USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Concord > History of the siege of Boston, and of the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Also an account of the Bunker Hill Monument. With illustrative documents > Part 22
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the siege of Boston, and of the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Also an account of the Bunker Hill Monument. With illustrative documents > Part 22
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lexington > History of the siege of Boston, and of the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Also an account of the Bunker Hill Monument. With illustrative documents > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
1 Capt. Harris, afterwards Lord Harris.
222
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
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. However, I think this great variety is rather a beauty than a blemish in the army." 1
The commander-in-chief was received with warmth by the army, and everything about him inspired confidence and hope. The house occupied by him is still standing in Cam- bridge, and is known as Washington's head quarters. The contemporary accounts name him with enthusiasm. "I have been much gratified this day" - Thatcher writes, July 20 - "with a view of General Washington. His excellency was on horseback, in company with several military gentlemen. It was not difficult to distinguish him from all others ; his personal appearance is truly noble and majestic, being tall and well-proportioned. His dress is a blue coat with buff-colored facings, a rich epaulette on each shoulder, buff under dress, and an elegant small-sword; a black cockade in his hat." Mrs. Adams writes to her husband, July 16: "I was struck with General Washington. You had prepared me to enter- tain a favorable opinion of him, but I thought the half was not told me. Dignity, with ease and complacency, the gen- tleman and soldier, look agreeably blended in him. Mod- esty marks every line and feature of his face. Those lines of Dryden instantly occurred to me :
Mark his majestic fabric ! he's a temple Sacred by birth, and built by hands divine ; His soul 's the deity that lodges there ; Nor is the pile unworthy of the god."
1 Sparks' Washington, vol. III., p. 491.
223
LEE AND BURGOYNE.
CHAPTER IX.
Fortification of Ploughed Hill. Skirmishes. Distress in Boston.
GENERAL WASHINGTON, while introducing subordination into the army, made great efforts to strengthen his position, to confine the enemy closely to their quarters, and to cut off their supplies of provisions. The belief was long entertained that the British were preparing for an attack, and the camp was occasionally alarmed with reports that they were coming out. Every precaution was taken to prevent surprise, and parties in whale-boats were soon on the watch every night, to give early notice of any movements by water. On the day Washington took the command (July 3) it was supposed the British were about to attack the lines on Winter Hill, where General Folsom was in command. Colonel Glover's regiment was ordered to be ready at a moment's warning to support General Folsom. Colonel Prescott was ordered to take possession of the woods leading to Lechmere's Point, and if an attack was made in this quarter, Colonel Glover was directed to support him.1
Early in July a correspondence between Generals Lee and Burgoyne attracted much attention. General Lee had served with General Burgoyne in Portugal, and an intimate friendship had long existed between them. On the arrival of the latter in Boston, General Lee, then in Philadelphia, wrote to his friend a letter full of invectives against the British ministry, and con- taining an elaborate statement of his views of the merits of the contest. Though written with a warmth approaching to violence, General Burgoyne replied to it courteously, and proposed an interview with General Lee at Brown's house, on Boston Neck. This letter was sent out (July 8) by a trumpeter. The letter and the expediency of the proposed interview were laid before the Provincial Congress. Though
1 Washington's Orderly Book, in Force's American Archives.
19*
224
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
Congress, to prevent jealousy, appointed Elbridge Gerry to attend General Lee, they suggested whether it "might not have a tendency to lessen the influence which the Congress would wish to extend to the utmost of their power, to facili- tate and succeed the operations of the war." In consequence of this hint, General Lee, in a note to General Burgoyne, declined to meet him. The correspondence between the two generals was published, and was commented on in the jour- nals.
On the 8th of July, about two in the morning, a party of volunteers, under Majors Tupper and Crane, attacked the advanced guard of the British at Brown's house, on Boston Neck, within three hundred yards of their main works. A party of six, detached about ten o'clock the preceding even- ing, gained the rear of the guard-house; and the remainder of the volunteers secreted themselves in the marsh on each side of the Neck. Two brass field-pieces were drawn quietly across the marsh to within three hundred yards of the house. On a signal from the advance party, two rounds of shot were fired into the house, when the guard retreated with precipita- tion to the lines. The six men immediately set fire to the house and another building. The party took several muskets and retreated without loss. A scattering fire from the ont- posts continued some time. The British moored a floating battery up in the bay so as to cover the right flank of their works on Boston Neck.1
On the 11th a party of Americans drove in the British guard on Boston Neck, and burnt.Brown's store. A visiter in the camp at Roxbury this day says, - "We were amused with a heavy fire of cannon and mortars from the lines of the regulars on the Neck, and from one of their floating batteries, against two hundred of our men, who were throwing up a breastwork in front of the George tavern, on the same Neck, and within a few rods of the regulars' advanced guard ; our people kept on their work, and never returned a shot. Three bombs burst near our men, without injuring one of them; most of the cannon shot were taken up and brought to the general. It is divert-
1 Heath's Memoirs, p. 23. Penn. Packet, 1775.
225
SKIRMISHES.
ing to see our people contending for the balls as they roll along." On this day a liberty-pole was raised on Winter Hill; and at night a party went from Roxbury eamp to Long Island, and brought off fifteen prisoners, 200 sheep, 19 cattle, 13 horses, and 3 hogs. The prisoners were carried to Con- eord.1
On the 12th, in the forenoon, Colonel Greaton, with a party of 136 men, went in whale-boats to Long Island, burnt the house on it, and the barns, with a large lot of hay done up in bundles and intended for the British horses. An armed schooner, and several barges, made for the Americans, and some of the ships near the island eannonaded them; but, though they narrowly escaped being taken, Colonel Greaton and his daring band gained the shore. One American was killed in this affair. A letter dated on this day says: " We have just got over land from Cape Cod a large fleet of whale- boats; in a day or two, we shall man them in Cambridge and Mystic Rivers, and try to keep our enemy's boats from insult- ing us. The regulars do not seem willing to come out, but our people are perpetually provoking them." This day six transports full of men arrived in the harbor.
A party of Americans were at work on the rocky hill, thien Colonel Williams', south-west of the works above Roxbury workhouse. The British opened (July 13) a heavy cannon- ade upon them, but did no damage. This work, Heath says, was one of the strongest that were ereeted. General Wash- ington visited the Roxbury eamp this day. On the day following there was also firing from Boston, and a Conneeti- eut soldier was killed.
The declaration of the Continental Congress, setting forth the eauses and necessity of their taking up arms, was read on
1 Kettell's Diary ; Heath ; Force's Archives, II., 1650.
On the 13th of July the Provincial Congress revised the commission of the committee of safety, and continued in it full executive power until the 30th of July, or until their commission should be abrogated by the representatives. The committee consisted, at this time, of John Hancock, Benjamin Church, Benjamin White, Joseph Palmer, Richard Devens, Abraham Watson, Azor Orne, Benjamin Greenleaf, Nathan Cushing, Samuel Holten, and Enoch Freeman.
226
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
the 15th, before the army at Cambridge, by President Lang- don. General Washington, other general officers, and a large number of people, were present. It was received with great enthusiasm, and was immediately responded to by three huzzas. On the 1Sth, it was read to the troops on Prospect Hill, under the immediate command of General Putnam. " After which," the Essex Gazette states, "an animated and pathetic address to the army was made by the Rev. Mr. Leonard, chaplain to General Putnam's regiment, and suc- ceeded by a pertinent prayer; when General Putnam gave the signal, and the whole army shouted their loud amen by three cheers ; immediately upon which, a cannon was fired from the fort, and the standard lately sent to General Putnam was exhibited flourishing in the air, bearing on one side this motto, -' An Appeal to Heaven !' and on the other side, -' Qui Transtulit Sustinet!' The whole was conducted with the utmost decency, good order, and regularity, and to the uni- versal acceptance of all present. And the Philistines on Bun- ker's Hill heard the shout of the Israelites, and being very fearful, paraded themselves in battle array."
In the evening (1Sth) a strong party took possession of an advanced post in Roxbury, and the next day there was an incessant cannonade kept up on the works. There was an appearance of a sally by the British during this cannonade. "But," a letter states, " they disappointed General Thomas, who commands there, and made an excellent disposition to receive them. Roxbury is amazingly strong. I believe it would puzzle ten thousand troops to go through it, -I mean of the best in the world."
Thursday, the 20th, was a day of general fasting and prayer. In general orders it was directed to be religiously observed in the camp. The troops, in attending worship, were ordered to take their arms, ammunition, and accoutrements, and be prepared for immediate action. The labor on the works was ordered to be suspended, if, in the judgment of the officers, their condition would permit.
A party under Major Vose, of Heath's regiment, in whale- boats, landed on Nantasket Point, before day, and set fire to the light-house. At daylight the men-of-war discovered them,
3
227
THE RIFLEMEN.
and fired upon them. An eye-witness says : - "I ascended an eminence at a distance, and saw the flames of the light- house ascending up to heaven like grateful incense, and the ships wasting their powder. Our men proceeded from thence to Point Shirley, in order to drive off some young colts which were there. A party of regulars attacked them, but were repulsed and drove into their boats." Major Vose returned the next day. He burnt the wooden portions of the light-house, brought off its furniture, lamps, &c., and the boats. He also brought from Nantasket a thousand bushels of barley, and a quantity of hay. An armed schooner and several barges engaged the detachment, and wounded two Americans. Major Vose gained much credit for his success in this enterprise.
An occasional cannonade, the coming in of deserters from the enemy, the arrangement of the army into brigades, and the arrival of the riflemen from the south, constituted the chief incidents of the siege for eight days. The general orders indicate a strict attention to discipline. They prohib- ited all conversation, both by officers and soldiers, with the enemy's sentries, and declared that any guilty of it should be tried by a court-martial, and punished with the utmost severity. They prohibited the injury of trees; enjoined the faithful reading of the orders; discouraged the application for furloughs, and required the prompt delivery of returns. One order (July 17) says: "If, after what has happened, the enemy, in revenge of their late loss, should dare to attempt forcing our lines, the army may be assured, that nothing but their own indolence and remissness can give the least success to so rash an enterprise." The southern riflemen attracted much attention. They had enlisted with great promptness, and had marched from four to seven hundred miles. In a short time, large bodies of them arrived in camp. They were remarkably stout, hardy men, dressed in white frocks or rifle- shirts, and round hats, and were skilful marksmen. At a review, a company of them, while on a quick advance, fired their balls into objects of seven inches diameter, at the dis- tance of two hundred and fifty yards. They were stationed on the lines, and became terrible to the British. The accounts
22S
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
of their prowess were circulated over England. One of them, taken prisoner, was carried there, and the papers describe him minutely, as a remarkable curiosity.1
The British officers, about this time, were much annoyed at the success of the American sentinels in dispersing hand- bills among their rank and file. One was framed, entitled " An address to the soldiers;" and another contained the following comparison : -
PROSPECT HILL. BUNKER'S HILL.
I. Seven dollars a month.
I. Three pence a day.
II. Fresh provisions and in plenty.
II. Rotten salt pork.
III. Health.
III. The scurvy.
IV. Freedom, ease, affluence, and a IV. Slavery, beggary, and want. good farm.
"These bills," says a letter, July 24, " are blown into their camp, and get into the hands of their soldiers, without the officers being able to prevent it. Major Bruce complained, at an interview the other day, of such usage. We retorted his decoying our sentries from their posts, two rascals having left us a day or two before, by his or some other officer's means." Colonel Reed, also, sent to General Gage a copy of the decla- ration of the united colonies, who pronounced its contents to be "as replete with deceit and falsehood as most of their (the Americans) publications." 2
The works on Winter Hill were prosecuted with vigor at this time. General Lee sent, July 24, the following note to General Sullivan : - "General Lee begs General Sullivan will get as much work as possible out of the men this day. If they cannot all work on the face of the citadel, let them deepen and widen the ditch of the flank and rear faces, and heighten the parapet all round. P. S. For God's sake, finish and strengthen the abatis."
On the 29th of July the British planted a bomb battery on
1 A letter, July 19, says : - " The general uniforms are made of brown Holland and Osnaburghs, something like a shirt, double caped over the shoul- der, in imitation of the Indians ; and on the breast, in capital letters, is their motto, ' Liberty or Death ! ' "'
2 Gage's Letter, July 24.
229
SKIRMISH AT CHARLESTOWN NECK.
Bunker Hill, advanced their guard on Charlestown Neck fur- ther into the country, and began to throw up an abatis to protect it, cutting down large trees for this purpose.1 Wash- ington, in the evening, ordered the York county rifle company to cut off these outposts, and bring off a prisoner. The com- pany attempted this service in the following manner. Cap- tain Dowdle and thirty-nine men filed off to the right, and crept on their hands and knees to the rear of the enemy's works; Lieutenant Miller, with a party, in like manner, got behind the sentries on the left. But just as the two divisions were about to join, a party of the British came down from Bunker Hill to relieve the guard, and discovered the riflemen. Both sides fired. The riflemen killed five and took two pris-
1 Col. William T. Miller, of the Rhode Island forces, was at Prospect Hill, and in a letter dated "Camp Prospect Hill, July 29, 1775," gives an incident relating to cutting down trees, and the camp rumors, as follows : - " I had the honor to be field officer of the day here yesterday ; and as I was visiting the out sentries, which stand within half musket shot of the enemy's sentries, the regulars came out with a party, and began to cut some trees and remove some fencing stuff which was between the sentries. I beckoned to two officers who commanded there, one of whom I took to be Major Bruce of the regulars, who came out and met me between the sentries, when I told him that his conduct in felling the timber so near our sentries created a jealousy. and desired him to desist from any further encroachments ; when he told me he thought the trees, &c., which they were getting, were as near their lines as they were to ours, and that they had not interrupted our men in cutting hay close to the lines; and he promised me he would advance no further. I immediately returned, and reported what had happened to Major-general Lee, who thanked me for my conduct.
" I also saw a gentleman that came out of Boston yesterday, who says the people of Boston and the soldiers are very sickly and much dejected ; that General Gage had given orders for all the inhabitants of Boston that have a mind to depart by water to return their names, and they should have liberty to depart. We have three deserters from the regulars come into this camp since we came here, one of whom found his own brother here in the camp. Their meeting was very affecting. One hath deserted by way of Roxbury, who it is thought will prove a very serviceable man to our army, as he is able to give a plan of all the works and fortifications in Boston, and knows all their plans. He says he can direct the army to storm Boston, with the loss of very few men ; that it has been in contemplation among the Gageites to set Boston on fire, and withdraw all the troops and ships. But we ought not to catch at such shadows as that. We have nothing under God to depend upon, but our own strength."
230
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
oners, and retreated, having one man captured. General Howe, in general orders the following day, stated that had his directions relative to reliefs been complied with, " the soldiers could not have failed to destroy a number of the rebels last night."
On the 30th, Sunday, at eleven o'clock, about five hun- dred British troops marched over the Neck, and built a slight breastwork to cover their guard. The American camp was in alarm through the day, and at night the troops lay on their arms. The British, mortified at the success of the rifle- men, resolved to retaliate on the American sentries, and hence the night proved an eventful one. About one o'clock a Brit- ish floating battery went up Charles River, within three hun- dred yards of Sewall's Point, and discharged a number of shot into the American works on both sides of the river. At the same time a party sallied out towards Roxbury, drove in the American sentinels, set fire to the George tavern, and returned to their works. The picket guard at Charlestownl Neck attacked and drove in the American advanced guard of sixty men, who, being reinforced by orders of General Lee, beat off the enemy, recovered their ground, killed several, and took seven muskets, without the loss of a man. This simultaneous firing kept the army in a state of alarm through the night, as the design of the British general was not known.1
The enemy had commenced rebuilding the light-house, and this day, July 31, Major Tupper, with three hundred men, was detached with orders to disperse the working party. The enemy prepared to receive the Americans in a hostile manner. Major Tupper landed in good order on the island, marched up
' A royalist lady in Boston, in a letter dated August 10, 1775, gives a vivid picture of the alarm felt by the residents during this night : - " We were roused about one o'clock on the morning of the 31st ult. by the most dreadful cannonading I ever heard. It seemed to be a general attack on all sides around us. It is impossible to convey an idea how terrible it was in the dead of night, with the apprehensions that naturally seize every one, either of the enemy breaking in, or the town being set on fire. It appears that they attempted again to cut off our outposts, upon which General Howe attacked their intrenchments with cannon and bombs on that side ; and we attacked them in several places besides, at the same time, all in the dark."
231
DEFICIENCY OF POWDER.
to the works, killed ten or twelve on the spot, and took the remainder prisoners. Having demolished the works, the party were ready to embark, but the tide leaving them, they were obliged to remain until its return. Meantime, a number of boats came up from the men-of-war to reinforce those at the island, and a smart firing from both parties took place. A field-piece, under Major Crane, planted on Nantasket Point to cover a retreat, sunk one of the boats, and killed several of the crew. Major Tupper brought his party off with the loss of only one man killed, and two or three wounded. He killed and captured fifty-three of the enemy. Washington, the next day, in general orders, thanked Major Tupper, and the officers and soldiers under his command, "for their gallant and sol- dier-like behavior," and remarked that he doubted not "but the continental army would be as famous for their mercy as their valor."
No movements were made, nor were there any skirmishes of importance, in the early part of August. General Wash- ington felt more anxious than ever at the shortness of his sup- ply of powder. A council of war (August 3) was held on this important subject, when the whole stock was represented to be only 9,937 pounds. Measures were taken to procure a supply from the neighboring colonies. "Our situation," Washington wrote to Congress, "in the article of powder, is much more alarming than I had the most distant idea of." He felt the more anxious, as he was expecting an attack. Things looked like it in Boston. Detachments of the enemy practised embarking in boats daily, and rowing about the har- bor ; and they paraded in large detachments of seven or eight hundred, with their light horse, on Charlestown common, where their brilliant appearance contrasted strangely with the homely garb of the continentals. They kept up, too, a con- tinual cannonade. Colonel Reed writes, (August 7,) "The enemy, having more ammunition to sport than we have, divert themselves every day with cannonading our lines; but with very little effect, except where the imprudence of some of our own people exposes them to danger. Two were killed at the lines last week, by running after cannon shot. We scarcely lie down or rise up, but with the expectation that the night or
20
1
232
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
the day must produce some important event." 1 He writes August 24 : "The word 'powder' in a letter sets us all on tiptoe. We have been in a terrible situation, occasioned by a mistake in a return ; we reckoned upon three hundred quar- ter-casks, and had but thirty-two barrels." He remarked that this damped their spirits, and obliged them "to bear with the rascals on Bunker Hill, when a few shot, now and then, in return, would keep the men attentive to their business, and give the enemy alarms."
A few incidents may be worthy of notice. Kettell, Aug. 1, writes : " They continue quarrelling on the common. The riflemen keep round, picking them (the British) off. They fire in from their hill and their batteries, and our men pick up the balls ; fired eight or ten guns from the ship, but did no mischief. We raised a high liberty-pole upon Rand's Hill (at) five o'clock this afternoon, and gave three cheers all round, and then fired a twenty-four pounder at the ship." The next day, in the skirmish, the Americans burnt a barn near the Charlestown Neck, in which they stored hay, and wounded a British officer, who was carried within the lines. On the 6th, Sunday, a party landed from two barges, covered by a floating battery, on the Malden side of Penny Ferry, (where Malden Bridge is,) and set the ferry-house on fire.2 On the 13th two barges and two sail-boats, on their way to the floating battery in Mystic River, bearing near Malden Point, Captain Lindsey's company opened a smart fire upon them, which obliged them to return; when they commenced firing on a party of Americans, under Lieut .- colonel Baldwin, stationed in Chelsea, which was briskly returned. " Our
brave Yankees, so called," Kettell writes, "played the man, and beat them." On the 20th, the British, it was thought,
1 Reed's life of President Reed, vol. I., p. 117.
2 Kettell writes, August 10 : Thursday, cloudy. Mueh firing among the sentries. A flag of truce was sent out this afternoon, with three letters. He was a drum-major of the grenadiers. I heard that he brought an account of the men killed since yesterday morning, - amounts to forty odd. A man in Boston sent a letter to his brother in the army, and says that they are taking all the interest out of Boston, and everything that is good for anything. Some thunder. Considerable of rain this evening.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.