The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III, Part 12

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897
Publication date: 1880-1881
Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood
Number of Pages: 770

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 12

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1 If anybody happens to care, Major Pitcairn is the nephew of the naval officer who discovered Pitcairn's Island. Observe " Marines."

2 As the boy and Lord Percy remembered the ballad, these are some of the telling verses :-

God prosper long our noble King, Our lives and safetyes all : A woefull hunting once there did In Chevy-Chase befall.

To drive the decre with hound and horne, Erle Percy took his way : The child may rue, that is unborne, The hunting of that day.

This fight did last from break of day Till setting of the sun, For when they rung the evening bell The battle scarce was done.

With stout Erle Percy, there was slaine Sir John of Egerton. Sir Robert Ratcliff, and Sir John, Sir James, that bold barron.

Horace Walpole in one of his letters of the time makes the same allusion to "the hunting of that day." Walpole's Letters to Horace Mann, June 5, 1775-

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

Heath's orders the boards had been so far removed that it was impassa- ble; but the frugal committee of safety who had done this, not knowing yet what war was, had piled the boards on the Cambridge side, instead of boldly committing them to the water. Percy sent soldiers across on the string-pieces of the bridge, who relaid the boards so far that his troops could cross. He left his baggage-train for the better completion of the bridge, and pressed on, knowing indeed that the country was growing hot in more senses than one. When he came upon Cambridge Common, where were then no fences, but many roadways leading in different directions, Lord Percy was confused, and needed instructions as to his route. Cambridge was shut up. No man, woman, or child could be found to give him information, except a tutor of the college, Isaac Smith, afterward preceptor of Dummer Academy. Smith, being asked the road to Lexington, " could not tell a lie." Instead of sending Lord Percy down to Phips's Point, as the Pa- triots of the time thought he should have done, he directed him to Menotomy, now Arlington, on the right road.1 Percy followed it, and arrived in Lexington at two or three in the afternoon,2 in time to receive Smith's scattered and worried men; but his baggage-train, delayed at the bridge, was cut off at Menotomy.3 It appears from Percy's own letters that he did not know till he arrived at Menotomy, about one in the afternoon, that there had been any fighting beyond.

Meanwhile Dr. Warren had heard in Boston, early in the day, by a spe- cial messenger, this news which Percy did not receive till one in the after- noon. Warren left his patients in the care of Eustis.4 He crossed to Charles- town, and never returned to his home. As he left the ferry-boat he said to the last person with whom he spoke : "Keep up a brave heart! They have be- gun it, -that either party can do; and we 'll end it, -that only one can do." This was at eight in the morning. He mounted his horse at Charlestown. As he rode through the town he met Dr. Welch, who said, "Well, they are gone out." " Yes, and we will be up with them before night." 5 Dr. Welch seems to have joined him. He says: "Tried to pass l'ercy's column ; stopped by bayonets. Two British officers rode up to Dr. Warren, in the rear of the British, inquiring, 'Where are the troops?' The doctor did not know; they were greatly alarmed." These were probably the commanders of Percy's baggage-train; and this incident places Warren at Cambridge as late as twelve or one o'clock of that day.

I Smith was sent to Coventry by his neigh- bors for giving this information, and was obliged, or thought he was, to embark for England a few weeks later (May 27), where he preached to a Dissenting chapel in Sidmouth for a while ; but returning in 1784, he became librarian of Har- vard, and later chaplain of the Boston Alms- house. Sce Evacuation Memorial, p. 190.

2 This is his own naming of an hour which is sometimes stated rather later in the day.

8 [A stone beside the road and opposite the

church in Arlington marks the spot where the "old men " captured this train. Sce Vol. II. p. 382 .- ED.]

4 Who was afterward Lieut .- Governor and later Governor of the State.

5 Another diary dates this as late as ten in the morning. [See Richard Frothingham's Life of Joseph Warren, p. 457, (who quotes the state- ments in the text from a manuscript of Dr. Welch) and his Siege of Boston, P. 77, for further accounts. - ED.]

A CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT

Of an Attack that happened on the 19th of April 1775, on his MAJESTY'S Troops,

By a Number of the People of the Province of MASSACHUSETTS- BAY.

O N Toelday the 18th of April, about half past 10 fries at the Bridge, and on forme Flights news is, under the at Night, Lieutenant Colonel Smith of the 10th Regiment, embarked from the Common at Bofon, with the Grenathers and Light Infantry ol the Troops there, and landed on the oppulice Sale. train whence he began his March towarda Concurd, where he was nide ed to defense a Magazine of Military Stores, de proffirst there for the Use of an Army to be aftenblad, in Order to act again his Majesty, and his Government. The Colori I called his Officers together and gave Orders, that the Troops themki new life, winkels fired upwo, and after march- Ing a few Miles, detached fix Companies of Light Intantop. Under the Command of Major Precum, in take Folk low If two Bridges on the other Side of Concord : Soon atver They heard many Signal Guns and the ringing of Alatin Bella repeatedly, which convinced them that the C'conter was thing to oppure them, and that it was a preconcerted Scheme to oppose the King's Troops, wherever there funld be a favorable Opportunity for it. About 3 o'clock the next Marburg, the Troops being advanced within two Miles of Leangson, Intelligence was received the house l'ivo Hundred Men us. Arms, were allembled, and deter. sines io uppsale the King's Froops ! "and on Major His- Falen's gellopping up to the Head of the advanced Cumpa. mes wy Officers informed him that a Man advanced home thule that were allembled hall preferred his Mulque and attempted to float them, but the Piece Bathed in The Pan Ou this the Major gave directions to the Troops to move forward, but on no Account in fire, not even to attempt it withhut Orders: When they arrived at the End of the Village, they observed about 100 atmed Men, drawn up on & Green, and when the Troops came within a Hundred Yards of thend. they began in tile off to wards fome sione Walls, on their right Flank . The Light Infantry ahlerving this can offer them. the Major inflanity called in the Sul. Vier not to fire. her to surround and dilasso there, Inme od them who had jumped over a Wall, enen fied four a five Shot at the Troops, wounded a Man of the work Reg- ment, and the Major's Hilf in own Places, and at the Comme Tume feveral Shase were fired train a Meeting I toute on the left? Upon this without any Order or Regularly, the Light Infantry began a faltered Fire, and killed leveraf of the Country People; but were fienced as leen as the Authority of their Oficera could ask: then.

+. After thu, Colonel Smith marched up with the Remain der of the Detachment, and the whole Body procrede.1 1 Concord, where they arrived about 9 o'clock without any Thing further happening : but walt numbers of armed People were leen Allemabling on all the Heights who Colonel Smith wah the Grenadiers, and Part of the Light Infantry remained at Concord, to search for ( aaron, its there , he decached Captain Parlons with fix Light Cimpe nies to lecure a Bridge at fome liftance from Cumued, and to proceed from thence to certain Houfre, where a was Cuppulal there was Cannon, and Ammunition, Captain l'arloss in purtuarec of thele Orders, potted three Cruinps;

Command A Lafram Lavue of the 4td Regiment ; id Th the Remainder were and cellroyer some Cannon Wheels, Forder, and Ball , the People full continued increaling on the Heights , sod umabut it Hour after, alarge Body of them began to move towards the Bridge the Light Coinpanies of the 4th and roth then defended, urt jruned Captam Laurie, the Peuple continoed to ade vauer in great Numbers , and fired upon the Kings Troops, kilkert shire Men. wounded Your Uliers, one serjeans, and four private 'den, upon which (dies returning the fire) Captain Laune and his Officers, thought it prudent to stress Inwards the Main Body at Cucurd, and were food muned by www Companies of Grenades, when Captain Porfora returned with the white Companies over iba Brxige, they obferved tluce Soktiers on the Ground une of them fgalped. lus Head much inangled, and his Ears cut Off. the mas quer dead , a Sight which truck the Subvers with Hurrar , Capram Partons ma thed on and joined tho Main Body, who were only wutrog lor ha coming up, to march back su Boffin , Culonel Smuch had excepted his Orders, withoye Oppolion, by deftruying all the Mouary Serres be could band, binh the Colonel, and Nisjoe l'incaira, barring woken au paffable Pains to convince the Inhabituels ther me Injury was extended them, and out of they opened chew 1 hours when required, to woch los isid Sparen not the flugwell Niklived should be done, neither had any of the People the kal Occasion to complain, but they were lukke. and one of them even Bruck Major Parain, Except upon Cspean Laune; at the Bridge, so Holdes happened from the Affer at Lesington, since the Troops began their March back. As low as the Troops had por out of the Town of Concord, they received a heavy Fue from oli Sites, fram Walls, Fences, Howers, Trees, Baras, &c. which continued without Inter- nullion, ritt they met the fire Brigade, with two Field Pieces, near Lexington , ordered out under the Command of word Percy to Support them , (advice having been received about 7 o'clock nest Morning, that Signals had beta tnade, and Exprefes gono our ts alarm the Country, and that the People were infing to attack the Troops under Colonel Sawh. ) . Upon the Firing of the Field Feces, the Penpo': Fire was for a while Glanced, but as they fall ceo (hugh] w encrenke grenty la Numbers, they heed again' as veloce. Erwow all Phases were they could find forver, upon the whole Body, and conunved fo deing los the Space of Fifteen Miles : Notwithfanding their Numbers they didnot attack openly doring the Whole Day, bur kept waart Curet on all Occasions The Troops were very much fatigued, the greater Part of there having been under Arms all Nighs, and madr a March of upwards of Forty Miles before they arrived as Chasklown, from whence they were ferryed over to Bollos.

The Troops had shove Fifty killed, and many more wounded Kepools are various about the Lols fullaned by the Country People, forms make it very confidenciales others not to much.

. at this Time the advans & Ligla Companion leaded but the Greiners vale spreaded when they received absor bof the

T'es I've unfortunate Aflat has happened enough the

· Amaandowding the fire from the Mactony Hawk Future! Debat uno Pursuit schon geziel Chipotle Lesione solaiosi Relhoels ini 'asproduce in a few People who bages Fulng ou ths Imnurs at I xungton

GAGE'S ACCOUNT OF THE NINETEENTH OF APRIL, 1775.

VOL. 111 .- 10.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

The anxiety of Boston that day is casily imagined.1 Gage had sent out a considerable part of his army, eighteen hundred men, from a force not four thousand. His communication with his force in the field was by no means as good as that of the Patriots. The sun had gone down when, to anxious eyes watching from Beacon Hill, the flashes of muskets on Milk Row 2 __ the road from Cambridge to Charlestown - revealed the line of the retreat. Percy was now in command. He did not mean to risk an embarkation at Phips's Point, where the boats were still lying. Pickering's Essex regiment was on his flank at Winter Hill, and he chose to put Charlestown Neck between himself and pursuit.3 He arrived there after eight o'clock. Heath, who during the afternoon had been exercising a general command, called off the Patriot forces. Percy bivouacked on Bunker Hill; and thus was the war begun.4 The selectmen sent word to Percy that if he would not attack Charlestown they would take care that his troops should not be mo- lested, and would do all in their power to get them over the ferry. The "Somerset" man-of-war sent her boats first for the wounded, then for the rest of the troops. The pickets of the Tenth regiment were sent from Bos- ton to keep all quiet. The Americans put sentinels at Charlestown Neck, and made prisoner of an officer of the Sixty-fourth, who was going to join his regiment at Castle William.

From that time till the next March, what is popularly called " the siege of Boston " continued. Civil government stopped in the town. The select- men's record ends with a typical blank: " At a meeting of the selectmen, this 19th Apl., 1775, present, Mesrs. Newhall, Austin, Marshall, - -," and this is all! The civil magistracy did no more as matter of formal record till March 5, 1776, when they appear again. Martial law came in, of which a contemporary definition says : " A provost-marshal is a man who docs as he chooses ; and martial law is permission to him to do so."

All the night of the battle-day minute-men were marching and riding from all parts of New England to Cambridge. Before daybreak of the

1 [The various rumors which reached Boston, during the progress of events that day, are noted in Andrews's letters. Mass. FFist. Soc. Proc., July, 1865, p. 404. - ED.]

2 Now, alas ! " Washington Street," in Som- erville.

[" Had Earl Percy returned to Boston by the same road he marched out, .. . probably his brigade might have been cut off." So says Percy's eulogist, Major R. Donkin in his Military Col- lections : New York, 1777, p. 87. This book, which is rare, is in Harvard College Library. It is dedicated to Percy, and ostensibly pub- lished for the benefit of the families of the victims "of the bloody massacre committed on his Majesty's troops peaceably marching to and from Concord, the 19th April, 1775, begun and instigated by the Massachusetians." - ED.]

4 [In the senate-chamber at the State House

are some interesting relics of Lexington, - two firelocks bequeathed to the State by Theodore Parker : one, the first firearm captured in the war; and the other carried by the testator's grandfather, Captain John Parker, on that day. See Ilist. Mag., July, 1860, by J. S Loring. An official report of the selectmen of the losses to property sustained at Lexington, and made Jan. 24, 1782, is in Massachusetts Archives, cxxxviii. 410. Numerous relics of the fight have been collected in the Town Hall at Lexington, and

John Parker

various houses are still standing there which bear marks of the fray. Statues of Hancock and Adams are also in the hall. - ED.]

THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.

morning of the twentieth, little towns in the western part of Worcester County were awakened by the tramp of men pressing castward, or by the rumble of the wagons which bore them. Before night a considerable army was in Cambridge. And Gage never again sent an armed man out by land from Boston, as Boston is now constituted. Indeed, no man of his other than deserters, of which there were many, after this moment set foot in Roxbury or in Brighton except as a prisoner ; nor in Dorchester, excepting Dorchester Neck, which is now South Boston.

In describing the siege, we shall speak of Boston as it was then under- stood; meaning the peninsula. A considerable part of the American army was in Roxbury and in Brighton. These places, and Charlestown where the great battle of the siege was fought, and Dorchester Heights where the end came, are now all included within the city. But we shall speak of these places by their old names.

General Clinton, who afterward commanded the British army, was not here on the day of the battle of Lexington ; but he says of Percy's move- ment: " He gave them every reason to suppose that he would return by the route he came, but fell back on Charlestown; thus securing his retreat un- molested, and a place which ought never to have been given up, and which cost us half the force engaged to recover."1 This means that at North Cambridge Percy took the more direct route to Charlestown, instead of making the angle at Cambridge Common.2 But if he had attempted to add nine miles to the march of men, many of whom had already marched thirty, he would have found at Charles River the bridge again removed, and barri- cades erected from the materials. He had his train of wounded in carriages which he had seized for their conveyance. In point of fact, he did not se- cure his retreat; for he received at Prospect Hill the hottest fire of the way. His own account is distinct: " In this manner we retired for fifteen miles, under incessant fire all around us, till we arrived at Charlestown, which road I chose to take, lest the rebels should have taken up the bridge at Cam- bridge (which } find was actually the case), and also as the country was more open and the road shorter." 8 Stragglers had given the alarm of their approach in Charlestown. As the tired army filed in on the Neck it met streams of people pouring out. The Regulars, no longer pursued, vented their rage in frightening women and children as they emptied their pieces. The soldiers called for drink at taverns and houses, and " encamped on a place called Bunker's Hill." 4

When, on the night of the nineteenth and on the morning of the twentieth, wounded and dying men were brought into Boston from Charles-

1 Clinton's MS. notes to Stedman's History. [This copy of Stedman is in the Carter-Brown Library at Providence. See Winsor's Hand- book, p. 130. - ED.]

2 [There was a story current at the time that Percy in returning from Concord had intended to stop at Cambridge and fortify, after destroy- ing the college buildings, being reinforced

across the water from Boston. See note to Mansfield's sermon in the Roxbury Camp, Nov. 23, 1775, as quoted by Thornton, Pulpit of the Revolution, p. 236. - ED.]

8 Percy's MS. letter to his father, from a copy in the hands of the Rev. E. G. Porter.

4 For the origin of this name see Vol. I. P. 390.

General Gage guver liberty to the Inhabitants of

umove out. Jor lown with their Effects, and in oder to Expedite & Remoual 1 informy the Inhabitants that they may receive passes for that people

from general Robin for

any time after 8 Block

T marrow morning

Barton april 20 # 175

GAGE'S ORDER, IN BOWDOIN'S HANDWRITING.

NOTE. - The negotiation to effeet this order began in a town-meeting, April 22, when James Bowdoin presided, and ended at an adjourned meeting with an agreement to surrender their arms. The story of this covenant, and Gage's failure to keep to his word, is told in the Evacuation Memorial, p. 117 ; also see Siege of Boston, p. 95. Among the papers preserved in the Charity Building with the overseers of the poor, is an account of the arms returned to General Gage, April 24, 1775. Andrews writes : "You see parents that are lucky enough to proeure papers [of permission to leave the town], with bundles in one hand and a string of children in the other, wandering out of town, not knowing whither they go. .. . This morning [May 6] an order from the Governor has put a stop to any more papers at any rate. ... It is hard to stay cooped up here and fed upon salt provisions .... The soldiery think they have a license to plunder every one's house and store who leaves the town." Bowdoin was during much of this period too ill to take a prominent part in the active duties of the hour. Abigail Adams writes to her husband only two days before Bunker Hill: "Mr. Bowdoin and his lady are at present in the house of Mrs. Borland, and are going to Middleboro to the house of Judge Oliver. He, poor gentleman, is so low that I apprehend he is hastening to a house not made with hands; he looks like a mere skeleton, speaks faint and low, is racked with a violent cough, and I think far advanced in a consumption." - Familiar Letters, etc. p. 63 .- ED.]

THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.

town and carried to their quarters and to hospitals, people began to see what war was. That part of the towns-people who did not favor the Eng- lish began to move into the country with such stores as they could carry. Gage insisted that they should not take their arms, and made a sort of con- vention, which caused much discussion afterward, by which he promised to give permits for departure to all who would deliver their arms. In fact " 1,778 firearms, 973 bayonets, 634 pistols, and 38 blunderbusses " were de- livered. The number shows the military habit of the people. The tradition of the next generation said that they were in very poor order for use.

Gage attempted to limit the number of wagoners, who should enter daily from the country, to thirty a day. In regard to this he received sharp re- monstrances from Dr. Warren,1 who on the twenty-third began to act as chairman of the provincial committee of safety. Before long the English generals were glad to diminish the number of mouths they had to feed. Additional parties were sent out after the hot weather of summer came on. Some of them carried small-pox with them. The last was a party of three hundred poor people sent out on November 25. Many families left Boston in this emigration which have never returned. To this day, in many of the inland towns of New England, the family tradition takes in the hurried de- parture from Boston "when the siege began." On the other hand, some royalist families moved in from the country. There is a good deal of cor- respondence about Lady Frankland,-the same who saved her husband 2 at the earthquake at Lisbon, - and the quantity of live stock and furniture which she might bring into town from Hopkinton, where was her home.3

On the very day of the battle of Lexington a corps of Loyalists was formed in Boston. Two hundred tradesmen and merchants offered their services to Gage, and were accepted. Their corps was placed under the command of Timothy Ruggles, of Hard- Jin Ruggly wick, - the same who presided at Phila- delphia at the first Continental Congress, ten years before. They are spoken of as " the gentlemen volunteers." It was said that Ruggles was the best soldier in the colonies, and that he would have been in high command among the Americans had he taken the right side.4

1 In a letter dated the twenty-sixth or Iwenty- them ; all the boxes and crates; a basket of ninth, not the twentieth, as erroneously printed in Force and later writers.

2 Oliver Cromwell's great-great grandson.

8 " Hopkinton, May 15, 1775. - Lady Frank- laid begs she may have her pass for Thurs- day. A list of things for Lady Frankland : six trunks, one chest, three beds and bedding, six wethers, two pigs, one small keg of pickled longues, some hay, three bags of corn." The answer of the Provincial Congress is Homeric : " Resolved, that Lady Frankland be permitted to go to Boston with the following articles, --- viz., seven trunks; all the beds with the furniture 10

chickens, and a bag of corn ; two barrels and a hamper ; two horses and two chaises, and all the articles in the chaise, excepting arms and am- munition ; one phaeton ; some tongues, ham, and veal; and sundry small bundles." [Sce Vol. II. p. 526 .-- ED.]

4 {As the winter wore on, the Loyalists in nos- lon were formed into military organizations for guard duty and the like : the Loyal American Associators, Brigadier-General Timothy Ruggles, commandant ; Loyal Irish Volunteers, James Forrest, captain ; Royal Fencible Americans, Colonel Gorhanı. -- ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

The Tory party gradually acquired more and more ascendancy with Gage. They were afraid that when the town was emptied of Whigs the American army would burn it. At last they threatened Gage that they would lay down their arms and leave themselves, if'he permitted further departure. It was under the pressure of this threat that Gage at last gave way, and, as the Patriots said, violated the engagements he made when they delivered up their arms as already mentioned.

The time had now come, and it was the first time, when men and house- holds had to make known, by a visible and final act, whether they stood by the court of England or by the country. Households were often divided against themselves. The following lines from one of the many comedies and tragedies of the time, - of which most of the comedies are tragic, and the tragedies comic, - expresses the situation : -

" What wretch like me

Sees misery in each alternative ? Defeat is death ; and even victory, ruin. Here my father, dearest, best of parents, Whose heart, exhaustless as a mountain stream, Pours one continued flood of kindness on me. There is my brother ; there, too, is Rossiter, One of the number, - all perhaps may fall ; Fall by each other's arm -inhuman thought ! O madness, madness ! Sure the arm of death O'er such a field may grow fatigued with conquest, Nor need new trophies to adorn his car With deeper deeds of honor."

Meanwhile the minute-men, who had assembled so promptly, were for some days under no central command. On the outside the Patriots were afraid Gage would march out, - as, on the inside, he probably was afraid that they would march in. Colonel Robinson, of Dorchester, who with six or seven hundred men only was watching Boston Neck in those days, spent nine days and nights without " shifting his clothes," or lying down to sleep. Without an adjutant or officer of the day, he patrolled his own lines every night, - a march of nine miles. But Gage had no thought of another " promenade." 1

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III, Part 12

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897 Publication date: 1880-1881 Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood Number of Pages: 770

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897
Publication date: 1880-1881
Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood
Number of Pages: 770