tain was William Wetmore, of the class of 1770. It had become so well equipped that it boasted a full uniform—a three-cornered hat, a blue coat turned up with white, nankeen “smalls,” white stockings, and top-boots (some accounts say black gaiters)—precisely the “buff and blue” afterwards adopted and made immortal by the Continental Army. Its officers seem to have been a captain, a lieutenant, an “ensign” or second lieutenant, and an “adjutant” or first sergeant. It had in its best estate about a hundred members, with its own field music. Further traditions concerning this epochal organization are lamentably few, but one cheerful detail is still remembered: when the company was dismissed after drill, the regular custom of all trainings was observed by “passing round three or four buckets of toddy.”[1]
Up to 1771 the members seem to have followed the ancient system of providing their own arms; but at that date another highly significant privilege was granted. The Great and General Court was then occupying Harvard Hall for its sessions, and was so impressed by what it saw of the Band that on April 16 of that year it appointed a committee to prepare a message to Governor Hutchinson, asking for one hundred of the Province
- ↑ See Hall, College Words and Customs (1856), 247; Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, viii, 69 n., etc.
