Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/223

 in these campaigns that Dr. John Morgan had his first field training as a military surgeon.) Beyond those traditions, though, there was nothing to build upon. Even of the ordinary civilian hospitals, not an example existed in New England; there were only two or three in all America. The only thing remotely resembling them that was familiar to the northern colonies was the occasional collection of patients for an “inoculation party” against the smallpox. And thus the Vassall house was at first regarded merely as a gathering-place for the invalids of the camps, where they might be treated by the wholesale, so to speak, more conveniently than if separated.

The Battle of Bunker Hill blew this theory to bits. A sudden flood of over three hundred wounded inundated the camp. Dreadful confusion and distress resulted. To crown all, a terrifying rumor spread like wildfire that the British intended to press home their victory by attacking Cambridge itself. Many of the wounded were carted out to Watertown, where the Provincial Congress was sitting, and then inconsequently carted back again. Finally those who could not be sent home were deposited in a number of farm-houses hastily commandeered at North Cambridge and Arlington (then called Menotomy), whither the inmates of the Vassall house were also hurried.