Military Road
From Worcester Activist wiki
Also HIGHLAND MILITARY ACADEMY and ACADEMY & METCALF STS.
On a plateau at Salisbury street for 56 years before 1912, stood Highland Military Institute.
It was opened Oct. 5, 1856 by Caleb B. Metcalf, a former principal at Thomas Street Latin School.
At first the academy could accommodate only 16 boarding and 20 day pupils. But when the Civil War came in 1861, a large building was put up with library, armory, hospital assembly, recitation, “philosophical and chemical experiment rooms.” It could hold 85 cadets.
Seven years later a hall, 150 by 50 feet, was erected for horseback exercise and drill indoors. The academy now took only boarding pupils.
Among them were many who became prominent in Worcester, such as Levi Lincoln.
Military ceremonial at the Academy included firing of a sunset gun and hauling down the colors.
When the war came, 150 who had drilled there marched to battle. Seven lost their lives.
The most famous graduate was Willie Grout. He is honored by Willie Grout Camp, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
During the first engagement of the Fifteenth Regiment, commanded by Worcester’s Gen. Charles Devens, at Ball’s Bluff, Oct. 21, 1861, Lt. Willie Grout was shot while trying to escape from the enemy.
Few of this generation have heard of the “Vacant Chair” by Henry S. Washburn. It was a poem commemorating Willie Grout’s bravery. At one time it was one of America’s most popular ballads.
For Highland Military Academy and its staunch young cadets, Military road was named in 1914.
Academy street was named from the same source and Metcalf street, of course, for the founder.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
