USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 16
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Let us now pass from the legislative chamber to the camp. At the time of the battle of Lexington, the British army amounted only to about four thousand. But through the month of May, one ship after another brought additional troops to reinforce General Gage. Before the first of June, the enemy numbered ten thousand veteran troops, under the direction of Generals Gage, Howe, Clinton, Burgoyne, Pigot, Grant, and Robinson, and Lords Percy and Rawden, the most experienced and choice officers that England's chivalry could furnish from her fields of discipline, whether in the east or west.t Ships with gay streamers filled the harbor, freighted with men in uniform, and with the implements of death. Boston had been appropriated for the quartering ground of the king's forces, and was swarming with them.
* Colonial Records of July, 1775. Hinman, 187.
+ Col. Swett's "History of the Battle of Bunker Hill," p. 13. Graham iv. 378.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
On the other hand, the American camp at Cambridge pre- sented a spectacle of a quite different character. General Artemas Ward, who had served in the French war, was its commander-in-chief. He was a gentleman of high character and of much experience. Day after day fresh troops came pouring in. Rhode Island sent in a regiment under General Greene ; New Hampshire sent a regiment of her sturdy hunters and woodsmen, whose whole life had been a long warfare with nature and with the wild sons of the woods, and who, true to their sentiments of equality, had placed them- selves by their own vote, under such leaders as Colonel Stark, Lieutenant-Colonel Wyman, and Major M'Clary.
I have already named some of the measures taken by Con- necticut to reinforce this army. Besides General Putnam and Major Durkee, she was represented by Brigadier-Gene- ral Spencer, Lieutenant-Colonel Wyllys, Major Mayo, Colo- nel Waterbury, Colonel Parsons, Captain Coit of New Lon- don a cyclopean man with but one eye and a giant frame ; and gallant Captain Chester from Wethersfield, graceful and chivalric, with his independent company of one hundred high spirited men,* who had not forgotten who their grandfathers were, nor what battles they had fought, and who were worthy, almost every one, to bear a colonel's commission, and lead a regiment in the face of any army that did not more than three times out-number them.
Chester's company was by far the most accomplished body of men in the whole American army. On this account it was selected to escort General Putnam and Dr. (afterwards general) Warren, the President of the Massachusetts Con- gress, to Charlestown, on the exchange of prisoners with the British. Putnam and Warren rode in the same carriage ; Major Dunbar and Lieutenant Hamilton of the sixty-fourth, on horseback ; Lieutenant Porter, of the marines, in a chaise ; John Hilton, of the forty-seventh, Alexander Camp- bell, of the fourth, t and some wounded men belonging to the
* Swett's History, p. 7.
t Some of these prisoners of war were doubtless taken on the 19th of April.
181
THE PROVINCIAL ARMY.
[1775.]
marines, in carts, all escorted by the Wethersfield company, under the command of Captain Chester, entered Charles- town, and moving slowly through it, made a halt at the ferry. At a given signal, Major Moncrief landed from the Lively to receive the prisoners and greet General Putnam, his old comrade in the tedious campaign of 1756. A flag of truce waved over them, consecrating the hour to happy recollec- tions and genial intercourse. Putnam and Moncrief, as soon as the boat touched the landing, rushed into each other's arms. The scene was truly affecting and was never forgot- ten by any who witnessed it .*
The Connecticut officers, all men of culture and daring courage, had under their command three thousand soldiers, their neighbors, their friends, men of intelligence, all of whom could read and write their native language well; most of whom could preside at a town meeting at home, frame resolutions condemning the stamp act, the Boston port bill, and the quartering laws, and advocate them, too, by a speech at once forcible and pungent ; men of substance, whose notes of hand were worth their face in silver or in good corn, its authorized equivalent ; men who were not without disci- pline, for some of them had been present at the capture of Louisbourg, some at the death of the Baron Dieskau, some at the surrender of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, some when Putnam was taken captive by the Indians and a few were of the little remnant who had escaped the arrows of the death- angel at Havana. With these reinforcements the American army numbered about fifteen thousand men, but many of them were so poorly armed and equipped, wore such humble clothing, and a large share of them were so raw, that they were made the theme of many keen jests by the British officers, who had no doubt that a regiment of regulars would drive them from one end of Boston Neck to the other.
* See Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 111 and 112. Gen. Humphreys speaks of Chester's company as " the elite corps of the army," and " as such, was selected to escort General Putnam and Joseph Warren, the President of the Congress, to Charlestown, on the exchange of prisoners with the British."
1
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
They soon had an opportunity to test the accuracy of their conclusions. The small islands that help to make up the details of the beautiful bay that adorns that bold coast, were covered with cattle ; a very tempting prize, when so many thousands of human beings were assembled within a few miles of each other, and provisions were so scarce that among the poor especially, the horrors of famine were already added to those of war. Several exciting skirmishes grew out of attempts, on both sides, to get possession of this live stock. In most instances the Americans were the successful party. These little victories were of great impor- tance to them in habituating them to the use of arms, and in supplanting the fear that was at first inspired by the sight of soldiers in full uniform.
On the 21st of May, two sloops and an armed schooner with soldiers, sailed to Grape Island to bring off some hay. As soon as the tide would admit of it, the provincials followed, drove them off, burned up all the hay amounting to about eighty tons, and carried away in triumph all the cattle upon the island .* Three days after, the Cerberus arrived at Boston, having on board Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne. They had brought with them a good supply of fishing-tackle, hoping to have some choice sport, and not doubting but their very presence would intimidate the "rebels."t They found other pastimes prepared to their hand.
On the 27th of May, about five hundred of the Massachu- setts and New Hampshire forces were detached to Hog Island and Noddle's Island for live stock. These islands are separated by a little thread of water so shallow at low tide, as to be fordable. A party of Americans landed on Noddle's Island, and proceeded to set fire to the hay and corn that had been deposited there. To prevent this, a large body of British marines crossed over from Boston. The provincials retreated to Hog Island. This movement tempted the marines down to the water's edge, where they were met by the provincials, under the command of General Putnam. A
* Gordon, i. 340. + Gordon, i. 340, 341. See also Botta, 201.
183
GAGE'S PROCLAMATION.
[1775.]
sharp action followed, that did not stop with the day. The marines were supported by a schooner of four six-pounders and twelve swivels, a sloop of war, and some barges mounted with swivels. Putnam was, soon after the beginning of the engagement, joined by General Warren, who came as a vol- unteer. Putnam had two small pieces of ordnance, and as he was himself a capital gunner, and had with him men who were well skilled in the management of artillery, he was able to do the enemy a good deal of mischief. Although the night was unusually dark, the firing was kept up until nearly morning. Toward day-break, the schooner ran aground, and her crew was obliged to abandon her. She was imme- diately boarded, rifled, and burned, by order of Putnam. So skilfully did he manage this affair, that he did not lose a single man, while the enemy lost, in killed and wounded, more than one hundred. Their loss was reported, and currently believed to be, more than twice that number .*
It was too late for reconciliation or retraction on either side now that so much blood had been shed.
On the 12th of June, General Gage issued a proclamation, proffering the king's pardon to all except Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who would lay down their arms and go peaceably about their ordinary business.t All were to be treated as traitors, who failed to accept these terms, or who dared to conceal or abet any such delinquent. The laws of the land were at the same time declared to be sus- pended, and the town placed under martial rule. A fearful looking for of fiery indignation, was the sole effect of this announcement. Two days later, the Congress of Massachu-
* Gordon, i. 341. On the 30th the provincials again visited Noddle's Island, burnt the Mansion-house, and carried off all the stock, consisting of five hundred sheep and lambs, twenty head of cattle, and several horses. On the following day, a party under Colonel Robinson, removed five hundred sheep and thirty head of cattle from Pettick's Island. On the night of June 2d, eight hundred sheep, together with a number of cattle, were removed from Deer Island, by a party of provincials under Major Greaton.
+ Graham, iv. 378. The offences of these gentlemen were regarded by Gov- ernor Gage as of " too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment."
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
setts chose Dr. Warren to be their President, and appointed him the second major-general of their own troops. He had been already chosen chairman of the Massachusetts Com- mittee of Safety. He does not appear to have had any experience as a military chief, and, as will be seen in the sequel, probably accepted the post, not with a view of direct- ing the movements of the army, but rather, to keep up the courage of the people, who had boundless confidence in his abilities, and who would be more inspired by his presence on the battle-field, were it to carry along with it the prestige of official rank. The many civic duties that he had to discharge, and that kept him from indulging even in the ordinary comforts of food and sleep, would, from their multifarious and distracting details, of themselves, have prevented his giving that undivided attention to the operations of the army, that could alone insure success. It was enough, even for his vast powers and wonderful mental activity, to see after the plans of the Committee of Safety, and preside over the deliberations of the provincial Congress. On the other hand, his noble nature drank in, at every pore, the excitement of the scenes around him. With a soul as sublime as lit up the eye of any one of all the leaders of Christian armies, who, in the days of the crusades, exchanged their baronial estates for proud steeds and shining blades, that they might haste to reclaim the holy sepulchre from the hands of the infidel, or lay down their bones to bleach upon the hot sands of the desert ; with a heart beating time to the same notes of free- dom, that nerved the arm and sped the steel of the poet Æschylus on the eve of the battle of Marathon, how could he refrain from mingling in the strife, if strife there were to be ? But it was not that he might take the place of others, better fitted, from long expe- rience in the camp, to control the stormy elements of war, but rather that he might mingle in them, and constitute a part of their essence. Liberty was a word that signified, when it fell from his lips, all the domestic and social relations, all the revolving circles of life, all the silent memo-
185
DISPOSITION OF THE ARMY.
[1775.]
ries that lie scattered along the road of the past, all hopes that invite man to the future. In him, liberty was a holy altar-flame, never to be extinguished until it exhaled to heaven. Animated by such sentiments, and knowing, as all men of genius do from intuition, what they can, and what they cannot do, he consented to be a general ; but, declining to take the command, acted in the drama that was so soon to follow, the part of a volunteer .*
I have already said that General Ward was at Cambridge, with the main army, made up of about eight thousand Massachusetts troops. With these were joined one thousand from Connecticut, who, with Sargeant's and Patterson's regiments, were stationed near Inman's farm, under the immediate command of General Putnam. Already some slender breast works had been thrown up by his order ; and not far from the Charlestown road, a good mile and a half from General Ward's camp, a redoubt was erected and occupied by Patterson's regiment. There were also five artillery companies at the main camp, four of which were well provided with guns.
The right wing was composed of two thousand troops from Massachusetts, two thousand from Connecticut, and one thousand from Rhode Island ; and was posted at Rox- bury, under command of Lieutenant-General Thomas, who had three or four companies of artillery tolerably supplied with field-pieces. Colonels Reed and Stark had charge of the left wing that was stationed at Medford, and consisted of one thousand New Hampshire troops and a detachment of the same forces, together with three companies of Gerrish's regiment, at Chelsea. On the evening of the 16th of June, a large guard, culled from Little's and several other regiments, was also posted at Lechmere Point.t
Notwithstanding the numbers and bravery of the Ameri- can forces, officered as they were by such men as I have
* See Frothingham's History of Charlestown ; Allen's and Blake's Biog. Dic- tionaries, &c.
+ Swett, p. 9 and 10.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
described, a very large proportion of them were men who had never seen service, who had flocked in from the neigh- boring towns, with little to recommend them beyond the unbounded enthusiasm that impelled them to the field, and the sympathy that they felt for their persecuted neighbors. Many of the Massachusetts soldiers were minute-men, who did not compare at all with the more select forces sent from the other colonies. The officers in several of the regiments were without commissions, and held the position only by virtue of the superiority that nature gives in the endowment of a few of her favorite children. Hence, the relationship existing between such officers and their men, was of a char- acter not very clearly defined, and liable to be disturbed and weakened by a thousand incidental causes. Worse than all, more than three-fifths of the army were without suitable weapons. Many of their guns were only common muskets, destitute of bayonets, of such a variety of calibre, that it was difficult to make cartridges and mould bullets to fit them, and in such a general state of disrepair, that they could not be relied upon with sufficient certainty to inspire the steady confidence that a soldier ought to feel in his weapons .* A want of method and concentrated action was apparent in the doings of the Congress, growing out of the giddy whirl of events that had convulsed the town and the neighborhood. No quarter-master's department had yet been organized,t as there should have been long before that time, and as Connecticut had taken care to provide at a very early day. As a necessary consequence of this oversight, the army was without tents, and destitute of supplies, except as
* Colonel Swett remarks that while each of these soldiers "would rival a Tell as a marksman, and aim his weapon at an oppressor with as keen a relish," they were deficient in " almost every other important requisite of an army." Besides the wretched condition of their arms, he remarks, " they were strangers to discipline, and almost to subordination." They were summarily drawn together, from the plow, the workshop and the counting-room,-men of every shade of opinion and employment, -- yet all animated by a hatred of oppression, and a love of liberty. Many of their names were not even recorded on the militia-roll ; but they volun- teered their services with the " rank and file."
+ History of the Battle of Bunker Hill, p. 11.
187
POSITION OF THE BRITISH ARMY.
[1775.]
they were irregularly sent in by the voluntary contributions of the adjacent towns .* In vain did Warren, Hancock, Adams, Prescott, and other patriots, remonstrate against these delays. The Congress, over-awed and confused, as many of the members could not fail to be, by the regiments and the threatening ships, the uniform and the discipline of the invading enemy ; and still haunted, many of them, by shadows of loyalty, that had so long flitted around a pro- vincial court not chosen by the people-was, as it well might be, divided in its counsels, and wanting in executive force.
Colonel Gridley, a venerable officer, who had served at Louisbourg and Quebec, was appointed chief-engineer, and William Burbeck nominally held the place of second engin- eer ; but as his services were demanded to superintend the ordnance department, Gridley was left to perform labors that should have been divided between several men that were much younger than he. As it was, he did all that any man could have done with such limited means. The British army had possession of Boston. The light infantry were encamped on the heights of West Boston ; a strong battery for cannon and mortars had been erected on Copp's Hill, facing Charlestown, and so near the village, that shot or shells could easily be thrown into it from that point ; there were strong lines and batteries on the Roxbury side of the neck, one at the northern limit of the town, one on Fort Hill, one upon Fox Hill, on the common, occupied by the marines, artillery, and sixth regiment, three on the western border of the common, facing Cambridge, occupied by the royal Irish regiment, then of world-wide fame ; besides a body of troops stationed at Barton's Point.t
Although General Gage was so strongly fortified in the provincial metropolis, where he had administered the gov- ernment not without many friends and ardent admirers while yet he favored the cause of the people, and although he had now such absolute command of the town that he could with
* Swett, p. 11. + Hist. Battle of Bunker Hill, p. 13.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
impunity, give the citizens a practical illustration of the mildness of the quartering laws, by converting the old south church, the most venerable of all the religious edifices of the town, into barracks for a squadron of cavalry ;* yet the narrow boundaries of his possession, hemmed in as he' was by fifteen thousand Americans, made his situation irksome. "We want elbow room, and we will have it," said Burgoyne. The other British officers shared, too, in a common sentiment of wounded pride, that the Americans "affected," in the words of General Gage, "to hold the British army besieged." Besides some uneasy apprehensions acted as goads to the sensitiveness of those officers, as they saw, day after day, the stream of provincials pouring into the camp at Cambridge. With a view of adding to their " elbow room," it was decided in council to leave the town, and take possession of Charlestown and Dorchester heights. They began on the 18th of June to make preparations for the latter enterprise.t
For some time before this, the American troops had besought their officers to lead them against the enemy. This desire had grown more earnest after the victory at Noddle's Island. They were not able to understand the necessity of discipline, but abundantly able to appreciate the hardships and exposure of such a long delay. Many of the officers who resided in Massachusetts, and General Ward most strenuously of all, were opposed to bringing on a general engagement until the men should be better prepared for ser- vice. But General Putnam, Colonel Prescott, and some of the other officers, aware that much depended upon the spontaneous feelings of the soldiers, were of the opinion that it would be best to yield to their solicitations, far enough to keep their enthusiasm alive, without risking the chances of ultimate success. Putnam was the first to hit upon a plan, that proved to be the only one practicable at that crisis. He did not dare to hazard a general action, as he knew that our raw troops could not meet the enemy in the open field.
* Hist. Battle of Bunker Hill, p. 13.
t Burgoyne's account of the battle.
189
PUTNAM AND THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.
[1775.]
On the other hand, he was equally well aware that the Americans were good marksmen, and were more than a match for the enemy in the use of the musket. His object was, therefore, to engage only a part of the British army at once, and to do it, if possible, with the advantage of the ground, and under cover of intrenchments. "The Ameri- cans," said he, to the council of war, in his admirably plain English, " The Americans are not at all afraid of their heads, though very much afraid of their legs ; if you cover these, they will fight forever."*
The same considerations were urged upon the Committee of Safety, and debated there with much ability. Still the minds of those composing that body, were so divided that they were for a long time able to come to no conclusion. At last the intentions of the enemy to leave the town and take possession of the heights of Dorchester, were discov- ered by the emissaries sent out by the Committee of Safety. The tidings caused much alarm in the committee room, and in the council of war. Putnam insisted upon the necessity of anticipating the British general in a movement, that would, if it were to succeed, in all probabil- ity, result in the most fatal consequences to the American army. He begged the council and urged upon the mem- bers of the committee that they would send forward a party in the night to intrench themselves upon the high grounds that commanded the British camp, destroy their shipping, and if possible drive them from the town. This advice seemed to many whose opinions were consulted, to be rash and impracticable. It was urged that the only thing that they could hope to do was, to maintain a defensive position until the troops were in a condition to make a more thorough trial of their strength ; that even if their discipline and weapons were equal to those of the enemy, they were still deficient in ammunition, having only eleven barrels of gun- powder at the public depôts, and only sixty-seven barrels in the whole colony ; that the British ships in the harbor
# Swett's History, p. 14 ; Frothingham's Siege of Boston, p. 116.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
and the batteries could be brought to bear upon them, should they succeed in getting a temporary possession of the heights, and so well provided were these ships and batteries with ammunition, that they would be able to keep up a long and fatal fire that could not be returned, and thus the enter- prise must terminate at best in a discouraging retreat .*
There was in the council, a veteran Massachusetts officer, General Pomeroy, t whose sentiments fully corresponded with those of Putnam. He had served in the French wars, and knew the superiority of the American marksmen over the British troops, from long experience of their respective modes of warfare. He said he " would fight the enemy with but five cartridges apiece. He was practiced in hunting," he said, "and always brought home two and some- times three deer, with but three charges of powder. The men had generally supplied themselves with powder as mili- tia, and the public could easily make good their deficiency."} Such was the language of the old sharp-shooter from the border of the Connecticut river, who looked upon the hand- some coats and waving plumes of the British officers with as eager an eye as if they had been the branching antlers of buck or moose glancing through the thickets and glades that skirted the home of his adventurous boyhood. General Ward, an officer of sound judgment, but whose blood appears to have grown cold with the touch of advancing age, and the gallant Warren, who, with all a soldier's instincts, was, of course, from his very mode of life, better qualified to give council in civil than in military affairs, both opposed the measure with all their influence. It would lead, they said, to "a general engagement." But General Putnam who united in himself, as genius often does, all the fire of youth
* History of the Battle of Bunker Hill, p. 14.
t Pomeroy, on account of his age, declined the appointment of Brigadier-General in the United States army ; yet, when the great struggle for independence had actually commenced, he spurned the inactivity of peace, and joined the army as a colonel. In this capacity, he marched to join our troops in the Jerseys. His exposures produced a pleurisy, which proved fatal at Peekskill, N. Y. # Swett's Hist. 14.
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