Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/86

 culty in joining up. The influences noted at the beginning of this sketch were allowed free play. We can trace the whole process from the diary of Samuel Chandler, of Gloucester, a member of the class of 1775.

1773 May 26. I see the Cadets exercise in king Street [Boston] likewise hear the band of Musick which has lately come over.

December 15. I hear from Boston yt there was a Mob this Evening & the Vessels were borded and ye Tea hove overbord.—huzzar—

1774 September 18. At Noon News came from Boston Committee to this Town that the Soldiers had their Packs on their Backs & a Number of Boats on this side of the Common. it much alarmed the People who have kept watch all Night up the River expecting they were a going to Watertown to git the Cannon but they never came from their Camp.

Sep. 20. this afternoon the Company turned out here. they were very full [sic]. Capt. Gardner examined all their Arms and made a long Speach on Liberty…

Sep. 21. I went to Boston &…see the Soldiers fire in the Common. went over to the Neck where they were working in the intrenchments.

October 7, Fryday. last Wednesday I joyn’d the Company in order to larn the Exercises &c.

Just how many undergraduates followed Chandler’s example is impossible to say. No rolls exist of the Cambridge company, in which they would naturally enlist, up to the day of Lexington and Concord. As that day fell in the spring vacation, most of them were absent; but at least three “scholars” are put down in the “Muster Roll of the company under the command of Captain