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 drills were carried on, true to tradition, at or near the historic “play-place” of 1759. A graduate of 1818 long afterwards recalled its spirit, precision, and discipline, excelling any of the regular militia companies in the neighborhood. It became so renowned that it regularly gave exhibition drills in Boston. That of July, 1814, under Captain Martin Brimmer, excited particular admiration. “The firings,” says a contemporary account, “were the closest we have ever heard.’’ On another occasion, at the Navy Yard, the volley was “as one gun.” On the arrival of the news of peace, in 1815, “the H. W. Corps paraded & fired a salute; Mr. Porter treated the company” at his famous tavern just on the Cambridge side of the present Anderson Bridge.

Besides the Boston drills, a gala day was held in October for several years, when the company marched to Medford to be reviewed and entertained by Governor John Brooks, one of the most popular old heroes of the Revolution. In 1816 President Monroe visited Harvard. He was escorted from Boston by the Washington Corps and given a complimentary review, which so delighted him that on the spot he offered its captain, James W. Sever, ’17, a cadetship at West Point. Sever regretfully declined, for family reasons, and afterward became commander of the Boston Cadets instead.

In 1821, when the martial enthusiasm of the country