Cambridge, the seat of Harvard College, was still only a village with a few large houses and park-like grounds set among fields of grain, now trodden down by the soldiers.

Here was placed in haphazard style the motley housing of a military camp.

The occupants had followed their own taste in building.
One could see structures covered with turf, looking like lumps of mother earth, tents made of sail cloth, huts of bare boards, huts of brick and stone, some having doors and windows of wattled basketwork.

There were not enough huts to house the army nor camp-kettles for cooking.

Blankets were so few that many of the men were without covering at night.