Then came the Battle of Bunker Hill, on the very day we now celebrate, followed soon by the arrival of Washington, who, on the 3d day of July, 1775, drew his sword as Commander-in-Chief under the well-known elm of Cambridge Common. Do not forget that you were of Cambridge then. The first duty of the new commander-in-chief was to inspect his forces. The mass of the British army, amounting to 11,500 men, occupied Bunker Hill and Boston Neck, while their general with his light horse was in Boston. The Patriot forces, amounting to about 16,000 men, were so posted as to form a complete line around Boston and Charlestown, from Mystic River to Dorchester, nearly twelve miles in circuit. Regiments from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut occupied Winter Hill and Prospect Hill, where it is easy still to recognize their earthworks; several of the Massachusetts regiments were at Cambridge; and others from Connecticut and Massachusetts covered the high grounds of Roxbury. This was the Siege of Boston. With all these preparations, Washington was still provident of the future. And here commences an association with the hills about your town, which must be my justification for these details. Many years ago, when I first read the account of this period by one of the early biographers of Washington, Rev. Dr. Bancroft, of Worcester, the father of our distinguished historian, I was struck by the statement, which I quote in his precise words, that, “in case of an attack and defeat, the _Welsh Mountains in Cambridge_, and the rear of the lines in Roxbury, were appointed as places of rendezvous.”[227] Perhaps this association, and even the name of the mountains, may be new to some whom I have the honor of addressing. “The Welsh Mountains” are the hills which skirt your peaceful valley. Since then I have never looked upon them, even at a distance, I have never thought of them, without feeling that they are monumental. They testify to that perfect prudence which made our commander-in-chief so great. In those hours when undisciplined patriots were preparing for conflict with the trained soldiers of England, the careful eye of Washington, calmly surveying the whole horizon, selected your hills as the breastworks behind which he was to retrieve the day. The hills still stand firm and everlasting as when he looked upon them, but smiling now with fertility and peace. They will never be needed as breastworks. There is no enemy encamped in Boston and ready to sally forth for battle; nor is there any siege.