bearing onward the floating masses of ice which threatened destruction to whosoever should venture upon its bosom. I wish that, when this occurrence threatened to defeat the enterprise, they could have heard that distinguished warrior demand, 'Who will lead us on ?' and seen the men of Marblehead, and Marblehead alone, stand for- ward to lead the army along its perilous path to unfading glories and honors in the achievements of Trenton."
294
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
Glover was himself a fisherman and wore a short round- jacket like his men. Two of his captains, John Selman and Nicholson Broughton, engaged in the first naval expedition of the Revolution. A third, William Raymond Lee, finally became Glover's successor in the command of the regiment. Glover had been out with the Marblehead militia when Leslie attempted to force his way into Salem. The regiment reported to General Ward on the 22d of June, 1775.
Graydon, whose illiberal and sweeping abuse of the New England troops renders his praise the more remarkable, makes an exception in favor of Glover's regiment, which he saw in New York in 1776. He says : --
" The only exception I recollect to have seen to these miserably constituted bands from New England was the regiment of Glover from Marblehead. There was an appearance of discipline in this corps ; the officers seemed to have mixed with the world, and to un- derstand what belonged to their station. But even in this regiment there were a number of negroes, which, to persons unaccustomed to such associations, had a disagreeable, degrading effect."
Glover served in the Northern army in the campaign against Burgoyne. He commanded the troops drawn up to receive the surrender, and, with Whipple, escorted the forces of the Con- vention to Cambridge. An excellent disciplinarian, his regi- ment was one of the best in the army. But the Provincial Congress has ordered the house cleared for a more illustrious tenant, and our sturdy men of Essex must seek another loca- tion. On the 7th of July they received orders to encamp. In February, 1776, the regimental headquarters were at Brown's tavern, while the regiment itself lay encamped in an enclosed pasture to the north of the Colleges.
From the records of the Provincial Congress we learn that Joseph Smith was the custodian of the Vassall farm, which fur- nished considerable supplies of forage for our army. It was at the time when the haymakers were busy in the royalist's mead- ows that Washington, entering Cambridge with his retinue, first had his attention fixed by the mansion which for more than eight months became his residence.
295
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY.
"Once, ah ! once, within these walls, One whom memory oft recalls, The father of his country dwelt ; And yonder meadows broad and damp, The fires of the besieging camp Encircled with a burning belt."
Washington probably took possession of this house before the middle of July, as he himself records, under date of July 15, that he paid for cleansing the premises assigned him, which had been occupied by the Marblehead regiment. The Com- mittee of Safety had ordered it vacated early in May for their own use, but there is no evidence that they ever sat there.
Whatever re- lates to the per- sonality of Wash- ington will re- main a matter of interest to the latest times. The pencils of the Peales, of Trum- bull, Stuart, of Wertmüller, and others have de- picted him in ear- ly manhood, in mature age, and the decline of life ; while the chisel of BALL'S WASHINGTON STATUE. a Canova, a Houdon, and a Chantrey have familiarized Ameri- cans with his commanding figure and noble cast of features : -
" A combination and a form indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man."
296
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
One of Rochambeau's generals has left by far the most satis- factory account of Washington's outward man : -
"His stature is noble and lofty, he is well made and exactly proportioned ; his physiognomy mild and agreeable, but such as to render it impossible to speak particularly of any of his features, so that in quitting him you have only the recollection of a fine face. He has neither a grave nor a familiar air, his brow is sometimes marked with thought, but never with inquietude ; in inspiring re- spect he inspires confidence, and his smile is always the smile of benevolence."
Says another : -
" With a person six feet two inches in stature, expanded, muscular, of elegant proportions and unusually graceful in all its movements, - his head moulded somewhat on the model of the Grecian an- tique ; features sufficiently prominent for strength or comeliness, - a Roman nose and large blue eyes deeply thoughtful rather than lively, - with these attributes the appearance of Washington was striking and august. Of a fine complexion, he was accounted when young one of the handsomest of men."
That Washington wore his famous blue and buff uniform on his arrival at Cambridge there can be as little doubt as that he appeared in his seat in Congress in this garb ; and, as these became the colors of the famed Continental army, their origin becomes a subject of inquiry.
The portrait of the elder Peale, painted in 1772, represents Washington in the uniform of the provincial troops, which, for good cause, was varied from that of the British line. In the former corps the coat was blue faced with crimson, in the lat- ter scarlet faced with blue, - colors which had been worn since their adoption in the reign of Queen Anne. To continue Peale's delineation of Colonel Washington's uniform, the coat and waist- coat, out of which is seen protruding the "order of march," are both edged with silver lace, with buttons of white metal. An embroidered lilac-colored scarf falls from the left shoulder across the breast and is knotted at the right hip, while sus- · pended by a blue ribbon from his neck is the gorget bearing the arms of Virginia, then and afterwards a distinctive emblem,
297
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY.
as the fusee he carries by a sling was the companion of every officer. This was the very dress he wore on the day of Brad- dock's signal defeat.
Blue -than which no color can be more soldierly - had its precedent, not only in the British Horse Guards, but in the French and other armies of Continental Europe. It is to Sweden, however, that we must look for the origin of the cele- brated blue and buff, as we find the Royal Swedes wearing it as early as 1715. In 1789 they were attired in the very cos- tume of the Continentals.
The General wore rich epaulettes and an elegant small sword. He also carried habitually a pair of screw-barrelled, silver- mounted pistols, with a dog's head carved on the handle. It also appears that he sometimes wore the light-blue ribbon across his breast, between coat and waistcoat, which is seen in Peale's portrait painted for Louis XVI. This badge, which gave rise to the mistaken idea that Washington was a Marshal of France, was worn in consequence of an order issued in July, 1775, to make the persons of the generals known to the army. By the same order the major and brigadier generals were to wear pink ribbons, and the aides-de-camp green. An old print of General Putnam exhibits this peculiarity. Cockades of different colors were assigned by orders in 1776 as distinguishing badges for officers.
Peale's portrait of Colonel Washington, together with other valuable paintings at Arlington House, were removed by Mrs. Lee when she left her residence in May, 1861. Although con- siderably injured by the rough usage of war times, every lover of art will be glad to know that they have been preserved. The gorget which has been mentioned as having been worn by Washington when he sat to the elder Peale is now preserved as a precious relic in the Quincy family, of Boston. A pair of epaulettes worn by the General at Yorktown, together with some other mementos, are in the cabinets of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
The commander-in-chief, upon taking possession of his head-' quarters, selected the southeast chamber for his sleeping-apart-
13*
298
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
ment. What vigils he kept here in the silent watches of the night, what invocations were made for Providential aid and guidance, when, escaping from the sight of men, he unbosomed himself and bowed down beneath the weight of his responsi- bilities, the walls alone might tell.
" Yes, within this very room, Sat he in those hours of gloom, Weary both in heart and head."
Washington was very exact in his habits. It is said he always shaved, dressed himself, summer and winter, and an- swered his letters by candle-light. Nine o'clock was his hour for retiring.
The front room underneath the chamber, already mentioned as the poet's study, was appropriated by the General for a simi- lar purpose. This opens at the rear into the library, an apart- ment occupied in the day of the great Virginian by his military family. In the study the ample autograph was appended to letters and orders that have formed the framework for contem- porary history ; the march of Arnold to Quebec, the new or- ganization of the Continental army, the occupation of Dorches- ter Heights, and the simple but graphic expression of the final triumph of patient endurance in the following order of the day : -
" HEAD QUARTERS, 17th March 1776. " Parole Boston. Countersign St. Patrick."
" The regiments under marching orders to march to-morrow morning. Brigadier of the Day, General Sullivan.
" By His Excellency's Command."
Here, too, our General rose to his full stature when, in his famous letter to General Gage, he gave utterance to the feelings of honest resentment called forth by the supercilious declara- tions of that officer in language which must have stung the Briton to the quick : -
"You affect, sir, to despise all rank not derived from the same „source with your own. I cannot conceive one more honorable than that which flows from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free people, - the purest source and original fountain of all power."
299
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY.
Napoleon, when in exile at St. Helena, remarked to an Englishman while arguing against the foolish attempt to make him relinquish the title of Emperor, " Your nation called Wash- ington a leader of rebels for a long time, and refused to acknowl- edge either him or the constitution of his country ; but his successes obliged them to change and acknowledge both."
The phrase of " military family," in which was included the entire staff of the General, originated in the British army. The custom of embracing the suite of a general in his household, and of constituting them in effect members of his family, was not practised in the armies of Continental Europe. Washing- ton was fortunately able to support the charge of this practice, as well as to control the incongruous elements sometimes grouped about his person. Of his first staff, Gates, the head, became soured, and, fancying his position far beneath his merits, a restraint soon appeared in his demeanor. Mifflin, the first aid, afterwards governor of Pennsylvania, became involved in the Conway cabal ; and Reed, the General's secretary and most trusted friend, became at one time so doubtful of the success of the American arms, that he is said to have received a British pro- tection. But Reed's patriotism was proof against a most artful attempt to bribe lim through the agency of a beautiful woman. When assured of her purpose, he addressed her in these words : " I am not worth purchasing, but such as I am, the king of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it."
Trumbull, the painter, who was made an aid in the early days of the siege, confesses his inability to sustain the exigencies of his position. He relates that the scene at headquarters was altogether new and strange to him.
"I now," he says, " found myself in the family of one of the most distinguished men of the age, surrounded at his table by the princi- pal officers of the army, and in constant intercourse with them ; it was further my duty to receive company and do the honors of the house to many of the first people of the country of both sexes. I soon found myself unequal to the elegant duties of my situation, and was gratified when Mr. Edmund Randolph (afterwards Secretary of State) and Mr. Baylor arrived from Virginia, and were named aids- du-camp, to succeed Mr. Mifflin and myself."
300
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
George Baylor, who Washington said was no penman, hav- ing expressed a desire to go into the artillery with Knox, the General appointed Moylan and Palfrey to fill the places of the former and of Randolph, who was obliged to leave Cambridge suddenly on his own affairs. Baylor is the same officer who, as colonel of dragoons, was surprised and made prisoner by General Grey at Tappan, with the loss of the greater part of his men inhumanly butchered while demanding quarter. Moy- lan, a gay, rollicking Irishman, was appointed commissary-gen- eral, - a place he soon left for the line. Harrison, who succeeded Reed as secretary, lacked grasp for his multifarious duties, though he continued in the staff until 1781. David Hum- phreys, the soldier-poet, was, for his gallantry at Yorktown, selected to carry the captured standards to Congress, as Baylor had carried the news of victory at Trenton, - Humphreys had first been aid to Putnam. Alexander Hamilton, who served Washington as a member of his military family with singular ability, left the General in anger on account of a scolding he had received from him for some delay in sending off despatches at Yorktown. Tench Tilghman was a dashing cavalier and an excellent scribe. He served Washington nearly five years, during which he was in every action in which the main army was engaged. General Lloyd Tilghman, a descendant, who fought on the Confederate side in the late war, was cap- tured at Fort Henry, and confined for some time at Fort War- ren, in Boston harbor. At the festival of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1872, a representative of the Patriot officer was present.
While loitering in the apartments devoted to official business, it may not be uninteresting to refer to the chirography of the leaders of the Continental army, most of whom handled the sword and pen equally well. Washington's characters were large, round, and never appear to have been penned in haste. Knox wrote indifferently when he entered the army, but his hand soon became straggling and difficult to decipher, his mind being so much more active than his pen that his MS. is filled with interlineations. Greene wrote a fair, clear, running-hand ;
301
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY.
his language couched in good, terse phrase. Wayne, far from being the boor that Andre's epic makes him, not only held a fluent, but a graphic pen, as witness his despatch : ---
"STONEY POINT, 16th July, 1779, -2 o'clock, A. M.
" DEAR GENERAL, -The fort and garrison, with Colonel Johnston, are ours. Our officers and men behaved like men who are deter- Inined to be free. Yours most sincerely,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.