Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/251

 Such were Church’s appointments from the ranks of his own college. Yet by far the most notable, in the end, was that of a non-collegian, who cannot in justice be omitted from even the briefest roster of the original hospital staff. James McHenry was a poor Irish boy, born in Ballymena near Belfast, and emigrating to America in 1771, at the age of eighteen. Settling in Baltimore, he took up the study of medicine with the famous Dr. Rush of Philadelphia. At the breaking out of the war he hastened to Cambridge to volunteer his services, and through the recommendation of Washington, who was greatly taken with him, obtained a place as surgeon’s mate. Upon the evacuation of Boston he accompanied the army to New York, but soon had the misfortune to be taken prisoner at the capture of Fort Washington by the British. For almost two years his career was suspended. At last he was exchanged and assigned to be senior surgeon of the “flying hospital” at Valley Forge. Hardly had he taken up his duties when he received the flattering invitation to become one of Washington’s private secretaries. Giving up, as it proved, his medical work forever, he spent two years as a valued member of the family of the Commander-in-Chief. He was then honored by a similar position with Lafayette, but resigned in order to accept his election to the Maryland Senate in 1781. As a statesman his