USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 57
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1 Benjamin Hallowell was comptroller of the customs, and, as such, a typically unpopular man of the time. His house, on Hanover Street, Boston, had been already mobbed in 1765 at the same time with Lientenant-Governor Hutchinson's.
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the general body, and followed Hallowell, who made | Court at Salem on the 5th of October; but just the best of his way till he got into Roxbury, when mr. - overtook him and stopped him in his chaise. mr. Hallowell snapped his pistols at him, but could not disengage himself from him till he quitted the chaise and mounted his servant's horse, on which he drove into Boston with all the speed he could make; till, the horse failing within the gate, he ran on foot to the camp, thro' which he spread consternation, telling them he was pursued by some thousands who would be in town at his heels, and destroy all friends of government before them.
" A gentleman in Boston, observing the motion in the camp, and concluding they were on the point of marching to Cambridge from both ends of the town, communicated the alarm to Dr. Roberts, then at Charlestown Ferry, who, having a very fleet horse, brought the news in a few minutes to the committee, then at dinner. The intelligence was instantly diffused, and the people whose arms were nearest sent persons to bring them, while horsemen were despatched both ways to gain more certain advice of the true state of the soldiery. A greater fervor and resolution probably never ap- peared among any troops." 1
This momentary panic was soon over, but it had the effect of bracing the committee up to a resolu- tion " to leave no unconstitutional officer in pos- session of his place." A paper similar to those signed by Judge Danforth and Judge Lee was drawn up, and Mr. Oliver was waited on en masse at his house on the Watertown road, for his signa- ture, which he surrendered in the following reluc- tant terms : -
" My house at Cambridge being surrounded by about four thousand people, in compliance with their command I sign my name.
" THOMAS OLIVER."
All of which important public business having been thus successfully accomplished, " the gentle- men from Boston, Charlestown, and Cambridge having provided some refreshment for their greatly fatigued brethren, they cheerfully accepted it, took leave, and departed in high good humor and well satisfied."
Altogether the 2d of September, 1774, must have been a stirring day for Cambridge; but days more stirring were rapidly approaching.
Under date of the Ist of September, General Gage had issued writs convening the General 1 Boston Gazette, Sept. 5, 1774.
before October came in he countermanded the summons. On the 3d of October the inhabitants of Cambridge gave instructions to their representa- tives not to recognize the Mandamus Council, and to their selectinen to procure a carriage for the cannon owned by the town, and to buy a second cannon, with ammunition for both ; and authorized the use of public funds for the purchase of fifes, the, instruction of fifers, the wages of fifers and drummers, and the " refreshments " of soldiers. On the 5th the court met at Salem, according to the original summons, without regard to the sub- sequent order of General Gage; resolved itself into a Provincial Congress; adjourned first to Concord, where John Hancock was chosen presi- dent and Benjamin Lincoln secretary, and then to Cambridge, where it assembled on the 17th, first in the court-house and immediately afterward in the meeting-house, Mr. Appleton being called on to officiate as chaplain. One of the first acts was the creation of two important executive authorities for the province, - a Committee of Safety and a Com- mittee of Supplies. The Committee of Safety were John Hancock, Joseph Warren, Benjamin Church, Richard Devens, Benjamin White, Joseph Palmer, Abraham Watson, Azor Orne, John Pigeon, Wil- liam Heath, and Thomas Gardner. The Com- mittee of Supplies were Elbridge Gerry, David Cheever, Benjamin Lincoln, Moses Gill, and Ben- jamin Hall. Of these, Abraham Watson, John Pigeon, and Thomas Gardner were Cambridge men. Mr. Pigeon was one of the original Christ Church coterie, but had now espoused the patriotic cause. Besides appointing these committees, the congress adopted a plan for organizing and maintaining the militia, and authorized the collecting of military stores.
The immediate causes of the Revolution were now fairly in operation. Military organization went forward in the towns at large, and military stores began to accumulate at Concord and Worces- ter. In February, 1775, the Provincial Congress was again in session in Cambridge, and a com- mittee of five were appointed to watch for sus- pected movements of British troops toward Con- cord. General Gage's officers were known to be out in disguise, studying the posture of affairs in the towns and making plans of the roads. In addition to the legislative committee, John Pigeon was ordered by the Committee of Safety, of which he was clerk, to establish a nightly watch over
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the stores at Concord, and to provide means for their removal at a moment's warning, as well as to arrange a system of couriers in Cambridge, in Charlestown, and in Roxbury, to alarm the country if occasion should arise.
Cambridge, so soon to be the fortified camp of the first Revolutionary army, was thus erected into a post of observation and direction.
XII. THE CAMBRIDGE CHAPTER OF THE REVO- LUTION. 1775-1776.
PLACING ourselves in imagination in Cambridge at the juucture of affairs which we have now reached, let us try to observe the progress of events as they must have appeared to the actual spectator at that point.
By the middle of April the general attention had become concentrated along the line leading from Boston out through Charlestown, or by way of Roxbury, through Cambridge, to Menotomy, Lex- ington, and Concord ; surmise having settled down into a certain expectation that the military stores at Concord would be the next object of seizure on the part of General Gage. On the 17th of April the Committees of Safety and Supplies came down from Concord to Wetherby's tavern at Menoto- my, and, in view of some suspicious movements which had been noted in Boston, order was given to secrete the cannon then at Concord, and remove some of the stores to Sudbury and Groton. This was on Monday. On Tuesday a party of British officers dined in Cambridge. Their presence served as another straw to show which way the wind was blowing, and cannot have failed to excite still more the already excited mind of the town. The committees were in session the same day in Me- notomy; and the two circumstances together gave Cambridge enough to think of.
That night the lantern was hung out from the North Church steeple in Boston as the signal that the British were coming, and Paul Revere set out on his midnight ride.
Cambridge soil was the first to feel the advan- cing tread of the invader. The expedition, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, em- barked in boats at Boston a little before midnight, and crossed over to Lechmere's Point, whence it took up its line of march across the marshes to what is now Milk Street, Somerville, and entered North Avenue by Beech Street, passing around the corner on which the old Davenport Tavern
stood. The tradition is that an alarm was speedily given to the centre of the town from Lechmere's Point, and the muster-roll of the Cambridge com- pany of the militia says that it " marched on the alarm," and credits it with twenty-eight miles out and back, which would cover the distance to and from Concord. " There is good reason to believe," says Paige, "that the Cambridge militia pursued the foe very early in the morning, and fully partici- pated in the perils and glory of that day." The company referred to was commanded by Samuel Thatcher, and had on its roll a total of seventy- seven names. Among them are three Dicksons, four Frosts, and five Wyeths ; also three " scholars," meaning thereby students of the college; and two negroes. It would appear that only one of the " scholars," namely, Edward Bangs, of the class of 1777, actually rendered service on this day. He was spending the spring vacation in Cambridge, and " on the 19th of April, as soon as intelligence of the hostile movement was received, he hastily equipped himself from the armory of the college company, repaired to the scene of action, and fought gallantly during the day." 1
Later in the morning, while the air must have been thick with rumors respecting the progress of events along the Menotomy road to Lexington and Concord, there was a temporary excitement of some intensity around the Great Bridge, across the Charles River, on the road to Roxbury. March- ing over this road, coming toward Cambridge, appeared in due time the reinforcements under Lord Percy, which had left Boston about nine o'clock, in response to a message to General Gage from Lieutenant-Colonel Smith. The planks were first removed from the bridge and piled on the causeway on the Cambridge side, by order of the selectmen, to impede the advance of these rein- forcements; and again, later in the day, as General Heath says, by his order, to impede the retreat of the British, should they attempt to reach Boston by that way. In the first case the planks were unluckily left within too easy reach, and the bridge was soon made passable.
It is not our province here to follow the Cam- bridge men to Lexington and Concord ; nor hardly is it our duty to study the fortunes of the day as they turned on the plains of Menotomy. Suf- fice it to say that all along through the western part of Cambridge the retreating British suffered their severest losses. Paige says, "The carnage
1 Lincoln's History of Worcester.
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was greater in this town than in any other. . . . As many as four native citizens were killed on the southerly side of North Avenue, a few feet east- wardły from Spruce Street, near the house then owned by Jacob Watson. These four, with the twenty-two slain in the northwest precinct, make a total of twenty-six, - more than half of the whole number of Americans whose lives were sacrificed on that memorable day."
The Cambridge casualties proper were as follows : killed, William Marcy, Moses Richardson, John Hicks, Jason Russell, Jabez Wyman, and Jason Winship; wounded, Samuel Whittemore; miss- ing, Samuel Frost and Seth Russell. Marcy was a laborer, in the employ of Dr. William Knee- land ; tradition says, a man of feeble intellect, who was sitting perched upon a fence, enjoying the spectacle as if it were a sham fight, when he was shot. Richardson was a carpenter, living at the northeasterly angle of Holmes Place. Hicks lived on the southeasterly corner of Dunster and Win- throp streets. These three men were all killed near the same spot, - North Avenue, near the easterly end of Spruce Street. Mr. Hicks's son, a boy of fourteen, was sent by his mother in the afternoon to look for his father, who had been out since morning, and found his dead body and those of Marcy and Richardson lying together. Russell was a Menotomy man. Ile had made a breast- work at his gate with bundles of shingles, and was shot and bayoneted in his own doorway. Winship and Wyman were killed at Cooper's tavern, in Me- notomy. Frost and Russell were taken prisoners.
The wounded Captain. Whittemore was one of the heroes of the day. Though an old man, nearly eighty years of age, he was one of the first to answer the summons, hastening from his house on the main street, near the Menotomy River, armed with a gun and a horse-pistol. " If I can only be the instrument of killing one of my country's foes," he exclaimed, " I shall die in peace." 1
"On the return of the troops he lay behind a stone-wall, and, discharging a gun, a soldier imme- diately fell; he then discharged his pistol, and killed another; at which instant a bullet struck his face and shot away part of his cheek-bone, on which a number of the soldiers ran up to the wall, and gorged their malice on his wounded head. They were heard to exclaim, 'We have killed the old rebel !' About four hours after he was found in a mangled situation; his head was 1 Columbian Centinel, February 6, 1793.
covered with blood from the wounds of the bayo- nets, which were six or eight; but providentially none penetrated so far as to destroy him. His hat and clothes were shot through in many places ; yet he survived to see the complete overthrow of his enemies, and his country enjoy all the blessings of peace and independence." 1
He died on the 2d of February, 1793.
Cambridge property suffered some damage on this day, as was definitely ascertained by a com- mittee of the Provincial Congress sitting a few weeks later. That to buildings was estimated at £76 58. 6d .; that to goods and chattels, £1108 13s. ld .; that to the meeting-house and school- house in the North Precinct, including property car- ried off, £17 10s .; being a total of £1203 88. 7d.
From and after the 19th of April, 1775, for nearly a year Cambridge was the headquarters of the American army, and presented all the aspects of a fortified camp. Its territory was the back- ground to the battle of Bunker Hill and the base line of the siege of Boston; its buildings were turned into barracks for the soldiery or hospitals for the sick and wounded ; within its precincts the commander-in-chief first unsheathed his sword, and here he established his temporary home.
The battle of Lexington and Concord was fought on Wednesday, by whose evening hours the dis- comfited British had accomplished their return to a position of safety on Bunker Hill, under cover of the guns of the fleet. By the end of the week the fragments of a rude army of from fifteen to twenty thousand men had assembled in Cambridge, General Artemas Ward in command, with his . headquarters at the house of Mr. Jonathan Hast- ings on the Common, before described.2 The Com- mittee of Safety were also established here. Some of the college buildings were emptied of students and given up to the troops; and officers were lodged in private houses, including the President's. Even Christ Church and the Apthorp palace were put to a similar purpose, greatly to the damage of the former. Fortifications were begun, some of the earliest leading from the college yard towards the river. There could be of course no carrying on of college exercises under such circumstances, and order was given by the General Court for the removal of the library and apparatus to Andover.
Through May the organization and consolidation of the little army steadily progressed, and Cam-
1 Columbian Centinel. 2 See engraving on p. 337.
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bridge was still alive with the varied objects and events incident to such a situation. By the mid- dle of June the military position had become well defined, and Cambridge was fixed as the seat of the centre division of the American forces around Boston ; the right wing, under General Thomas, being at Roxbury, the left at Chelsea, Medford, and Charlestown.
" It [the centre division] consisted of fifteen Massachusetts regiments ; the battalion of artillery, hardly organized, under Colonel Gridley ; and Gen- eral Putnam's regiment, with other Connecticut troops. They were quartered in the colleges, in the church, and in tents. Most of the Connecti- cnt troops were at Inman's Farm ; part of Little's regiment was at the tavern in West Cambridge ; Patterson's regiment was at the breastwork near Prospect Hill; and a large guard was at Lech- mere's Point." 1
On Friday evening, the 16th of June, there was a stir in the Cambridge camp. Parts of three regi- ments and a detail of two hundred Connecticut troops had been ordered to parade on the Common at six o'clock. They were furnished with packs and blankets, and twenty-four hours' rations. A detachment of artillery was included in the order. The whole force numbered about 1,200 men, and was under command of Colonel William Prescott of Pepperell, whose directions were not to be com- municated until he had passed Charlestown Neck. At nine o'clock, after a fervent and impressive prayer by President Langdon of Harvard, the expedition set ont on its mysterious march. It proved to be a march to Charlestown, and this was the eve of the memorable battle of Bunker Hill, more famous, perhaps, than any other of the Revo- lution.
Other troops followed out of Cambridge the next morning, - the morning of the eventful 17th of June, - notwithstanding General Ward's fear that an attack on Cambridge was meditated by day began, Cambridge held its breath ; while, as it became known that the British had actually crossed to Charlestown, something like a panic set in. The letter of an eyewitness gives a vivid descrip- tion of the moment : --
" Just after dinner on Saturday, 17th ult., I was walking out from my lodgings quite calm and composed, and all at once the drums beat to arms, and bells rang, and a great noise in Cambridge. 1 Frothingham, Siege of Boston.
Captain Putnam came by on full gallop. ‘ What is the matter?' says I. 'Have you not heard ?' ' No.' ' Why, the regulars are landing at Charles- town,' says he, 'and father says you must all meet, and march immediately to Bunker Hill to oppose the enemy.' I waited not, but ran and got my arms and ammunition, and hastened to my com- pany (who were in the church for barracks), and found them nearly ready to march. We soon marched, with our frocks and trousers on over our other clothes (for our company is in uniform wholly blue, turned up with red), for we were loth to expose ourselves by our dress; and down we marched."
" The bell was ringing," says another eye-wit- ness, Simeon Noyes, also quoted by Frothingham ; " our adjutant, Stephen Jenkens, rode up and hal- looed, 'Turn out! turn out! the enemy 's all landed at Charlestown !' "
One immediate effect of the battle of Bunker Hill was to transform Cambridge as a camp into Cambridge as a hospital. Among other houses taken sooner or later for this purpose were Mr. Fayerweather's and Lieutenant-Governor Oliver's on Brattle Street, Colonel Vassall's, and a Mr. Hunt's.
Within a week after the battle of Bunker Hill General George Washington, who had been ap- pointed by the Second Continental Congress com- mander-in-chief of the Continental army, left Philadelphia to assume the command. He came by way of New York and Springfield, receiving news of the battle at the former place, and being met by a committee of the Massachusetts Provin- cial Congress at the latter. On the 2d of July,, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, he entered Cambridge by the Watertown road, " escorted by a cavalcade of citizens and a troop of light-horse," and proceeded to the Hastings house, where tem- porary quarters had been provided for him.
The massive stone beneath the Washington Elm, General Gage. As the first cannonading of the in Garden Street, opposite Mason, commemorates in terms familiar to the reader the picturesque his- toric event which took place on that spot the day following, and which has forever consecrated it as one of the shrines of Cambridge : -
UNDER THIS TREE WASHINGTON FIRST TOOK COMMAND OF THE AMERICAN ARMY JULY 3ª 1775.
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A platform was subsequently erected aloft in the branches of the tree ; a " crow's nest," whence Washington with his glass might survey the coun- try around.
A graphic picture of the Cambridge interior at this juncture has been left by Rev. William Ein- erson. We quote from Frothingham : -
" There is great overturning in the camp, as to order and regularity. . New lords, new laws. The Generals Washington and Lee are upon the lines every day. New orders from his Excellency are read to the respective regiments every morning after prayers. The strictest government is taking place, and great distinction is made between offi- cers and soldiers. Every one is made to know his place, and keep in it, or be tied up and receive thirty or forty lashes, according to his crime. Thousands are at work every day from four till eleven o'clock in the morning. It is surprising how much work has been done. The lines are ex- tended almost from Cambridge to Mystic River, so that very soon it will be morally impossible for the enemy to get between the works, except in one place, which is supposed to be left purposely un- fortified, to entice the enemy out of their fortresses. Who would have thought, twelve months past, that all Cambridge and Charlestown would be cov- ered over with American camps, and cut up into forts and intrenchments, and all the lands, fields, orchards, laid common, - horses and cattle feed- ing in the choicest mowing land, whole fields of corn eaten down to the ground, and large parks of well-regulated locusts cut down for firewood and other public uses ? This, I must say, looks a little melancholy. My quarters are at the foot of the famous Prospect Hill, where such great prepara- tions are made for the reception of the enemy. It 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, and some of sail-cloth. Some partly of one and partly of the other. 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. Some are your proper tents and marquees, looking like the regular camp of the enemy. In these are the Rhode-Islanders, who are furnished with tent- equipage and everything in the most exact English style."
The days and weeks following the battle of Bunker Hill were diligently improved for perfect- ing the organization of the army and carrying forward the fortifications ; with more of the cus- tomary diversifying incidents of reconnoisance and skirmish. The centre division of the army, under General Putnam, was arranged in two brigades of six regiments each, all but one made up of Massa- chusetts men. At various times during the sum- mer and autumn Lechmere's Point was occupied and strongly fortified, and two batteries were thrown up between it and the mouth of the Charles River to the southwest, one of which, known as Fort Washington, has been carefully preserved, and is one of the cherished localities of the mod- ern city. There was "a strong intrenchment " at Sewall's Farm, and a complete series of detached forts and redoubts stretched across the neck from the Mystie to the Charles, as thus described by Drake:1
"Of the former there were three, numbered from right to left. No. 1 was on the bank of the Charles River, at the point where it makes a southerly bend. Next was a redoubt situated a short distance south of the main street leading to the colleges, and in the angle formed by Putnam Street. .... Connected with this redoubt were the Cambridge lines, called No. 2., a series of redans, six in number, joined together by curtains. Thesc. were carried across the road, and up the slopes of what was then called Butler's, since known as Dana Hill, terminating at their northerly extremity in another redoubt, situated on the crest and in the angle of Broadway and Maple Avenue, on the Greenough estate. The soil being a hard clay, the earth to build this work was carried from the lower ground on the Hovey estate to the top of the hill. To the north of Cambridge Street a breast- work was continued in a northeasterly direction through Mr. C. M. Hovey's nursery. Cannon- shot and other vestiges of military occupation have been unearthed there by Mr. Hovey. A hundred yards behind this line, but of less extent, was another rampart of earth, having a tenaille, or inverted redan, in the centre. The right flank rested on the main road, which divided the more advanced work nearly at right angles. Remains of these works have existed within twenty-five years [of 1873].
" Continuing to trace the lines eastward, - their general direction being from east to west, -
1 Historic Fields and Mansions of Middleser.
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
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we find that too little half-moons were thrown up on each side of the Charlestown road, at the point where it crossed the west branch of Willis' Creek ..
" The advanced post of the Americans on old Charlestown road, which was meant to secure the camps on this side, was near the point where it is How intersected by Beacon Street. It was distant about five eighths of a mile from Cambridge Com- mon. The road, which has here been straightened, formerly curved towards the north, crossing the head of the west branch of Willis' Creek (Miller's River), by what was called Pillon Bridge. . . . . The works at Pillon Bridge were on each side of the road ; that on the north running up the de- clivity of the hill now crossed by Park Street, and occupying a commanding site."
Through the summer of 1775 there were con- siderably fewer than 10,000 soldiers actually quar- tered in Cambridge, and of these probably not more than 6,000 were at any one time fit for duty. Patriotism was not wholly equal to the situation. In the latter part of the season the Connecticut troops manifested a spirit of insubordination, be- cause of an unsatisfied demand for bounty. A few men were killed here and there by stray cannon- shots thrown over into the town by the enemy. The general health, however, was good, provisions were plenty, and the only drawbacks seemed to be the scarcity of powder, and, as winter came on, a lack of firewood. The fences and the trees of the vicinity suffered badly in supplying the latter de- ficiency.
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