OCCASIONAL PAPERS ON THE HISTORY OF BOSTON COLLEGE THE FOSTER CADETS OF BOSTON COLLEGE Rev. Charles F. Donovan, S.J. University Historian January, 1983 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/fostercadetsofboOOdono When the third president of Boston College, Father Robert Fulton, established military drill for all students in 1870, he was following a tradition popular in nineteenth century America in both civic and collegiate circles. One chronicler of post-Revolutionary Boston recalled eight militia companies — the Winslow Blues, the Boston Light Infantry, the Independent Fusileers, the Washington Light Infantry, the New England Guards, the Rifle Rangers, the Cadets, and the Ancient and Honorables — who stored their arms in the upper floor of Faneuil Hall.' Military units served social as well as patriotic ends and were often formed along ethnic or poli- tical lines. It is interesting that the historian of the city of Newton included in a chapter on “Culture and Recreation” an account of the organ- ization of the Claflin Guards in 1870, the same year Boston College’s cadet brigade began. 2 In his book Enter the Irish- American Edward Wakin tells how immigrants, imitating the native tradi- tion, started their own militia companies as sources of social activity and expressions of ethnic pride. He writes: The Irish organized militia companies, a prac- tice common among immigrant groups but pronounced among the Irish. These military units were mainly social and a great excuse for parties, dinners, and rhetoric-drenched speeches. They were also highly visible since the units loved to parade whenever they had a chance. New York had the Emmett Guards, the Irish-American Guard and the Mitchel Light-Guard; Brooklyn boasted the Shields Guard. Compared with German companies which totaled 1700 in 1853, the Irish had 2600 militiamen. Philadelphia had Hibernia Guards . . . Boston the Montgomery Guards, the Co- lumbian Artillery, the Bay State Artillery, and the Sarsfield Guards .... Such units were formed even in smaller towns, evoking considerable newspaper comment about their penchant for parading.^ Collegiate military groups were as colorful in uniform and quick to parade as were their non- collegiate counterparts, but except in times of national emergency their purpose seems to have been physical exercise and recreation. Many nine- teenth century colleges, like early Boston College, had few facilities for recreational exercise, and cadet drill provided an inexpensive form of exer- cise that the whole student body could engage in, whether in a small hall or yard or on neighboring streets. The Baylor University catalogue for 1888-89 explained the presence of military drill this way: “A healthy, sound body is next in importance to a cultivated head and a pure heart. To promote health and physical development, we have organ- ized a fine military company — the Baylor cadets — for our young men .... The students are thor- oughly drilled, as a means of health and grace- ful movement, and become greatly interested in drill and calisthenics, but lever lose sight of their studies.”^ The University historian of Baker University in Kansas wrote: “It seems that the decision for the introduction of such [military] training came about concurrently with the abandonment of inter- collegiate football as a sport too dangerous to life or limb, in 1894. The University had only very limited facilities for physical education . . . . ”^ The president of Georgetown College (Kentucky) cited from the official college history the reasons for military drill: “The college administration sug- gested that drill was needed to encourage grace of carriage and inculcate habits of promptness, regularity, and order.”^ The historian of Oklahoma State University indicates that that institution borrowed the ration- alization of the Kansas Agricultural College in inaugurating military drill: “First, military science was thought to have merit as a means by which [ 2 ] to impart manliness, alertness, respect for authority and consideration for others. Second, the faculty, in a day when the harmful effects of German academic practices were being widely publicized, believed time devoted to physical culture would promote health, bodybuilding, and correction of unnatural posture. To these two concepts the Oklahoma A and M College added one more. It thought that military instruction and drill could be used to combat the indolence and indispositions always found to exist in a warm climate.”^ Military drill was regarded by some colleges as a means of fostering discipline* and was also con- sidered by some to have moral and even religious value, though no such justification is found in any Boston College documents of the time. Father Fulton evidently felt no compulsion to put a relig- ious or moral blessing on battalion drill as did the University of Tennessee (Nashville), which pro- claimed that military discipline is invaluable as a means of moral training, teaching two great moral principles, subordination and method; or as Amherst did in declaring that the military spirit, when worthy of the name, is the true Christian spirit.^ The collegiate military tradition long antedated Boston College’s Foster Cadets. Harvard had military companies during the Colonial period and at the time of the War of 1812 formed the Washing- ton Corps. Dartmouth had five military groups at various times starting in 1832 — the Dartmouth Phalanx, the Dartmouth Greys, the Dartmouth Zouaves, the Dartmouth Cavalry, and the Dart- mouth Cadets.** St. John’s College, Annapolis, introduced compulsory military drill in 1826*^. Five Jesuit colleges, Georgetown, Spring Hill, Holy Cross, St. Louis, and Santa Clara, had pre-Civil War cadet companies. Seven Jesuit colleges joined Boston College in establishing military brigades after the Civil War: Xavier, Fordham, Canisius, St. Peter’s, Creighton, Gonzaga, and Loyola in New Orleans. Collegiate military activity was given impetus by the Morrill Act, passed during the Civil War, which established the land grant colleges in the several states and mandated the availability of military training in them. There also were intro- duced during the next ten years government-sup- ported military departments in private colleges. *^ [ 3 ] Boston College did not apply for such a relation- ship with the War Department. The only Jesuit colleges to apply for and receive such federal aid were Fordham, St. Louis, and Gonzaga. In his his- tory of the American college curriculum Frederick Rudolph states, “Military training in the colleges, land grant or otherwise, has been generally a post- war phenomenon, a passing enthusiasm”’^ While there is undoubtedly some truth in his statement, it is belied as a generalization by the number of colleges, some named above, that had military training in periods of national peace. Rudolph’s statement implies a patriotic or martial motivation in having cadet activities in colleges. Particularly in the private colleges like Boston College non- martial motives such as morale, wholesome physical exercise, discipline, and public relations seem to have been dominant. A contemporary scholar, Christa Ressmeyer Klein, writing of New York City’s Jesuit colleges of the nineteenth cen- tury, namely, Fordham and Xavier (now defunct) said both colleges introduced military drill as a method of updating the discipline and the public images of the colleges. A similar interpretation is given by the historian of Gonzaga University, who noted that the Jesuit fathers didn’t take military training as a serious commitment (though it was government-subsidized at Gonzaga). They appeared to regard it “as a kind of disciplinary program for gentlemen-boys. It was so nice to have them in uniforms, marching around on formal occasions. It gave the school status.”’^ A corroboration of the non-martial inspiration of many collegiate cadet groups is the fact that a few colleges had ladies’ battalions, among them Kansas State,'^ Cornell College'* in Iowa, Okla- homa State University,'^ and DePauw.^" At Depauw the coed company was said to afford “the ladies of the University an easy, healthy and interesting mode of exercise, and gives them for a time, at least, a style of dress conforming to the much-abused rules of hygiene. ”2' The women’s drill was identical to the men’s except that they carried wooden guns. It is worth noting that the Harvard Rifle Corps of 1875-78 flourished during the period when Boston College’s cadet corps existed. A Harvard historian wrote of the Rifle Corps that it was “apparently the only instance where the under- [ 4 ] graduates drilled spontaneously, uninfluenced by public opinion or public emergency.”22 A current member of the staff of the Harvard University archives speculates that the formation of the Rifle Corps may have been inspired by the anticipated centennial celebration of Bunker Hill.23 There is no suggestion in any Harvard source that the exis- tence of the Rifle Corps was connected with any postwar sentiments. The motivation of Father Fulton in starting military drill in 1870 and the eager response of the students to the new activity is probably well summed up by one of the first cadets, writing his remi- niscences twenty years later: “We had no gym- nasium, no play-ground, no foot-ball team, no opportunity, in fact, for anything in the line of athletics except an occasional base-ball game.”^^ Military drill promised regular exercise, cama- raderie, and an instrument for building school pride and spirit. The introduction of military drill came sudden- ly and simply, announced by a brief paragraph appended to general information in the college catalogue for the year 1869-70: The State authorities having granted a supply of arms, a drill-master will be appointed, and due notice will be given as to the style of the uniform, and the time by which it must be procured. 25 In 1869-70 Father Robert Brady was president. He served as Boston College’s second president just that one year and then was called to be pastor of St. Mary’s parish in the North End with res- ponsibility for building a new church there. He was succeeded as president by Father Fulton. But Father Fulton had been prefect of studies (dean) since the opening of the college in 1864 and under the first two presidents all academic decisions were his. So apart from the fact that the cadet corps became a reality in Father Fulton’s first year in office, even the preliminary planning for the new program was Father Fulton’s, as a contemporary witness testified. 2^ In October, 1870, the student body, which at that time included both preparatory school and college divisions, was called together in the College Hall where Father Fulton introduced to them their military instructor. Sergeant Louis E. Duval, a regular in the United States Army, [ 5 ] then in charge of the troops at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor.27 Though rifles were eventually supplied by the state and though a regular Army man was instructor, this did not involve a con- tractual relationship with the War Department. The instructor had other full-time duties; indeed he devoted only two hours a week to the College drill, for which he was paid five dollars an hour.^^ The Boston College cadets from the first carried the name of the Foster Cadets in honor of a dis- tinguished Army man. General John Gray Foster, a recent convert to Catholicism and a friend of Father Fulton’s, who is said to have been instru- mental in persuading Father Fulton to establish military drill. General Gray was a significant enough figure to have found his way into the Dic- tionary of American Biography, The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, and The Catholic Encyclopedia, as well as a 1907 volume entitled Distinguished Converts to Rome in America.^ Gray was a graduate of West Point, who served under General Winfield Scott in the capture of Mexico City, was chief engineer in the construction of Forts Sumter and Moultrie, and was commandant of the Departments of the Ohio, of the South, and of Florida during the Civil War. After the war he was superintending engineer of river and harbor im- provements at Boston and Portsmouth. In 1869 he published a volume that became a classic in its field. Notes on Submarine Blasting in Boston Harbor. He died in 1874 at the age of 51. Accounts of military battalions of the nine- teenth century abound in detailed and colorful descriptions of the uniforms. So much attention was given to the style and dash of the uniform that one might conclude that a certain amount of male preening was a factor in the popularity of cadet activity. Fordham mourned the passing of the spiked helmets and scarlet uniforms of its nine- teenth century cadets. The Georgetown Univer- sity Military Cadets were described as “resplen- dent” and “brilliantly uniformed. ^n account of military traditions at Notre Dame gives this description of the uniform of the Continental Cadets, founded in 1859: The uniform of the cadets was copied from the Buff and Blue of the old Continental Line; a blue coat with buff facing, braid and brass [ 6 ] buttons, the vest was buff colored and a white tie was worn. The breeches were blue, knee length with brass buttons at the knee, white, knee length stockings were worn. The boots were black with a buff colored strip at the top. The hats were blue, tricornered, with buff colored braid and a red and white cockade. From all reports, the Cadets were a brave and martial sight to behold and were in great demand locally for drill performances and parades. An earlier uniform was that of Dartmouth’s Phalanx, founded in 1832. A student paper carried this description of the uniform: Trousers — white in summer and black in autumn — strapped down (as was the fashion of the day) over boots, polished “ad unguem” (no patent leathers were then known); black dress coats, beaver hats with cockade on left of crown, white crossbar straps for cartridge box and white gloves completed the tidy outfit. The three commissioned officers were more elabor- ately attired in dark green close fitting coats trimmed with gold lace and epaulets, and with ostrich plumed beaver hats.^'* In the first year of their existence, the Foster Cadets trained without uniforms and without guns. During that year there was a lively debate concerning the style of uniform to be adopted. Some students advocated a very showy affair, while others, more practical-minded, wanted a uniform that would not be expensive, since the students were going to have to pay for them.^^ Patrick Callanan, who was a student when the Foster Cadets were inaugurated and rose in rank to become major and indeed drillmaster while still an undergraduate, wrote some lively reminiscences of his cadet days for the Stylus in 1897 and 1898. He gave this description of the cadets’ uniform: The uniforms of the Foster Cadets, though simple in make up, and inexpensive, were very neat, and the boys were very proud of them. A single-breasted sack-coat, dark blue in color, snug-fitting at the neck, with a row of large brass buttons, neatly stamped with a B.C. monogram, [perhaps, in 1871, the first use of “B.C.”?] constituted the body covering. The trousers were of the same material and color, and the head-gear was a fatigue cap, with a B.C. monogram worked in silver thread, over the visor. [ 7 ] White duck gaiters completed the outfit. When the belt and bayonet-scabbard and the great big well polished United States buckle were added to the equator of each lad, he felt still more like a soldier, but he became a positive warrior when he shouldered his big Springfield rifle.^^ Incidentally, Callanan attested that the rifles were the 1863 issue of muzzle-loading Springfield rifles, which were returned to Springfield when the state militia were equipped with modern breech- loaders.^^ At Boston College, as eslewhere, the officers’ uniform was especially resplendent, as attested by one who wore it: The officers’ uniforms were of the same color and material as those of the privates, but in all else they were different. The coat was double- breasted, and had a double row of extra large brass buttons, about five inches apart and run- ning down the entire front from collar to hip. The cap was not unlike that of the privates, but was elaborately trimmed with gold braid, and instead of a silver monogram, had a gold B.C. monogram over the visor. A gold stripe ran down the trousers’ legs on either side. Every officer was a broad, square-shouldered chap, thanks to the tailors’ art, and the chest measurement was simply immense, — one-third flesh and bone and two-thirds of padding! The gilt shoulder-straps topped off the rig to perfection. But this was not all. A beautiful sash of maroon color, about three inches wide, was girded around the warriors’ loins, and served as a fundamen- tum for the shining patent leather sword belt. The swords were the regulation army style, as used by the regular militia.^* Well might ex-officer Callanan recall: “1 was always proud of my uniform, and I remember time and again how I imagined myself the cynosure of all eyes, as I strutted through the streets of Boston, to and fro, on my way to the College.”^^ But in the spring of 1871 not all the students were enthusiastic about the proposed uniforms. The college classes. Poetry and Rhetoric, were disappointed to learn that Father Fulton felt the school was not ready to crown the college course with Philosophy; hence these students had no pros- pect of earning their A.B. degree. (The first A.B.’s [ 8 ] were granted in 1877.) Some students began to think of transferring elsewhere, while others wondered about simply giving up college studies. At any rate they didn’t want to commit themselves to procuring uniforms. But Father Fulton insisted on military drill for all not excused by a physician and the requirement of the “College uniform” for all students remained. A number of upper- classmen did drop out of college and so in Septem- ber 1871 some of the younger students, including Patrick Callanan, were thrust into positions of leadership in the cadet corps as well as in other college activities.^® Callanan made an interesting observation. One would have thought that in his second year as president of an infant college a tiny enrollment (149 students in the preparatory and college divisions). Father Fulton would be shaken at the loss of some of the older boys. But Callanan commented: “The situation was such that it was practically the 'ab initio est oriendum' for Father Fulton. I believe myself the state of affairs pleased him rather than otherwise.”^ > The implication seems to be that Fulton was not one to shrink from a challenge and saw an opportunity to achieve higher standards and esprit. Callanan continued: “To his credit, be it said, he laid the foundations sure and solid, and from this time on the watchword was onward and upward until 1877 saw the first graduating class.”^^ inciden- tally in 1876-77 the combined enrollment was 238. The brouhaha over uniforms at Boston College in 1870-71 anticipated a more serious problem re- ferred to as the “Drill Rebellion” at Bowdoin Col- lege, 1873-75. Bowdoin instituted a military de- partment in 1872 under War Department auspices with participation obligatory for all students. There was some objection, again by upper- classmen, but, as at Boston College, it was the announcement of the required uniform that sparked open rebellion. The students appealed to the trustees but were adjudged out of order for not addressing the administration and faculty first. Those who absented themselves from drill were threatened with expulsion, whereupon all members of the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior classes pledged to share in the punishment of the rebels. The uprising received wide publicity, with Boston and New York papers castigating the [ 9 ] students for insubordination. There were rumors that Dartmouth was prepared to receive students expelled from Bowdoin. A Visiting Committee was appointed and eventually the students were vic- torious in that military drill was made optional and the War Department affiliation transferred from Bowdoin to the Agricultural College at Orono.^3 This episode of Bowdoin’s drill rebellion is cited as evidence that in most aspects of college life the Boston College experience was not unique. Despite the loss of senior cadets, the 1871-72 year was one of enthusiasm and excitement for the Boston College cadet corps. The new uniforms were proudly worn. Guns, belts, knapsacks and bayonet scabbards came from Springfield. Father Fulton donated a dozen drums, a drum major was appointed, and a fife and drum corps established. But the greatest stir was caused by the College’s persuading Captain George Mullins, a commander of the Montgomery Light Guard, to take over as drill-master, a post he was to hold for four years. Mullins had gained national attention in the spring of 1871 by issuing a challenge to any military company in the United States to meet his Mont- gomery Guard in competitive drill. The challenge was taken up by a Roxbury company of volunteer militia and a contest was held on Boston Common. Captain Mullins’ men won as they had won similar contests in several parts of the country. So the students were proud to have as military instructor one of the premier drill-masters in the army.'^'^ The high point in the history of the Foster Cadets was the St. Patrick’s Day parade in 1875.^'* The success and public acclaim of Boston College’s military corps led to the formation of parish or regional cadet companies among the Catholic youth of Boston. South Boston had the Johnson Cadets, Charlestown the Supple Cadets, and East Boston the Noddle Island Cadets, and they were followed by groups representing a number of parishes. By 1875 there were over a thousand well drilled young men in various organized com- panies. Seeking to capitalize on and coordinate this fine resource, the great John Boyle O’Reilly, poet and editor of the Boston Pilot suggested in an editorial that the Catholic cadet companies should show the world what they could do by way of a military display on St. Patrick’s Day. O’Reilly visited Father Fulton and received his pledge of the participation and support of the Foster Cadets. O’Reilly sent a circular to all pastors whose parishes had cadet companies and he himself presided over the initial planning meeting in the basement of St. Francis de Sales Church in Charlestown which was attended by a hundred delegates. It was decided to form a brigade. Precedence was given to the College cadets and a Boston College representative, none other than Patrick Callanan, was chosen as brigadier general. As befitted his office, the brigadier general was to head the parade on horseback, accompanied by eight mounted aides. Father Fulton agreed to underwrite the expenses of providing horses and trappings for the College men who formed the General’s staff Fifteen or twenty organizations, averaging fifty members, made up the parade. Here is how Father Callanan recollected it: Those who took part in the parade will never forget it. Snow began falling on the previous evening and the streets were in a horrible con- dition on the morning of the 17th of March. Snow and rain and sleet and slush, however, did not frighten the boys; for on to the rendezvous came the gallant young lads, and when the pro- cession started every company and every lad was in line. The fellows on foot envied us on horseback, I am sure; but I now confess that I would be willing to walk from 9 A.M. till 4 P.M. rather than be obliged to sit on a saddle for the same length of time, especially on a horse that was prancing with fright from morning till night at the sound of the martial music. Think of it! a wild horse with his nose just over a brass- band, and a man on his back who was not ac- customed to the business, and from 9 A.M. till 5 P.M.! The fellows who walked did not come to college the next day, but I did not get to school again for a week!^^ Out of deference to Father Fulton and Boston College the parade passed the College along Harrison Avenue. The cadets gave the College a salute, while all the Fathers, lay professors, and Jesuit scholastics stood on the front porch and steps and gave the Boston College contingent a great cheer. Bishop Williams reviewed the parade from an upper window of his residence on the corner of Union Park and Washington Street. The mayor and the board of aldermen reviewed the parade on School Street in front of City Hall/^ A contemporary of Father Callanan’s, Father Myles McLoughlin, SJ. of the class of ’78, pub- lished some recollections of old Boston College in the 1930 edition of the Boston College High year- book, The Botolphian. Part of Father McLoughlin’s five-page article touched on the Foster Cadets and the famous St. Patrick’s Day parade of 1875. Here is what Father McLoughlin wrote some fifty-five years after the events: Military drill was part of the college activities in the “seventies.” The various evolutions were performed in the college yard, and later on, when some proficiency was attained the hour for drill was finished by a parade through the ad- joining streets greeted with the attention of the neighborhood, always — like people elsewhere — alive to the appeal of the marching line, the bugle note and the roll of the drum. In the mean- time, far removed from glory in the college yard, “the awkward squad” paced to and fro under summary command and harsh discipline until they would deserve a place in the regular ranks. One of the patient trainers of the squad was Jeremiah Millerick of the Senior Class, after- wards a devoted priest of this diocese. On St. Patrick’s Day the entire military arm of the college was mobilized and on the line of march scaled the ascent of Beacon Hill, and passed the State House one hundred percent Irish and Catholic, saluting the Governor and his Staff In those days it was also true that “every little added to the little that we had made a little bit more.” In other words, those who are wise know that our progress in earlier days was often over disputed ground. Everybody on the other side seemed to be from Missouri — and they were shown!^* Father McLoughlin introduces a Catholic versus Yankee note that is absent in Callanan, whose account was only two decades from the events he recalled. McLoughlin can be forgiven for one lapse of memory, the presence of the governor. Callanan dwells upon the governor’s absence as a sore point in that St. Patrick’s Day parade of 1875, an absence that was noteworthy enough to have been commented on in the Boston Herald.^'^ Of course it enhanced Fr. McLoughlin’s sense of Irish triumphalism to have the parade observed by a Yankee governor, but his memory apparent- ly played a trick on him. Indeed the bland account by Father Callanan matches the generally non- combative, non-muscle-flexing style that Boston College students displayed in the early decades of their college paper, the Stylus, which was be- gun in 1883.50 Another great event for the Foster Cadets in 1875 was participation in a ceremony honoring the elevation of Bishop John Williams to the post of first archbishop of Boston. The solemn installation took place in the cathedral on May 2 with Cardinal McCloskey, archbishop of New York presiding, and the following day the Catholic Union of Boston sponsored a distinguished public reception for the new archbishop and the ecclesiastical dignitaries who had gathered for the occasion. The reception was held in Boston College hall and Father Fulton was asked to have the College military battalion give the visitors a military welcome and reception upon their entrance into the college building. It was agreed, and for some days in advance Cap- tain Mullins put the cadets through a number of rehearsals for the special event. Let a participant in those rehearsals give an account of them: Perhaps the most excruciatingly funny inci- dent of my college career was the part good old Father Fulton played in these very military rehearsals. The major of the battalion was to stand at the Harrison-avenue entrance of the college, and upon the arrival of the dignitaries, after giving the military salute, was to take the Cardinal’s arm and proceed with stately and military step through a continuous file of the young soldier collegians from the entrance up to the reserved seats in the college hall. Captain Mullins, at these rehearsals, took the part of the major, and good Father Fulton assumed the role of the Cardinal. Starting at the college en- trance, Mullins would give Father Fulton the military salute, and then, sheathing the sword and boldly taking Pere Fulton’s arm, both would start off together on their march to the hall. “Step, step, step. Father,” Mullins would mutter to Father Fulton; but ye shades of the martial dead! ye living friends of the good and great Father Fulton! ye can see and feel the absurdity and ludicrousness of such an appeal [ 13 ] to Father Fulton. Father Fulton keep step! keep step with anybody! keep step in military- time! No, no, that was beneath the good man, and such shuffling and bobbing up and down and such jostling as Mullins and Father Fulton treated us to would make the dead rise up and laugh. Bear in mind, too, that this march of theirs was made in view of the whole battalion drawn up in two single files facing each other and stretching out from the Harrison-avenue entrance to the college stage. We are assured that despite the levity of the rehearsals, the ceremony on the day of the recep- tion was carried out with impressive precision. In the years 1875-76 and 1876-77 Patrick Calla- nan was the drill-master, pleased that Father Ful- ton paid him the same fee for his service that had been given to Captain Mullins. Callanan recalled that, preoccupied with preparation for the first graduation in June 1877, Father Fulton allowed interest in the drill to go down.^2 Callanan left Boston College with the first graduating class, and the college catalogue made no mention of military drill until 1880 and thereafter included the refer- ence through 1884. In September of the latter year the young drill-master. Captain Matthew Callahan, died suddenly, an event that undoubtedly contributed to the decision early in the year to put military drill on an optional basis. There was a sharp drop in attendance and the activity was not continued the following year. Father Edward Devitt, who served as presi- dent of Boston College from 1891 to 1894, wrote about the Foster Cadets in a manuscript history of the Maryland Province: This organization [the Foster Cadets] was quite popular for a time — but it was dissolved as the advantages of the military training were found an inadequate compensation for the time and labor expended. It would have been difficult to sustain enthu- siasm such as that of young men like Patrick Callanan who were both innovators and leaders in cadet drill. The experience of flagging interest in cadet activity was common. The examples of Dartmouth and Wooster were typical. The Dart- mouth Cadets were formed in 1874 and had only a two-year life. The drill instructor commented that by the second spring “the boys did not take the trouble to attend the drills and the company died a natural death, easily and quietly.^^ Military instruction lasted six years at Wooster. An historian of the college commented: “The train- ing .. . was of a high order, both from the point of view of physical discipline and from that of actual instruction in military science. After the novelty wore off, the boys themselves grew tired of this constant drilling .... When the depart- ment was withdrawn, most of the students sighed with relief.”55 Frederick Rudolph was cited above as saying military drill was a “passing fancy.” He added: “For various reasons and at various times and places, military training was taken seriously . . . but the characteristic experience for this detour from collegiate purpose [Father Callanan and Father Fulton would undoubtedly give Rudolph an argument here] was that at Indiana, where compulsory drill was adopted in 1868 and dis- continued in 1874.”56 One conclusion of this essay on military drill at Boston College in the nineteenth century is that both in the apparently isolated decision to establish a cadet corps in 1870 and in the decision to discontinue it fourteen years later, Boston College was very much in the mainstream of the American collegiate experience. NOTES •John McHale, Old Boston Town (New York: George Nesbit Co., 1880), p. 13. ^Henry K. Rowe, Tercentenary History of Newton (Newton: City of Newton, 1930), pp. 231- 232. ^Edward Wakin, Enter the Irish- American (New York: Thomas Crowell Co., 1976), p. 82. ^Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Baylor University at Waco, Texas, 1888-89, p. 67. ^Letter to author from Harold Rolling, Univer- sity Historian, Baker University, April 1, 1980. Boston College Archives. ^Letter to author from Ben M. Elrod, president, Georgetown College, February 6, 1980. Boston College Archives. ^Philip R. Rulon, Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, Oklahoma: State University Press, 1975), p. 39. ^Letter to the author from the president’s office, St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland. Boston College Archives. ^Report on National Military Education (Wash- ington, D.C.: War Department, 1867), p. 32. ••^Samuel F. Bachelder, Bits of Harvard History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1924), Chapter II, “The Student in Arms’ Old Style”. Bachelder relates (p. 72) the interesting anecdote that the day after the burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, August 11, 1834, a rumor reached Cambridge that the local Catholics in- tended to retaliate by burning Harvard College. A mixed crowd of students and alumni armed them- selves with muskets of the Washington Corps and spent the night waiting for the attack that never came. "772^ Dartmouth, Vol. XVII, No. 28, May 8, 1896, p. 437. Also letter to the author from Ken- neth C. Cramer, archivist of Dartmouth College, March 3, 1980. Boston College Archives. •2See footnote 8. '^Ernest A. Smith, Allegheny: A Century of Education (Meadville, PA: Tribune Publishing Co., 1916), p. 205. '^Frederick Rudolph, Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1977), p. 122. ‘^Christa R. Klein, “New York City’s Jesuit Colleges, 1846-1912.” Address to the American Catholic Historical Society, March 27, 1976. Boston College Archives. ‘^Wilfred P. Schoenberg, S.J., Gonzaga Uni- versity (Spokane: Lawton Printing Co., 1963), p. 162 James C. Carey, Kansas State University (Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1977^ p. 111. ‘^Letter from Charles J. Milhauser, registrar, Cornell College to the author, February 1, 1980. Boston College Archives. '^Rulon, Oklahoma State University, p. 40. 20George B. Manhart, DePauw Through the Years (Greencastle, Indiana: DePauw Univer- sity, 1962), Vol. I, p. 98. 2»Manhart, Vol. I, p. 98. 22Bachelder, p. 76. 2^Letter to the author from Jennifer Zukowski, Curatorial Associate, Harvard University Archives, February 26, 1980. Boston College Archives. 2^^Patrick H. Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (October, 1897), 387. Patrick Callanan was one of the first graduates in June 1877. He entered St. Joseph’s seminary in Troy, N.Y., and was ordained a priest in 1880. He served in the Boston Archdiocese as curate at Sacred Heart in East Cambridge and St. Bernard, West Newton, and as pastor of St. Mary, Foxborough, St. John, Wellesley, and St. Peter, Cambridge. While still active in the last post, he died in 1933. 25Boston College Catalogue, 1869-70, p. 11. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (Octo- ber, 1897), 387. 2'^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (Octo- ber, 1897), 387. 2^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 12 (May, 1898), 279. 2‘^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (Octo- ber, 1897), 387. ^®D.J. Scanned, Distinguished Converts to Rome in America (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1907). ^’Robert I. Gannon, S.J., Up to the Present (New York: Doubleday and Company, 1967), p. 179. ^Uoseph T. Durkin, S.J., Georgetown Univer- sity: The Middle Years (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1963), pp. 14, 15. ^^“Military Traditions at the University of Notre Dame”. University of Notre Dame Archives. ^^The Dartmouth, 17 (May 8, 1896), 440. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (De- cember, 1897), 513. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (Nov- ember, 1897), 453-455. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (Nov- vember, 1897), 455. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 1 1 (Nov- ember, 1897), 456-459. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (De- cember, 1897), 456. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (De- cember, 1897), 513-522. ^'Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (De- cember, 1897), 522. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus, 11 (De- cember, 1897), 522-523. ^^Louis C. Hatch, The History of Bowdoin College, (Portland, Maine: Loring, Short, and Harmon, 1927), pp. 133-148. ‘♦^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus 11 (Octo- ber, 1897), 391-392. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus 12 (May, 1898), 257-266. ‘^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus 12 (May, 1898), 266-268. ^^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus 12 (May, 1898), 269-290. ^*Myles A. McLoughlin, S.J., “Reminiscences of the Eighteen-Seventies,” The Botolphian, 1930, pp. 50-51. ^‘^Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus 12 (May, 1898), 269. 50See the author’s “Nineteenth Century Boston College: Irish or American?” Boston College Archives. 5'Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus 12 (April, 1898), 202-210. 52Callanan, “Reminiscences,” Stylus 12 (May, 1898), 277-278. 53David R. Dunigan, S.J., A History of Boston College (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1947), p. 113. 5^John King Lord, A History of Dartmouth College (Concord, New Hampshire: The Rumford Press, 1913), p. 392. 55Lucy L. Notestein, Wooster of the Middle West (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937), p. 141. 56Rudolph, Curriculum, pp. 122, 123. ■/ ' y ’( /:'VJ