USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Celebration of the centennial anniversary of the evacuation of Boston by the British Army, March 17th, 1776 > Part 14
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REPORT OF THE EVACUATION IN ENGLAND.
The announcement in England of the evacuation of Boston was received with amazement and consternation, and with the sharpest censures on the management of the war, mingled with taunts and sar- casins. Boston had engaged the hopes and fears of the ministry, and the people of England. It had been described as the metropolis of America, and the head-quarters of rebellion. As such it had been
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chosen as the centre for the operation of all parliamentary edicts, and of all military movements. More than a million sterling had been spent to secure its hostile occupancy. Great Britain had been drained of men and food to hold it, and 60,000 tons of transports had been freighted to keep it. Now the "London Gazette," of May 3, makes the following placid announcement : --
"General Howe having taken a resolution on the 7th of March to remove from Boston to Halifax, with the troops under his command, and such of the inhabitants, with their effects, as were desirous to continue under the pro- tection of his Majesty's forces, the embarkation was effected on the 17th of that month, with the greatest order and regularity, and without the least interruption from the rebels," &c.
Of course the other side of the story did not fail of being told with some embellishments. It was said that Gen. Howe went to the select- men and informed them, -
" That he saw Mr. Washington was determined to have the town, that the town was of no consequence to the king's service, and that he would abandon it if Mr. Washington would not disturb his embarkation. He thought it a pity so fine a town should be burnt, and added the distress such desperation must occasion to the inhabitants ; he showed them the combustibles he had laid, for setting it on fire in an instant, in every part, &e."
In consequence, it was added, the selectmen brought about the truce, though it was not understood whether any arrangement was made about the king's stores, etc.
Parliament being in session the Duke of Manchester, in the House of Lords, on May 10th, called for the despatches from America, which the ministry declined to produce on the plea that they concerned future operations. The duke indignantly presented the disgrace visited upon the British army and fleet, and the attempt to cast the veil of silence over the Immiliating result. He added that private intelligence brought the trustworthy information that " General Howe quitted not Boston of his own free will; but that a superior enemy, by repeated efforts, by extraordinary works, by the fire of their batteries, rendered the place untenable."
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The Earl of Suffolk, in defence of the ministry, replied : -
" The noble Duke says there must have been a convention between General Howe and the rebel commander, which I do assure His Grace was by no means the case; no convention, stipulation, concession, or compromise whatever, having been made. The General thought proper to shift his position ( !! ) in order, in the first place to protect Halifax, and after that object was secured, to penetrate, by that way, ( !! ) into the interior country, &c."
The Marquis of Rockingham told what he had heard from " a private channel," which was in exact conformity with the truth : -
" No formal convention, or capitulation, was signed, which I understood was avoided by the Generals on both sides for particular reasons : but there was every substantial requisite of a treaty or compromise."
Lord Shelburne and others, in opposition, confirmed this statement, but the minister persisted that he had no knowledge or belief of such a matter.
DIARIES AND LETTERS IN BOSTON DURING THE SIEGE.
The following interesting details are from the pen of Dr. James Thacher, in his " Military Journal of the War," through which he was a Surgeon in the American Army. Ile was at the time just come of age, and appointed Surgeon's mate under Dr. David Townsend, in Col. Whitcomb's Regiment on Prospect Ilill. He lived to be ninety years old : -
" Immediately after the enemy sailed from Boston harbor, Gen. Washing- ton ordered the major part of his army to march to New York, to secure the city against the apprehended invasion of Gen. Howe. It was not till Wednes- day, the 20th, that our troops were permitted to enter the town, when our regiment, with two or three others, were ordered to march in and take up our quarters, which were provided for us in comfortable houses. While marching through the streets, the inhabitants appeared at their doors and windows; though they manifested a lively joy on being liberated from a long imprison- ment, they were not altogether free from a melancholy gloom which ten tedious months' seige has spread over their countenances. The streets and buildings present a scene which reflects disgrace on their late occupants, exhibiting a deplorable desolation and wretchedness.
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" Boston, March 22d. - A concourse of people from the country are crowd- ing into the town, full of friendly solicitude; and it is truly interesting to witness the tender interviews and fond embraces of those who have been long separated under circumstances so peenliarly distressing. But it is particularly unfortunate on this occasion, that the small-pox is lurking in various parts of the town, which deters many from enjoying an interview with their friends. The parents and sister of my friend, Dr. Townsend, have continued in town during the siege. Being introduced to the family by the Doctor, I received a kind and polite invitation to take up my abode with them, where I am enjoying the kindest attentions and civilities. I accompanied several gentlemen to view the British fortifications on Roxbury Neck, where I observed a prodi- gious number of little military engines called caltrops or crow feet, scattered over the ground in the vicinity of the works, to impede the march of our troops in case of an attack. The implement consists of an iron ball armed with four sharp points, about one inch in length, so formed that which way soever it may fall, one point lies upward to pierce the feet of horses or men, and are admirably well calculated to obstruct the march of an enemy.
"23d. - I went to view the Old South Church, a spacious brick building near the centre of the town. It has been for more than a century [including the preceding structure on the same site] consecrated to the service of religion, and many eminent divines have, in its pulpit, labored in teaching the ways of righteousness and truth. But during the late siege the inside of it was en- tirely destroyed by the British, and the sacred building occupied as a riding- school for Burgoyne's regiment of dragoons. The pulpit and pews were removed, the floor covered with earth, and used for the purpose of training and exercising their horses. A beautiful pew, ornamented with carved work and silk furniture, was demolished; and by order of an officer, the earved work, it is said, was used as a fence for a hogsty. The North Church, a very valuable building, was entirely demolished and consumed for fuel. Thus are our houses, devoted to religious worship, profaned and destroyed by the sub- jects of His Royal Majesty.
" Ilis Excellency, the commander -in-chief, has been received by the inhabi- tants with every mark of respeet and gratitude, and a public dinner has been provided for him. He requested the Rev. Dr. Eliot, at the renewal of his customary Thursday Lecture, to preach a thanksgiving sermon, adapted to the joyful occasion. Accordingly, on the 28th, this pious divine preached an ap- propriate discourse from Isaiah xxxiii. 20: " Look upon Zion, the city of our Solenmities, etc., " in presence of His Excellency and a respectable audience.
"29th. - One of our soldiers found a human skeleton in complete prep-
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aration, left by a British surgeon, which I have received as an acceptable present."
The young surgeon records his attendance on April 8th, in the King's Chapel, on " the funeral solemnities over the remains of that patriot and hero, Major Gen. Joseph Warren."
Though it was contrary to general orders, as he was surrounded by disease, he had recourse by advice of his friends to inoculation, by Dr. John Thomas, and passed through the process withont suffering a day's confinement.
" July 3d. - Orders are given to inoculate for the small-pox, all the soldiers and inhabitants in town, as a general infection of this terrible disease is apprehended. Dr. Townsend and myself are now constantly engaged in this business."
DIARY OF EZEKIEL PRICE.
A very interesting diary covering the period and events of the Siege of Boston, printed at length in Proceedings of Mass. Historical Society Nov., 1863, is that of Ezekiel Price, Esq. He was Clerk of the Courts of Common Pleas and Sessions for Suffolk, and for many years Chairman of the Selectmen of Boston. Ile left the town with his family before the last of May, 1775, and went to reside during the troubles with Colonel Doty at Stoughton. He was intent to hear, and he made a daily record of the news and rumors of each day, stopping travellers as they passed his isolated abode, and constantly riding to the outskirts of Boston to inform himself of all that transpired. So he reproduces for the reader all the excitements and alarms of the time, tells us of those who, one by one, got out of the town, and of their reports of the state of things, and spends long evenings in discussing affairs with wayfarers and transient guests lodged under the same roof with him, as, for instance : -
" July 19, 1775. - One Carpenter, who last evening swam from Boston to Dorchester, says that it was very sickly in Boston, and that provisions were very scarce and the people in great distress." He heard, on July 28, that Carpenter, who was a barber, swam back to Boston again, and was caught and hanged on Copp's Hill. [He was sentenced, but respited, and afterwards pardoned. ]
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" Sunday, March 17. - At noon, Mr. Edmund Quiney brought us the most interesting, most important, and most comforting news we have heard since I left Boston, which was no less than that the Regulars and the mercenary troops, employed by the wicked, diabolical British ministry, had been obliged to fly out of Boston this day, but not before they had plundered the town, and committed thefts and depredations in every part of it, and con- veyed their stolen goods on board the ships, and then departed out of the harbor. This the Royal British Army is now become Royal Thieves.
" Monday, March 18. - After obtaining a pass from General Ward, went through Roxbury, over Boston Neck ; passed the enemy's lines there and at Boston Fortification, and rode through the main streets of my dear native town. There visited my sister, who had been forced from my house ; saw a number of my Boston friends, and the friends of our country, who had been shut up near eleven months past in that town by the cruel hand of arbitrary power, and who, by means of the hard and savage treatment of the British soldiery, and the want, not only of the comforts, but many of the necessaries of life, were become thin, and their flesh wasted, but yet in good spirits, and rejoicing at meeting their fellow-townsmen ; while the tories about the town to their thin visages added looks of guilt, and a conviction of their base ingratitude to their country and fellow-townsmen. As I passed through the town it gave me much pain of mind to see the havoe, waste and destruction of the houses, fences and trees in the town, occasioned by those sons of Belial, who have near a year past had the possession of it. But, save a few wretches who tarried behind to take the punishment due to their wicked deeds, the inhabitants who are now taking their residence in the town, seemed all of one heart and one mind, zealons in the support of our rights and liberties, and, if possible, more determined than ever to resist the force and power of all those who dare attempt to invade them. Accordingly every method is taking in the town to fortify and strengthen it against our enemies, and pre- vent their ever being able to land again in that town. The thefts and rob- beries of the royal thieves are very great, and many worthy inhabitants will be ruined by it. I returned home [to Stoughton] in the evening.
" March 21. - Last evening the enemy burnt all the buildings on Castle Island. Snow-storm last night.
" March 22. - Went to Boston. Visited my sister. Found that a con- siderable part of my furniture was broke, and some of it lost; however am thankful so much of it still remains. The fleet continues in Nantasket Road. The town appears in many places but little better than a heap of ruins. Great numbers of the houses are wholly down ; a great number of others are almost destroyed, the insides of them being ent and broke in pieces, and of
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many of them nothing more left than the outside shell. Returned home in the evening [to Stoughton].
" Friday, March 29. - Set out early in the morning and went to Boston, where a town-meeting was held for the choice of town officers. The scattered inhabitants collected together, met at the Old Brick Meeting-house [First Church, on the site of Joy's Buildings], and proceeded in the choice of the officers of the town, usually chosen at their annual March meeting. And it was really a very pleasant sight; after near eleven months' absence, to see so many of my worthy fellow-citizens meet together in that now ravaged, plundered town ; but the spot even yet agreeable. Some person had broke into Mrs. Draper's house and robbed me of great part of my china. Returned to my Stoughton home in the evening.
" One Wall, who assisted the Regulars, and was engaged with them in the battle at. Bunker's Hill, is taken up in Boston, and committed to jail there. A list of the tories remaining in Boston, with their several characters and behavior during their residence with the Regulars in Boston, is sent to the General Court : and a committee is appointed thereon.
" Saturday, April 6. - In the afternoon, Ed. Quincy stopped here. IIe came from Boston, and says that Capt. Manly was in Boston, and told there he had taken out of the fleet a brig laden with tories and tory goods, and other effects which they plundered in Boston. Among the tories is Bill Jackson. It is said this was their richest vessel in the fleet : had eighteen thousand pounds sterling in cash on board, besides an exceeding valuable cargo of European merehandize. Besides ' Bill Jackson,' 'Crane Brush' was taken in this vessel.
"Friday, April 19. - Went to Boston, remained all day, and lodged there with Capt. Jonathan Davis. The evening I spent in company with five or six of my old friends and acquaintance. The town yet looks melancholy : but few of the inhabitants being removed back into it, occasioned by its not being sufficiently fortified and garrisoned against any further attempt of the enemy, to which it now lies much exposed. The shops in general remain shut up. This day is the anniversary of the famous battle of Lexington.
" April 20. - Remained in Boston. Several of the active tories have been examined by the Court of Inquiry, and committed to jail for trial. Dr. Whitworth and Son were yesterday on their examination, and afterwards ordered to give bail. It is said the justices have evidence of the doctor's not having acted the part of an honest surgeon, in his practice on the late unfor- tunate Colonel Parker: and that his limb was unnecessarily taken off, and a ernel neglect of attendance on him, by which means he lost his life." [Parker of Chelmsford was taken prisoner at Bunker's Hill, and died in Boston jail. ]
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Mr. Price took a house in Dorchester till he should think it safe to make his home in Boston, where he went daily to examine papers in the Custom-house, Treasurer Gray's office, and the Province House. Many other citizens, like himself, considered Boston still in danger.
LETTERS TO GARDINER GREENE.
In Proceedings of Mass. Historical Society for June, 1873, are three very lively letters relating to the siege and evacuation, addressed to Gardiner Greene. As a merchant, at the age of twenty-one, he had left here for Demarara in Sept., 1774. He visited Boston in 1788, when he married here a second wife, and in 1800 was married, a third time, to the daughter of the painter Copley. He then came to this his native place, being one of the most eminent and prospered merchants here till his death in 1832.
The writer of the first of these letters, his friend, D. Greene, dating Boston, May 6, 1775, congratulates him that he is out of "this un- happy country, in its present situation inferior to any country on earth." He gives a vivid account of the affair at Concord, of the rising of the country people, and of the stopping next day of all free com. munication with the town, and of the difficulties attending the arrange- ment with Gage for the exit of the inhabitants. Ilis sympathies appear to have been with the royalist party. He mentions many prominent persons and families in the town, as they were alarmed at the state of things, some concluding to stay, others likely to be scattered in various directions, while he, with a few friends, was going to London.
The second letter is from Joseph Greene, the brother of Gardiner, and is of similar tenor.
The third letter is from his friend, John Perkins, and is dated Halifax, Aug. 2, 1776. The writer, in explaining to his correspondent how he came to be where he was, informs him that Howe, with the British army, the tories, etc., had left Boston, and " come down to this hole, the dregs of the earth."
" When we came from Boston all your friends were well. They all stayed, as well as our family. By all accounts they fare tolerably well. Almost every one who came from Boston to this place have gone away again ; some
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for England, some for head-quarters, and the remainder will go as soon as they can learn where the army is gone to, and whether they have made their landing good, for this is without exception the most despicable place ever I knew. The price of living here is exceeding high, and the people in gen- eral, a poor, mean, low-lived set of beings; and were it not that I have some expectations, wouldn't tarry here a day longer after my accounts are settled.
" It is certainly a happy thing, to live under so mild a government as the present English government ; but I'm sure if more authority had been made use of a few years past, much expense might have been saved : but I blame no one, for the Devil himself couldn't think to see the present unhappy war increase to so great a height in so short a time.
"Your old friend, Jaek Coffin, arrived here a few days past from London, bound to head-quarters ; your Uncle Chandler sailed a few days past for Lon- don, together with John Powell and his family, our old friend, Frank Johon- not, John Erving and family, Mr. Lechmere and family, the commissioners, &c., &e. ; in short, one-half of Boston is now in England, and they tell me that the Bostonians are so thick about the streets of London that it is im- agined selectmen, wardens, &e., will be chosen there, according to the old Bostonian method."
Any reader who is curious to inform himself about the fortunes of the exiles who found their way to London, will find them related with force and pathos in the Journal and Letters of Judge Curwen, as edited by Mr. George A. Ward. The homeless wanderers lived for the most part on slender pensions from the government, and haunted places of resort to learn the news and rumors of their dismal days.
DR. ANDREW ELIOT.
Dr. Andrew Eliot, settled over the New North Church in Boston in 1742, remained in Boston during the siege. Some very interesting letters from him to his son Samuel, at Waltham, with his family, are preserved: Samuel left Boston August 2d.
The doctor's family left early in the siege. His wife went to Fairfield, Ct., May 3d. Ile did not see her for eleven months, and found great difficulty in communicating with her at rare intervals, and sending her money and apparel. When flags passed between the armies those who could make strong interest could exchange open letters.
881
£
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The doctor had no idea of what was before him when he tarried in the town. Seeing winter before him, he, in September, tried very earnestly to get a pass, but it was refused. IIe once made preparation for the winter, but, thinking he should be allowed to leave, sold his stores, and then, in the impossibility of replacing them, suffered severely, in depri- vations, and in anxiety about his family. He wrote his son, on Nov. 20, " Had I known what I was to endure, I should have been among the first that left the town, though I had lost all."
Clinton was in Hancock's house ; Burgoyne in Bowdoin's ; Drs. Mather and Byles remained, and Mr. Boylston, Broomfield and Jona. Amory. Earl Percy was in the Andrews house, corner of Winter and Tremont streets.
About 5,000 of the inhabitants of the town were supposed to have remained after Bunker Hill.
The selectmen were not allowed to go out.
Interleaved Kneeland's Almanac, 1775, notes : -
" Thurs. Lee. Preach., &e.
" April 19. - Engagement at Coneord.
" April 30. - My children sailed for Salem.
" May 3. - Dear Mrs. Eliot set out for Fairfield.
"June 17. - Battle at Charlestown; Town consumed. Oh, diem horren- dum! bella, horrida bella! 18, preached A. M. and P. M.
" June 22. - Dr. Mather. Thurs. Lecture." " 29. - No Lecture."
Ile carried on the Thursday lecture alternately with Dr. Mather.
" November 30. - Preached, T. L. Cotus vere parv .. The attendance of this lecture being exceeding small, and our work greatly increased in other respeets, Dr. Mather and I, who, since the departure of our other Brethren, had preached it alternately, thought proper to lay it down for the present. I preached the last sermon from those words in Rev. 2, . Remember how thou hast received,' &c. An affecting occasion of laying down a lecture which had subsisted more than 140 years. The small congregation was much moved at the conclusion."
"Records, means of support, contributions, private gifts sent in, meats, other articles of subsistence and various luxuries."
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Interleaved Almanac, 1776 : -
" March 17. - Preached A. M. and P. M. Boston evacuated.
" March 23. - Cambridge. Dined with Col. Millin.
" March 27. - Cambridge. Dined with Gen. Washington.
" March 28. - Preached before Gen. Washington." [Thursday Lecture.]
The following is an extract from a letter written in Boston, July 31, 1775, by Dr. Eliot to his parishioner, Daniel Parker, Esq., who had got out of the town into Salem : -
" Your great attention to me and concern for my comfort deserve my sin- cerest thanks. I received the two quarters of mutton, and have divided one between Dr. Rand and Mr. Welsh, who express their acknowledgements in the highest terms. Part of the other I shall send to make broth for the prisoners, who have really suffered for the want of fresh meat. I shall this day make a quantity of broth for the sick around me, who are very numerous. You cannot conceive the relief you will give to great numbers of persons by this kind office. Perhaps your broth has been dispensed to thirty or forty sick people. I have invited a number of friends to partake of the rest. To live among scenes of blood and slaughter, and other trials I do not care to mention is hard, and yet, on the whole, I cannot say I am sorry I tarried."
The following letter was written by Dr. Eliot to his friend, Mr. Isaac Smith, a graduate and a tutor at Harvard College. In the panic which seized many of the people of Boston he embarked at Marblehead for England, May 27, 1775. He was ordained as minister of a dissenting congregation at Sidmouth, England, June 24, 1778; embarked for his return here in April, 1784; became librarian at Harvard, and after- wards served as Chaplain to the Boston Almshouse : --
" BOSTON, April 5, 1776.
"MR. ISAAC SMITHI, London : -
" MY VERY DEAR SIR, - When I wrote you last I did not dare to write with any kind of freedom, lest what I wrote should fall into the hands of our then Masters, which would have exposed me to their resentment, which I greatly feared, for their wrath was cruel. I cannot repent my having tarried in town; it seemed necessary to preserve the very face of religion. But nothing would induce me again to spend eleven months in a garrison town.
" We have been afraid to speak, to write, almost to think. We are now
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relieved - wonderfully delivered ! The town hath been evacuated by the British troops so suddenly that they have left amazing stores behind them, vast quantities of coal, which the inhabitants have been cruelly denied through the winter, cannon and warlike stores in abundance, porter, horse-beans, hay, casks, bran, &c. Great numbers of the friends to Government, as they are called, are gone to Halifax, crowded in vessels which will scarce contain them. What will become of them there, God knows! The place is full already. This inglorious retreat hath raised the spirits of the colonists to the highest pitch. They look upon it as a compleat victory. I dare now to say what I did not dare to say before this - I have long thought it - that Great Britain cannot subjugate the colonies. Independence, a year ago, could not have been publicly mentioned with impunity. Nothing else is now talked of, and I know not what can be done by Great Britain to prevent it.
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