USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 16
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Cobble Hill was, in December, 1777, the quarters of a por- tion of Burgoyne's troops, who were suspected of setting fire to the guard-house there at the same time a plot was discovered on board one of the guard-ships in the harbor for the release of the Bennington prisoners.
Joseph Barrell was an eminent Boston merchant, who, while a resident of that town, had inhabited one of the most elegant old places to be found there. The evidences of his taste are still to be seen in the house which he built after the Revolu- tionary War, and in the grounds which he laid out. Barrell's palace, as it was called, is reached by passing through a noble avenue, shaded by elms planted by the old merchant. It was erected in 1792, and was furnished with glass of American manufacture from the first works erected in Boston. The house, which is of brick, does not demand a particular description here, but is in all respects a noble old mansion, worthy a mag- nate of the Exchange. The interior arrangement of the ground-
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floor is unique and striking. Entering a vestibule opening into a spacious hall, across which springs the staircase, sup- ported by wooden columns, you pass under this bridge into an oval reception-room in the rear of the building, an apartment of elegance even for our day, and commanding a view of the gardens and fish-pond so much affected by the old proprietor, - a souvenir of the estate in Summer Street. In this room is hanging a portrait of McLean, the beneficent founder of the asylum, by Alexander. Mr. Barrell spared no expense in the interior decoration of his house, as the rich woodwork abundantly testifies. He it was who first introduced the tau- tog into Boston Bay, a fish of such excellence that all true disciples of Izaak Walton should hold his name in grateful re- membrance.
Poplar Grove, as Mr. Barrell's place was called, was pur- chased in 1816, by the corporation of the Massachusetts General Hospital, - of which the asylum is an appendage, - of Ben- jamin Joy, and the Barrell mansion became, and has ever since remained, the residence of the physician and superintendent. Rufus Wyman, M. D., was, from the first opening in 1818 until 1835, the physician here.
There is nothing very imposing or inviting in the appearance of the old red brick buildings, dome-capped though they are ; but the site itself is sufficiently beautiful to compensate for any want of architectural attractiveness. Some of the trees planted by Mr. Barrell were cut down to make room for the old wards, which were planned without any particular regard to future wants or to the capabilities of the situation. It was remarked that the buildings were first erected to accommodate the trees, and the trees then cut down to accommodate the buildings.
Here the poor patients whose wits are out may ramble in the pleasant paths and " babble o' green fields." Here we may see a Lear, there an Ophelia, - old and young. rich and, poor, but with an equality of wretchedness that levels all worldly con- dition. Though dead in law as to the world, we know not that the lives of the inmates are a blank, or that some mysterious affinity may not exist among them. From the incurable maniac
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down to the victim of a single hallucination, who is only mad when the wind is north-northwest, the principles of an enlarged philanthropy have been found to be productive of the most happy results. Their former lives are studied, and, as far as practicable, grafted upon the new. Your madhouse, perhaps the most repulsive of all earthly objects, becomes, under wise and kindly influences, the medium by which the insane are in very many instances returned into the world. Such have been for fifty years the fruits of McLean's exalted charity.
None but the antiquary, who is ready to discard every sense but that of sight, need explore the margin of Miller's River. If he expects to find a placid, inviting stream, with green banks and clumps of willows, - a stream for poetry or meditation, - let him beware. If he looks for a current in which to cast a line, or where he may float in his skiff and dream the day away, building his aerial châteaux, let him discard all such ideas and pass by on the other side. Miller's River ! faugh ! it smells to heaven ; not even the Rhine at Cologne could surpass it. Such draughts of air as are wafted to your nostrils from slaughter- houses, where whole hecatombs of squealing victims are daily sacrificed, are not of the chameleon's dish.
Lechmere's Point, now East Cambridge, was so called from its ownership by the Lechmere family. Hon. Thomas Lech- mere, who died in 1765, was for many years Surveyor-General for the Northern District of America, and brother of the then Lord Lechmere. Richard Lechmere, a royalist refugee of 1776, married a daughter of Lieutenant-Governor Spencer Phips, and by her inherited that part of the Phips estate of which we are now writing. This will account to the reader for the name of " Phips's Farm," which was sometimes applied to the Point in Revolutionary times. About 1806 Andrew Craigie purchased the Point. The site of the old farm-house, which was the only one existing there prior to the Revolution, was near where the Court House now stands.
This locality is celebrated as the landing-place of the British grenadiers and light infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, on the night of April 18, 1775. It would not be unworthy
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the public spirit of the citizens of East Cambridge to erect some memorial by which this fact may be perpetuated. At high tide the Point was an island, connected only with the mainland by a causeway or dike. Willis's Creek or Miller's River, was on the north, and received the waters of a little rivulet which flowed through the marsh on the west.
The access to the Point before the Revolution was by a bridge across Willis's Creek, and a causeway now corresponding nearly with Gore Street. This causeway was probably little more than a footway slightly raised above the level of the marsh, and submerged at high water. The troops lying on and around Prospect Hill were therefore nearest the Point. Wash- ington, in December, 1775, built the causeway now coinciding with Cambridge Street when he had resolved to fortify Lech- mere's Point. By this means he was enabled to reinforce the garrison there from Cambridge as well as Charlestown side, and by a route less circuitous than that leading from the camps above and at Inman's, which, diverging at Inman's, passed through his lane about as far as the present line of Cambridge Street, when it curved to the eastward, crossed the creek, and united with Charlestown road at the foot of Prospect Hill.
The possession of a siege-train at last enabled Washington to plant batteries where they would seriously annoy the enemy in Boston. Among the most important of these were the forts on Cobble Hill and Lechmere's Point.
Lechmere's Point was first fortified by the erection of a bomb-battery on the night of November 29, 1775. The for- tunate capture by Captain Manly of a British ordnance brig in Boston Bay gave, among other valuable stores, a 13-inch brass mortar to the besieging army. Colonel Stephen Moylan relates that the arrival of this trophy in camp was the occasion of great. rejoicing. The mortar was placed in its bed in front of the laboratory on Cambridge Common for the occasion, and Old Put, mounted astride with a bottle of rum in his hand, stood parson, while Godfather Mifflin gave it the name of "Congress."
The mortar was eventually placed in battery at the Point, where Washington had so far modified his original plan of a
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bomb-battery only as to cause the construction of two redoubts. The approach to the causeway and bridge leading to the Point from Charlestown side had previously been secured by a small work on the main shore. After constructing a covered way and improving the causeway, -a task which a heavy fall of snow mnuch retarded, - Washington directed Putnam to throw up the redoubts. The enemy did not at first offer the least impedi- ment to the work, and the General could only account for this silence by the supposition that Howe was meditating some grand stroke ; but as soon as the Americans had carried their covered way up to the brow of the hill and broke ground there, the British opened a heavy fire, which continued for several days, without, however, interrupting the work. Owing to the frozen condition of the ground, which made the labor one of infinite difficulty, it was not until the last days of February that the redoubts were completed.
With proper ordnance the Americans were now able to render the west part of Boston, which was only half a mile dis- tant, untenable to the enemy, and to drive his ships and float- ing-batteries, from which they had experienced the greatest annoyance, out of the river. The arrival of Colonel Knox with the heavy artillery from Ticonderoga and Crown Point supplied the want that had all along been so keenly felt. On the 25th of February, 1776, Knox orders Burbeck, his lieutenant-colonel, to arm the batteries at Lechmere's Point with two 18 and two 24 pounders, to be removed from Prospect Hill; and on the 26th Washington announces the mounting there of heavy ordnance and the preparation of two platforms for mortars, but laments the want of the thing essential to offensive operations. An officer writes in January of this poverty of ammunition : -
" The bay is open, - everything thaws here except Old Put. He is still as hard as ever crying out for powder, powder ! ye gods, give us powder !"
From this point Boston was successfully bombarded on the 2d March, 1776. A number of houses in what is now the West End were struck, - Peter Chardon's, in Bowdoin Square,
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where the granite church now stands, being hit several times. The ball which so long remained in Brattle Street Church, a visible memorial of the siege, was undoubtedly thrown from Lechmere's Point. The fort here, which we are justified in considering the most important of all the American works, commanded the town of Boston as fully as the hills in Dor- chester did on that side. It was to resist the works here and on Cobble Hill that the British erected batteries on Beacon Hill and at Barton's Point in Boston, - the point where Craigie's Bridge leaves the shore.
The following extracts from the letter of a British officer of rank, begun on the 3d of March, 1776, and continued in the form of a journal until the embarkation, give. an account of the bombardment and manner in which the American artil- lery was served by Colonel Knox : --
" For the last six weeks, or near two months, we have been better amused than could possibly be expected in our situation. We had a theatre, we had balls, and there is actually a subscription on foot for a masquerade. England seems to have forgot us, and we endeavored to forget ourselves. But we were roused to a sense of our situation last night in a manner unpleasant enough. The rebels have been erecting for some time a bomb battery, and last night they began to play upon us. Two shells fell not far from me. One fell upon Colonel Monckton's house and broke all the windows, but luckily did not burst until it had crossed the street. Many houses were damaged, but no lives lost. What makes this matter more provoking is, that their barracks are so scattered and at such a distance that we cannot disturb them, although from a battery near the water-side they can reach us easily.
"4th. The rebel army is not brave, I believe, but it is conceded on all hands that their artillery officers are at least equal to our own. In the number of shells that they flung last night not above three failed. This morning we flung four, and three of them burst in the air.
" 5th. We underwent last night a severe cannonade, which dam- aged a number of houses and killed some men."
The Royal Artillery endeavored for fourteen days unsuccess- fully to silence the American batteries on the east and west of
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Boston. On the 6th orders were issued to embark the artillery and stores. Colonel Cleaveland writes as follows of the diffi- culties he encountered : -
" The transports for the cannon, etc., which were ordered to the wharf were without a sailor on board and half stowed with lumber. At the same time most of my heavy cannon and all the field artil- lery, with a great quantity of arms, was to be brought in from Charlestown and other distant posts. I was obliged to send iron ordnance to supply their places, to keep up a fire on the enemy and prevent their breaking ground on Forster Hill (South Boston). On the fifth day most of the stores were on board, with the exception of four iron mortars and their beds, weighing near six tons each. With great difficulty I brought three of them from the battery, but on getting them on board the transport the blocks gave way, and a mortar fell into the sea, where I afterwards threw the other two."
Four companies of the 3d Battalion of Artillery had joined before the troops left Boston. Until their arrival there was not a relief for the men who were kept constantly on duty. One hundred and fifty vessels were employed in transporting the army and stores to Halifax.
It was related by Colonel Burbeck that the battery contain- ing the " Congress " mortar was placed under the command of Colonel David Mason. With this mortar Mason was ordered to set fire to Boston. His first shell was aimed at the Old South, and passed just above the steeple. The next shell was aimed more accurately at the roof, which it would doubtless have entered had not the mortar burst, grievously wounding the colonel and killing a number of his men. From this and similar accidents at the batteries, Boston escaped destruction. Through the inexperience of those who served them, four other mortars were burst during the bombardment which preceded the occupation of Dorchester Heights.
Early in March Washington evidently expected an attack, as his dispositions were made with that view. That Lech- mere's Point was the object of his solicitude is clear from the precautions taken to guard that important post. Upon any alarm Patterson, whose regiment garrisoned No. 3, was ordered
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to march to the Point, leaving a strong guard in the work lead- ing to the bridge. Bond's was to garrison Cobble Hill, and Sargeant's the North, South, and Middle Redoubts. Heath's, Sullivan's, Greene's, and Frye's brigades were, in rotation, to march a regiment an hour before day into the works at Lechmere's Point and Cobble Hill, - five companies to the former and three to the latter post, where they were to remain until sunrise.
The fort was situated on the summit of the hill, which has lost considerable of its altitude, the southeast angle being about where the old Unitarian Church now stands, and the northern bastion on the spot now occupied by Thomas Hastings's house, on the corner of 4th and Otis Streets ; the latter street is laid out through the fort. A breastwork parallel with the creek and flanking it extended some distance down the hill.
Lechmere's Point obtained an unenviable reputation as the place of execution for Middlesex. Many criminals were hung here ; among others the notorious Mike Martin, sometimes called "the last of the highwaymen."
Michael Martin, alias Captain Lightfoot, after a checkered career as a highway robber in Ireland, his native country, and in Scotland, became a fugitive to America in 1819, landing at Salem, where he obtained employment as a farm laborer of Elias Hasket Derby. A life of honest toil not being congenial, Martin, after passing through numerous vicissitudes, again took to the road, making Canada the theatre of his exploits.
At length, after committing many robberies in Vermont and New Hampshire, Martin arrived at Boston, and at once com- menced his bold operations. His first and last victim here was Major John Bray of Boston, who was stopped and robbed by Martin as he was returning to town in his chaise over the Medford turnpike. Martin had learned that there was to be a dinner-party at Governor Brooks's house on that afternoon, and, with native shrewdness, had guessed that some of the guests might be worth plundering.
Martin fled. He was pursued and arrested in bed at Spring- field. After being removed to East Cambridge jail, he was
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tried, convicted of highway robbery, and sentenced to be hanged. This was the first trial that had occurred under the statute for such an offence, and naturally created great interest. The knight of the road was perfectly cool during his trial, and, after sentence was pronounced, observed : " Well, that is the worst you can do for me."
While awaiting his fate, Martin made a desperate effort to escape from prison. He had succeeded in filing off the chains by which he was secured, so that he could remove them at pleasure ; and one morning when Mr. Coolidge, the turnkey, came to his cell, the prisoner struck him a savage blow with his irons, and, leaving him senseless on the floor, rushed into the prison yard. By throwing himself repeatedly and with great force against the strong oaken gate, Martin at last emerged into the street, but was, after a short flight, recaptured and returned to his cell. After this attempt he was guarded with greater vigilance, and suffered the penalty of his crimes.
Of the two half-moon batteries which Washington caused to be thrown up in November, between Lechmere's Point and the mouth of Charles River, the vestiges of one only are remaining. They were not designed for permanent occupation, but only for occasional use, to repel an attempt by the enemy to land. The good taste of the authorities of Cambridge has preserved the little semicircular battery situated on the farthest reach of firm ground on the Cambridge shore. It is protected by a hand- some iron fence, composed of military emblems, and is called Fort Washington, - a name rather too pretending for a work of this class. Looking towards Boston, we see in front of us the southerly side of the Common, where the enemy had erected works. The battery has three embrasures, and on a tall flagstaff is the inscription : -
" 1775 Fort Washington 1857
This battery thrown up by Washington Nov. 1775."
Struck with the perfect condition of the earthwork, we found upon inquiry that the city of Cambridge had, about fifteen years ago, thoroughly restored the rampart, which was then in
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good preservation. The guns now mounted there were, at that time, furnished by the United States government. The situ- ation is very bleak and exposed, and the cold north-winds must have pierced the poor fellows through and through as they delved in the frozen gravel of the beach to construct this work. The other battery was probably on the little hill where the powder-magazine now stands.
Having arrived at the limit of the exterior or offensive lines between the Mystic and Charles, we may briefly sketch the re- maining positions on this side, constructed for defence only, in the earlier stages of the investment. These lines connected Prospect Hill with Charles River by a series of detached forts and redoubts. Of the former there were three, numbered from right to left. No. 1 was on the bank of 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. The emi- nence is being levelled as rapidly as possible, and no marks of the work remain. Connected with this redoubt were the Cam- bridge lines, called No. 2, a series of redans, six in number, joined together by curtains. These were carried across the road, and up the slope 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 breastwork 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, hav- ing 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.
Continuing to trace the lines eastward, - their general direc-
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tion. being from east to west, - we find that two little half- moons were thrown up on each side of the Charlestown road at the point where it crossed the west branch of Willis's Creek.
No. 3 lay to the southwest of Prospect Hill, a little south of the point where the main road from Charlestown (Washington Street) was intersected by that from Medford and Menotomy, and which pass it was designed to defend. It was a strong, well-constructed work, and should be placed very near Union Square, in Somerville. These defences were, for the most part, planned by Richard Gridley, the veteran engineer, assisted by his son and by Captain Josiah Waters, of Boston, and Captain Jonathan Baldwin, of Brookfield, afterwards colonel of engi- neers. Colonel Knox occasionally lent his aid before receiving his rank in the army.
In coming from Charlestown or Lechmere's Point by the old county road hitherto described, and before the day of bridges had created what is now Cambridgeport out of the marshes, the first object of interest was the farm of Ralph Inman, a well-to- do, retired merchant of the capital. His mansion-house and outbuildings formed a small hamlet, and stood in the angle of the road as it turned sharp to the right and stretched away to the Colleges.
The world would not have cared to know who Ralph Inman was had not his house become interwoven with the history of the siege as the headquarters of that rough, fiery genius, Israel Putnam. It could not have been better situated, in a military view, for Old Put's residence. The General's own regiment and most of the Connecticut troops lay encamped near at hand in Inman's green fields and fragrant pine woods. It was but a short gallop to the commander-in-chief's, or to the posts on the river. Remove all the houses that now intervene between Inman Street and the Charles, and we see that the gallant old man had crouched as near the enemy as it was possible for him to do, and lay like a watch-dog at the door of the American lines.
Ralph Inman was, of course, a royalist. Nature does not more certainly abhor a vacuum than does your man of sub
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stance a revolution. Strong domestic ties bound him to his allegiance. He was of the Church of England too, and his associates were cast in the same tory mould with himself. He had been a merchant in Boston in 1764, and the agent of Sir Charles Frankland when that gentleman went abroad. He kept his coach and his liveried servants for state occasions, and the indispensable four-wheeled chaise universally affected by the gentry of his day for more ordinary use. If he was not a Scotsman by descent, we have not read aright the meaning of the thistle, which Inman loved to see around him.
The house had a plain outside, unostentatious, but speak- ing eloquently of solid comfort and good cheer within. It was of wood, of three stories, with a pitched roof. From his veranda Inman had an unobstructed outlook over the mead- ows, the salt marshes, and across the bay, to the town of Boston. What really claim our admiration about this estate were the trees by which it was glorified, and of which a few noble elms have been spared. Approaching such a house, as it lay environed by shrubbery and screened from the noonday sun by its giant guardians, with the tame pigeons perched upon the parapet and the domestic fowls cackling a noisy re- frain in the barn-yard, you would have said, "Here is good old-fashioned thrift and hospitality ; let us enter," and you would not have done ill to let instant execution follow the happy thought.
Besides his tory neighbors -and at the time of which we write what we now call Old Cambridge was parcelled out among a dozen of these - Inman was a good deal visited by the loyal faction of the town. The officers of his Majesty's army and navy liked to ride out to Inman's to dine or sup, and one of them lost his heart there.
John Linzee, captain of H. M. ship Beaver, met with Sukey Inman (Ralph's eldest daughter) in some royalist coterie, - as like as not at the house of her bosom friend, Lucy Flucker, -and found his heart pierced through and through by her bright glances. He struck his flag, and, being incapable of resistance, became Sukey's lawful prize. He came with Dal-
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