auspices of Governor Gerry, in December of the year
1811, it was revived, and through his influence received a new
loan of arms from the State, taking at the same time the name of
the Harvard Washington Corps. In 1812, Mr. George Thacher was
appointed its commander. The members of the company wore a blue
coat, white vest, white pantaloons, white gaiters, a common black
hat, and around the waist a white belt, which was always kept very
neat, and to which were attached a bayonet and cartridge-box. The
officers wore the same dress, with the exceptions of a sash
instead of the belt, and a chapeau in place of the hat. Soon after
this reorganization, in the fall of 1812, a banner, with the arms
of the College on one side and the arms of the State on the other,
was presented by the beautiful Miss Mellen, daughter of Judge
Mellen of Cambridge, in the name of the ladies of that place. The
presentation took place before the door of her father's house.
Appropriate addresses were made, both by the fair donor and the
captain of the company. Mr. Frisbie, a Professor in the College,
who was at that time engaged to Miss Mellen, whom he afterwards
married, recited on the occasion the following verses impromptu,
which were received with great _eclat_.

"The standard's victory's leading star,
'T is danger to forsake it;
How altered are the scenes of war,
They're vanquished now who take it."

A writer in the Harvardiana, 1836, referring to this banner, says:
"The gilded banner now moulders away in inglorious quiet, in the
dusty retirement of a Senior Sophister's study. What a desecration
for that 'flag by angel hands to valor given'!"[40] Within the
last two years it has wholly disappeared from its accustomed
resting-place. Though departed, its memory will be ever dear to
those who saw it in its better days, and under its shadow enjoyed
many of the proudest moments of college life.

At its second organization, the company was one of the finest and
best drilled in the State. The members were from the Senior and
Junior Classes. The armory was in the fifth story of Hollis Hall.
The regular time for exercise was after the evening commons. The
drum would often beat before the meal was finished, and the
students could then be seen rushing forth with the half-eaten
biscuit, and at the same time buckling on their armor for the
accustomed drill. They usually paraded on exhibition-days, when
the large concourse of people afforded a