Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/79

 national standard. Here was the prison-camp of the first hostile force captured in the war for independence. Hence marched the first company of volunteers for our internecine strife. Here was established the first state arsenal, and one of the principal powder magazines, recalled by “Arsenal Square” and “Magazine Street.” So, even in the infancy of the settlement, Cambridge was the headquarters of one of the two chief military men of the colony, Daniel Patrick. “This Captain,” says Winthrop, “was entertained by us out of Holland (where he was a common soldier of the Prince’s guard) to exercise our men. We made him a captain, and maintained him.” He was granted the little knoll in the river marshes, ever since called “Captain’s Island.” The separate Cambridge company was organized the same year Harvard was founded, and was at first commanded by George Cooke, who later went home to fight and die under Cromwell. From that time onward, the local train-band kept up a somewhat celebrated existence, under such noted leaders as Major-General Daniel Gookin, that “Kentish souldier” who was “a very forward man to advance martial discipline, and withal the truths of Christ,” Colonel Edmund Goffe of the class of 1690, and the amazingly versatile Major-General William Brattle of 1722, soldier, physician, parson, lawyer, politician, and much else besides, who retained his com-