The Battle of Bunkers-Hill

by H. H. Brackenridge

Their pupils often act tragedies, the subject of which is generally taken from their national events, such as the battle of Bunker's Hill, the burning of Charlestown, the death of General Montgomery, the capture of Burgoyne, the treason of Arnold, and the Fall of British Tyranny. You will easily conclude that in such a new nation as this, these pieces must fall infinitely short of that perfection to which our European literary productions of this kind are wrought up; but, still, they have a greater effect upon the mind than the best of ours would have among them, because those manners and customs are delineated, which are peculiar to themselves, and the events are such as interest them above all others. The drama is here reduced to its true and Ancient origin.

Nathaniel Evans also wrote dialogues, performed at the public Commencements in Philadelphia, like the one on May 17, 1763. We have already noted that "The Prince of Parthia" was written as a college play. "The Military Glory of Great Britain" was also prepared as an entertainment by the graduates of the College of New Jersey, held in Nassau-Hall, September 29, 1762, with the authorship unknown. It was a type of play which tempted many men, who later tried their hand at more important dramatic work.

Another interesting title of the time ran as follows:

An/Exercise,/containing/a Dialogue and Ode/On the Accession of His present gracious Majesty,/George III./Performed at the public Commencement in the College of/Philadelphia, May 18th, 1762./Philadelphia:/Printed by W. Dunlap, in Market-Street, M,DCC,LXII./

In order to understand the spirit which prompted both Brackenridge and Freneau, one needs must turn to an account of the latter's life, and learn therefrom certain facts concerning the early college spirit of Brackenridge, which was ignored by his son in the only authentic record of his life we have.

From Freneau we understand, for example, that, as early as June 24, 1769, a certain number of students banded themselves into an undergraduate fraternity, called the American Whig Society, the chief members of that association being Madison, Brackenridge, Bradford, and Freneau himself. There is a manuscript book in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, originally owned by Bradford, and containing some of their later poetical tirades. It is called "Satires against the Whigs," and is composed of ten pastorals by Brackenridge and a number of satires by Freneau. It is strange that the intimacy between Brackenridge and Freneau did not lead to their rooming together while at College, Brackenridge giving way to James Madison. But we do know that the two were very intimately associated in early literary work, and, in the manuscript book just mentioned, there is contained the fragment of a novel written alternately by the two, and called "Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca in Arabia."

Then followed "The Rising Glory of America," which, when Brackenridge graduated, September 25, 1771, was announced on the program of events—afternoon division—as being entirely by himself. This must have been an oversight, inasmuch as Freneau had more than a mere hand in the execution of the piece, and inasmuch as we possess Brackenridge's own confession "that on his part it was a task of labour, while the verse of his associate flowed spontaneously."

The college life of the time was not devoted entirely to literary creativeness or to political discussions. There is published an address by President Witherspoon to the inhabitants of Jamaica (1772), in which he outlined the course of study to which the students were subjected. It indicates, very excellently, the classical training that Brackenridge, Freneau, and Madison had to undergo. In fact, we find, on Commencement Day, Freneau debating on "Does Ancient Poetry excel the Modern?" and throwing all his energy in favour of the affirmative argument. And Brackenridge, selected to deliver the Salutatory, rendered it in Latin, "De societate hominum." (See Pennsylvania Chronicle; John Maclean's "History of the College of New Jersey," i, 312; Madison's correspondence while a student; also Philip Vickers Fithian's Journal and Letters: 1764-1774. Student at Princeton College: 1770-1772. Tutor at Nomini Hall in Virginia: 1773-1774. Ed. ... by J. R. Williams. Princeton, 1900.) The Princeton historian points to this class of 1771 as being so patriotic that a unanimous vote was taken to appear at graduation in nothing but things of American manufacture.[3]

This much we do know regarding the early life of Brackenridge: that he was always pressed for money, that it was his indefatigableness and thirst for knowledge which carried him through the schools of the time, and through college.

His son even confesses that his father was obliged, on one occasion, to write an address which one of the students had to deliver, and to receive in payment therefor a new suit of clothes!