machinery for summoning all their utmost resources into instant
action. On the 30th of November, the officers appointed for the
purpose made return, that they had impressed the required number in
the several counties and towns, fitted them out with arms, ammunition,
clothes, and all necessary equipments; that the men were on the
ground, ready to go forward. There was no time for recruiting, or
raising bounties, or substitute brokerage; no time for electioneering
to get commissions. The rank and file were ready: they had been
brought in by a process that gave no time for canvassing for offices.
A summons had been left at the house of every drafted man, to report
himself the next morning. If any one failed to appear, some other
member of the family, brother or father, had to take his place. The
organizing and officering of this force must be done instanter. All
depended upon suitable officers being selected. A company was waiting
at Boston for a captain, and a captain must be found. Some one in
authority happened to think of Nathaniel Davenport. His childhood and
youth had been passed at Salem Village and on Castle Island: on
reaching maturity, he had removed to New York, and been there for
years in commercial pursuits. A short time before, he had returned to
Boston, and engaged in business there. His father had been dead since
1665, and not many persons knew him,--only, perhaps, a few of his
early associates, and the old friends of his father: but they knew,
that, from his birth to his manhood, he had breathed a military
atmosphere,--was a soldier, by inheritance, of the school of Lothrop,
Read, and Trask; and it was determined at once to hunt him up. He was
serving at Court; taken out of the jury-box in a pending trial; and
placed at the head of the company. The accurate historian of Boston,
Samuel G. Drake, says, "Captain Davenport's men were extremely grieved
at the death of their leader; he having, by his courteous carriage,
much attached them to himself, although he was a stranger to most of