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[9] was as follows, and is given here as the first,1 and as forming the precursor for many others in other places; and for the same reason the subsequent proceedings are given more fully than in the case of any later company.
The signer of this call was a lawyer in Cambridge and captain of the ‘Wide Awakes,’ a political organization. It is one of the many ties connecting this new contest with the Revolutionary traditions that his great-grandfather, Moses Richardson, was killed in one of the opening battles of the American Revolution. ‘At the same time,’ writes he, ‘I hung a flag from my office window and opened a book for the signatures of recruits. In a few days I had a roll of over sixty names, most of them young men belonging to the Cambridge fire department.’ He then hired a hall and devoted his evenings to the drilling of recruits. But it illustrates the curious conditions of mind at that time that the project met with derision instead of encouragement. ‘In the ’
1 The next in date appears to have been that issued by Capt. Allan Rutherford of New York City, who called a meeting at the Mercer House, for a similar purpose, Jan. 11, 1861. （Townsend's Honors of the Empire State in the War of the Rebellion, p. 89.)
2 The following is a copy of the enlistment list and its various endorsements of approval:–
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We, whose names are hereunto affixed, do severally consent, and by our signatures hereunto made do agree, to be enrolled into a company of volunteer militia, to be raised in the city of Cambridge and vicinity, subject to orders of the commander-in-chief; and, in consideration of arms and equipments to be furnished us by the Commonwealth, we do hereby agree to serve for the period of five years, unless sooner discharged agreeably to law. [Here followed the names.]
Boston, Wright & Potter, 1895-96.
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