USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 38
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1 Director as Lieutenant of Artillery,
1 Chief Artificer as Major,
1 Clerk to the Director,
1 Clerk to the Chief Artificer,
1 Quartermaster,
1 Master Carpenter as Captain,
35 Carpenters,
1 Master Smith as Captain,
36 Artificers as Blacksmiths,
1 Master Wheelright as Captain,
14 Artificers as Wheelrights,
1 Master Tinman,
1 Assistant,
1 Master Painter,
1 Assistant,
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
1 Master Saddler as Captain,
1 Foreman,
13 Saddlers,
1 Master Turner,
2 Turners,
1 Master Nail Maker as Captain,
5 Nail Makers,
1 Master Armorer as Captain,
12 Armorers,
1 Captain-Lieutenant,
1 Conductor,
4 Sergeants,
1 Sail Maker,
18 Matrosses.
The rate of pay varied from $8.50 per month for the matrosses, to $75 per month for the Director of the Works. The rank and file of the blacksmiths, carpenters, saddlers, wheelwrights and other mechanics received $20 per month.
The correspondence indicates that through June there was a con- stant flow of materials to the magazines. As ships landed foreign goods, they were removed first to Cambridge and Watertown in lighters and boats, and then sent on as teams were available. Heath observed that "the expense of doing this is great and our treasury has for some days been entirely empty". They found "many of the French arms bad in the locks, there being many complaints of the breaking of the main springs, the cocks and in particular the break- ing of the pin or screw that fixes the cock to the plate, some of those purchased by Massachusetts State being scandalously bad. Colonel Crafts reporting that of thirty-three which he proved, six- teen burst. These were supposedly made for the Guinea trade". Activity at the Springfield post became so great that all vacant build- ings were utilized and there was scant space for living quarters for the workmen. It seemed imperative that some relief be had and it was decided to proceed with the action contemplated by Congress in its resolution of the previous year. Accordingly, the Massachusetts Council "ordered that Colonel Thomas Dawes be appointed a com- mittee to purchase in the town of Springfield, a piece of ground and take a deed thereof to the State Treasurer in trust for the United States sufficient to erect a magazine upon and an elaboratory adjacent thereto, agreeable to the resolve of Congress of December 27, 1776, and that Colonel Thomas Dawes contract with some person to erect the same upon the best terms he can, agreeable to the plan herewith delivered, as soon as may be and also for erecting an elaboratory adjacent to such magazine. That Mr. Dawes have leave to contract with Mr. William Crafts as master carpenter and to give the same rations and pay as Major Eayrs and his company of carpenters now have at Springfield".
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THE CONTINENTAL ARMORY
Colonel Dawes acted promptly and on July 23rd informed Gen- eral Heath "that in a few days he should begin the building of a large magazine, laboratory, stores &c. at Springfield. The expense of the materials and workmen to be paid by the State and refunded by the States in general".
In the early days of the plantation at Agawam which became Springfield, a tract by the river, at the foot of the present Elm Street was reserved as a combined cemetery and training field for
Home of Thomas Blanchard, Main Street, at Wilcox, Springfield
the exercising of the train band or militia. This continued in use until 1674, when on account of crowded conditions it was thought desirable to make a change. At a town meeting on February 26, 1673-74, it was "ordered that all common land from the rear of the wood lots over the meadow, eastward to the swamp or dingle called Squaw Tree dingle and from the head of that dingle, northward to Garden Brook and from thence southward to the Bay Path and over the path, so as to range even with the head of the dingle that goes down to Goodman Mirick's wood lot. All the lands within this com- pass, vizt; between Squaw Tree dingle eastward and the wood lots before the town westward and between the Bay Patlı, and over it, southward, and Garden Brook northward, is by the town now ordered to be reserved, kept and appropriated for a training place and town common and so to remain perpetually and not otherwise at any time to be disposed of".
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The head of Squaw Tree Dingle was at the Playground triangle where Magazine Street meets with St. James Avenue. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, to provide a water supply for the Armory, a dam was built across it, over the crest of which was a road which eventually became the section of Lincoln Street between Magazine and Bowdoin Streets.
Garden Brook flowed much along the course of the present Albany Street. The ravine which extended westerly to Thomas Merrick's wood lot was the one between State and High Streets, with its head at Skunk's Misery, where the High School of Commerce now is.
This tract included all of the present Armory grounds.
This was the tract approved of by General Knox and sought by Colonel Dawes, probably acting under specific instructions from Knox. At a town meeting held at Springfield on August 5, 1777, it was agreed "to take into consideration a petition presented to the selectmen by Colonel Thomas Dawes with an order of Council of July 17, 1777 and a resolve of Congress of December 27, 1776 and it was voted to choose a committee to examine tlie records and view the states of the land petitioned for".
On August 6, 1777, Congress ordered "that a warrant issue from the President to the Commissioner of the loan office of the state of Massachusetts Bay in favor of William Sever, Esq. president of the Council of said State for 30,000 dollars for building a magazine, laboratory and barracks in that State, for which the said council is to be accountable".
The town fathers acted promptly, and after considering the matter for four days it was "voted, that the land requested by Colonel Dawes be leased for such a number of years as the com- mittee that may be hereafter appointed shall think proper and at such a price as they, with him, shall think reasonable. Voted also, that Captain Thomas Stebbins, Moses Church and John Hale be a com- mittee empowered to make a sufficient lease in behalf of said town to the Treasurer of this State in trust for the United States and the proceeds arising to be paid into the treasury of said town for their use, and that the said committee acquaint Colonel Dawes with this vote".
At that time General Burgoyne's armies were sweeping south- ward from Canada, and once more the people of Berkshire were faced with the terrors of war. At Pittsfield, on August 17, 1777, William Williams pleaded with Ezekiel Cheever, Commissary of Military Stores at Springfield, asking that red tape be ignored for the pro- tection of all. Williams wrote :
"As an introduction to what I have to offer I enclose you the last account we have of our northern army, in the close of which you will perceive the scarcity of powder. All that we had in store which was upwards of 100 wt. went forward last night for their supply. The dishes, plates and spoons at Bennington and many towns this side are and have been melted into ball, and I imagine that the
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THE CONTINENTAL ARMORY
powder left in Pittsfield is not sufficient to make an alarm and all the lead that we had in the county went up last night and notwithstand- ing the orders you have received from his Excellency, General Wash- ington, not to deliver any more arms to the militia, yet I am confident you will judge it for the good of the service upon this emer- gency to deliver out, and if you cannot think of a more proper person, I will be accountable if you send 100 stands, also powder, lead and flints, as much as you please, which I will endeavor to forward to whom you shall direct, at Bennington or elsewhere, taking out so much as has been taken from us. I imagine it is impossible but that you will answer my request as there is no select or committee man but what is gone forward".
Had he but known it, the Battle of Bennington was in progress almost as Williams was penning his letter. On August 16th General Baum was mortally wounded and his force utterly defeated. More than two hundred of the Hessians were killed and seven hundred captured, the spoils of victory including one thousand stand of arms, one thousand dragoon swords and four field pieces. This was the turning point in the war, and Berkshire County bullets made from pewter dishes, plates and spoons, had their share in the achievement of that end.
On August 15, 1777, Colonel Thomas Dawes made his report to the Massachusetts Council :
"Agreeable to your orders I went to the town of Springfield and as the lands best situated for the proposed buildings belonged to the town, I waited upon the gentlemen selectmen and informed them of the business I was upon and desired they would sell me as many acres as I should want for the purpose. They accordingly called the town together and the enclosed letter, which I received yesterday, is their answer. I would further inform your Honors that it was impractical to get the materials so as to proceed with the work this season. The timber and joist cannot be got until the coming fall and winter. If the timber could be got now, the sap being up, the worms would soon take it and the buildings in a little time moulder away. The demand for boards is now so great from the workmen already there that it is with some difficulty they get supplied. The stone being near four miles off and the men most used to the quarry absent in the army or so engaged in farming that this business can- not be attended to till the coming fall and winter. I persuaded sev- eral persons to make as many bricks as they possibly could this season, who must be assisted with some money and not be liable to be called upon to go into the army. If they engage with spirit in the business, I concluded I should run no risk by engaging thus far in the brick way, as no great loss would arise if the works were carried elsewhere. I believe there will be no great difficulty in getting lime for the purpose. All the articles will be much higher than formerly and some of them at least as three to one. Having made such inquiry
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as was necessary, and finding it impossible to do anything to advan- tage this summer, I returned and make the above report to your honors, and would beg leave to observe that if the works are to go on at Springfield the next spring, it will be necessary that contracts for the materials be made early the coming fall, and as many as are necessary got upon the spot where the buildings will be erected that there be no loss of time to the workmen, when they begin. In your orders to me you refer to 'a resolve of Congress December 17, 1776 and confine the buildings to a magazine for ten thousand stand of arms, two hundred tons of gun powder, and an elaboratory adjacent to such magazine'. Your honors will be pleased to indulge me to mention that I have been led into an error if there is not a late resolve of Congress relating to this matter and the buildings to be more extensive. But as there is a vacant space of time before the matter need be absolutely determined, as the present season is lost, the plan may be lessened or divided to more places than one, and it is very necessary that this matter be particularly attended to, explained and determined. In addition to what I before observed, I have all along understood that the plans laid before your Honors were appro- bated by the Congress and General Washington. However, I may be mistaken. If not, your Honors will further indulge me if I say that it is very necessary to know if the plan is to be executed at one place and as extensive as I apprehend or confined to three buildings only, mentioned by your Honors, agreeable to the above resolve, for in a letter to me from General Knox, who has the ordnance affairs more immediately under his direction, being appointed for that department, he says 'the plans are approved of, only an alteration in the arrange- ment of them' and points out where the alteration is to be. There- fore, if only a part of this plan is to be executed, the arrangement may be very different from what it should be if the whole was executed. Not only so, but the materials are of too much consequence to be left undetermined".
With this report, Dawes submitted a bill for:
"Drawing five sets of plans, five in a set, for a magazine, labora- tory, arsenal, barracks &c. intended for Brookfield, Springfield and Carlisle, and time going to Springfield upon said business, one month seventy-five dollars £22-10-0"
As always in times of war, there was a great shortage, not only in arms and military equipment, but also in tools, utensils and raw materials. Efforts at controlling the situation and combating infla- tion were attempted by the appointment of a Committee of Sequestra- tion, empowered to buy or to seize whatever was required in a common cause and dole it out to such as could show a valid priority. Not even . the Continental Works at Springfield was exempt from this requirement.
379
THE CONTINENTAL ARMORY
On August 18, 1777, Maj. Joseph Eayrs, Chief Artificer of the Board of Works at Springfield, was in Boston in conference with Samuel Gardner Jarvis, agent for the Board of Ordnance, as a result of which Mr. Jarvis petitioned the Massachusetts Council, reciting that "Major Joseph Eayrs, Master of the Carpenters at Springfield lately wrote requesting your petitioner to send to Spring- field for the use of the Continental Army, a number of articles, among which are the following:
Three dozen rules.
Seven dozen handsaw files. Four dozen plane irons. Two cross-cut saws. Two dozen cross-cut saw files.
Two dozen rasps.
Two dozen nests of gimblets.
Two dozen paring chisels.
Three dozen firmers.
Six grindstones. Four Turkey set stones.
Three stock locks.
Fifty pounds of glue. One-hundred weight of chalk.
Two dozen compasses.
Two dozen rag stones.
One beck iron. Nine dozen files. Three hundred weight of brass.
Fifty weight of copper. Four anvils.
"There are but few of the above articles to be had at any rate and those so extravagantly dear that he thinks it giving away the continental money, to purchase them. He finds them in the Com- mittee of Sequestration's store and prays the honorable Council would be pleased to give him an order on the said committee for the aforesaid articles, to be sent to Springfield for the use of the Continental Works, your petitioner paying therefore".
The petition received prompt attention and on the following day the Council "recommended to the Committee of the town of Boston that it dispose of, for the purposes in said petition mentioned, such of the said articles, not exceeding the number therein enumerated, as they may have by them, at such prices as they may judge reason- able".
Activity at the Springfield establishment continued unabated and sharply increased as Burgoyne's armies continued their southerly sweep. Heavily loaded transport-wagons were ferried across the river and continued on to Great Barrington, to Kinderhook and so to the armies of the Northern Department. On the outward trip they car-
380
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
ried munitions and returned with flour, grain, butter, cheese, forage and iron rods and bars, collected by Walter Pynchon, Deputy Quarter- master General at Great Barrington. So great was the need for transportation that by the combined efforts of the wheelwrights, smiths, carpenters and painters, new wagons were built. In despera- tion, Colonel Mason appealed to the Massachusetts Council for twenty pieces of Russian duck for wagon covers, then in the custody of the Board of War. His petition was denied, though shortly after he was granted six pieces of the desired duck. At the same time he was per- mitted to draw from the sequestered stores:
Four dozen gimblets.
One thousand 14 oz. tacks.
Seven hand-saws.
Three boxes of Glass.
Twelve dozen files.
Three pairs of bellows.
Four dozen hammers.
One ink stand.
Two dozen shoe knives.
One case of knives and forks.
On November first, Colonel Mason again visited Boston, on a most desperate errand, protesting that "he had twenty-eight men belonging to the laboratory and in the Continental service who were in the greatest distress for want of breeches, and not being able to procure any out of the Continental store, prayed that the Council would grant an order on the Board of War for the same". Without the loss of a single day the Council "directed the Board of War to deliver to Lieutenant Colonel David Mason, cloth sufficient for twenty- eight pair of breeches for the use of twenty-eight men belonging to the laboratory at Springfield and in the Continental service".
Burgoyne's armies surrendered on October 17, 1777, and care was required for the immense quantities of arms and munitions. From Albany on November 8th, General Gates wrote Governor Trumbull of Connecticut : "I do not think there is any necessity to have so much artillery and small arms deposited at this Arsenal, and therefore have determined to send thirty pieces of brass cannon to Sheffield and three thousand stand of arms to Springfield, or such other towns as your Excellency shall think proper, where they may be best and most con- veniently repaired". To this Trumbull replied, suggesting that "one- half of the arms which need most repair, it may be proper to send to the Arsenal at Springfield; the others which need least, may as well be done here (Lebanon, Connecticut) as at any place".
One of the captured Hessians left a word picture of the works at Springfield saying that "this place is a veritable magazine for the storage of weapons for the Americans and it also has a small, but very well built armory or arsenal. We saw here various parks of artillery with their trains and among other things, twelve entirely new four pounders of French make. The store or magazine houses are filled from top to bottom, and workmen of all trades were seen in the houses engaged in the manufacture of wagons, guns &c. I have seen here wagons which could not have been better made in England and upon which the 'R.P' was painted as neatly as the 'G.R'. Order
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THE CONTINENTAL ARMORY
prevailed everywhere and an old man with a wig and an overcoat attracted my special attention by his scolding and the noise that he made. I ascertained that he was Master-General of Ordnance, and at the moment I wished that my old friend - had been there to see his colleague, look at his dress and observe the energy he displayed".
Home Built in 1820 for Benjamin Day, 111 Maple Street, Springfield House demolished in 1946.
This reference was, of course, to Lt .- Col. David Mason, thien seventy- five years of age.
The following winter, 1777-1778, will be remembered as that when the American Army suffered the miseries of Valley Forge. As the soldiers marched to their winter quarters on that 17th of December, their path through the snow could be traced by the blood that oozed from their bare feet. On the 23rd, Washington reported to Congress that he had in camp, 2,898 men "unfit for duty because they are bare- foot and otherwise naked". These sufferings resulted wholly from gross mismanagement and not from the poverty of the country, for a contemporary historian said, "Hogsheads of shoes, stockings and
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WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
clothing were lying at different places on the roads, perishing for want of teams" to transport them.
To bring order out of the existing chaos, the able and efficient Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene, of Rhode Island, was made Quarter- master General. But twenty-six years of age at that time, he brought boundless energy to the task and surrounded himself with even younger men. At Valley Forge, he had been associated with a young lieutenant colonel from Boston, William Smith, twenty-two years old, who had been quartermaster with McDougall's Division. At this juncture, he was made a deputy quartermaster general with orders to proceed to Springfield and put that post in order, insofar as it related to tents, blankets, clothing, shoes and similar stores together with transportation in general.
The route of transports proceeding southerly from Springfield was then through Suffield, Simsbury and Harwinton to the artillery depot at Litchfield. Thence the way led to the Hudson, crossing that river at Fishkill and continuing southerly as conditions and circum- stances would permit. Even the post roads were little more than dirt roads filled with rocks and ruts. Some of the hills were appalling. The transports were heavy and cumbersome and the horses were by no means draft-animals, but merely New England farm-horses. It seems a wonder that any progress whatever could be made under such conditions.
Irked and irritated by the time consumed between Springfield and the Hudson River, Lt. Col. Udney Hay, Deputy Quartermaster General at Fishkill, repeatedly questioned the wagon conductors and became convinced that one fault lay in the crossing of the Connec- ticut to West Springfield, where a bottleneck existed because Gideon Leonard of West Springfield held the ferry license at that point where his peacetime equipment was insufficient to care for wartime traffic. He was, however, loath to increase his equipment for fear that peace would leave it idle on his hands. Hence Coloney Hay interested General Greene in the establishment of a Continental Ferry at Springfield, and it was so ordered, whereupon Coloney Hay wrote to Deputy Quartermaster General Smith at Springfield :
"General Greene having approved of my proposal to him of having three scows and one batteau built at your station, you will please hire men for that purpose as soon as possible and let them begin work and finish any one of them first which you think will be most essential to the public service. One scow ought to be large enough to take in two teams at a time and two of them large enough for one team. The batteau ought to be sufficient to transport four horses at a time and allow that the horses may be embarked with more ease".
Colonel Smith was delayed in reaching Springfield and taking up his new duties, but he arrived at the post the first week in June, 1778, and on June 7th he wrote to an old acquaintance, Thomas Hunstable, at Boston, that :
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THE CONTINENTAL ARMORY
"There is wanted for the public service at this place, twelve boatmen that are acquainted with the business, and an overseer. If you can engage those that are able, they shall receive eight pounds lawful money monthly and be employed for one year from the time of their engaging, also a ration of provisions per day and for your trouble as an overseer, you shall receive forty dollars per month and two rations of provisions per day. I beg that you inform me if there is a prospect of your getting the men immediately, as they will be much wanted".
Hunstable accepted the position offered and, on July 28th, a group of nine individuals acknowledged receipt of a total of £61.05.00 for labor and materials required for the building of barracks for the boatmen. Installed there were Thomas Hunstable, the overseer, five boatmen and a cook, their equipment comprising three scows, one boat, ten setting poles, eleven oars, one mast and one sail.
As in some college towns there is constant friction between town and gown, so in Springfield there were repeated bickerings and quarrels between civilians and the military personnel. Until the installation of the military ferry, there had been no incident to pro- vide a crisis, but with this encroachment of the army on civilian rights, the resentment of the people became apparent and long- dammed up grievances overflowed. On August 31, 1778, a petition was presented to the Massachusetts Council by the Selectmen of Springfield and West Springfield by which it was most respectfully contended :
"That it is a matter of greater importance than people generally imagine that the greatest prudence and economy should be exercised in the expenditure of the public money. Profusion and extravagance of expense in private life is generally attended with a train of mis- chief, and if continued must end in bankruptcy. The case in that respect is the same with the body politic as with the body natural. The mischief attending profusion and want of economy in the expend- iture of the public money are obvious to the most ordinary capac- ity,-they tend, among other things, to increase the public debt to such an enormous degree as to greatly weaken if not totally destroy that trust and confidence which the people should always entertain for the public faith and credit, and possibly may bring about a revo- lution in the State. Such a conduct has a natural tendency to dis- affect and discourage the people in prosecuting the contest between Britain and the United States. The people see that in private life a man often loses his liberty by being involved in debt beyond his power to discharge and they apprehend the consequences to be the same to the public as to individuals under like circumstances. And when the liberties of the people are gone, what will remain to excite their emulation in the glorious contest. It is of no consequence to the people whether they are ruined by friends or foe,-whether Britain or some other power shall fix the iron yoke on their necks. If the public debt of the United States is increased it should always be from
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