We were not very thorough Latin scholars, even when we entered
college, but could translate Virgil and Cicero and Caesar
and easy Greek like Xenophon.
The boys occasionally formed military companies and played
soldier, but these did not, so far as I remember, last very
long. There was also a company of Indians, who dressed in
long white shirts, with pieces of red flannel sewn on them.
They had wooden spears. That was more successful, and lasted
some time.
They were exceedingly fond of seeing the real soldiers. There
were two full companies in Concord, the artillery and the
light infantry. The artillery had two cannon captured from
the British, which had been presented to the company by the
legislature in honor of April 19, 1775. When these two companies
paraded, they were followed by an admiring train of small
boys all day long, if the boys could get out of school. I
remember on one occasion there was a great rivalry between
the companies, and one of them got the famous Brigade Band
from Boston, and the other an equally famous band, called
the Boston Brass Band, in which Edward Kendall, the great
musician, was the player on the bugle.
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