hs and Vandals, those
favorite and dimly understood barbarians, had no such power in
determining the education of the young Yale student as had the events of
the war then going on. Webster had entered college in the fall of 1774;
in the spring of 1775, while he was still a Freshman, he had his little
initiation into Revolutionary society. General Washington was on his way
to Cambridge, to take command of the American army, and with him was
General Charles Lee. They passed through New Haven, and Webster has left
a little sketch of the scene.

"These gentlemen lodged in New Haven, at the house of the late Isaac
Beers, and in the morning they were invited to see a military company of
students of Yale College perform their manual exercises. They expressed
their surprise and gratification at the precision with which the
students performed the customary exercises then in use. This company
then escorted the generals as far as Neck Bridge, and this was the first
instance of that honor conferred on General Washington in New England.
It fell to my humble lot to lead this company with music."

The last sentence is a faint hint at an amusing and pardonable little
vanity of Webster's, who, as the reader will discover later, liked to
think that he had a hand in pretty much every important measure in the
political and literary history of the country in those early days, and
remembered that when the great Washington appeared, Webster was ready
with the prelusive fife. The three years which followed were years of
excitement and distraction. In the summer of 1777 the college life at
New Haven was broken up, and the classes were disposed in various towns,
the Junior class, in which Webster belonged, being stationed at
Glastonbury and placed under the charge of Tutor Buckminster. This was
the time when all New England, especially the southern part, was thrown
into a ferment by Burgoyne's movements, and men were hurried into the
field to meet this army coming down from the north. Webster's father was
captain in the alarm list, and Webster shouldered his musket as a
private in his father's company. The episode was probably in the summer
vacation, and put a stop to his work on the farm rather than to his
studies in college. Burgoyne's defeat released the young volunteer, but
an education which was divided between the camp and the cloister was
pretty sure to be fruitful in something beside scholastic learning. A
college, scattered as if by th