Such were the headquarters of the first camp of the Revolution but the story of the privates' quarters is quite a different thing. The troops were not quartered at one place, they were scattered about the surrounding territory some at Roxbury, some at Winter Hill, others at Prospect Hill and Sewall's Farm and at various small towns along the coast.[5] Some of them were living in houses and churches, others were occupying barns[6] and still others were constructing their own places of shelter using sail cloth, logs, stones, mud, sod, rails or anything else which would lend itself to the purpose.[7] A good description of this motley host is given us by Rev. Wm. Emerson of Concord, "the sight is very diverting to walk among the camps. They are as different in their form as the owners are in their dress and every tent is a portraiture of the temper and taste of the persons who encamp in it. Some are made of boards, some of sail cloth, again others are made of stone and turf brick or brush. Some are thrown up in a hurry, others curiously wrought with doors and windows done with wreaths and withes in the manner of a basket".[8] Washington wrote from Cambridge to congress on July 10, 1775 about a month after taking command and said, "we labor under great Disadvantages for want of tents for tho' they have been help'd out by a collection of now useless sails from the Sea Port Towns, the number is yet far short of our Necessities"[9]. When tents were used for shelter at Cambridge or at other places it was very seldom that any thing more than "Mother Earth" served as floors and sometimes that was so wet and miry that the soldiers during the rainy seasons were forced to raise the ground with "Rushes, Barks, and Flags in the dry"[10] and at other times the tents were taken down during the day for the ground to dry and then put up again at night. It would be difficult to get any where more frank reactions to housing conditions than those which were given by Dr. Waldo[11] in a poem written while in camp describing the general conditions but particularly the tents and huts. The part quoted below describes a stormy day and the hardships endured when the army was encamped in tents. "Though huts in Winter shelter give, Yet the thin tents in which we live, Through a long summer's hard campaign, Are slender coverts from the rain, And oft no friendly barn is nigh Or friendlier house to keep us dry. * * * * * Move tents and baggage to some height, And on wet cloths, wet blankets lie Till welcome sunshine makes them dry. Others despising storm and rain Still in the flat and vale remain, There sleep in water muck and mire, Or drizzling stand before a fire Composed of stately piles of wood, Yet oft extinguished with the flood."[12]