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 28
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 28
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 28
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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
289
WASHINGTON IN FEBRUARY.
sels. Washington (January 31) writes : "Our commodore, Manly, has just taken two ships, from Whitehaven to Bos- ton, with coal and potatoes, and sent them into Plymouth, and fought a tender close by the light-house, where the vessels were taken, long enough to give his prizes time to get off; in short, till she thought best to quit the combat, and he to move off from the men-of-war, which were spectators of this scene."
Through the month of February, also, no enterprise of importance was undertaken. A few British soldiers (1st) began to pull down the old tide-mills in Charlestown, but a few shot from Cobble Hill dispersed them; and a party of Americans (Sth) went from Winter Hill and burnt them. Several cows were near the British outposts at Charlestown Neck, when a party (5th) drove them in. This brought on a brisk fire of cannon and musketry. A party of the British from the castle, and another from Boston, several hundred grenadiers and light-infantry, crossed over (14th) to Dorches- ter Neck, to surprise the American guard there, seventy in number, and nearly succeeded. The guard barely escaped. The houses were burned, and two persons were captured. Three British sentinels were captured on Boston Neck (23d) without a gun being fired. The works at Lechmere's Point were strengthened, and heavy cannon and a mortar were planted. Another mortar was placed at Lamb's Dam. Dis- cipline was rigidly enforced. "Our life in camp," Lieutenant Shaw writes, (Feb. 14,) "is confined. The officers are not allowed to visit Cambridge, without leave from the command- ing officer, and we are kept pretty closely to our duty. The drum beats at daybreak, when all hands turn out to man the lines. Here we stay till sunrise, and then all are marched off to prayers. We exercise twice a day, and every fourth day take our turns on guard. Opinions are various whether Bos- ton is to be attacked or not. I think it a difficult question to answer. However, if it should be judged expedient to do it, I hope our troops will act with sufficient resolution to com- mand success .?? 1
Though Washington was heartily tired of his forced inac-
1 Shaw's Journal, p. 8.
290
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
tivity, yet such was his weakness that he was obliged, for a season, to continue it. On the 9th of February he stated that two thousand of his men were without firelocks, and that he was obliged to conceal the state of his army even from his own officers. And yet the public continued impatient for the long-expected attack on Boston. On the 10th he wrote : "I know that much is expected of me. I know that without men, without arms, without ammunition, without anything fit for the accommodation of a soldier, little is to be done." 1 A feeling of conscious integrity sustained the American com- mander on this trying occasion. In a few days things wore a more favorable aspect. Ten regiments of the neighboring militia arrived in camp, large supplies of ammunition were received, and Washington once more felt like pressing offen- sive measures. At a council of general officers, held Febru- ary 16, 1776, Washington represented that when the new regiments were all in from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, if complete, they would amount to 7280 men ; that the regiments in camp amounted to 8797 men fit for duty, besides officers, and 1405 men on command which might be ordered to join their respective regiments immedi- ately ; while, from the best intelligence that could be obtained from Boston, the strength of the British army did not much exceed 5000 men fit for duty. He asked their opinion in rela- tion to a general assault, while the bays were partly frozen,
1 Washington, in one of his familiar letters to Joseph Reed, dated Febru- ary 10, 1776, writes as follows of an assault : " I observe what you say in respect to the ardor of chimney-corner heroes. I am glad their zeal is in some measure abated, because, if circumstances will not permit us to make an attempt upon B., or if it should be made and fail, we shall not appear altogether so culpable. I entertain the same opinion of the attempt now which I have ever done. I believe an assault will be attended with consider- able loss ; and I believe it would succeed, if the men should behave well ; without it, unless there is equal bad behavior on the other side, we cannot. As to an attack upon B. Hill, (unless it could be carried by surprise,) the loss, I conceive, would be greater in proportion than at Boston ; and if a defeat should follow would be discouraging to the men, but highly animating if crowned with success. Great good or great evil would result from it, - it is quite a different thing to what you left, being by odds the strongest fortress they possess, both in rear and front."
291
THE AMERICAN ARMY.
and before the British should receive their expected reinforce- ment. The council were of opinion that an assault was improper, on account of the inadequate state of the army as it respected men, arms, and powder. They estimated the British troops, including new-raised corps and armed Tories, at a much larger number than 5000. They were furnished with artillery, were doubly officered, were protected by a fleet, and possessed of every advantage the situation of the place afforded. They resolved, however, that a cannonade and bombardment of Boston would be advisable, as soon as a suf- ficient supply of powder was received, and not before ; 1 and that in the mean time preparations should be made to take possession of Dorchester Hill, with a view of drawing out the
1 January 24, 1776. - The general ordered the regiments to be brigaded in the following manner : -
Brigadier-general Thomas' brigade, - Learned's, Joseph Reed's, Whit- comb's, Ward's, and Bailey's regiments.
Brigadier-general Spencer's brigade, - Parsons', Huntington's, Webb's, and Wyllys' regiments.
Brigadier-general Greene's brigade, - Varnum's, Hitchcock's, Little's, and Bond's regiments.
Brigadier-general Heath's brigade, - Prescott's, Sergeant's, Phinney's, Greaton's, and Baldwin's regiments.
Brigadier-general Sullivan's brigade, - James Reed's, Nixon's, Stark's, and Poor's regiments.
Brigadier-general brigade, - Glover's, Patterson's, Arnold's, and Hutchinson's regiments.
The troops were accommodated in barracks this winter, as follows : -
At Prospect Hill, 3464
At different places, - Number One, Inman's House, &c., 3460
At Roxbury, 3795
At Dorchester, 814
At Sewall's Point,
400
At Cambridge Barracks, 640
At Winter Hill, .
3380
In the College, 640
In the New College, 640
In the Old College, 240
North Chapel,
160
17633
Exclusive of the private houses in Cambridge.
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292
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
enemy ; and also of Noddle's Island, if the situation of the water, and other circumstances, would admit of it.
This decision of the council of war did not change Wash- ington's belief in the feasibility of a successful assault. The ice was strong enough to bear the troops, the works were sufficiently advanced to cover them, and the army were eager for action. He at no time felt more keenly his position. " To have the eyes of a whole continent," he wrote to Con- gress, February 18, 1776, " fixed with anxious expectation of hearing some great event, and to be restrained in every mili- tary operation, for want of the necessary means to carry it on, is not very pleasing, especially as the means used to conceal my weakness from the enemy conceal it also from our friends, and add to their wonder."
The British general continued inactive during the winter. Admiral Shuldham arrived (Dec. 30th) to succeed Admiral Graves in the command of the fleet, and reinforcements also arrived. There had been serious differences between Howe and Graves. Much of the suffering endured by the army was charged to the want of vigilance and enterprise of the admiral in not protecting the store-ships. In the month of January Şir Henry Clinton, and a small fleet, sailed from Boston on a secret expedition. Washington supposed the object of it was to take possession of New York, and he ordered General Lee (Jan. 8th) to proceed there and put the city in the best pos- ture of defence that circumstances would permit. But Clin- ton's object was North Carolina. It was an expedition planned by the ministry at the solicitation of Governor Martin. The orders for the conduct of it were of a savage character.1 But it proved a signal failure; as did most of the expeditions,
! Lord Dartmouth gave General Howe minute instructions relative to this expedition, in a letter dated October 22. He had been assured that the inhabitants of the southern colonies would join the king's army. If deceived in this, Clinton was directed to gain possession " of some respectable post to the southward," from which " the rebels might be annoyed by sudden and unexpected attacks of their towns upon the sea-coast during open winter." These attacks Dartmouth thought " might be made very distressing" to the Americans, and would be no inconsiderable advantage to the British. Clin- ton was positively ordered to " destroy any towns" that refused submission.
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293
HOWE'S VIEWS OF THE WAR.
Sparks writes, " undertaken at the suggestion of the colonial governors and zealous partisans of the crown, whose wishes and hopes betrayed them into a deplorable ignorance of the state of the country and character of the people." 1
General Howe, in a long despatch, (January 16,) gave his views of the present and future operations of the army. He intimated a doubt of the success of the southern expedition, and of the policy of making drains from his main army. With an army of twenty thousand men, having twelve thou- sand at New York, six thousand at Rhode Island, and two thousand at Halifax, exclusive of the force destined for Quebec, a different aspect might be put upon affairs at the end of the ensuing campaign. "With fewer troops," he says, " the suc- cess of any offensive operations will be very doubtful." Nor was the American army "in any ways to be despised ;" for it had in it "many European soldiers, and all, or most of the young men of spirit in the country, who were exceedingly diligent and attentive in their military profession." At the conclusion of this despatch he informed Lord Dartmouth, that "the leaders of the rebels seemed determined, since the receipt of the king's speech among them, to make the most diligent preparations for an active war;" and that it was his firm opinion they would not retract until they had tried their fortune in battle and were defeated.
In the mean time things in Boston assumed a more cheer- ful aspect. General Howe, to relieve the necessities of his army and its dependents, sent vessels to Nova Scotia, the Southern Colonies, and the West Indies, for supplies. The arrival of some of them, laden with rice and coal, together with store-ships from England, in spite of the daring activity of the American privateers, relieved for a season the wants of the troops and the people. On the 19th of January, by a gen- eral order, the demolition of houses and wharves ceased; the tools in possession of the regular working parties were called in, and the men engaged in this business were directed " to be made as clean and decent as possible immediately."2 The orderly books throughout the whole of the siege bear evidence
1 Sparks' Washington, vol. 111., 223. 2 British Orderly Book.
294
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
of the attention paid to the looks of the soldiers, as well as to their discipline, comfort, and health. When on duty the men were "to appear decently dressed and accoutred ;" none were to be sent to parade " without having the hair properly and smoothly clubbed," and none were to appear under arms with tobacco in their mouths. The officers were ordered to wear sashes on duty ; to be uniformly dressed in quarter leggins or boots. The marines wore short gaiters, and the roses were to be in front of their hats. Even the shape of the coats was prescribed in the general orders. Directions of this sort are frequent. An order dated January 13, 1776, presents a curi- ous picture of the habits and appearance of the soldiers. " The commanding officer is surprised to find the necessity of repeating orders, that long since ought to have been complied with, as the men on all duties appear in the following man- ner ; viz., -hair not smooth and badly powdered, several without slings to their firelocks, hats not bound, pouches in a shameful and dirty condition, no frills to their shirts, and their linen very dirty, leggins hanging in a slovenly man- ner about their knees, some men without uniform stocks, and their arms and accoutrements by no means so clean as they ought to be. These unsoldier-like neglects must be immedi- ately remedied."
General Howe felt secure in his strong-holds. He wrote to Lord Dartmouth, -"We are not under the least apprehen- sion of an attack upon this place from the rebels, by surprise or otherwise;" on the contrary, he professed to wish "that they would attempt so rashi a step, and quit those strong intrenchiments to which they may attribute their present safety." He had no disposition, however, to make a sally out of Boston. The loyalists around him felt unbounded confidence in the ultimate triumph of the power of Great Britain. A single illustration will show the strength of this feeling. On the 10th of January, Crean Brush, in a memorial, offered to raise a body of volunteers, of not less than three hundred, on the same pay and gratuity as were received by the new raised Royal Fencible Americans; and after " the sub- duction of the main body of the rebel force" should have been accomplished, he requested to be allowed an independent
295
DORCHESTER HEIGHTS.
command of three hundred men, " to occupy the main posts on Connecticut River, and open a line of communication west- ward toward Lake Champlain," -with such a force promis- ing to put down symptoms of rebellion in that quarter !' The officers endeavored to relieve the tedium of the blockade by social amusements. " We had a theatre," one of them writes, "we had balls, and there is actually on foot a subscription for a masquerade. England seems to have forgot us, and we endeavored to forget ourselves." The winter, though severe at first, proved to be a mild one. "The bay is open," Col. Moylan wrote from the American camp in January ; - "every- thing thaws here except Old Put. He is still as hard as ever, crying out for powder -powder, -ye gods, give us powder ! " The absence of ice and want of powder checked military enterprise, prevented the effusion of blood, and left the British to enjoy in tranquillity their sports. Though General Howe had resolved to evacuate Boston, yet he determined to wait until he had additional transports and sufficient provisions for a long voyage; and, also, until a favorable season should arrive. Then he might withdraw without loss, and with safety and honor. His policy, therefore, was to remain quiet.
But Washington's operations suddenly and sadly deranged the plans of the British commander. In the latter part of February the American army was sufficiently strong to war- rant even the cautious council of war in adopting offensive measures. Colonel Knox, with an enterprise and persever- ance that elicited the warmest commendations, had brought from Crown Point and Ticonderoga, over frozen lakes and almost impassable snows, more than fifty cannon, mortars, and howitzers; 2 a supply of shells had been procured from the king's store at New York and an ordnance brig; and even powder became comparatively plenty in the camp. The
1 Mss. in Massachusetts Secretary of State Office.
2 Colonel Knox brought from Fort George, on forty-two sleds, 8 brass mortars, 6 iron mortars, 2 iron howitzers, 13 brass cannon, 26 iron cannon, 2300 lbs. lead, and 1 barrel of flints. On the 17th of December, at Fort George, he wrote to Washington, - " I hope in sixteen or seventeen days to present to your excellency a noble train of artillery, the inventory of which I have enclosed."
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1
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296
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
works nearest Boston had been very strong. "We have," Washington wrote, February 26, "under many difficulties, on account of hard frozen ground, completed our work on Lechmere's Point. We have got some heavy pieces of ord- nance placed there, two platforms fixed for mortars, and everything for any offensive operation. Strong guards are now mounted there, and at Cobble Hill." Ten regiments had come in to strengthen the lines. A day was therefore fixed upon to take possession of Dorchester Heights. This, it was rightly judged, would bring on a general action, or would force the British army from the metropolis. Washington, on the 26th, apprized the Council of Massachusetts of his inten- tion, and requested them to order the militia of the towns contiguous to Dorchester and Roxbury " to repair to the lines at these places, with their arms, ammunition, and accoutre- ments, instantly upon a signal being given." The Council promptly complied with this requisition. "I am preparing," he wrote the same day, " to take post on Dorchester Heights, to try if the enemy will be so kind as to come out to us." " I should think," he wrote to Congress the same day, "if anything will induce them to hazard an engagement, it will be our attempting to fortify these heights, as, on that event's taking place, we shall be able to command a great part of the town, and almost the whole harbor, and to make them rather disagreeable than otherwise, provided we can get a sufficient supply of what we greatly want." 1
' Extract from general orders, February 26, 1776. " All officers, non- commissioned officers, and soldiers, are positively forbid playing at cards, and other games of chance. At this time of public distress, men may find enough to do in the service of their God and their country, without abandon- ing themselves to vice and immorality.
" As the season is now fast approaching when every man must expect to be drawn into the field of action, it is highly important that he should prepare his mind, as well as everything necessary for it. It is a noble cause we are engaged in; it is the cause of virtue and mankind ; every temporal advan- tage and comfort to us, and our posterity, depends upon the vigor of our exertions ; in short, freedom or slavery must be the result of our conduct ; there can, therefore, be no greater inducement to men to behave well. But it may not be amiss for the troops to know, that, if any man in action shall presume to skulk, hide himself, or retreat from the enemy without the
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297
PREPARATIONS OF THE AMERICANS.
The American camp, in the beginning of March, presented indications of an approaching conflict. Chandeliers, fascines, screwed hay, in large quantities, were collected for intrench- ing purposes; two thousand bandages were prepared to dress broken limbs; forty-five bateaux, each capable of carrying eighty men, and two floating batteries, were assembled in Charles River; and the militia from the neighboring towns, applied for by Washington, February 26, were pouring into the camp with patriotic alacrity. Washington had deter- mined not only to take possession of Dorchester Heights, but, should subsequent circumstances warrant the enterprise, to make the long purposed attack on Boston.
This design was kept a profound secret, and to divert the attention of the enemy, a severe cannonade and bombardment, on the night of the second of March, were commenced against Boston from Cobble Hill, Lechmere's Point, and Lamb's Dam, Roxbury. It shattered many houses, and one shot wounded six men in a regimental guard-house. The British returned the fire with spirit, and threw a thirteen-inch shell as far as Prospect Hill, but did no essential damage. The Americans, in firing, burst two thirteen-inch mortars, -one of them the "Congress,"-and three ten-inch mortars. They had not been properly bedded. A similar cannonade was continued on the night of Sunday, the third of March.
On the night of Monday, March 4th, the attention of the British was again occupied by a severe cannonade. In return they fired shot and shells. But while the occupants of Boston were employed in their personal safety, and with the damage done to buildings, the American camp was full of activity. About seven o'clock, General Thomas, with two thousand men, marched to take possession of Dorchester Heights. A covering party of eight hundred led the way; the carts with the intrenching tools followed; then twelve hundred troops, under the immediate command of General Thomas; and a train of three hundred carts, loaded with fascines and hay, brought up the rear. The detachment, mov-
orders of his commanding officer, he will be instantly shot down as an exam- ple of cowardice ; cowards having too frequently disconcerted the best formed troops by their dastardly behavior."
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298
THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.
ing with the greatest silence, reached its place of destination about eight o'clock. The covering party then divided, - one half proceeding to the point nearest Boston, and the other half to the point nearest to the castle, -while the working party commenced labor. Bundles of hay were placed along Dorchester Neck, on the side next to the enemy, by which the carts passed, some of them several times, during the night. The occasion was one of intense interest and excitement. The moon shone brightly, cannon and mortars sounded a continuous roar, and shells occasionally burst high in the air.1 At about four in the morning, a relief party went on. The labors of the night, under the direction of the veteran Gridley and his associates, were so efficient, that ere morning dawned, two forts were in sufficient forwardness to constitute a good defence against small arms and grape shot. "Per- haps," Heath writes, " there never was so much work done in so short a space of time."
The day following, March 5, was memorable as the anni- versary of the "Boston Massacre." The British were again astonished to see the redoubts that had been so quickly thrown up by the Americans, and that loomed with so threatening an aspect in the haze of early dawn. "The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in a month," is said to have been General Howe's remark. "It must have been the employment of at least twelve thousand men," he wrote to Lord Dartmouth. One of his officers wrote : "They were raised with an expedition equal to that of the Genii belonging to Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp." But astonishment soon gave way to reflection. These works commanded both the harbor and the town. Admiral Shuld-
1 Report of the number of shot and shells fired into Boston on the night of the 4th of March, 1776 : -
Lamb's Dam. - Five 13 inch shells, six 10 inch shells - 11 ; forty-two 24 pound shot, thirty-eight 18 pound shot -80.
Lechmere's Point. - Thirty-two 24 pound shot, fourteen 18 pound shot - 46. Two 10 inch shells.
Cobble Hill. - Eighteen 18 pound shot.
Total, - 144 shot, 13 shells.
HENRY KNOX, Colonel Regiment Artillery.
299
THE AMERICAN ARMY.
ham was decided in the opinion that the fleet could not ride in safety unless the Americans were dislodged; and the army was as insecure as the fleet. There were but two alterna- tives -either to evacuate the town, or to drive the Americans from their works. General Howe promptly made his deci- sion. He entertained a high sense of British honor, as well as of his own honor. He commanded a force, which, by loy- alists here, and by the government at home, was considered sufficient to look down all opposition ; and which, in the char- acter of its officers, in the disposition and ardor of the men, and in its powerful train of artillery, would be considered respectable in any country, and dangerous by any enemy. ,With such means at command, to give up the town that had been the original cause of the war, and the constant object of contention since its commencement, to a raw and despised militia, seemed, exclusive of other ill consequences, a disgrace too great to be borne.1 He therefore resolved to hazard much, rather than to submit to such an indignity; and so critical was his situation, that he determined to attack the new works with all the force he could bring to bear on them.
Accordingly, twenty-four hundred men were ordered to embark in transports, rendezvous at Castle William, and at night make an attack on the works. The command was assigned to the brave, generous, chivalric Earl Percy. These preparations were observed in the American camp.
It was now a time of intense interest with Washington and his whole army; and the surrounding heights were again filled with spectators, in the expectation of seeing the scenes of Bunker Hill acted over again. The command of General Thomas, reinforced by two thousand men, was in high spirits, and ready and anxious to receive the enemy. No labor had been spared to make the works strong. The hills on which they were built being steep, rows of barrels, filled with loose earth, were placed in front, to be rolled down, and thus to break the attacking columns. Washington came upon the ground ; " Remember it is the 5th of March, and avenge the death of your brethren," he said, as he animated the troops.
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