Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR THE exact day when the news oi the Declaration oi Inde- pendence, adopted in Philadelphia on Iuly 4, 1776, reached Prince Edward County, is not known. We do know that before Iuly 25. a student military company was already drilling, with every student in the College and in the academy on the muster roll: and that the students had elected Iohn Blair Smith, a tutor and student, as Captain. Regular musters were held during the session 1776-1777: and when Governor Patrick Henry called for companies from Prince Edward and other counties, to march to Williamsburg tthen the Capitalj to resist an invasion by the British, the student company, in purple shirts and coonskin caps, was the first in the county to respond. Only those 16 years of age and over were allowed to go. The company remained at Williamsburg for six weeks: was publicly thanked by the Governor: and the boys then ioined the various branches of the Army. The musters con- tinued at the College, and in September, 1778, the student company marched to Petersburg to protect that city. As far as is known, Hampden-Sydney students were the first to organize a military company, and the first to march to war.

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NAVAL HEADQUARTERS

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THE COMMANDING OFFICER fn. r s - 1 A w . g' LIEUTENANT GEORGE F. HOWE . . . former resident of Marlboro, Massachusetts: AB. and M.A., Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts: graduate student New York University: teacher at Wyandotte, Michigan, and Ohio University before accepting the position of Dean and Professor of Geography at Connecticut State Teachers College: received his commission as Lieutenant in the United States Navy, April 5, 1943: after a period in the Officers' lndoctrination School of Columbia University, was ordered to Hampden- SYdney as the Commanding Officer of the newly established Naval V-12 Unit. With a New Englander's sense of discipline and efficiency, he has set a high standard and is respected, admired, and obeyed.