Saml Thatcher, in Colo Gardner’s Regiment of militia, which marchd on the alarm, April 19, 1775.” These were John Haven, of Dedham, a junior, and Edward Bangs, of Harwich, and Daniel Kilham, of Wenham, sophomores.[1]
Turning for a moment from the subjective to the objective side of the part played by Harvard College on that day, it is worth noting that (according to Jeremy Belknap, a contemporary chronicler) General Gage’s plan of operations for the British expedition to Concord was to bring it on its return march through Cambridge, where it was to be met by heavy reinforcements. The combined force was then to entrench on the Common, take possession of the town, and destroy the public buildings, especially the colleges. A general policy of “frightfulness” was to be followed that would result in the submission of the whole neighborhood[2] It is gratifying, therefore, to be able to record that, in the persons of these three students, Harvard did what it could to prevent such a catastrophe.
- ↑ Paige, History of Cambridge, 409. Cf. post, pp 59, 60.
- ↑ In like manner, at the time of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Howe's real objective was Cambridge. (C. Martyn, Artemas Ward, 141 n.) Apprehension for the safety of the College may have prompted the construction of a secondary line of breastworks (the main “Cambridge Lines” were on Butler’s Hill, now Dana Hill) which seems to have occupied the little rise of land to the eastward of the Yard, in about the position of the present Quincy Street. Although later “carefully destroyed,” this line could be traced for a good many years after the war. See G. Finch, “On the Forts around Boston,” American Journal of Science, viii, 342 (1824).
