Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/89

 his Country, yet his Age pleads for your permission to return to his studies—

Saturday Morng Octor 28 — [1775]

The above applications were all granted. It is additionally regrettable that Foster, having invoked the protection of Harvard College to get out of his obligations, incontinently changed his mind and went to Yale.

The careful investigations of H. N. Blake, LL.B. ’58, supplemented by other sources, show that out of nearly two hundred undergraduates in the four classes at Cambridge when the call to arms sounded, scarcely a couple of dozen responded before taking their degrees, and many of them for very brief periods. The following merely joined the hue and cry on April 19, 1775. (Their ages, taken from the Faculty Records, are at the time of entering college.)

Ebenezer Battelle, 75, of Dedham (17)—private in his father’s company; service, eight days. After graduating did a little militia work in 1777 and 1778.

Jobn Haven, ’76, of Dedham (19)—minuteman, Thatcher’s company, Gardner’s regiment. After graduating, shipped as surgeon on a vessel that was lost at sea.

Edward Bangs, ’77, of Harwich (16)—minuteman, same as preceding. “Saved the life of a British soldier, severely wounded, who had been overtaken in flight, and was about to be sacrificed to the vengeance of his captors.”