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 6
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 6
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 6
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There had been, also, an Independent Company of Cadets, of which John Hancock was the commander. He was dismissed by Governor Gage, shortly after his arrival. The corps met, August 14, 1774. and appointed a commit- tee to wait on the governor at Salem and return to him their standard, " as they had almost unanimously disbanded themselves." The committee, on the next day, delivered the standard accordingly, and told him, " They no longer considered themselves the Governor's Independent Company."
Early in 1775, the Ancient and Honorable, on a parade day, were refused admittance to the common, and Major Bell marched the company to Copp's Hill. Some years after, a question arose as to who owned this hill. At a town-meeting some one said, " The Ancient and Honorable." Col. Jackson, their treasurer, was questioned, who stated that a mortgage upon it to them had long since run out, and they took possession of it in 1775. The modera- tor, Col. Thomas Dawes, inquired of Major Bell -" Why did you march
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the officers to bring about a collision. But in March so marked was their change of behavior, that it indicated an intention to provoke a quarrel. On the anniversary of the memorable fifth of March, Dr. Warren delivered the customary oration at the Old South Meeting-house, before a crowded audience. About forty British officers were present, who, at its conclu- sion, hissed and were otherwise insulting in their bearing. On the 9th, a citizen of Billerica, Thomas Ditson, jr., on the pretence that he was tempting a soldier to desert, was tarred and feathered, fastened in a chair on a truck, and drawn through the streets, surrounded by a party of officers and sol- diers of the 47th regiment, under Colonel Nesbit. On this occasion, the tune of Yankee Doodle was played in derision. The sixteenth of March, on the recommendation of the Pro- vincial Congress, was observed as a day of fasting and prayer, when the people of the west part of Boston were annoyed by a party of the Fourth, or King's own Regiment. As the
congregation were assembling, two marquee tents were pitched within a few yards of the meeting-house; and during the service, they were disturbed by the noise of drums and fifes. On the 17th, Colonel Hancock's house, near the common, was assaulted and his fence hacked, by a party, who otherwise behaved abusively. During this period, the patriots were
your company to Copps Hill?" " I was prohibited from entering the com- mon, and conceiving this hill to be the property of the company, I marched them there as a place no one had a right to exclude them from." Colonel Dawes again asked -" Suppose British soldiers had forbidden your en- trance ?" "I would have charged bayonets and forced my way, as surely as I would have forced my way into my dwelling-house, if taken possession of by a gang of thieves." Col. William Tudor then remarked, " The hill belongs to that company." The mortgage was afterwards discharged. - Snow's Boston, p. 106.
Major Paddock lost his pieces, the Whigs carrying them off in the night. They first carried off two, and though the other two were put under guard, they carried them off also. This made the officers mad. They said "They believed the devil got them away, for it was not half an hour ago they had their hands on them."-Ms. Letter. On the 23rd of February, the com- mittee of safety requested Dr. Warren to confer with the company formerly under the command of Major Paddock, to know how many could be depended on, officers and men, " when the constitutional army of the province should take the field."
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ALARMING MOVEMENTS.
making every effort to carry into the country military stores; and on the 1Sth, the Neck guard seized 13,425 musket car- tridges and a quantity of balls, in doing which, they severely abused a teamster. In the evening, a party of officers, heated with liquor, committed excesses in the streets, and attacked the Providence coach. These insults irritated and inflamed the people.1
Other movements, however, created more alarm. The com- mittees of safety and supplies had deposited large quantities of military stores at Concord, under the care of Colonel James Barrett. It was rumored, in March, that General Gage was determined to destroy them ; and as early as the 14th of this month, the committee of safety voted to place a guard over them. On the 15th, its clerk, John Pigeon, was directed to establish a nightly watch, and to arrange for teams to be in readiness to carry them, on the shortest notice, to places of safety. Couriers also were engaged in Charlestown, Cam- bridge, and Roxbury, to alarm the country. These precau- tions were rendered still more necessary by the movements of General Gage. He sent officers in disguise to make sketches of the roads, and to ascertain the state of the towns. On the 20th of March, Captain Brown and Ensign D'Bernicre, of the British army, visited Concord, and subsequently presented a narrative of what they saw to the governor.2 Vigilant patri- ots watched them narrowly. Bodies of troops, also, occasion- ally marched into the country.3 On the 30th, the first brigade, about eleven hundred men, marched out towards Jamaica Plains, but without baggage or artillery. They did much damage in throwing down stone walls. "Great numbers," Dr. Warren writes, "completely armed, collected in the neigh- boring towns; and it is the opinion of many, that had they marched eight or ten miles, and attempted to destroy any magazines, or abuse the people, not a man of them would
1 Letter of S. Adams ; Ditson's Deposition in the newspapers of 1775; Letter, Boston, March 22, 1775; Gordon, vol. 1., p. 319.
2 Bernicre's narrative. 3 The Provincial Congress, sitting at Cambridge, February 10, appointed Messrs. Devens, Watson, Gardner, Howe, and Batchelor, a committee to observe the motion of the troops said to be on the road to this town.
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have returned to Boston."' Smaller parties went out over Charlestown Ferry, and marched through Roxbury into Boston.
While things thus wore a hostile aspect at home, intelli- gence was received from Great Britain that the ministry were determined to force the colonists to obedience. There the Americans were looked upon as cowards, whom British red- coats would look into submission. Five regiments, it was said, would march from one end of the continent to the other. "The senator," Gordon writes, "holds this language in the senate, and the general at the head of an army. It passes for a maxim, and it is thought scepticism to doubt it."? Addi- tional coercive measures were proposed in Parliament; addi- tional troops were announced to be on their way to Boston. The generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, of established reputation for courage and conduct, were ordered to join Gen- eral Gage; and British journals announced that the army would take the field. A speech made in Parliament by Gen- eral Burgoyne, February 27, 1775, while he was under orders, shows the feelings with which the generals accepted their commands. He was convinced that the cause of Great Britain was just, and that the claims of the colonists were chimerical. "Is there," he asked, "a man in England, - I am sure there is not an officer or soldier in the king's service, -
1 Life Arthur Lee, vol. II., 266. Gordon, vol. I., 320. The following notice of the Boston committee of correspondence shows how vigilant this committee was : -
Boston, March 30, 1775.
Gentlemen, - The alarming manœuvre of a large detachment of the army is the reason of our desiring your attendance at our chamber in Faneuil Hall to-morrow, at ten o'clock, A. M., in order to determine upon measures of safety. The wisdom of the joint committees has been very conspicuous. The fullest exertion of the same wisdom is absolutely necessary at this excited time. We therefore desire your punctual attendance.
We are, gentlemen, Your friends and countrymen. Signed, by order of the committee of correspondence of Boston, WILLIAM COOPER, Clerk.
To Committee of Correspondence for Charlestown.
2 Gordon, vol. I., 316.
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ANXIETY OF THE PATRIOTS.
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who does not think the Parliamentary rights of Great Britain a cause to fight for - to bleed and die for ?" While there was a charm in the very wanderings and dreams of liberty that disarmed an Englishman's anger, yet the existence of the constitution and the country depended on bringing the Ameri- cans to submission.1 The insulting and warlike tenor of this news, however, only made the patriots firmer. They pre- sented, at this period of intense anxiety, a noble spectacle. It was the awful pause between the resolution and the act. They had determined to resist, and yet had not been obliged to strike. Gordon remarks of Massachusetts : its people were "in a state of nature, and yet as still and peaceable as ever they were when government was in full vigor;" royal author- ity was suspended, and yet individual security was every- where enjoyed; the Tory had but to keep his temper and observe a neutrality, and he was safe in person and property.2 Strange as it may appear, this very order was ascribed to the presence of the British troops. How different, however, was the great spirit that aniniated and supported the patriots ! " The people," Cushing writes, "are not dismayed. Should the administration determine to carry into execution the late acts by military force, they will make the last appeal. They are determined life and liberty shall go together." The resolve and the language of the patriots were : " America must and will be free. The contest may be severe, - the end will be glorious. We would not boast, but we think, united and prepared as we are, we have no reason to doubt of success, if
1 Parliamentary Register, 1775.
2 Gordon, I., 291. The patriots were severely provoked by the conduct of the Tories. The course of a prominent citizen of Rowley affords a good instance of their manner of speech. Among the charges against him were :--
" Your saying you wished Boston was laid in ashes.
" Your speaking reproachfully of the most respectable gentlemen of Boston.
" Your saying our General Court acted like fools ; and that the town of Boston was the means of all those troubles.
" Your saying you wished that these laws were put in execution, and that we were in lordships."
The patriots required him to make a proper confession. Another citizen, equally loud-mouthed, the town voted " was not worthy of any public no- tice." - Essex Gazette.
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we should be compelled to make the last appeal; but we mean not to make that appeal until we can be justified in doing it in the sight of God and man."1
Each day, however, it becante more and more evident that this last appeal was at hand. Intelligence of the reinforce- ments on their way to Boston was published in the journals of April 4th. Also the declaration of the Parliament to the king, that the opposition to legislative authority in Massachu- setts constituted rebellion; and the "solemn assurances" of the king to the Parliament, that " the most speedy and effect- ual measures" should be taken to put the rebellion down. This news elated the confident Tories; it depressed the timid Whigs; but the firm friends of liberty avowed themselves ready for the struggle." "Nothing is now talked of" - Stiles writes, April 4-" but immediately forming an American army at Worcester, and taking the field with undaunted reso- lution."3 The Provincial Congress met the crisis, and the demand of public opinion, by energetic measures. On the 5th, it adopted rules and regulations for the establishment of an army ; on the 7th, it sent a circular to the committees of cor- respondence, " most earnestly recommending" them to see to it that "the militia and minute-men" be found in the best posture of defence, whenever any exigence might require their aid, but at whatever expense of patience and forbearance, to act only on the defensive; on the Sth, it resolved to take effectual measures to raise an army, and to send delegates to Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, to request their cooperation ; on the 13th, it voted to raise six companies of artillery, pay them, and keep them constantly in exercise ; on the 14th, it advised the removal of the citizens of Boston into the country ; on the 15th, it appointed a day of fasting and prayer, and adjourned to the 10th of May.4 The com- mittees of safety and supplies - 14th to 19th - were busy in preparing for immediate hostilities, - establishing a train of artillery, making powder into cartridges, removing cannon to places of safety, and distributing the military supplies.5
1 Dr. Warren utters this noble language in a letter dated April 3, 1775. 2 Stiles' Diary. 3 Ib. 4 Journals of Provincial Congress.
5 The committee of safety were : John Hancock, Joseph Warren, Benja-
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These preparations must have been well known ; indeed, they could not be concealed. Many of the people of Boston had already moved into the country. Early in April many more left the town. A continuance in it became hazardous for the leading patriots. The governor might make it a prison, and hold its citizens hostages for the good order of the prov- ince; or he might send them to England, to be mocked with a trial for alleged political offences. However, many who had taken a prominent part in opposition to the government - among them Dr. Warren - remained, but a great number left the town. Samuel Adams and John Hancock, then attending the Provincial Congress, were persuaded to remain at the house of Rev. Jonas Clark, of Lexington. Meantime Gen- eral Gage made every exertion to purchase supplies for camp service ; the patriots made every exertion to anticipate him, and to cut off his supplies, both in Massachusetts and in New York. The troops, also, became still more proud in their bearing, and still more insulting in their conduct. Thus hourly did things assume a more hostile appearance ; "noth- ing was wanting," writes Gordon, "but a spark, to set the whole continent in a flame." 1
General Gage, after receiving a small reinforcement, had, in the middle of April, about four thousand men in Boston. He resolved, by a secret expedition, to destroy the magazines col- lected at Concord. This measure was neither advised by his council nor by his officers. It was said that he was wor- ried into it by the importunities of the Tories; but it was undoubtedly caused by the energetic measures of the Whigs. His own subsequent justification was, that when he saw an assembly of men, unknown to the constitution, wresting from him the public moneys and collecting warlike stores, it was
min Church, Richard Devens, Benjamin White, Joseph Palmer, Abraham Watson, Azor Orne, John Pigeon, William Heath, and Thomas Gardner.
The committee of supplies were : Elbridge Gerry, David Cheever, Benja- min Lincoln, Moses Gill, Benjamin Hall.
These committees usually met together for the transaction of business. On the 17th of April they adjourned from Concord, to meet at " Mr. Wether- by's, at Menotomy."
1 Gordon, I., 321.
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alike his duty and the dictate of humanity to prevent the calamity of civil war by destroying these magazines.1 His previous belief was, that, should the government show a re- spectable force in the field, seize the most obnoxious patriot leaders, and proclaim a pardon for others, it would come off victorious.
On the 15th of April, the grenadiers and light infantry, on the pretence of learning a new military exercise, were relieved from duty; and at night, the boats of the transport ships which had been hauled up to be repaired were launched and moored under the sterns of the men of war. These move- ments looked suspicious to the vigilant patriots, and Dr. Warren sent intelligence of them to Hancock and Adams, who were in Lexington. It was this timely notice that induced the committee of safety to take additional measures for the security of the stores in Concord, and to order (on the 17th) cannon to be secreted, and a part of the stores to be removed to Sudbury and Groton.
On Tuesday, April 18, General Gage' directed parties of officers to station themselves on the roads leading out of Bos- ton, and prevent any intelligence of his intended expedition, that night, from reaching the country. Accordingly, a num- ber of them dined at Cambridge. The committees of safety and supplies, which usually held their sessions together, also, met this day, at Wetherby's Tavern, in Menotomy, now West
1 Gage's letter to Trumbull, May 3, 1775. Hence, Trumbull in M'Fingal writes of this " mercy" of Gage : -
" But mercy is, without dispute, His first and darling attribute ; So great, it far outwent and conquered His military skill at Concord. There, when the war he chose to wage, Shone the benevolence of Gage ; Sent troops to that ill-omened place On errands mere of special grace ; And all the work he chose them for, Was to prevent a civil war."
2 Several valuable pamphlets have been published relative to the events of the 19th of April. A notice of the most important will be found in the Appendix.
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BRITISH OFFICERS.
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Cambridge. Mr. Gerry and Colonels Orne and Lee, of the members, remained to pass the night. Mr. Devens and Mr. Watson rode in a chaise towards Charlestown, but soon meet- ing a number of British officers on horseback, they returned to inform their friends at the tavern, waited there until the officers rode by, and then rode to Charlestown. Mr. Gerry immediately sent an express to Hancock1 and Adams, that "eight or nine officers were out, suspected of some evil design," which caused precautionary measures to be adopted at Lexington.2
1 The messenger sent to Hancock and Adams took a by-path, and delivered his letter. Hancock's reply to Gerry, while it bears marks of the haste with which it was written, is also characterized by the politeness which neither haste nor danger could impair. "Lexington, April 18, 1775. Dear Sir : I am much obliged for your notice. It is said the officers are gone to Concord, and I will send word thither. I am full with you that we ought to be serious, and I hope your decision will be effectual. I intend doing myself the pleasure of being with you to-morrow. My respects to the committee. I am your real friend, JOHN HANCOCK." - Austin's Life of Gerry, vol. I., p. 68.
2 Rev. Jonas Clark alludes to three different messages received at Lexington, on the evening and night of April 18: 1. A verbal one ; 2, a written one from the committee of safety, in the evening; 3, between twelve and one, an express from Dr. Warren. Revere's narrative accounts for the last message. I found among the papers of Richard Devens, of Charlestown, - for a liberal use of which I am indebted to David Devens, Esq., - the following memo- randum, without a date, but evidently written about this period, which, in connection with Gerry's express, will account for both of the previous mes- sages. "On the 18th of April, '75, Tuesday, the committee of safety, of which I was then a member, and the committee of supplies, sat at Newell's tavern, (the records of the committee of safety say Wetherby's,) at Menotomy. A great number of British officers dined at Cambridge. After we had finished the business of the day, we adjourned to meet at Woburn on the morrow, - left to lodge at Newell's, Gerry, Orne, and Lee. Mr. Watson and myself came off in my chaise at sunset. On the road we met a great number of B. O. (British officers) and their servants on horseback, who had dined that day at Cambridge. We rode some way after we mec them, and then turned back and rode through them, went and informed our friends at Newell's. We stopped there till they came up and rode by. We then left our friends, and I came home, after leaving Mr. Watson at his house. I soon received intelligence from Boston, that the enemy were all in motion, and were certainly preparing to come out into the country. Soon afterward, the signal agreed upon was given ; this was a lanthorn hung out in the upper window of the tower of the N. Ch., (North Church) towards Charlestown. I then
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Richard Devens, an efficient member of the committee of safety, soon received intelligence that the British troops were in motion in Boston, and were certainly preparing to go into the country. Shortly after, the signal agreed upon in this event was given, namely, a lanthorn hung out from the North Church steeple in Boston, when Mr. Devens immediately des- patched an express with this intelligence to Menotomy and Lexington. All this while General Gage supposed his move- ments were a profound secret, and as such in the evening communicated them in confidence to Lord Percy. But as this nobleman was crossing the common, on his way to his quar- ters, he joined a group of men engaged in conversation, when one said, " The British troops have marched, but will miss their aim !" "What aim ?" inquired Lord Percy. " Why, . the cannon at Concord." He hastened back to General Gage with this information, when orders were immediately issued that no person should leave town.1 Dr. Warren, however, a few minutes previous, had sent Paul Revere and William Dawes into the country. Revere, about eleven o'clock, rowed across the river to Charlestown, was supplied by Richard Devens with a horse, and started to alarm the country.2 Just outside of Charlestown Neck, he barely escaped capture by British officers ; but leaving one of them in a clay-pit, he got to Medford, awoke the captain of the minute-men, gave the alarm on the road, and reached the Rev. Jonas Clark's house in safety, where, the evening before, a guard of eight men had been stationed to protect Hancock and Adams. It was mid-
sent off an express to inform Messrs. Gerry, &c., and Messrs. Hancock and A., (Adams) who I knew were at the Rev. Mr. - , (Clark's) at Lexington, that the enemy were certainly coming out. I kept watch at the ferry to watch for the boats till about eleven o'clock, when Paul Revere came over and informned that the T. (troops) were actually in the boats .* I then took a horse from Mr. Larkin's barn, and sent him - * I procured a horse and sent off P. Revere to give the intelligence at Menotomy and Lexington. He was taken by the British officers before mentioned, before he got to Lexing- ton, and detained till near day."
' Stedman's History, I., p. 119. 2 Revere's Narrative. This interesting paper was not written until 1798. It varies but slightly from the memoran- dum of Devens, which certainly is a prior authority. Devens errs in stating that Revere was taken before he arrived at Lexington.
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night as Revere rode up and requested admittance. William Monroe, the sergeant, told him that the family, before retiring to rest, had requested that they might not be disturbed by noise about the house. "Noise !" replied Revere, "you'll have noise enough before long - the regulars are coming out !" He was then admitted. Mr. Dawes, who went out through Rox- bury, soon joined him. Their intelligence was, "That a large body of the king's troops, supposed to be a brigade of twelve or fifteen hundred, had embarked in boats from Boston, and gone over to Lechmere's Point, in Cambridge, and it was sus- pected they were ordered to seize and destroy the stores belonging to the colony, then deposited at Concord." 1
The town of Lexington, Major Phinney writes, is "about twelve miles north-west of Boston, and six miles south-east of Concord. It was originally a part of Cambridge, and previous to its separation from that town was called the 'Cambridge Farms.' The act of incorporation bears date March 20, 1712. The inhabitants consist principally of hardy and independent yeomanry. In 1775, the list of enrolled militia bore the names of over one hundred citizens. The road leading from Boston divides near the centre of the village in Lexington. The part leading to Concord passes to the left, and that leading to Bed- ford to the right of the meeting-house, and form two sides of a triangular green or common, on the south corner of which stands the meeting-house, facing directly down the road lead- ing to Boston." At the right of the meeting-house, on the opposite side of Bedford road, was Buckman's tavern.2
About one o'clock the Lexington alarm-men and militia were summoned to meet at their usual place of parade, on the common; and messengers were sent towards Cambridge for additional information. When the militia assembled, about two o'clock in the morning, Captain John Parker, its com- mander, ordered the roll to be called, and the men to load with powder and ball. About one hundred and thirty were now assembled with arms. One of the messengers soon returned with the report that there was no appearance of troops on the roads ; and the weather being chilly, the men, after being on
1 William Monroe's Deposition ; Revere's Narrative ; Clark's Account.
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