Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/321



delay in removing the barracks of the U.S. Naval Radio Schoo] from Cambridge Common recalls a somewhat similar state of things that prevailed there after the Siege of Boston, a matter of nearly a century and a half ago. The army, however, and not the navy, was then the invader, although in both cases the story is considerably mixed up with the affairs of Harvard College.

It is not generally known to what a surprising extent the American Army was housed in specially constructed barracks during the autumn of 1775. At first, during the spring and summer, the militia who concentrated on Cambridge were naturally billeted in any empty buildings available. Of these, by good luck, there were many more than could reasonably have been looked for in a village of only about fifteen hundred inhabitants. The women and children having all left town, a number of the dwelling-houses were practically vacant. The wealthy Tory clique had sought the protection of General Gage in Boston, and also left their stately man-