USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester county; a narrative history, Volume I > Part 25
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Committee of Safety and Supplies-Moses Gill was an indefatigable member of the small Committee of Supplies which cooperated with the Pro- vincial Committee of Safety and met with it in secret, usually in Charlestown. In the records we find such entries as: "That the Province arms now in Rox- bury and Boston be removed by Moses Gill, Esq., to Worcester"; "that Moses Gill, Esq., and Doctor Church be a committee to draft a letter to each member of Congress, to require his attendance directly on receipt of said letters"; "that certain colonels, including Colonel Artemas Ward of Shrewsbury and Colonel Jedediah Foster of Brookfield, have each two field pieces put in their hands"; and that "Colonel Timothy Bigelow be applied to as Captain of the Worcester company."
At a meeting in Cambridge April 29, 1775, letters from John Hancock, "now at Worcester" were read ; whereupon, it was voted, "that four reams of paper be immediately ordered to Worcester, for the use of Mr. Thomas, Printer," beyond doubt, that he might continue the publication of the Massa- chusetts Spy and Oracle of Liberty in its new home town.
There is significance in the vote: "That the Rev. Mr. Gordon have free access to the prisoners detained at Worcester and elsewhere, and that all civil magistrates and others be aiding him in examining and taking depositions of them and others." Mr. Gordon was minister of the church and was very active in the Patriot cause.
May 15, 1775, it was voted that Captain John Walker of Worcester, "who came down to the committee for liberty to go into Boston, upon the procla- mation issued by Congress, be apprehended and confined as a prisoner of war, he being a half-pay officer, and under the orders of General Gage, and so not included in that proclamation." On the same day it was voted "to permit Captain John Walker, now on his parole of honor, to pass unmolested to his family at Worcester."
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The committee knew the value of utilizing its prisoners. "In a letter from Colonel James Barrett it is represented that a prisoner now in Worces- ter is a paper-maker, and that Mr. James Boice of Milton is in want of such a person in his paper manufactory ; therefore, resolved, that Colonel Barrett be, and he is hereby directed and empowered, to remove said prisoner from Worcester to said Boice's manufactory in Milton."
"The Committee of Correspondence of the town of Northboro, having sent a certain Ebenezer Cutler to this committee for trial, upon complaint of his being an enemy to this country, and this committee not having authority to act in the case, as they apprehend, do refer the matter to Congress."
Here is what the committee set up as the daily rations for each soldier in the Massachusetts army : One pound of bread, half a pound of beef, and half a pound of pork, and if pork cannot be had, one pound and one quarter of beef; and one day in seven they shall have one pound and a quarter of salt fish, instead of one day's allowance of meat ; one pint of milk, or if milk can- not be had, one gill of rice; one quart of good spruce or malt beer ; one gill of peas or beans, or other sauce equivalent; six ounces of good butter per week; one pound of good common soap for six men per week ; half a pint of vinegar per week per man, if it can be had." We very much doubt if our soldiers often had the chance to enjoy this substantial menu.
The Committee of Safety was actively preparing for war. In its records we read its recommendation to the Committee of Supplies that it procure pork, flour, rice and pease, and deposit the same partly in Worcester and partly in Concord. It further advised the procuring of all arms and ammuni- tion that could be got from the neighboring provinces, and also spades, pick- axes, billhooks, iron pots, mess boards, cannon balls, etc.
On November 2, 1774, the committee "voted to procure supplies as soon as may be, and that two hundred barrels of pork, four hundred barrels of flour, one hundred and fifty bushels of peas be deposited in Worcester ; also at Concord one hundred and fifty barrels of pork, three hundred barrels of flour, fifty tierces of rice and one hundred and fifty bushels of peas. On January 25, 1775, the committee "voted that all cannon, mortars, cannon balls and shells be deposited at the towns of Worcester and Concord in the same proportions that provisions are deposited."
The tension increased. On February 22, the committee "voted that Mr. Abram Watson, on the arrival of more troops (at Boston) take possession of all arms now in the college (Harvard at Cambridge) and send them to Worcester, and also voted that the Province arms, now in Boston and Rox- bury, be removed by Moses Gill, Esq., to Worcester." The activities of the Tories were suspected, and also those of spies from the British troops, and as
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a precaution the committee voted, "that watches be kept constantly at places where the Provincial magazines are kept, and that the clerk write on the sub- ject to Colonel Barrett at Concord, Henry Gardner, Esq., at Stowe, and Cap- tain Timothy Bigelow at Worcester, leaving it to them how many the watch- ers shall consist of."
Almost on the eve of Concord and Lexington, April 17, it was "voted that all ammunition be deposited in nine towns in this Province, Viz .: Worcester, Lancaster, Concord, Groton, Stowe, Mendon, Leicester and Sud- bury." And on the 18th, on which night Paul Revere started on his immortal ride, it was "voted that the towns of Worcester, Concord, Stowe and Lan- caster be furnished with two iron three-pounder cannon each; that five hun- dred iron pots be deposited at Sudbury, five hundred at Concord and one thousand at Worcester ; that two thousand wooden bowls be deposited as are the pots, and the spoons in the same manner; also canteens, two medical chests at Worcester in different parts of the town; sixteen hundred yards of Russian linen, eleven hundred tents to be deposited in Worcester, Lancaster, Groton, Stowe, Mendon, Leicester and Sudbury."
The Call "To Arms!"-"Before noon, on the 19th of April, an express came to the town, shouting, as he passed through the street at full speed 'to arms ! to arms ! The war has begun !'" says Lincoln. "His white horse, bloody with spurring, and dripping with sweat, fell exhausted by the church. Another was instantly procured, and the tidings went on. The bell rang out the alarm, cannon were fired, and messengers sent to every part of the town to collect the soldiery."
The few lines tell the story of what happened in every Worcester County town. The Minutemen were ready. For days they had been expecting the summons. Soon on every road leading easterly could be heard the tramp of marching men, eager, exalted at the task before them.
Rev. A. H. Coolidge in his History of Leicester described a typical scene of that momentous day: "Early in the afternoon of the 19th of April an unknown horseman rode rapidly through the village, stopped long enough before the blacksmith's shop to say, 'The war has begun; the regulars are marching to Concord !' and then hurried on to alarm the towns beyond. The blacksmith, who was Captain Seth Washburn, dropped a ploughshare which he was working, rushed into the road and discharged his musket. The mem- bers of the companies were called together from all parts of the town. At four o'clock every minuteman was on the common. They were not uniformed, but they came with their Queen's arms, and with their powder-horns and shot-pouches.
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"Dr. Honeywood, an Englishman-the physician of the place-had never till that hour had confidence in the ability of the Province to resist the power of Great Britain, but when he saw that little company of resolute, determined men, who had come at a moment's warning, some of them leaving their plows in the furrows, he said, 'Such men at these will fight, and what is more, they won't be beat.'
"The pastor of the church, Reverend Benjamin Conkling, himself a 'high liberty man,' was present, and before the company started, as the men leaned upon their muskets and all heads were uncovered, committed them, in prayer, to the guidance and protection of the God of battles. 'Pray for me and I will fight for you,' said the captain to his venerable mother, and then gave the order 'Forward!' The company began its march but halted in front of the house of Nathan Sargent in Cherry Valley, and Mr. Sargent, to supply the need, melted down the leaden weights of the family clock, and distributed the bullets to the soldiers."
The Minutemen of Worcester County, with a few execptions, were too late, of course, to get into the fighting as the British retreated from Concord. But the towns lying nearest to Concord got the alarm when the morning of April 19 was still young, and some of the mounted men and probably others reached the scene of action before the running fight ended. Among them were Fitchburg and Lunenburg Minutemen, and, it is believed, the mounted company of the Lancaster Regiment of militia with General John Whitcomb, who assisted in directing the attack.
The great majority of the several thousand soldiers of the county did not turn back. They marched on to Cambridge to join the forces from which the Continental Army was created. Their commander-in-chief was General Artemas Ward of Shrewsbury, until he was succeeded by George Wash- ington.
The County Men at Bunker Hill-The battle of Bunker Hill was fought before the arrival of Washington, while General Ward was in com- mand of the militia army, and while the companies and regiments were still in their original form. Among the fifteen hundred Patriots who fought there, "Worcester and Middlesex furnished more than seventy from Brewer's regi- ment, and with them the prudent and fearless William Buckminster of Barre," wrote Bancroft. "From the same counties came above fifty more, led by John Nixon of Sudbury. Willard Moore of Paxton, a man of superior endowments, brought on about forty of Worcester County; from the regi- ment of Whitcomb of Lancaster there appeared at least fifty privates." As a matter of fact, there were one hundred and fifty men from Whitcomb's regiment. Burt's Harvard and Hasting's Bolton company and, it is believed.
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Wilder's Leominster company also fought at Bunker Hill. Their losses were high. But against the Patriot casualties, were the one thousand dead and wounded of the British army of twenty-five hundred.
One cannot refrain from dwelling briefly upon this picture of the redoubt and breastwork and rail fence stuffed with green hay on that historic hill, and waiting behind them farmers and mechanics, doctors and lawyers and merchants, rich men and poor men, boys and gray-haired veterans of the French War, scores and scores of them from our own home Worcester County towns. We see them meeting trained and perfectly armed regulars of the British Army, and beating them bloodily and disastrously, until Patriot powder is exhausted. Our men had labored among the thousand who threw up the works in a night. All morning the guns of British men-of-war had played on them.
In the bright sunshine of a June afternoon we see advancing up the slope the lines of brilliantly uniformed Grenadiers and Light Infantry, the 57th Regiment and the Marines, a gorgeous, disciplined array, twenty-five hundred strong, firing as they advanced-but too soon and too high. We see Colonel Prescott moving among his men, with the cautioning word, "Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes." We hear the sharp command "Fire!" The front line of the British falls almost to a man. They lie as a windrow. The redcoats are staggered. The American fire continues, at point blank range. The British retreat down the hill in disorder. They come again, and again are slaughtered and retreat. With dogged purpose they charge yet again, and this time Patriot powder is exhausted. The fight is hand to hand, American clubbed rifle against British bayonet thrust. Now it is that Worcester County loses its full share of brave men.
With the beginning of active hostilities, Worcester County ceased to be a scene of martial action. But through the long years its people endured supreme trials with fortitude and high moral courage and self-sacrifice. Thousands of its men served in the army and hundreds of them died. The towns filled countless requisitions for men and supplies, and their people paid the bills. As for the campaigns of the Revolution a history of this character has no space to devote to them, for to treat them in narrative form would, naturally, require volumes. Nor is it feasible to consider the personnel of the thousands who enlisted from the shire, drummer boy to commander-in-chief. It is sufficient to repeat that Worcester County contributed more than a gen- erous share in defeating the British forces and winning for the provinces their independence.
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Isaiah Thomas Moves to Worcester-The first copy of a newspaper to be issued in Worcester County was the Massachusetts Spy and Oracle of Liberty which appeared May 3, 1775. Isaiah Thomas established the paper in Boston in 1770, and it soon became the organ of the Patriots and anathema to the Royal Governors. The strongest of the Patriot writers gave the Spy their support. Its influence was felt and feared by the Royalists. Overtures were made to Thomas, with promises of honors, offices, patronage and reward, if he would espouse the cause of the Royal Government. He paid no attention either to their attempted bribes or to their threats of vengeance. His financial ruin was attempted; Patriot friends discharged the sum which he owed for the purchase of his printing establishment. He was summoned to appear before the Governor and Council. Obedience to the executive man- date, three times repeated, was as often refused. Prosecution for libel was instituted by the Royal Attorney-General, but no indictment could be obtained. The name of Isaiah Thomas was placed on the list of the suspected. His printing house was dubbed "the sedition factory." Threats of personal violence went unheeded.
In 1774 Thomas was urged by Worcester County Whigs to establish a newspaper in Worcester. This he finally consented to do. He would con- tinue the Massachusetts Spy and Oracle of Liberty at Boston, and publish the Worcester Gazette and Oracle of Liberty in Worcester.
But Boston got hotter and hotter for the intrepid publisher and editor. Early in April, 1775, he visited John Hancock at Concord, and what he learned there coupled with what he already knew, impelled him to get his printing plant out of Boston without a moment's delay. On the night of April 16, assisted by General Joseph Warren and Colonel Timothy Bigelow, he packed up his press and type, and they were conveyed across the Charles River to Cambridge, and there loaded on an ox-cart and brought over the road in the night.
Mr. Thomas did not accompany his possessions. He remained in Boston to assist Paul Revere and other leaders in watching the British for troop movements, and on the night of the eighteenth of April was an active figure in spreading the alarm. The next morning, musket in hand, he was busy helping harry the British soldiers in their flight back to Boston. This duty ended, he hurried to Worcester, and on the twentieth started setting up his press in the cellar of Timothy Bigelow's house. Paper was procured, and the Spy made its first appearance in the county. Its publisher quickly arranged for its prompt distribution to the towns of the shire and elsewhere, and the Spy became a help and a power in the Patriot cause.
Rum and Tea Necessities-The people of the county became very much wrought up over an act of the Massachusetts Legislature imposing duties on spirituous liquors, teas and other articles of luxuries, which, they
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declared, were not luxuries at all, but necessities. Said one set of resolutions : "If it is necessary to lay duties for the support of government and the sup- pression of extravagance, such duties ought to be levied on such articles as are merely luxurious, and not on some mentioned in this act. Spirituous liquors being absolutely necessary for our seafaring brethren, coasting along our shores in boats and lighters, at all seasons of the year, to supply the markets with wood, lumber and fish; also for the farmer, whose fatigue is almost unsupportable in haytime and harvest ; and for the beginners in bring- ing forward new townships where they have nothing to drink but water, and are, perhaps, exposed to more hardships than any other persons. Nor on Bohea tea, which, in populous towns, and in many places in the country, is substituted, by many poor persons, in the room of milk, which is not to be had, and they find it to be a cheap diet. Nor on common chaises and other carriages, such as are kept in the country, for the necessary conveyance of families to meeting, etc., the use of them very often saves the keeping a horse extraordinary, and enables the farmer to keep more cattle and sheep, which are more profitable."
The Committees of Correspondence had their hands full attending to unregenerate Tories. Everywhere these individuals were compelled to redeem themselves in the eyes of their fellows by espousing the Patriot cause, or giving up their arms, or, in some cases, standing committed to the jail. A considerable number of them fled to Boston, believing that the British Army would soon put an end to the rebellion. In Worcester, the local committee ordered the sheriff to bring before it all Royalists who had not complied with the terms of an offer of redemption, and twenty-nine persons appeared bringing with them all their arms and ammunition, as ordered, and these were seized.
The poor little jail on the Boston Road must have been filled almost to the bursting point. In it were confined obnoxious Tories, British prisoners of war, soldiers of the American Army who had offended military law, poor debtors and criminals. The jailer must have moved his family elsewhere to make room for his many guests. Prisoners of war were released on parole when employment could be found for them, and in 1777, were all removed to Ipswich.
Committee of Secrecy Watches Worcester County-In the year 1777, the county, in common with the rest of the province, and, in fact, with every province, was filled with rumors of Tory plots. No doubt there was founda- tion for many of them. The Life of Artemas Ward tells of the feeling of distrust and disquiet as follows: "The protraction of the struggle and the precarious condition of the American cause (early in 1777) emboldened the
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Tories and they became 'exceedingly busy.' Reports of internal sedition multiplied and the General Court of May 3, 1777, appointed a new 'Com- mittee of Secrecy.' Only two weeks later General Heath (commanding in Massachusetts), advised the Council that he had received information that May 20 was to be made 'the hottest Day that ever America saw, for on that day the Tories would Rise and show themselves.' He added that he believed 'from several other concurring circumstances uncommon vigilance and Exertion are necessary. Distrust is the Mother of security. It is said that a rendezvous of the Paricides is to be somewhere in the County of Worcester. Are there not in that County a considerable number of Highland Soldiers ? Should there be an insurrection, can there be any doubt, that they will not instantly join? And as to their getting of Arms they can easily effect it.'
"May 20 passed innocuously, but dangerous disorder still threatened. The preparations to meet the projected arising had caused its fomenters to delay the attempt, but did not cure their mutinous spirit. They continued 'visiting & journeying from place to place . . . . plotting measures to oppose public exertions, and assist the enemy should a favorable opportunity present.'
"General Ward's home County being especially affected, he left Boston (he was a member of the Council) to return to Shrewsbury for the secret committee-which was equipped with a wide range of power and held authority to direct 'warrants to any Persons Inhabitants of this state for Purpose of arresting and convening any Persons who are liable by law to be arrested for transgressing the Act against Treason and Offences less than Treason and any Acts for punishing Persons inimical to the American States.'" But the surrender of Burgoyne in October, 1777, gave pause to Tory activities in New England, and it is not known that the Committee of Secrecy had to act against the "Paricides."
Burgoyne's Army at Rutland-In the summer of 1778, "you could hardly turn your eyes in any direction without seeing Red Coates" in Rut- land, it was written at the time. After the surrender of Burgoyne's army in the previous year, Congress had authorized the building of barracks in some interior town, and in May Moses Gill and Colonel Thomas Dawes were chosen to "repair to Rutland and Barre and procure a piece of ground to erect barracks thereon." They selected as a site land on the present Rutland- Barre State Highway, at the junction of Chanock Road, then the New Boston Road.
Rutland folk were not pleased with the idea of having their town infested with British and Hessian soldiers, and declined positively to cooperate with the government in the building of the barrack. They refused to sell timber, boards and brick at any price. The work lagged. The committee was com- pelled to obtain of the Board of War the power to seize building materials,
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and presently the structure was completed. It was a big building for that day, forty feet wide, one hundred and forty feet long, and two stories. It was divided into twenty-four rooms twenty feet square, each with its fire- place and two glazed windows. Each room had bunks for twenty prisoners. The barrack was surrounded by a palisade of pickets twelve feet high, with a gate at which sentinels were constantly stationed. A huge well was con- structed by the prisoners, fifteen feet in diameter and ninety feet deep, which gave an abundance of good spring water.
Under the terms of Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, his troops were to be released on parole and permitted to return to England and Germany. Boston was agreed upon as the port of debarkation, and the soldiers were marched to Cambridge to be near the harbor. The British were encamped on Prospect Hill and the Hessians on Winter Hill. The officers had expected to be quartered in Boston, but those who rode on in advance of their fellows and got into the town were promptly ejected. All were assigned to Cam- bridge, Watertown and Mystic, and had a parole area about ten miles in circumference. One of them wrote: "It is no little mortification that I can- not visit Boston, the second city in America, and the grand emporium of rebellion, but our parole excludes us from it." The debarkation of the British Army was delayed, Burgoyne quarrelled with Congress, and the soldiers were left behind as prisoners of war.
In April, 1778, the transfer to Rutland of the troops, officers and men, was begun. Lieutenant Aubrey, one of the paroled officers, wrote an account of his American experiences, which was published in London in 1789. Telling of the transfer he said: "The intentions of Congress are very apparent as to our detention as prisoners, no doubt as hostages in case of failure to the southward and the ensuing campaign, and the apprehension that some division may be made near Boston so that our soldiers might be released, or escape to any army that may make a landing. The council of Boston, under pretence that the troops would fare better, removed the first brigade of the British, consisting of the artillery, advanced corps and Ninth Regiment on the fifteenth of last month from Prospect Hill to a place called Rutland, fifty- five miles further up the country, at which place they are to stay until further orders from Congress. The rest of the British troops are soon to follow. As to the Germans, the Americans look on them as being so tame and submis- sive that they are to remain at their old quarters on Winter Hill.
"By an officer who came from Rutland we learned that the First Brigade arrived there on the 17th about two o'clock. The men were sent to the bar- racks that were picketed in with pickets near twenty feet high, and had been treated with great severity, were very badly supplied with provisions, and denied to go out for anything among the inhabitants. The officers with great
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difficulty obtained quarters in the neighboring houses, and those at a con- siderable distance from each other. It happened fortunately for the troops that a vessel under a flag of truce arrived with some necessaries just before they marched, otherwise the men would have been in a most wretched state."
The commissioned officers were quartered in the homes of the towns- people who seem to have enjoyed a profitable business out of the barrack which they had so bitterly opposed. The officers lived very well, each with his man servant and his horses, paid their bills promptly and strictly observed the terms of their surrender. Evidently they mingled socially with the American families, for three of them fell in love with Rutland belles, and upon departing carried them away as brides.
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