defences, and "seem to wish a trial of their mettle", wrote a
looker-on.[502] The fort in question was built of palmetto logs, and
was unfinished on the land side. Its defenders had four days' warning,
and the neighboring militia were summoned. On the 4th of June the
hostile fleet appeared,[503] and having landed troops on an adjacent
island, it was not till the 27th that their dispositions were made for
an attack.
[Illustration: ATTACK ON CHARLESTON, 1776.
From _Political Mag._ (London, 1780), vol. i. p. 171,—somewhat
reduced. Carrington notes (p. 176), as dated Aug. 31, 1776, and
belonging to the _North Amer. Pilot_: "An exact plan of Charleston and
harbor, from an actual survey, with the attack of Fort Sullivan on the
26th June, 1776, by his Majesty's squadron, commanded by Sir Peter
Parker." Cf. no. 37 of the _American Atlas_ (Faden's), and the _Amer.
Military Pocket Atlas_, 1776, no. 5. Mr. Courtenay, in the _Charleston
Year Book_, 1883 (p. 414), gives a folded fac-simile of a broadside
map, _A plan of the Attack on Fort Sullivan ... with the disposition of
the King's land forces, and the encampments and entrenchments of the
rebels, from the drawings made on the spot. Engraved by Wm. Faden_, by
whom it was published Aug. 10, 1776. The dedication to Com. Parker is
signed by Lieut.-Col. Thomas James, royal regiment of artillery, June
30, 1776. It has a corner plan of the "Platform in Sullivan's Fort",
by James, on a larger scale. Appended to the map are a list of the
attacking ships, and extracts from Parker's and Clinton's despatches.
The channel between Long and Sullivan's islands is given as seven feet
in the deepest part. The original MS. of this Faden map is in the Faden
Collection in the library of Congress (no. 41), where is also a MS.
map of Charleston and its harbor, a topographical drawing, finished
in colors (no. 40). Cf. _Plan de la Barre et du hâvre de Charlestown
d'après un plan anglois levé en_ 1776. _Rédigé au dépôt général de la
marine_ [Paris], 1778. (_Brit. Mus. Maps_, 1885, col. 764.)
These are the different English maps. In the same _Charleston Year
Book_, p. 478, is an account of the successive forts on the same spot.
A view of Charleston is in the _London Mag._ (1762, p. 296), and one by
Thomas Leitch, engraved by S. Smith, 1776, is noted in the _Brit. Mus.
Map Catal._, 1885, col. 764.]
Their ships threw shot at the fort all day, which did very little
damage, while the return fire was rendered with a precision surprising
in untried artillerists, and seriously damaged the fleet,[504] of which
one ship was grounded and abandoned.
[Illustration: WILLIAM MOULTRIE.
From the copperplate in his _Memoirs of American Revolution, on far as
it related to States of N. and S. Carolina and Georgia. Compiled from
most authentic materials, the author's personal knowledge of various
events, and including an Epistolary Correspondence on Public Affairs,
with Civil and Military Officers, at that period_. (New York, 1802, two
volumes.) The likeness in the _National Portrait Gallery_ (New York,
1834) is Scriven's engraving of Trumbull's picture.
There is a portrait in the cabinet of the Penna. Hist. Soc., no. 58.
See the paper on General Moultrie in South Carolina in _Appleton's
Journal_, xix. 503, and Wilmot G. Desaussure's _Address on Maj.-Gen.
William Moultrie_, before the Cincinnati Society of South Carolina,
1885.]
The expected land attack from Clinton's troops, already ashore on
Long Island, was not made. A strong wind had raised the waters of the
channel between that island and Sullivan's Island so high that it
could not be forded, and suitable boats for the passage were not at
hand.[505] A few days later the shattered vessels and the troops left
the neighborhood, and Colonel Moultrie had leisure to count the costs
of his victory, which was twelve killed and twice as many wounded. The
courage of Sergeant Jasper, in replacing on the bastion a flag which
had been shot away, became at once a household anecdote.[506]
CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
THE earliest attempt with any precision to enumerate the various
sources of information upon the whole series of military events about
Boston during 1775 and 1776 was by Richard Frothingham, in the notes of
his _Siege of Boston_ (1849), where, in an appendix, he groups together
the principal authorities. Later than this, Barry (_Massachusetts_,
iii. ch. 1), Dawson (_Battles_, vol. i.), and others had been full in
footnotes; but the next systematized list of sources was printed by
Justin Winsor in 1875, in the _Bulletin_ of the Boston Public Library.
This last enumeration was somewhat extended in the _Bunker Hill
Memorial_, published by the city of Boston,[507] and still more so by
the same writer in his _Handbook of the American Revolution_, Boston,
1879. It is condensed in the _Memorial Hist. of Boston_, iii. 117.
* * * * *
Salem, because of a little alleged pricking of bayonets when Leslie's
expedition was harassed there in February, 1775, has sometimes claimed
to have witnessed the first shedding of blood in the war. The principal
monograph on the subject is C. M. Endicott's _Account of Leslie's
retreat at the North Bridge in Salem, on Sunday, Feb. 26, 1775_ (Salem,
1856).[508] Early resistance to British arms, and even bloodshed in
the act, had undoubtedly occurred before the affair at Lexington, and
writers have cited the mob at Golden Hill,[509] in New York, and the
massacre at Westminster, in the New Hampshire Grants, when an armed
body of settlers arose against the authority of the king, as asserted
in favor of the jurisdiction of New York in March, 1775.[510]
The precipitation of warfare, however, can only be connected with the
expedition to Lexington and Concord. Every stage of the affair has been
invested with interest by discussion and illustration. The ride of Paul
Revere to give warning has grown to be a household tale in the spirited
verse of Longfellow; but, as is the case with almost all of that poet's
treatments of historical episodes, he has paid little attention to
exactness of fact, and has wildly, and often without poetic necessity,
turned the channels of events. In literary treatment, the events of
Lexington and Concord form so distinct a group of references that they
can be best considered in a later note (A), as can also the sources of
information respecting the fight at Bunker Hill (B).
Of the siege of Boston, the chief monograph is Frothingham's, already
referred to. Other contributions of a monographic nature are the
address and chronicle of the siege by Dr. George E. Ellis in the
_Evacuation Memorial of the City of Boston_ (1876); W. W. Wheildon's
_Siege and Evacuation of Boston and Charlestown_ (Boston, 1876,
pp. 64); and the chapters on the siege in Dawson's _Battles of the
United States_, vol. i., and Carrington's _Battles of the Revolution_
(1876).[511]
Among the general historians, Bancroft has made an elaborate study
of the siege, devoting to it a large part of his vol. viii. (orig.
edition), and all the histories of the United States, Massachusetts,
and Boston necessarily cover it.[512]
The principal of the later British historians is Mahon, in his _Hist.
of England_, vol. vi. Lecky (_England in the Eighteenth Century_, ii.
ch. 12), while he goes little into details, gives an admirable account
of the two respective camps. _The Life of Burgoyne_, by Fonblanque, is
the fullest of the biographies of the actors on the British side.
On the American side, the lives of leading officers all necessarily
yield to those of Washington,[513] whose letters, as contained in
vol. iii. of Sparks's ed. of his _Writings_, can well be supplemented
by those of Reed, then his secretary.[514] Of the contemporary
general historians, Gordon and Mercy Warren were familiar with the
actors of the time. The _Journals_ of the Continental Congress and
of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts follow the development
of events, and show how in some ways the legislation shaped
them.[515] Contemporary records and comments are garnered in Almon's
_Remembrancer_, Force's _Archives_, Niles's _Principles and Acts of the
Revolution_, and Moore's _Diary of the Amer. Revolution_. The life and
daily routine of both camps are to be traced in abundant orderly books,
diaries, and correspondence, of which the register is given in the
notes (C and D) following this essay.
Of the Canada expedition, in its combined movements by the Kennebec
and Lake Champlain, the authorities for detail may well be reserved
for later notes (G and H), but for comprehensive treatment references
may be made to the general historians and a few special monographs. As
respects the campaign in general, the only considerable special study
is Charles Henry Jones's _History of the Campaign for the Conquest of
Canada in_ 1776 (Philad., 1882). The book does not profess, however,
to follow the movements before the death of Montgomery, nor to touch
at all the coöperating column of Arnold before it had united with the
other. A principal interest of its writer is, furthermore, to chronicle
the share of Pennsylvanians in the campaign. The study is therefore
but an imperfect one, and the author gives the student no assistance
in indicating his sources. The reader most necessarily have recourse,
then, for a survey of the whole campaign, to such general works as
Bancroft's _United States_ (vol. viii.), Carrington's _Battles_ (p.
122), and other comprehensive and biographical works.[516]
The political aspects of the movement on Canada arise in the main from
the mission of the Commissioners of Congress to the army, and their
efforts to affect the sympathies of the Canadians. The sources of this
matter are also traced in a subsequent note.[517]
[Illustration]
NOTES.
=A.= LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.—The details of Revere's connection with
the events of the 18th and 19th April are not altogether without
dispute. Revere's own narrative was not written till 1798,[518] and
was printed in the _Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections_, vol. v., but not
so accurately as to preclude the advisability of reprinting it in the
same society's _Proceedings_, Nov., 1878. Richard Devens's nearly
contemporary account of the signal lanterns is printed in Frothingham's
_Siege of Boston_, p. 57.[519] The traditional story of the other
messenger of that eventful night is told in H. W. Holland's _William
Dawes and his ride with Paul Revere_.[520]
In a book which was published at Boston in 1873 as _Historic Fields and
Mansions of Middlesex_, but whose title in a second edition, in 1876,
reads _Old Landmarks and Historic Fields of Middlesex_, Mr. Samuel
Adams Drake follows (ch. xvi.-xviii.) the route of the British troops
from Lechmere Point to Concord and back to Charlestown, pointing out
the localities of signal events in the day's course.
The provincial congress ordered depositions[521] to be taken of those
who had participated in the events of the day, with a main purpose of
establishing that the British fired first at Lexington. These were
signed in several copies. One set of them, accompanied by a request
from Warren to Franklin to have them printed and dispersed in England,
was entrusted to Capt. John Derby, of Salem, who took also a copy of
the _Essex Gazette_, in which an account of the fighting was printed,
and sailed in a swift packet for England four days after Lieutenant
Nunn, bearing Gage's despatches, had sailed from Boston (April 24).
Derby reached Southampton on the 27th of May, and was in London the
next day.[522] London had been stirred three weeks before with rumors
of a bloody day with Gage's troops,[523] and now two days later the
government felt called upon to announce they had no tidings; whereupon
Arthur Lee, who, since Franklin had sailed for America, had succeeded
to his place as agent of Massachusetts, and had received the papers,
made a counter-announcement that the public could see the affidavits at
the Mansion House.[524] The tidings spread. Hutchinson communicated the
news to Gibbon, and he recorded it in a letter, May 31.[525] On the 5th
of June Horace Walpole wrote it to Horace Mann. On the 7th, Dartmouth
spoke of the "vague and uncertain accounts of a skirmish, made up for
the purpose of conveying misrepresentation."[526]
[Illustration: LEXINGTON DEPOSITION.
Fac-simile of the original in the Arthur Lee Papers in Harvard College
library. The fac-simile on the opposite page, relating to the action
at Concord, is reproduced from an original in the same collection of
papers.]
[Illustration]
On the same day the friends of America, forming the Constitutional
Society, met at the King's Arms in Cornhill, and raised a subscription
of £100, to be paid to the widows and families of the provincials who
had been killed.[527] On the 8th another vessel reached Liverpool,
confirming the news, but giving no particulars. Finally, on the 10th,
the official report of Gage, with the statements of Percy and Smith,
reached the government.[528]
Meanwhile, both sides at home had been busy with circulating their
pleas of vindications. The provincial congress at once despatched
messengers south,[529] and the Rev. William Gordon, an Englishman
settled in Jamaica Plain, drew up (May 17, 1775) for the patriots their
authoritative _Account of the Commencement of hostilities_;[530] and
various other contemporary accounts on the provincial side have come
down to us,[531] and of importance among them are the narratives of
the ministers of Lexington and Concord, the Reverends Jonas Clark and
William Emerson.[532]
[Illustration: LEXINGTON, 1775.
After a plan in Hudson's _Lexington_, p. 173. The British approached
from Boston up the road, past the Munroe Tavern, still standing (C),
past Loring's house and barn (I J); and opposite Emerson's house (H)
they sighted, looking beyond the meeting-house (L), the Lexington
militia, under Capt. John Parker, drawn up along the farther side of
the triangular green, in front of the houses of Daniel Harrington
(E) and Jonathan Harrington (D, still standing) (who was one of the
killed), which were separated from each other by a blacksmith's shop
(G). The house on the opposite side of the common (F) was Nathan
Munroe's (still standing), and on the third side was Bucknam's Tavern
(B, still standing), where Parker's company was mostly assembled
when the order was given to form on the common. When the minute-men
scattered, most of them ran across the swamp; but some fled up the
Bedford road, in the direction of the Clarke House (A), still standing,
where Adams and Hancock had spent the night, but from which they were
now hurrying towards Burlington for better protection.
On the return of the British from Concord, they met Percy's column
on the road between Munroe's Tavern and Loring's. Percy now kept the
provincials at bay by planting his field-pieces at M and N, while some
of the wounded were carried into the tavern, which is still standing.
The buildings (I J) were set on fire and burned down. Balls from
Percy's cannon have been dug up since in the town. One went through the
meeting-house (L). Several of these balls are preserved. While Percy
was halting, General Heath arrived among the provincials and assumed
the command. Cf. the plans in Josiah Adams's _Address at Acton_;
Moore's _Ballad History of the Revolution_.
There are views of the Clarke House in Hudson's _Lexington_, 430;
Drake's _Landmarks of Middlesex_, 364-368; Lossing's _Field-Book_, i.
523; and of the Munroe Tavern in Hudson, part ii. p. 161.]
The _Memoirs_ of General Heath are, of course, of first importance; for
he was on the ground soon after Percy took the command on the British
side.[533]
[Illustration: CONCORD, 1775.
This follows a plan in Hudson's _Lexington_, p. 191. The British
approached from Lexington by the road (1), and halted in the middle of
the town (3). The provincials, who were assembled by the liberty-pole
(2), retired along the road (5) by the Rev. William Emerson's house
[Hawthorne's "Old Manse"], and across the North Bridge (between 5 and
8) to the high land (6), where they halted, and where reinforcements
from the neighboring towns reached them. Colonel Smith, the British
commander, now sent out two parties to seek for stores. One, which went
by the road (4) to the South Bridge, found little. The other followed
the road (5) by the North Bridge, and passing beneath the provincials
at 6, turned to their right, and took the road (5) to Colonel Barrett's
house, where they destroyed some cannon and other stores. This second
party had left a detail at the North Bridge to secure their retreat by
that way, for the road (10) did not then exist. The provincials, after
the party bound to Colonel Barrett's passed on, descended from 6 to the
North Bridge, when the detail defending it, who were near 8, recrossed
the bridge. Here the first firing took place, and some were killed
on both sides, the river being between the combatants. The British
detail now retired towards the centre of the town, the Americans
following them across the bridge, but immediately dispersing without
military order. While thus scattered, the British party, returning from
Barrett's house, recrossed the North Bridge without molestation, and
rejoined the main body at the centre of the town. Here the British,
after destroying other stores and delaying for about two hours, formed
for the return march towards Lexington, the main body following the
road (2), while a flanking party took the ridge of high land (2).
Cf. also the plans in Frothingham's _Siege of Boston_, 70.]
A few days after the 19th, John Adams tells us[534] he rode along "the
scene of action toward Lexington for many miles, and inquired of the
inhabitants the circumstances." He gives us no particulars, but what he
learned was not calculated to diminish his ardor in the cause.[535]
The accounts on the British side are almost equally numerous, including
the official reports of Gage, Percy, and Smith, already referred to.
General Gage sent (April 29)[536] to Gov. Trumbull, of Connecticut,
a statement, which was printed at the time in a handbill as a
_Circumstantial Account_, and he refers to it "as taken from gentlemen
of indisputable honor and veracity, who were eye-witnesses of all the
transactions of that day."[537]
In 1779 there was printed at Boston a pamphlet containing General
Gage's instructions to Brown and De Bernière,[538] from a MS. left in
Boston by a British officer, to which is appended an account of the
"transactions" of April 19, with a list of the killed, wounded, and
missing,[539] and in 1775 there was printed at London a contemporary
summary in _The Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Dispute_.[540]
The question of firing the first shot at Lexington was studiously
examined at the time, each side claiming exemption from the charge
of being the aggressor, and Frothingham[541] and Hudson[542] collate
the evidence. It seems probable that the British fired first, though
by design or accident a musket on the provincial side flashed in the
pan before the regulars fired.[543] That some irregular return of the
British fire was made seems undeniable, though at the time of the
semi-centennial celebration certain writers, anxious to establish
for Concord the credit of first forcibly resisting the British arms,
denied that claim on the part of the neighboring town. The controversy
resulted in Elias Phinney's _Battle of Lexington_, published in
1825,[544] with depositions of survivors, taken in 1822; and Ezra
Ripley's _Fight at Concord_, published in 1827.[545] The parts borne by
the men of other towns have had their special commemorations.[546]
[Illustration: PART OF EMERSON'S RECORD IN HIS DIARY, APRIL 19, 1775
(from Whitney's _Literature of the Nineteenth of April_).]
[Illustration: PERCY.
From Andrews's _Hist. of the War_, Lond., 1785, vol. ii. A portrait
engraved by V. Green is noted in J. C. Smith's _Brit. Mezzotint
Portraits_, ii. 576. Cf. also _Evelyns in America_, 304; _Memorial
Hist. of Boston_, iii. 57, 58; "Percy family and Alnwick Castle" in
Jewitt's _Stately Homes of England_. In the _Third Report_ of the Hist.
MSS. Commission there are (1872) various papers of the Percy family
touching the American war. Some of these papers have been procured
from England by the Rev. E. G. Porter, of Lexington. Several letters
of Percy, addressed to Bishop Percy, sold not long since at a sale of
the Bishop's MSS., were bought by a London dealer, and are now in the
Boston Public Library. They are quoted from in this and other chapters.
On July 30, 1776, a picture of Percy was placed in Guildhall, London,
by the magistrates of the city and liberties of Westminster, in token
of his services in America. Cf. also Doyle's _Official Baronage_, ii.
670.]
[Illustration: PERCY.
From Murray's _Impartial Hist. of the present War_, i. 382.]
=B.= BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL, _June 17, 1775_.—There are four sufficient
authorities for tracing all that is known respecting the battle of
Bunker Hill, even to minute particulars, especially with respect
to the testimony of those who, from nearness to the event, or from
opportunity, are best entitled to be considered in the matter. The
earliest master of the literature and records of the fight was Richard
Frothingham, who through life was identified with the story of Bunker
Hill, and who has on the whole, in his _Siege of Boston_ and in his
_Life of Joseph Warren_, given us the amplest details.[547] His latest
gleanings were included in _The Battlefield of Bunker hill: with a
relation of the action by William Prescott, and illustrative documents.
A paper communicated to the Massachusetts Historical Society, June
10, 1875, with additions._ (Boston: printed for the author. 1876. 46
pp.)[548]
In June, 1868, Henry B. Dawson, in a special number of the _Historical
Magazine_, entered into an elaborate collation of nearly all that had
been published up to that time, making his references in footnotes,
which serve as a bibliography of the subject.[549]
[Illustration: LEXINGTON GREEN.
From the _Massachusetts Magazine_ (Boston, 1794). Four views (12 X 18
inches, on copper) of different aspects of the day's fight were drawn
by Earl, a portrait painter, and engraved by Amos Doolittle shortly
afterward. They are reproduced in the centennial edition of Jonas
Clark's _Narrative_; in Frank Moore's _Ballad History_; in _Potter's
American Monthly_, April, 1875; in _Antique views of y^e Town of
Boston_; and separately, with an explanatory text, by E. G. Porter, as
_Four Drawings of the Engagement at Lexington and Concord_ (Boston,
1883). The view of the attack on Lexington Green was drawn from Daniel
Harrington's house (see plan), and was reduced by Doolittle himself
for Barber's _History of New Haven_. (W. S. Baker's _Amer. Engravers_,
Philad., 1875, p. 45.) It has also been redrawn several times by
others. See Lossing's _Field-Book_, i. 421, 524; Hudson's _Lexington_,
p. 183; the Centennial edition of Phinney, etc.
Earl and Doolittle were soldiers of a New Haven company, which reached
Cambridge a few days after the fight.
There is a view of Concord taken in 1776 in the _Massachusetts Mag._,
July, 1794, which is reproduced in Whitney's _Literature of the
Nineteenth of April_.
There is an early but fanciful picture of the "Journée de Lexington"
in François Godefroy's _Recueil d'Estampes representant les different
événemens de la guerre qui a procuré l'indépendence aux États Unis de
l'Amérique_.
An account of Jonathan Harrington, the last survivor of the fight, is
in _Potter's Amer. Monthly_, April, 1875, and in Jones's _New York
during the Revolution_, i. 552.
In fiction, mention need only be made of Cooper's _Lionel Lincoln_, and
Hawthorne's _Septimus Felton_.
In 1875 there was an exhibition of relics of the fight at Lexington,
and some of them are still retained in the library hall. A printed list
of them was issued in 1875. A musket taken from a British soldier was
bequeathed by Theodore Parker to the State of Massachusetts, and now
hangs in the Senate Chamber. Cf. _Hist. Mag._, iv. 202 (July, 1880).]
In 1875 Justin Winsor published first in the _Bulletin_ of the Boston
Public Library a bibliographical commentary on all printed matter
respecting the battle, grouping his notes by their affinities; and this
was enlarged in the _Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the
Battle_, published by the city of Boston in 1875; and still further
augmented in a section of his _Handbook of the American Revolution_
(Boston, 1879).
In 1880 James F. Hunnewell, in his _Bibliography of Charlestown and
Bunker Hill_ (Boston), grouped everything alphabetically under such
main headings as monographs, maps and plans, contemporary newspapers,
American statements, British accounts, French accounts, anniversaries.
His enumeration is more nearly exhaustive than Mr. Winsor's, though
this may still supplement it in some particulars.
* * * * *
The earliest printed accounts which we have of the battle are in
the newspapers, and of these a full enumeration is given by Mr.
Hunnewell.[550]
What may be called the official statements on the American side were
speedily placed before the public, but, strange to say, neither of the
two officers who have been held to have directed the conduct of the
Americans vouched for any of the early accounts. From Putnam we have
nothing. Prescott made no statement, which has come down to us, earlier
than in a letter addressed to John Adams, Aug. 25, 1775,[551] though he
is said to have assisted the Rev.
[Illustration: RICHARD FROTHINGHAM.
After a steel plate kindly furnished by Mr. Frothingham's son, Mr.
Thomas Goddard Frothingham. There is a memoir of Mr. Frothingham, by
Charles Deane, in the _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings_, Feb., 1885, and
separately. Mr. Frothingham was born Jan. 31, 1812, and died Jan. 29,
1880. Remarks made to the society at the time of his death are in the
_Proc._ (Feb., 1880), xvii. 329. Cf. R. C. Winthrop's _Speeches_ (1878,
etc.), p. 125.]
Peter Thacher in a narrative which was prepared within a fortnight,
Thacher himself having observed the fight from the Malden side of
Mystick River.[552] This Thacher MS. was made the basis of the account
which the Committee of Safety, by order of the provincial congress,
prepared for sending to England.[553] There have been preserved a
large number of letters and statements written by eye-witnesses or by
those near at hand, some of them conveying particulars essential to
the understanding of the day's events, but most adding little beyond
increasing our perceptions of the feelings of the hour.[554]
[Illustration:
After the painting belonging to Yale College. Cf. photograph in
Kingsley's _Yale College_, i. 102; engravings in Hollister's
_Connecticut_, i. 234, and _Amer. Quart. Reg._, viii. 31, 193; and
memoir in Sparks's _Amer. Biog._, xvi. 3, by J. L. Kingsley.]
To these may be added various diaries and orderly-books, which are of
little distinctive value.[555] There are other accounts, written at a
later period, in which personal recollections are assisted by study
of the recitals of others, and chief among them are the narrative in
Thacher's _Military Journal_ (Boston, 1823), where the account is
entered as of July, 1775, and chapter xix. of General James Wilkinson's
_Memoirs_ (1816), embodying what he learned in going over the field
in March, 1776, with Stark and Reed. Col. John Trumbull saw the smoke
of the fight from the Roxbury lines, and gave an outline narrative
in his _Autobiography_ (1841).[556] The account in General Heath's
_Memoirs_ (Boston, 1798) is short.[557] A few of the earlier general
histories of the war were written by those on the American side who
had some advantages by reason of friendly or other relations with the
actors.[558] Of the still later accounts, Frothingham and Dawson have
already been referred to for their bibliographical accompaniments.
The diversity of evidence[559] respecting almost all cardinal points
of the battle's history has necessarily entailed more or less of
the controversial spirit in all who have written upon it, but for
thoroughness of research and a fair discrimination combined, the
labors of Frothingham must be conceded to be foremost. Dawson is
elaborate, and he reveals more than Frothingham the processes of his
collations, but his spirit is not so tempered by discretion, and an
air of flippant controversy often pervades his narrative. Of the more
recent general historians it is only necessary to mention Bancroft[560]
and Carrington. The former gave to it three chapters in his original
edition, in 1858, which, by a little condensation, make a single
one in his final revision, but without material change.[561] The
account in Carrington[562] is intended to be distinctively a military
criticism.[563]
The troops of Connecticut[564] and New Hampshire[565] were the only
ones engaged beside those of Massachusetts.
The question of who commanded during the day has been the subject of
continued controversy, arising from the too large claims of partisans.
Though there is much conflict of contemporary evidence, it seems well
established that Col. William Prescott commanded at the redoubt, and
no one questioned his right. He also sent out the party which in the
beginning protected his flank towards the Mystick; but when Stark,
with his New Hampshire men, came up to strengthen that party, his
authority seems to have been generally recognized, and he held the rail
fence there as long as he could to cover the retreat of Prescott's men
from the redoubt. Putnam, the ranking officer on the field, Warren
disclaiming all right to command, withdrew men with entrenching tools
from Prescott, and planned to throw up earthworks on the higher
eminence, now known as Bunker Hill proper, and near the end of the
retreat he assumed a general command, and directed the fortifying of
Prospect Hill. It is not apparent, then, that any officer, previous to
this last stage of the fight, can be said to have had general command
in all parts of the field. The discussion of the claims of Putnam and
Prescott has resulted in a large number of monographs, and has formed a
particular feature in many of the general accounts of the battle, the
mention of some of which has for this reason been deferred till they
could be placed in the appended note.[566]
A list of officers in the battle, not named in Frothingham's _Siege_,
is given in the _N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, April, 1873; and an
English list of the Yankee officers in the force about Boston in
June, 1775, is in _Ibid._, July, 1874. The Lives of participants and
observers add occasionally some items to the story.[567]
[Illustration:
This follows the reproduction of an engraving in J. C. Smith's _Brit.
Mezzotint Portraits_, p. 1716, which is inscribed: ISRAEL PUTNAM, Esq.,
_Major-General of the Connecticut forces, and Commander-in-chief at the
engagement on Buncker's-Hill, near Boston, 17 June, 1775. Published
by C. Shepherd, 9 Sep^r 1775. J. Wilkinson pinxt._ (Cf. _Mass. Hist.
Soc. Proc._, xix. 102.) There is a French engraving, representing him
in cocked hat, looking down and aside, and subscribed "Israel Putnam,
Eq^{re}., major général des Troupes de Connecticut. Il commandait en
chef à l'affaire de Bunckes hill près Boston, le 17 Juin, 1775." Col.
J. Trumbull made a sketch of Putnam, which has been engraved by W.
Humphreys (_National Portrait Gallery_, N. Y., 1834) and by Thomas
Gimbrede.
Cf. portraits in Murray's _Impartial Hist._ (1778), i. 334; Hollister's
_Connecticut_; Irving's _Washington_, illus. ed., i. 413; and
_Geschichte der Kriege in und ausser Europa_ (Nürnberg, 1778).
For lives of Putnam, see Sabin, xvi. no. 66,804, etc. For his
birthplace, see _Appleton's Journal_, xi. 321; Miss Larned's _Windham
County, Conn._ Cf. B. J. Lossing in _Harper's Monthly_, xii. 577;
_Evelyns in America_, 273; R. H. Stoddard in _Nat. Mag._, xii. 97.]
[Illustration: JOSEPH WARREN.
After a copperplate by J. Norman in _An Impartial Hist. of the War
in America_ (Boston, 1781), vol. ii. p. 210. The best known picture
of Warren is a small canvas by Copley, belonging to Dr. John Collins
Warren, of Boston, which has been often engraved, and is given in
mezzotint by H. W. Smith in Frothingham's _Life of Warren_. The picture
in Faneuil Hall is painted after this, and Thomas Illman has engraved
that copy. A larger canvas by Copley, painted not long before that
artist left Boston for England, is owned by Dr. Buckminster Brown,
of Boston, and was engraved for the first time in the _Mem. Hist. of
Boston_, iii. 60, where will be found accounts of various contemporary
prints and memorials of Warren (pp. 59, 61, 142, 143), including his
house at Roxbury, the manuscript of his Massacre Oration, etc. Cf.
Frothingham's _Warren_, p. 546; _Hist. Mag._, Dec., 1857; Loring's
_Hundred Boston Orators_, p. 67; Mrs. J. B. Brown's _Stories of
General Warren_; _Life of Dr. John Warren_; the _Warren Genealogy_;
_Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, Sept., 1866. The earliest eulogy was that
by Perez Morton in 1776 (Loring's _Hundred Boston Orators_, 327;
Niles's _Principles and Acts_, 1876, p. 30), and the earliest memoir
of any extent was that by A. H. Everett, in Sparks's _Amer. Biography_
(vol. x.). There are reminiscences in the _N. E. Hist. and Geneal.
Reg._, xii. 113, 234, which were based by Gen. William H. Sumner on
some letters published by him in 1825 in the _Boston Patriot_, when,
as adjutant-general of the State, he arranged for the appearance of
the Bunker Hill veterans in the celebration of that year, and derived
some reminiscences from them respecting Warren's appearance and
action during the fight. All other accounts of Warren, however, have
been eclipsed by Frothingham's _Life of Warren_ (Boston, 1865). In
the _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_ (June 17, 1875), Dr. John
Jeffries (son of the surgeon of the British army who saw Warren's body
on the field) published a paper on his death. Cf. also R. J. Speirr in
Potter's _Amer. Monthly_, v. 571; Frothingham's _Warren_, pp. 519, 523;
Barry's _Massachusetts_, i. 37, and references.
The grateful intentions expressed by the Massachusetts House of
Representatives (April 4, 1776), by the Continental Congress (April
8, 1777; Sept. 6, 1778; July 1, 1780,—see _Journals of Congress_),
and by the Congress of the United States (Jan. 30, 1846,—_Mass.
Hist. Soc. Proc._, ii. 337), have never been carried out. Benedict
Arnold manifested a special interest in the welfare of Warren's
children (_N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, April, 1857, p. 122). The
Freemasons erected a pillar to his memory on the battlefield in 1794,
which disappeared when the present obelisk was begun in 1825. There
is a view of the pillar in the _Analectic Mag._, March, 1818, and
in Snow's _Boston_, 309. Cf. _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, xiv. 65. A
statue of Warren, by Henry Dexter, was placed in a pavilion near the
obelisk in 1857. Cf. G. W. Warren's _Hist. of the Bunker Hill Monument
Association_; Frothingham's _Warren_, p. 547.]
Among the anniversary discourses upon the battle, a few will bear
reading. The earliest was by Josiah Bartlett in 1794, published by B.
Edes, in Boston, the next year. Daniel Webster made a famous address
at the laying of the corner-stone of the monument in 1825, which can
be found in his _Works_, i. 59. (Cf. _Analectic Mag._, vol. xi.; A.
Levasseur's _Lafayette en Amérique_, Paris, 1829.) The same orator, at
the completion of the monument in 1843, embodied little of historical
interest in his Address. (_Works_, i. 89.[568]) Alexander H. Everett's
_Address_ in 1836 was subsequently inwoven in his _Life of Warren_. The
Rev. George E. Ellis began his conspicuous labors in this field in his
discourse in 1841. Edward Everett spoke in 1850 (_Orations_, etc., iii.
p. 3), and Gen. Charles Devens, at the Centennial in 1875, delivered an
oration, which was published by the city of Boston. The most noteworthy
address since that time was that of Robert C. Winthrop at the unveiling
of the statue of Colonel William Prescott, June 17, 1881.[569] This
statue, of which an engraving will be found in the _Mem. Hist. of
Boston_ (iv. 410), stands near the base of the monument.[570]
* * * * *
We turn now to the accounts on the British side. The orderly-books
of General Howe are preserved among Lord Dorchester's (Carleton's)
Papers in the Royal Institution, London. Sparks made extracts from
them, now in no. xlv. of the _Sparks MSS._ in Harvard College library.
Extracts relating to the dispositions for the day of the battle, and
for subsequent days, are given by Ellis (1843) p. 88.[571] Cf. _Mag.
of Amer. Hist._, 1885, p. 214. The more immediate English notes and
comments on the battle can be best grouped in a note.[572]
During 1775 there were two English accounts, aiming at something like
historical perspective. One of these was, very likely, by Edmund Burke,
and was in the _Annual Register_ (p. 133, etc.). The other was _An
Impartial and Authentic Narrative of the Battle fought on the 17th of
June, 1775, between his Britannic Majesty's Troops and the American
Provincial Army on Bunker's Hill near Charles Town in New England_.
The author was John Clark, a first lieutenant of marines. He gives a
speech of Howe to his men, representing that it was delivered just
as he advanced to the attack, but this and much else in the book are
considered of doubtful authenticity.[573]
In 1780 there appeared in the _London Chronicle_ some letters by Israel
Mauduit, which were republished the same year as _Three letters to
Lord Viscount Howe: added, Remarks on the battle of Bunker's Hill_
(London, 1780), which in a second edition (1781) reads additionally
in the title, _To which is added a comparative view of the Conduct of
Lord Cornwallis and General Howe_. There was among the Chalmers' MSS.
(Thorpe's _Supplemental Catal._, 1843, no. 660) a writing entitled
_Some particulars of the battle of Bunker's Hill, the situation of the
ground_, etc. (8 pp., 1784), which Chalmers calls a "most curious paper
in the handwriting of Israel Mauduit, found among his pamphlets, Jan.
23, 1789."
In 1784 William Carter's _Genuine Detail of the Royal and American
Armies_ appeared in London. Carter was a lieutenant in the Fortieth
Foot, and his book was seemingly reissued in 1785, with a new
title-page. (Brinley, no. 1,789; Stevens, _Bibl. Amer._, 1885, nos. 80,
81; Harvard Coll. lib., 6351.16.)
[Illustration:
NOTE.—The fac-simile on this page is of a handbill, printed in Boston,
giving the tory side of the fight at Bunker Hill,—after an original in
the library of the Mass. Hist. Society.]
[Illustration: NOTE.—This sketch of Bunker Hill Battle, made for Lord
Rawdon, follows a tracing of the original belonging to Dr. Emmet of
New York, furnished to me by Mr. Benson J. Lossing. A finished drawing
from this sketch is given in the _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. iii. Cf.
_Harper's Mag._ xlvii., p. 18. The spire in the foreground is that of
the West Church, which stood where Dr. Bartol's church, in Cambridge
Street, Boston, now stands, showing that the sketcher was on Beacon
hill, 138 feet above the water. The smoke from the frigate to the right
of the spire rises against the higher hill where Putnam endeavored
to rally the retreating provincials. This hill is 110 feet above the
water, and about one mile and a half distant from the spectator. One
hundred and thirty rods to the right of this summit is the crown of the
lower or Breed's Hill, where the redoubt was, which is 62 feet above
the sea. Dr. Emmet secured this picture and another of the slope of
the hill, taken after the battle, and showing the broken fences (_Mem.
Hist. of Boston_, iii. 88), at the sale of the effects of the Marquis
of Hastings, who was a descendant of Lord Rawdon, then on Gage's staff
(_Harper's Monthly Mag._, 1875). The earliest engraved picture of the
battle is one cut by Roman, which was published the same year, and
appeared also in Sept., 1775, on a reduced scale, in the _Pennsylvania
Magazine_. It has been reproduced in Frothingham's _Centennial: Battle
of Bunker Hill_ (1875), in Moore's _Ballad History_, and in other of
the Centennial memorials. In 1781 a poem by George Cockings, _The
American War_ (London), had a somewhat extraordinary picture, which
has been reproduced in Gay's _Pop. Hist. U. S._, iii. 401, by S. A.
Drake, and others. In 1786 Col. John Trumbull painted his well-known
picture of the battle, which has been often engraved. (Cf. Trumbull's
_Autobiography_; _N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, xv.; Tuckerman's _Book
of the Artists_; _Harper's Magazine_, Nov., 1879.) Trumbull claimed
that the following figures in his picture were portraits: Warren,
Putnam, Howe, Clinton, Small, and the two Pitcairns.
In the _Mass. Magazine_, Sept., 1789, there is a view of Charlestown,
showing Bunker's and Breed's hills, with their original contours. It
is reproduced in _Mem. Hist. Boston_, iii. 554, with a note upon other
early views. Frothingham (_Siege_, p. 121) gives one from an early
manuscript which closely resembles the topography of the Rawdon sketch;
and again (_Centennial_, etc.) another which is in fact the perspective
sketch of the town at the edge of Price's view of Boston (1743),
converted into a panoramic picture (_Mem. Hist. of Boston_, ii. 329).
The _Gentleman's Mag._, Feb., 1790, has a view of Charlestown, with the
tents of the British army on the hill, taken after the battle, and from
Copp's Hill. It shows the wharves and ruins of the town. (Cf. note in
_Mem. Hist. Boston_, iii. 88.)]
The account of the loyalist Jones (_N. Y. during the Rev._, i. 52) has
his usual twist of vision, though he is severe on Gage for "taking the
bull by the horns" in making an attack in front.
[Illustration: CHARLESTOWN PENINSULA, 1775.
Sketched from a plan by Montresor, showing the redoubt erected by the
British, after June 17, on the higher eminence of Bunker Hill. The
original is in the library of Congress, where is a plan on a large
scale of this principal redoubt.]
The long list of general histories on the British side, detailing the
events of the battle, begins with Murray's _Impartial Hist. of the War_
(London, 1778; Newcastle, 1782), and is made up during the rest of that
century by the _Hist. of the War_ published at Dublin (1779-85); Hall's
_Civil War in America_ (1780); _The Detail and Conduct of the Amer.
War_ (1780); Andrews's _Hist. of the War_ (1785, vol. i. 301,—quoted
at length by Ryerson, _Loyalists_, i. 461); Stedman, _Hist. Amer. War_
(London, 1794, vol. i. 125). The best of the later historians is Mahon
(_Hist. of England_, vi.), who was forced to admit, when pressed upon
the question, that the American claims of victory, which he says they
have always held, appear only in the reports of later British tourists
(vol. vi., App. xxix.). Lecky, in his brief account (_England in the
Eighteenth Century_, iii. 463), makes an intention of Gage to fortify
the Charlestown and not the Dorchester heights the incentive to the
American occupation of the former. Edw. Bernard's _History of England_
(London) has a curious "View of the Attack on Bunker's Hill, with the
burning of Charlestown."
Something confirmatory, rather than of original value, can be gained
from the histories of various regiments which took part in the
battle, as detailed in the series of _Historical Records_ of such
regiments.[574]
* * * * *
The battle almost immediately found commemoration in British ballads
(_Hist. Mag._, ii. 58; v. 251; Hale's _Hundred Years Ago_, p. 7), and
the slain were commemorated in elegiac verses, as in M. M. Robinson's
_To a young lady, on the death of her brother, slain in the late
engagement at Boston_ (London, 1776). The same year there appeared at
Philadelphia _The Battle of Bunker's Hill, a dramatic piece in five
acts, in heroic measure, by a gentleman of Maryland_.
[Illustration: PLAN OF BUNKER HILL.
NOTE.—The references in the corner of this cut, too fine to be easily
read in this reduced fac-simile, are as follows:—
"_A A._ First position, where the troops remained until reinforcements
arrived.
_B B._ Second position.
_C C C._ Ground on which the different regiments marched to form the
line.
_D D._ Direction in which the attack was made upon the redoubt and
breastwork.
_E E._ Position of a part of the 47th and marines, to silence the fire
of a barn at E.
_F._ First position of the cannon.
_G._ Second position of the cannon in advancing with the grenadiers,
but stopped by the marsh.
_H._ Breastwork formed of pickets, hay, stones, etc., with the pieces
of cannon.
_I I._ Light infantry advancing along the shore to force the right of
the breastwork _H_.
_L L._ The "Lively" and "Falcon" hauled close to shore, to rake the low
grounds before the troops advanced.
_M M._ Gondolas that fired on the rebels in their retreat.
_N._ Battery of cannon, howitzers, and mortars on Copp's Hill, that
battered the redoubt and set fire to Charlestown.
_O O O._ The rebels behind all the stone walls, trees, and brush-wood,
and their numbers uncertain, having constantly large columns to
reinforce them during the action.
_P._ Place from whence the grenadiers received a very heavy fire.
_Q._ Place of the fifty-second regiment on the night of the 17th.
_R._ Forty-seventh regiment, in Charlestown, on the night of the 17th.
_S._ Detachments in the mill and two storehouses.
_T._ Breastwork thrown up by the remainder of the troops on the night
of the 17th.
_Note._ The distance from Boston to Charlestown is about 550 yards."]
Its author is said to be Hugh Henry Brackenridge, and the frontispiece,
"The Death of Warren", by Norman, is held to be the earliest engraving
in British America by a native artist (Hunnewell, p. 13; Brinley, no.
1,787; Sabin, ii. 7,184; xiv. 58,640). In 1779 there was printed at
Danvers, _America Invincible, an heroic poem, in two books: a Battle at
Bunker Hill, by an officer of rank in the Continental army_ (Hunnewell,
p. 13). In 1781 an anonymous poem was published in London, known later
to be the production of George Cockings, and called _The American War,
in which the names of the officers who have distinguished themselves
during the war are introduced_ (Brinley, no. 1,788; Hunnewell, p. 14).
Of later use of the battle in fiction, it is only necessary to name
Cooper's novel of _Lionel Lincoln_ and O. W. Holmes's _Grandmother's
Story of Bunker Hill Battle_ (_Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, 1875, p. 33).
* * * * *
The chief enumerations which have been heretofore made of the plans
of the battle of Bunker Hill are by Frothingham, in _Mass. Hist. Soc.
Proc._, xiv. 53; by Hunnewell in his _Bibliog. of Charlestown_, p. 17;
and by Winsor in the _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, iii. (introduction). The
earliest rude sketches are by Stiles in his diary (Dawson, p. 393),
and one formed by printer's rules in _Rivington's Gazetteer_, Aug. 3,
1775 (Frothingham's _Siege_, p. 397, and Dawson, p. 390). Montresor, of
the British engineers, very soon made a survey of the field, and this
was used by Lieutenant Page in drawing a plan of the action, which he
carried to England with him when, on account of wounds received while
acting as an aid to Howe, he was given leave of absence (_Mass. Hist.
Soc. Proc._, June, 1875, p. 56). In the Faden collection (nos. 25-30)
of maps in the library of Congress there are Page's rough and finished
plans, drawn before the British works on the hill were begun, and also
plans by Montresor and R. W., of the Welsh Fusiliers. Page's plan,
as engraved, was issued in London in 1776, and called _A Plan of the
Action at Bunker's Hill_.[575]
Page's, however, was not the first engraved. One "by an officer on
the spot" was published in London, Nov. 27, 1775, called _Plan of
the battle on Bunker's Hill. Fought on the 17th of June_, which was
issued as a broadside, with Burgoyne's letter to Lord Stanley on the
same sheet. The central position of the Americans is called "Warren's
redoubt." This is reproduced in F. Moore's _Ballad History of the
Revolution_.
Another contemporary British plan—discovered probably "in the baggage
of a British officer", after the royal troops left Boston in March,
1776, but not brought to light till forty years later, when it was
mentioned in a newspaper in Wilkesbarre, Penn., as having been found in
an old drawer—was one made by Henry de Bernière, of the Tenth Royal
Infantry, on nearly the same scale as Page's, but less accurately.
[Illustration: BOSTON AND BUNKER HILL.
(_Impartial History_, _etc._, 1781.) ]
It was engraved in 1818 in the _Analectic Magazine_ (Philad., p. 150),
and a fac-simile of that engraving is annexed. The text accompanying
it states that its general accuracy had been vouched for by Governor
Brooks, General Dearborn, Dr. A. Dexter, Deacon Thos. Miller, John
Kettell, Dr. Bartlett, the Hon. James Winthrop, and Mr. [Judge]
Prescott. General Dearborn and Deacon Miller thought the rail fence
too far in the rear of the redoubt, having been really nearly in the
line of it. Judge Winthrop and Dr. Bartlett thought the map in this
particular correct. There was the same division of belief regarding
the cannon behind the fence, Dearborn and Miller believing there were
none there, Brooks and Winthrop holding the contrary. Other witnesses
represented to the editor of the _Magazine_ that there was no interval
between the breastwork and the fence, but that an imperfect line of
defence connected the redoubt with the Mystick shore, as represented in
Stedman's (Page's) map.[576]
In the _Portfolio_ (March, 1818) General Dearborn criticised the plan
(Dawson, p. 406), and, using the same plate in his separate issue of
his comments, he imposed in red his ideas of the position of the works,
and this was in turn criticised by Governor Brooks.[577] Mr. G. G.
Smith made a (plan) _Sketch of the Battle of Bunker Hill by a British
Officer_ (Boston, 1843), which grew out of the plan and the comments on
it. Bernière's plan was also used by Colonel Swett as the basis of the
one which he published in his _History of the Battle of Bunker Hill_
(1828, 1826, 1827), which has been frequently copied (Ellis, Lossing,
etc.). The latest attempt to map the phases of the action critically is
by Carrington in his _Battles of the Revolution_ (p. 112), who gives
an eclectic plan. Plans adopting the features of earlier ones are in
the English translation of Botta's _War of Independence_, Grant's
_British Battles_ (ii. 144). A plan of the present condition of the
ground, by Thomas W. Davis, superposing the line of the American works,
is given in the Bunker Hill Monument Association's _Proceedings_
(1876). A map of Charlestown in 1775 with a plan of the battle was
prepared and published in 1875 by James E. Stone. A plan of the works
as reconstructed by the British, and deserted by them in March, 1776,
is given in Carter's _Genuine detail_, etc. (London, 1784), which is
reproduced in Frothingham's _Siege_, p. 330. Other MS. plans of their
works on both hills are in the Faden maps in the library of Congress.
Before the war closed a plan was engraved by Norman, a Boston engraver,
which is the earliest to appear near the scene itself. This was a
_Plan of the town of Boston with the attack on Bunker's Hill, in the
peninsula of Charlestown, on June 17, 1775_ (measuring 11-1/2 × 7
inches), which is, however, of no topographical value as respects the
action. It appeared in Murray's _Impartial History_ (1778), i. p. 430,
and in An Impartial History of the War in America (Boston, 1781, vol.
i.), and a reduced fac-simile of it is annexed.[578]
=C.= THE AMERICAN CAMP.—A variety of journals and diaries have been
preserved, the best known of which is that of Dr. Thacher, a surgeon on
Prospect Hill.[579]
The daily life of the Cambridge camp is best seen in the letters
sent from it, and foremost in interest among such are those of
Washington.[580] From the Roxbury camp there are letters of General
Thomas in the _Thomas Papers_, where is one of Dr. John Morgan, the
medical director. Several from Jedediah Huntington are preserved in
the Trumbull Papers, and are printed in the _Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._,
xlix.[581] The principal letters from the Winter Hill camp are those
of General Sullivan,[582] and a few have been printed written at the
Prospect Hill camp.[583]
Something of the spirit prevailing in Watertown, where the Provincial
Congress was sitting, can be seen in the letters of James Warren and
Samuel Cooper.[584]
There are in the library of the Amer. Antiq. Soc. at Worcester
several orderly-books of the siege,[585] and others are preserved
elsewhere.[586]
* * * * *
=D.= THE BRITISH CAMP.—The condition of Boston during the siege
must be learned from various sources. The _Boston News-Letter_ was
still published, but numbers of it are very scarce for this period,
and no other of the Boston newspapers continued to be published in
the town.[587] It was a convenient vehicle for the British generals,
and any morsel of news likely to be distasteful to the patriots,
like the intercepted correspondence of Washington and John Adams,
was pretty sure to reach the American lines through its columns. The
correspondence of the generals is preserved in the British Archives
and in the papers at the Royal Institution (London), and occasionally
some few letters, like those of Percy in the Boston Public Library,
have been found elsewhere. It is charged that Gage's papers were stolen
in Boston.[588] Some new glimpses were got when Fonblanque published
his _Life of Burgoyne_.[589] The best accounts of the succession
of events in the town and the daily life are found in Dr. Ellis's
"Chronicles of the Siege",[590] and in Mr. Horace E. Scudder's "Life
in Boston during the Siege", a chapter in the _Memorial Hist. of
Boston_, vol. iii.,[591] which may be consulted (p. 154) for various
sources respecting the details of the privations and amusements of the
people and the garrison, and of the vicissitudes of its buildings and
landmarks.[592] An account of the British works in Boston is given in
Frothingham's _Siege of Boston_, and the _Mem. Hist. Boston_, iii. 79.
The current record of the outposts, etc., is noted in Moore's _Diary
of the Rev._, 109, etc. Carrington (_Battles_, 154) refers to a MS.
narrative of experiences in the town by one Edw. Stow. Some of the
correspondence of the Boston selectmen with Thomas, at Roxbury, is
in the _Thomas Papers_. It is, however, to the diaries, letters, and
orderly-books which have been preserved that we must go for the details
of life in the beleaguered town.[593]
=E.= BOSTON EVACUATED.—The letters of Washington[594] best enable
us to follow the movements, but they may be supplemented by other
contemporary accounts.[595]
Howe's despatch to Dartmouth, dated Nantasket Roads, is in Dawson,
i. 94.[596] His conduct of the siege is criticised in _A view
of the evidence relative to the Conduct of the American War_
(1779). Contemporary dissatisfaction was expressed in an ironical
congratulatory poem published in London (Sabin, iv., 15,476).
One Crean Brush,[597] acting under orders of Howe, endeavored to carry
off the merchandise from the stores of the town, so far as he could,
on a vessel put at his disposal. Howe's proclamation in his favor is
in fac-simile in the _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, iii. 97. Brush's vessel
was later captured by Manly (_Evacuation Memorial_, 166). Similar
experience in trying to escape with his merchandise was suffered by
Jolley Allen, as portrayed in his _Account of a part of his sufferings
and losses_, ed. by C. C. Smith, given in _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._,
Feb., 1878, and separately. Allen's narrative was reprinted in the
spelling of the original MS. in _An Account of a part of the sufferings
and losses of Jolley Allen, a native of London, with a preface and
Notes by Mrs. Frances Mary Stoddard_ (Boston, 1883). An inventory
of the stores left by the British is in the _Siege of Boston_,
406.[598] In the cabinet of this society is a handbill adopted by
the freeholders of Boston, Nov. 18 [1776?], calling upon all who had
suffered in property in Boston since March, 1775, to report the same to
a committee.[599]
Washington's instructions (April 4, 1776) to Ward are in the printed
_Heath Papers_, P. 4. The Mass. legislature, April 30, 1776, ordered
beacons to be set at Cape Ann, Marblehead, and Blue Hill, ready to be
fired in case of the enemy's reappearing, which was for a long time
dreaded. Ward writes to Washington of his measures in progress.[600]
The correspondence of John Adams and John Winthrop (_Mass. Hist.
Coll._, xlv.) shows constant anxiety lest the defences should not be
prepared in case of need.[601]
[Illustration: SIEGE OF BOSTON, 1776.
The westerly half of the map in the octavo atlas of Marshall's
_Washington_, which is a reduction of the map in the earlier quarto
atlas (1804). It is reproduced in the French translations of Marshall
and of Botta.]
The cut on the title of the present volume represents one side of the
medal given by Congress to Washington, to commemorate his raising the
siege of Boston.[602]
=F.= MAPS OF THE SIEGE OF BOSTON.—Plans of Boston and its
neighborhood, including its harbor, for the illustration of the siege
of Boston, are numerous, and the account of them given in the _Mem.
Hist. of Boston_ (iii., introd.) is in the main followed in the present
enumeration, which divides them into those of American, English,
French, and German origin, and adheres as far as possible to the order
of publication in each group.
The earliest American is the 1769 (or last) edition of what is known
as Price's edition of Bonner's map of Boston, which had done service
since 1722 by successive changes in the plate, this last issue showing
Hancock's Wharf, and "Esqr. Hancock's seat" on Beacon Street.[603] This
map sufficed for local use till the events of 1775 induced new interest
in the topography, when the earliest response came from Philadelphia,
where C. Lownes engraved _A new plan of Boston Harbour from an actual
survey_, for the _Pennsylvania Magazine_. It presented a reminder of
the great event of the year in its "N. B. Charlestown burnt, June 17,
1775, by the Regulars." There is another _Draught of the Harbour of
Boston and the adjacent towns and roads_, a manuscript, dated 1775,
among the _Belknap Papers_, i. 84, in the cabinet of the Mass. Hist.
Society. The same _Pennsylvania Magazine_, the next month (July, 1775),
gave as engraved by Aitkins _A new and correct plan of the town of
Boston and Provincial Camp_. The town seems to be taken from a plan
which had appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (London) the previous
January; but in one corner was added a plan of the circumvallating
lines of the besieging army.[604] Later in the season two other plans
were made, showing the American lines, which were not published,
however, till long after. One is given in Force's _American Archives_,
4th series, vol. iii.,[605] and the other was made by Col. John
Trumbull, in Sept., 1775, which was published in his _Autobiography_ in
1841.[606] Of about the same time is another very small _Plan of Boston
and its environs_, showing the circumvallating lines, which is in one
corner of a large _Map of the Seat of Civil War in America_, engraved
by B. Romans, and dedicated to Hancock. There is also, in the library
of the Mass. Hist. Society, a rude plan of the harbor and vicinity,
showing the positions of the provincials, which are reckoned at 20,000,
while the royal forces are put at 8,000. I find no other American plan
till Norman's, in 1781, reproduced on another page; and not another
till _The Seat of the late War at Boston_ appeared in the _Universal
Asylum and Columbian Magazine_, July, 1789, p. 444, but this is a
rather scant map of the country as far inland as Worcester. Gordon had
the year before this given a map in his _American Revolution_ (London,
1788) based on English sources; but it has been the foundation of most
of the eclectic maps since published in this country.[607]
In 1822 a Mr. Finch printed in _Silliman's Journal_ an account of the
traces then remaining of the earthworks of the siege, both American and
British.[608] There is an enumeration of the different sections of the
lines, within and without Boston, in the _Mem. Hist. Boston_ (vol. iii.
104).[609]
[Illustration: BOSTON AND VICINITY, JUNE, 1775.]
The earliest English plan of this period is one called _A plan of
Boston and Charlestown from a drawing made in 1771_, which occupies the
margin of a larger map, engraved for _The Town and Country Magazine_
in 1776, later to be mentioned. The _Catalogue of the King's Maps_
(British Museum) shows a colored plan of Boston and vicinity (1773)
in the centre of a large sheet, with marginal views (later to be
described).
In 1774 a _Plan of the town of Boston_ made part of a _Chart of the
Coast of New England_, which appeared in the _London Magazine_, April,
1774, and in _The American Atlas_, issued by Thomas Jefferys in London,
in 1776. This map seems to be the model of a _New and accurate Plan of
the town of Boston_, which is engraved in the corner of _A Map of the
most inhabited part of New England, by Thomas Jefferys, Nov. 29, 1774_,
usually also found in _The American Atlas_ (1776, nos. 15 and 16). This
map is found with the date 1755, even after changes of a later date had
been made in the plate.[610] The original map has also a marginal plan
of Boston harbor (_Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, September, 1864).
The earliest English map of 1775 is one which appeared in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ (January, 1775), though it is dated Feb. 1,
1775. It shows the town and harbor.[611]
In the June number of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ is a "map of the
country one hundred miles round Boston, in order to show the situation
and march of the troops, as well provincial as regulars, which are now
within sight of each other, and are hourly expected to engage."
In June, 1775, was also made a not very accurate map of the town and
its environs, which was published in London, Aug. 28, to satisfy the
eagerness for a map of the region to which the news of the battle of
Bunker Hill had turned all eyes. It is to be found in the first volume
of _Almon's Remembrancer_, and is reproduced herewith. A few weeks
after the fight at Charlestown there was probably made in Boston the
MS. plan of _Boston and circumjacent Country_, showing the present
situation of the king's troops and the rebel intrenchments. It is dated
July 25, 1775, and is owned by Dr. Charles Deane.[612]
The largest chart which we have of Boston harbor of this period
is dated August 5, 1775, and was the work of Samuel Holland, the
surveyor-general of the Northern colonies, who was for some years
employed on a coast survey.[613] It takes in Nahant, Nantasket, and
Cambridge, and was based principally on the surveys of George Callendar
(1769).[614] When Des Barres included it in his _Atlantic Neptune_
(part iii., no. 6, 1780-1783), he marked in the besieging lines, and
dated it Dec. 1, 1781, and in this state Des Barres also used it in his
_Coast and Harbors of New England_.[615]
A map showing thirty miles round Boston, and bearing date Aug. 14,
1775, is in the king's library (British Museum), and is signed by
M. Armstrong. It has marginal statistical tables, and in the upper
right-hand corner is a plan of the "action near Charlestown, 17
June, 1775."[616] There is among the Force maps in the library of
Congress the MS. original of the map (sketched herewith as _Boston and
Charlestown_, 1775), which is called _A Draught of the Towns of Boston
and Charlestown and the circumjacent country, shewing the works thrown
up by his Majesty's Troops, and also those by the Rebels during the
campaign of 1775. N. B. The rebel entrenchments are expressed as they
appear from Beacon Hill._
On August 28th the British town-major in Boston, James Urquhart,
licensed Henry Pelham to make a _Plan of Boston with its environs_. It
was engraved in aquatints in London, on two sheets, and not published
till June 2, 1777. Dr. Belknap, who was much troubled to find a correct
plan of the town for this period, thought Pelham's was the best.[617]
[Illustration: BOSTON AND CHARLESTOWN, 1775.]
There are among the Faden MSS. in the library of Congress two MS.
maps. One is probably the best plan of Boston itself of this period,
and the other the best of those of the vicinity.[618] They represent
the conditions of 1775, though they were not engraved and published
by William Faden in London till Oct. 1, 1777, and Oct. 1, 1778,
respectively. They are both, in the main, after a survey by William
Page, of the British engineers. The first is called _A Plan of the
Town of Boston, with the Intrenchments, etc., of his Majesty's forces
in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page and from the plans of
other gentlemen_. It gives the peninsula only, with a small portion
of Charlestown, and was again issued in Oct., 1778.[619] The second
is _Boston, its environs and harbour, with the Rebels' works raised
against that town in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page,
and from the plans of Capt. Montresor_. It includes Point Alderton,
Chelsea, Cambridge, and Dorchester, and there is a copy in the library
of the Mass. Hist. Society.
[Illustration: BRITISH LINES ON BOSTON NECK, 1775-76.
This is from Page's _Plan of the Town of Boston_, published in London
in 1777, and is accompanied by the following Key:—_a_, redoubt;
_b_, block-house for cannon; _c_, six 24-pounders, 2 royals; _d_,
four 9-pounders; _e_, six 24-pounders; _f_, left bastion; _g_, right
bastion; _h_, _h_, guard-houses; _i_, _i_, traverses; _k_, _k_,
magazines; _l_, _l_, abattis; _m_, _m_, _m_, routes-du-pols; _n_,
block-house for musketry; _o_, floating battery, 2 guns; _p_, _p_,
fleches, 1 sub. and 20 men. The building beyond the outer lines and
near the edge of the upland is Brown's house, the scene of skirmishes
during the siege (_Mem. Hist. of Boston_, iii. 80; Heath's _Memoirs_).
The narrowest part of the neck was at the present Dover Street where
it intersects Washington Street. The foundations of the main works
at this point were laid bare in digging a drain in March, 1860. The
outer works were just within Blackstone and Franklin squares. There
are views of these lines in the Faden Collection in the library of
Congress, dated August, 1775, probably the original of the engraved
views which accompany Des Barres' coast survey, and of which there
are reproductions in the _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, iii. 80. Cf.
also Frothingham's _Siege_, p. 315. The same Faden Collection has
a pen-and-ink plan of the lines, dated Aug., 1775 (no. 37 of the
_Catal._).
During the summer of 1775, John Trumbull, then an aid to General
Spencer, crawled up, under cover of the tall grass, near enough to
the British lines to sketch them; but a continuance of the hazardous
exploit was soon rendered unnecessary by the desertion of a British
artilleryman, who brought with him a rude plan of the entire work. So
Trumbull says in his _Autobiography_, p. 22. Washington, on comparing
this surreptitious sketch with the deserter's plan, found them so
nearly to correspond that Trumbull thinks his own future promotion
probably arose from it. Trumbull's sketch and the memorandum of the
deserter "from the Welsh fusileers" seem to have been the basis
of a careful drawing of the British lines, prepared apparently at
headquarters in Cambridge, as it bears the handwriting of Washington's
aid, Thomas Mifflin, an explanatory table of the armament in the works.
This found its way into that portion of the Papers of Arthur Lee which
went to the Amer. Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and from it a
reduced heliotype is given in the _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, iii. p. 80.
Washington sent a copy of the plan, nearly duplicate, to Congress, and
this is given in Force's _Amer. Archives_, 4th ser., i. p. 29, and is
reproduced on a smaller scale in Wheildon's _Siege and Evacuation of
Boston_, p. 34. (Cf. _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, April, 1879, p. 62.)
There are two other American drawings of the lines, of less importance.
One is in the _Pennsylvania Magazine_ for Aug., 1775, and is called _An
exact plan of Gen. Gage's lines on Boston Neck in America, July 31,
1775_. The other is a small marginal view of _The Lines thrown up on
Boston neck by the ministerial army_, making part of the _Seat of the
Civil War_, by Romans. A rude powder-horn plan is noted in the _Mass.
Hist. Soc. Proc._ (Nov., 1881), xix. 103. One of the Faden MS. plans
shows a proposed star redoubt at a point outside the lines.]
In October, 1775, an "Engineer at Boston", Lieut. Richard Williams,
made and sent over to England a plan showing the "redoubt taken from
the rebels by General Howe", the British camp on the higher summit of
Bunker Hill, together with the American lines at Cambridge and Roxbury.
In London it was compared with "several other curious drawings", from
which additions were made, when it was published by Andrew Dury, March
12, 1776, as engraved by Jno. Lodge for the late Mr. Jefferys, and
called _Plan of Boston and its environs, showing the true situation of
his Majesty's Army, and also those of the rebels_.[620] In the same
month (Oct., 1775) a _Plan of Boston_, with Charlestown marked as in
ruins, appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (p. 464). Another _Map of
Boston and Charlestown, by an English officer present at Bunker Hill_,
was published in London, Nov. 25, 1775. The last map made during the
British occupation of Boston was _An accurate map of the Country round
Boston in New England, published by A. Hamilton, Jr., near St. John's
Gate, Jan. 16, 1776_, appearing in the _Town and Country Magazine_. It
measures 11-1/2 × 12-1/2 inches, and extends from Plymouth to Ipswich,
and inland to Groton and Providence.
The evacuation of Boston in March, 1776, removed the centre of interest
elsewhere, but there was for some time an apprehension of the return of
the British for a naval attack; and while the Americans were fortifying
the harbor, the English were publishing in London several maps of
its configuration. The earliest was a _Chart of Massachusetts Bay
and Boston Harbour_, published April 29, 1776. With the date changed
to Dec. 1, 1781, it was subsequently included by Des Barres in the
_Atlantic Neptune_, and in the _Charts of the Coast and Harbors of
New England_, 1781.[621] Another _Chart of Boston Bay_, whose limits
include Salem, Watertown, and Scituate, following Holland's surveys,
was published Nov. 13, 1776, and later appeared, dated Dec. 1, 1781, in
the _Atlantic Neptune_, and in the _Coast and Harbors of New England_.
A chart of the harbor, with soundings, was also included in the _North
American Pilot for New England_ (London, 1776), showing a solitary tree
on the peninsula marked "Ruins of Charlestown." There was a second
edition of the _Pilot_ in 1800. A small plan of the harbor is also
in the margin of Carrington Bowles's _Map of the seat of war in New
England_ (London, 1776).
The first eclectic map was that published by Gordon in his _Amer.
Revolution_ (London, 1788), which he based on Pelham's map for the
country, and Page's for the harbor.[622]
* * * * *
The French maps published in Paris were almost always based on English
sources. Such were the _Carte de la baye de Baston_ (no. 30), and
_Plan de la ville de Baston_ (no. 31), in _Le Petit Atlas maritime,
vol. i., Amérique Septentrionale, par le S. Bellin, 1764_. There
are several other French maps without date, but probably a little
antedating the outbreak of hostilities. Such are a _Plan de la ville
et du port de Boston_, published by Lattré in Paris;[623] and a small
map, _Plan de la ville de Boston et ses environs_, engraved by B. D.
Bakker. An engraved map, without date, is in the British Museum, called
_Carte des environs de Boston, capitale de la N^{lle} Angleterre en
Amérique_.[624] It carries the coast from below Plymouth to above the
Merrimac. There is in the Poore collection of maps in the Mass. State
Archives a _Carte de la baye de Baston_ (marked Tome i. no. 30).
The only dated map of this period is a _Carte du porte et havre de
Boston, par le Chevalier de Beaurain_ (Paris, 1776). The corner
vignette shows a soldier bearing a banner with a pine-tree.
Frothingham, who reëngraved this picture, could find no earlier
representation of the pine-tree flag.
The English (1774) map of the "most inhabited part of New England" was
reproduced "after the original by M. Le Rouge, 1777", under the title
of _La Nouvelle Angleterre en 4 feuilles_; and it was again used in
the _Atlas Ameriquain Septentrional, à Paris, chez Le Rouge_ (1778),
repeating the map of Boston, with names in English and descriptions in
French. Another reproduction from the English appeared in the _Carte
particulière du Havre de Boston, reduite de la carte anglaise de Des
Barres par ordre de M. de Sartine_ (1780). It belongs to the _Neptune
Americo-Septentrional, publié par ordre du Roi_.
There is among the Rochambeau maps (no. 14), in the library of
Congress, a _Plan d'une partie de la rade de Boston_, done in color,
about eight inches wide by sixteen high, showing the forts and giving
an elaborate key.
* * * * *
There is a curious map of Boston and its harbor, with names in Latin,
but apparently of German make, _Ichnographia urbis Boston_ and
_Ichnographia portus Bostoniensis_, which make part of a larger map,
perhaps the _Nova Anglia_ of Homann of Nuremberg. The _Geschichte
der Kriege in und ausser Europa_, published also at Nuremberg in
1776 (erste theil) has a map of Boston. Of the same date (1776), and
belonging to the _Geographische Belustigungen für Erläuterung der
neuesten Weltgeschichte_ (Zweytes Stück), published at Leipsic, is a
_Carte von dem Hafen und der Stadt Boston_, following the French map of
Beaurain even to reproducing the group with the pine-tree banner. It
embraces a circuit about Boston of which the outer limits are Chelsea,
Cambridge, Dorchester, Long Island, Deer Island, and Pulling Point.
* * * * *
=G.= THE CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA, 1775.—It is in dispute who planned
and who conducted the capture of Ticonderoga. On Feb. 21, 1775, Col.
John Brown had suggested it to Warren (_Force's Archives_). Arnold made
a statement of the post's defenceless condition to the Committee of
Safety in Cambridge, April 30, 1775 (_Mass. Archives_, cxlvi. p. 30;
_Amer. Bibliopolist_, 1873, p. 79). On the 2d of May he was given a
money credit and munitions, and on the 3d he was definitely instructed
to organize his party (_Mass. Archives_, cxlvi. p. 39). It is claimed
that some purpose of acting on the suggestion of Brown prompted in
part, at least, the Massachusetts provincial congress to appoint
early in April a committee to proceed to Connecticut and the other
New England colonies. Whether it was by their instigation, by certain
movements in Connecticut, or by the direct agency of Arnold that the
plan was formed, it is difficult to say. It is also claimed that the
plan grew out of a conference with the Massachusetts delegates to the
Philadelphia Congress, when, on their way, they stopped at Hartford
and held a session with Governor Trumbull and his council (_Force's
Archives_, ii. 507; Wells's _Sam. Adams_, ii. 298). Bancroft and the
Connecticut antiquaries find the beginning rather in the impulses of
one Parsons, who had just returned from Massachusetts, and had got from
Benedict Arnold, whom he met on the way, a statement of the plunder to
be obtained there, and, without any formal consent of the governor and
council, proceeded in the organization of a committee in Connecticut
(Bancroft, orig. ed., vii. 338; final revision, iv. 182). Official
sanction was first evoked when Massachusetts, a few days later,
commissioned Arnold (_Mass. Archives_, cxlvi. 130, 139; _American
Bibliopolist_, 1873, p. 79; _N. Y. Hist. Soc. Proc._, 1844, p. 14).
The Connecticut antiquaries have mainly set forth the claims of their
colony for leadership of the affair in the papers which constitute vol.
i. (pp. 163-185) of the _Conn. Hist. Soc. Collections_, in which is the
journal of Edward Mott,[625] the chairman of the Connecticut committee,
edited by J. H. Trumbull.[626]
The part taken in the movement in Western Massachusetts arose
from confidence reposed in Brown and others of Pittsfield, by the
Connecticut men who passed through that town on their way to the
New Hampshire Grants.[627] Brown had, during the previous winter,
notified the Massachusetts committee that Ticonderoga would receive
the attention of Ethan Allen and Green Mountain boys as soon as
the outbreak came. The credit which attaches to this commander is
complicated by the relations which Arnold bore to the final capture,
and has in turn given rise to controversy. The most comprehensive
examination of the question on the Vermont side is L. E. Chittenden's
Addresses before the Vermont Historical Society, Oct., 1872 (published
at Rutland by the society), and at the unveiling of Allen's statue
at Burlington, July 4, 1873. We have Allen's own statements in his
_Narrative of his captivity, etc._[628]
Dawson thinks that the merit of originating the active measures cannot
be taken from Benedict Arnold, and in his chapter (_Battles of the
United States_, i. ch. 2) on the subject traces minutely the sources
of each step in the progress of events, and in his Appendix (p. 38)
prints the protest (May 10th, p. 38) of the Connecticut committee
against Arnold's interference and Arnold's report (May 11th, p. 38)
to the Massachusetts Congress.[629] There are some of the current
reports preserved in Moore's _Diary of the Amer. Revolution_ (i. pp.
78-80), and the account, which ignores Arnold, of the _Worcester Spy_
(May 16th) is given in the _Amer. Bibliopolist_ (1871, p. 491). There
are other contemporary accounts in the _American Archives_ (vols.
ii. and iii.); a journal by Elmer is in the _New Jersey Hist. Soc.
Proc._, vols. ii. and iii.; a Tory account in Jones's _New York during
the Revolutionary War_ (vol. i. pp. 47, 546), with a letter of May
14th.[630] Narratives by Caldwell and Beaman are in the _Historical
Magazine_, August, 1867, and May, 1868, respectively.[631]
=H.= THE CANADA CAMPAIGN, 1775-1776.—Washington in New York, June
25th, entrusted to Schuyler the command in the North (Lossing's
_Schuyler_, i. 330; Jones's _N. Y. during the Rev. War_, 58), and
Congress issued (May 29, 1775) an address to the Canadians (_Journal
of Congress_; Pitkin's _United States_, i. App. 19). In August it was
reported that this address was left at the door of every house in
Canada. Schuyler reached Ticonderoga July 18th (Lossing's _Schuyler_,
i. ch. 21; Palmer's _Lake Champlain_, ch. 6; Irving's _Washington_,
ii.), and pushed on to the foot of Lake Champlain in September
(Lossing, i. ch. 23).
Among the early reports, inducing the project of invading Canada, were
the letters of Maj. John Brown (Aug. 14, 1775) and Ethan Allen (Sept.
14th) respecting the condition of the Canadians (Sparks's _Corresp. of
the Rev._, i. 461, 464). There are other letters on the state of Canada
at this time in the _N. H. Prov. Papers_, vii. 515, 547, 561-62, 569.
The Schuyler Papers, with the letters which they contain of Montgomery,
Arnold, Wooster, and Sullivan, are a main source of information
respecting the whole campaign.[632]
[Illustration: FROM THE ATLAS OF WILKINSON'S MEMOIRS.
A modern eclectic map is given in Carrington's _Battles_, 171. The most
considerable contemporary map for the illustration of the movements
during the Revolution in Canada is one published by Jefferys, in 1776,
of the _Province of Quebec, from the French Surveys and those made by
Capt. Carver and others after the War, with much detail of names, plan
of Quebec and heights of Abraham, Montreal and isles of Montreal_ (27 x
19 inches). On Feb. 16, 1776, Sayer and Bennett published in London _A
new map of the Province of Quebec according to the royal proclamation
of 7 Oct., 1763, from the French surveys, corrected with those made
after the war by Captain Carver and other officers in his majesty's
service_. There was a French reproduction of it in Paris in 1777,
included in the _Atlas Ameriquain_ (1778), called _Nouvelle Carte de la
Province de Quebec selon l'édit du Roi d'Angleterre du 7 8{bre}, 1763,
par le Capitaine Carver, traduites de l'Anglois, à Paris chez le Rouge,
1777_.
Jefferys also issued in 1775 _An exact Chart of the River St. Lawrence
from Fort Frontenac to Anticosti_ (37 X 24 inches), which is usually
accompanied by a _Chart of the Golf of St. Lawrence, 1775_(24 X 20
inches). _North Amer. Pilot_, nos. 11, 20, 21, 22. There is in the
_Geschichte der Kriege in und ausser Europa_ [Nuremberg], 1776, a
"Karte von der Insel Montreal und den Gegenden umher", following a plan
by Bellin.
A map of Canada in 1774 is embraced in Mitchell's _Map of the British
Colonies_, and in Wright's ed. of _Cavendish's Debates in the Commons
(1774) on the Canada bill_, London, 1839. There are other maps in the
_American Atlas_ and Hilliard d'Auberteuil's _Essais_.]
Schuyler's health preventing his taking the field in person, the
interest in the campaign centres in Montgomery up to the time of his
death.[633] We have despatches of his (Nov. 3, 1775) on the capture of
St. Johns,[634] on the taking of Chamblée,[635] and on the capitulation
of Montreal,[636] with his letters from before Quebec (Sparks,
_Corresp._, i. 492, etc.). A letter from one of his aids at this time
(Dec. 16, 1775) is in _Life of George Read_, p. 115.
The principal Life of Montgomery is that by J. Armstrong, in Sparks's
_Amer. Biography_ (i. p. 181), which may be supplemented by other minor
accounts.[637]
The connection of Benedict Arnold with the Campaign is illustrated in
his letters, beginning with those before he left the column advancing
by Lake Champlain, and then following his progress on the expedition
to coöperate by the Kennebec route, which Washington proposed to
Schuyler in a letter of Aug. 20, 1775 (Sparks's _Washington_, iii. 63).
On Sept. 14th Washington sealed his instructions to Arnold (Sparks,
iii. 86; Dawson, 113; Henry's _Journal_, ed. 1877, p. 2). It is said
that the route to be taken was suggested to Arnold by the journal of an
exploration in that direction by Montresor in 1760.[638] That engineer
had, by order of General Murray, made a survey of this route in
1761.[639] There are maps to illustrate Arnold's route in the _Atlantic
Neptune, London Mag._, 1776, Marshall's Atlas to his _Washington_,
and in the 1877 edition of Henry's _Journal_.[640] All the general
histories and a few biographies and local records necessarily cover the
story.[641] Arnold himself is the best contemporary authority.
[Illustration: CAPITULATION OF ST. JOHNS.
Fac-simile, slightly reduced, of the reproduction in Smith's _Amer.
Hist. and Lit. Curios._, 2d series, p. xl., from the original in the
collection of Ferdinand J. Dreer, of Philadelphia.]
A number of his letters respecting the expedition are in Bowdoin
College library,[642] and they and others will be found in print in
the _Maine Hist. Soc. Collections_ (1831), vol. i. 357, etc., and in
Sparks's _Corresp. of the Revolution_, i. 46, 60, 88, 475, etc.[643]
His journal of his progress is unfortunately rather meagre, and covers
but a few weeks, Sept. 27 to Oct. 30, 1775. The original manuscript was
left by Arnold at West Point when he fled, and extracts from it are
printed in S. L. Knapp's _Life of Aaron Burr_, 1835; it is now owned by
Mr. S. L. M. Barlow, of New York, and a copy, made from it when owned
by Judge Edwards, of New York, is in the _Sparks MSS._ (lii. vol. ii.).
[Illustration: CONCLUSION AND ATTESTATION OF MONTGOMERY'S WILL.
Cf. _Harper's Mag._, vol. lxx. p. 356.]
Various other journals of the actors in the expedition have been
preserved.[644]
Arnold's letters at the Point-aux-Trembles and before Quebec are
in Sparks's _Corresp. of the Rev._ (i. App.), together with those
addressed to Wooster,[645] Schuyler, and Washington after the failure
of the assault on Quebec, Dec. 31, 1775.[646]
[Illustration: MONTGOMERY.
After the only original portrait preserved at Montgomery Place, and
representing him at about twenty-five. Cf. _Harper's Mag._, lxx. p.
350; Irving's _Washington_, illus. ed., vol. ii.
The study of Trumbull's well-known picture of "The Death of Montgomery"
is on a card less than four inches square, now owned by Major Lewis, of
Virginia, and is marked "J. Trumbull to Nelly Custis, 1790" (Johnston's
_Orig. Portraits of Washington_, p. 72).]
[Illustration: RICHARD MONTGOMERY.
From _An Impartial History of the War in America_, vol. i. p. 392
(Boston), engraved by J. Norman. Cf. the engraving in Murray's
_Impartial Hist. of the Present War_, ii. 193. Neither of these
copper-plates are probably of any value as likenesses. They show the
kind of effigy doing service at the time.]
The great resource for original material on the siege of Quebec, beside
the letters given by Sparks and Lossing, are in the gatherings of _4
Force's Archives_, vols. iv., v., and vi.; Almon's _Remembrancer_,
vol. ii.; _N. Y. Col. Docs._, viii. 663, etc.; and in a large number
of diaries and other contemporary records, which may readily be
classed as American or British, with a few emanating from the French
Canadians.[647]
On Jan. 19, 1776, a report was made in Congress that the army in Canada
be reinforced (_Secret Journals_, i. 241).
[Illustration
From an engraving of full length in _An Impartial Hist. of the War in
America_, Lond. 1780, p. 249. A mezzotint similar to this was published
in London, 1776, as "Col. Arnold, who commanded the provincial troops
sent against Quebec" (J. C. Smith, _Brit. Mez. Portraits_, iv.
1714-1717). The portrait in profile, by W. Tate,—a handsome face,—was
engraved in line by H. B. Hall in 1865, and etched by him in 1879 for
Isaac N. Arnold's _Life of B. Arnold_. Cf. Jones's _Campaign for the
Conquest of Canada_, p. 168. Other portraits of Arnold are given later
in the present volume.]
[Illustration: MONTRESOR'S MAP.
Sketched from the original (1760) among the Peter Force maps in the
Library of Congress. There is a copy in the library of the N. E. Hist.
and Geneal. Society.]
In April Arnold returned to Montreal, and Wooster took command
before Quebec,[648] to be superseded by General Thomas, who reached
the camp May 1st. Upon Carleton's being reinforced, Thomas began
to retreat.[649] Burgoyne arrived with additional troops in June
(Fonblanque's _Burgoyne_, 211). The affair at the Cedars took place
May 19, 1776.[650] The movement against Three Rivers had been begun by
orders of Thompson, who was in command upon the death of Thomas (June
2d), and remained so for a few days till Sullivan arrived.
[Illustration:
From _An Impartial History of the War in America_, Lond., 1780, p.
400, where the cut represents his full length. Cf. prints published in
London in 1776 (_Brit. Mez. Portrait_, by J. C. Smith); Hollister's
_Connecticut_, i. 390; Jones's _Campaign for the Conquest of Canada_,
28; _Geschichte der Kriege in und ausser Europa_ (Nürnberg, 1778).]
Smith, in the _St. Clair Papers_, i. 17, collates the authorities
on this movement,[651] calling in question the statements given by
Bancroft.
Sullivan's Irish precipitancy and over-confidence did not mend matters
as the retreat went on, and raised delusive hopes which were more
welcome than Arnold's gloomy views.[652]
[Illustration: SIEGE OF QUEBEC, 1775-76.
Sketched from a manuscript plan noted in the _Sparks Catalogue_ (p.
208), which belongs to Cornell University, and was kindly communicated
to the editor. The original (18½ × 15 inches) is marked as "on a
scale of 30 chaines to an Inch", and is signed "E. Antill ft." in
the corner. Mr. Sparks has marked it "Siege of Quebec, 1776." It is
endorsed on the outside, "Gen^l Arnold's plan of Quebec, with y^e
Americans besieging it, y^e winter of 1776." It bears the following
Key: "H, Headquarters. A, A, A, advanced guards. B, B, B, main guards.
C, C, C, quarter guards. D, Capt. Smith's riflemen. E, cul-de-sac,
where the men-of-war lay, F, governor's house. G, where all materials
are carried to build our batteries, out of view of the town. I, lower
town. K, the barrier, near which General Montgomery fell. K L, the
dotted line shews the route the troops took under the general, thro'
deep snow without any path." The dotted line in the river marks the
extent of ice from the shore, and in the open stream are the words:
"(Unfrose) Ice driving with y^e Tide." The roads are marked by broken
lines – – – – – – –. The position of patrols are marked by the
letter P.
The principal engraved map is a _Plan of the city and environs of
Quebec with its siege and blockage by the Americans from the 8th of
December, 1775, to the 13th of May, 1776_. _Engraved by Wm. Faden,
London; published 12 Sept., 1776._ The original MS. draft is among
the Faden maps (no. 20) in the library of Congress. There are other
plans as follows: _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, April, 1884, p. 282; Leake's
_Life of Lamb_, p. 130; Atlas to Marshall's _Washington_; Carrington's
_Battles_, p. 138; Stone's _Invasion of Canada_, p. xvii.; a marginal
plan in Sayer and Bennett's _New Map of the Province of Quebec_,
published Feb. 16, 1776; and a German "Plan von Quebec" in the
_Geschichte der Kriege in und ausser Europa_, Nuremberg, 1777, Dritter
Theil. There is a marginal map of Quebec in an edition of Carver's map
of the Province of Quebec, published by Le Rouge in Paris in 1777, and
included in the _Atlas Ameriquain_ (1778).
For views of Quebec and the points of attack, see Moore's _Diary of
the Rev._, i. 185; Lossing's _Field-Book_, i. 198; and _Mag. of Amer.
Hist._, April, 1884, p. 274. A view of the plains of Abraham is in
_Ibid._, p. 296.]
The retreat continued to Crown Point, and in July Sullivan was relieved
by Gates; and the campaign was over,—nothing accomplished. On July
26th Governor Trumbull reviews the condition of the army in a letter
in Hinman's _Conn. during the Rev._ (p. 560).[653] The letters of
Ira Allen and John Hurd express the uneasy state of mind along the
frontier, which now took possession of the exposed settlers (_N. H.
Prov. Papers_, viii. pp. 301, 306, 311, 315-317, 405). Insecurity was
felt at Ticonderoga (_N. H. State Papers_, viii. 576, 581).
Congress twice appointed commissioners to proceed towards Canada.
In Nov., 1775, Robert R. Livingston, John Langdon, and Robert Treat
Paine were sent, with instructions dated Nov. 8th,[654] to examine
the fortifications of Ticonderoga and the highlands, and "to use
their endeavors to procure an accession of the Canadians to a union
with these colonies;" and their report (Nov. 17th), with a letter to
Montgomery (Nov. 30th), is in the _Sparks MSS._ (lii. vol. ii.). In
March, 1776, Benj. Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll were
instructed (_Journals of Congress_, i. 289; Force, v. 411) to proceed
to Canada to influence, if possible, the sympathies of the Canadians.
Carroll was a Roman Catholic, and he was accompanied by his brother,
John Carroll, a priest.[655] Much was expected of the mission on
this account (Adams's _Familiar Letters_, 135). Franklin, delayed at
Saratoga (April), began to feel that the exposures of the expedition
were too much for one of his years, and sat down to write "to a few
friends by way of farewell."[656] Carroll kept a diary, which has been
since printed.[657] There are papers appertaining to the mission in
Force's _Archives_, 4th, iv., v.; Sparks's _Washington_ (iii. 390), and
his _Corresp. of the Rev._ (i. 572), and Lossing's _Schuyler_ (vol.
ii.).[658] On Jan. 31, 1850, Mr. William Duane delivered an address on
_Canada and the Continental Congress_ before the Penna. Hist. Soc.,
which is printed among their occasional publications.
[Illustration: SULLIVAN'S ISLAND.
A part of a view published in London, August 10, 1776, and made by
Lieut.-Col. Thomas James, of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. June 30,
1776. It represents the position of the fleet during "the attack on the
28th of June, which lasted nine hours and forty minutes." The position
of the ships is designated by A, "Active", 28 guns; B, "Bristol",
flag-ship, 50 guns; C, "Experiment", 50 guns; D, "Solebay", 28 guns.
The "Syren", 28 guns, and "Acteon", 28 guns, and the "Thunder",
bomb-ketch, were nearer the spectator as was the "Friendship", of 28
guns. L is Sullivan's Island; M, a narrow isthmus, defended by an armed
hulk, N; the mainland is O; myrtle-grove, P.
Faden also issued at the same time, as made by Col. James, a long
panoramic view of Sullivan's and Long islands, showing the American and
British camps on the opposite sides of the dividing inlet.]
Mr. Brantz Mayer's introduction to the Centennial ed. of Carroll's
journal is largely concerned with the question of the Catholic
pacification of Canada. Cf. Brent's _Life of Archbishop Carroll_; and
B. W. Campbell's "Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll" in _U. S. Cath.
Mag._, iii. The unfortunate comments (Oct. 21, 1774) of the Continental
Congress on the Quebec Act was much against the persuasions of the
commissioners, and it was soon evident that all their efforts, on this
side at least, were futile. (Cf. Force's _Am. Archives_, ii. 231.)
After Franklin and John Carroll had left Montreal, Charles Carroll and
Chase remained, endeavoring to support the military councils.[659]
=I.= THE ATTACK ON SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, JUNE, 1776.—Clinton's
proclamation to the magistrates of South Carolina, June 6, 1776, is
in Ramsay's _Revolution in South Carolina_, i. 330. Lee's report
to Washington (July 1, 1776) is in Sparks's _Correspondence of the
Revolution_, i. 243; to Congress (July 2d), in _Ibid._, ii. 502; in
Lee's _Memoirs_, p. 386; in Force's _American Archives_, 5th ser., i.
p. 435; _N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll._, 1872, pp. 100, 107; and in Dawson (p.
139). John Adams (_Familiar Letters_, 203) notes the exhilaration which
the news caused in Philadelphia.
There are other contemporary accounts in Gen. Morris's letter in the
_N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll._, 1875, p. 438; in R. W. Gibbes's _Doc. Hist.
of the Amer. Rev._, 1776-1782, pp. 2-19; in Force's _Archives_; in
Frank Moore's _Diary of the Rev._, i. p. 257; in Moore's _Laurens
Correspondence_, p. 24. A "new war song" of the day, referring to
the battle, is given in Moore's _Songs and Ballads of the Rev._, p.
135. A broadside account was printed in Philadelphia, June 20, 1776
(Hildeburn's _Bibliog._, no. 3342). A plan of the attack after a London
original was published in Philadelphia in 1777, with a "Description of
the attack in a letter from Sir Peter Parker to Mr. Stephens, and an
extract from a letter of Lieut. Gen. Clinton to Lord Geo. Germaine"
(Hildeburn, no. 3539).
[Illustration: CHARLESTOWN, S. C., AND THE BRITISH FLEET, JUNE 29, 1776.
After a print published in London by Faden, August 10, 1776, taken by
Lieut.-Col. James, the day after the fight.
KEY.—A, Charlestown; B, Ashley River; C, Fort Johnston; D, Cummins
Point; E, part of Five-Fathom Hole, where all the fleet rode before and
after the attack; F, station of the headmost frigate, the "Solebay",
two miles and three quarters from Fort Sullivan, situated to the
northward of G; H, part of Mt. Pleasant; I, part of Hog Island;
K, Wando River; L, Cooper River; M, James Island; N, breakers on
Charlestown Bar; O, rebel schooner of 12 guns.
There is "An exact prospect of Charlestown, the metropolis of South
Carolina", in the _London Mag._, 1762, a folding panoramic view, which
shows the water-front with ships in the harbor.]
The earliest general account is by Moultrie himself in his _Memoirs of
the American Revolution_. Cf. Gordon's _Amer. Rev._; and John Drayton's
_Memoirs of the American Revolution_ [through 1776] _as relating to the
State of South Carolina_ (Charleston, 1821, two vols.). Of the later
general historians, reference may be made to Bancroft (orig. ed.),
vol. viii. ch. 66, and final revision, iv. ch. xxv., a full account;
to Dawson, i. ch. 10, to Carrington, ch. 27, 28; to Gay, iii. 467;
Irving's _Washington_, ii. ch. 29; Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. p. 754.
Something can be gleaned from Garden's _Anecdotes of the Revolution_;
_Memoirs of Elkanah Watson_; the life of Rutledge in Flanders's _Chief
Justices_; and from such occasional productions as William Crafts's
address (1825), included in his _Miscellanies_; Porcher's address in
the _South Carolina Hist. Coll._, vol. i.; C. C. Jones, Jr.'s address
on Sergeant Jasper in 1876, and the _Centennial Memorial_ of that year
and the paper in _Harper's Monthly_, xxi. 70, by T. D. English.
On the British side we have Parker's despatch (July 9th) in Dawson, p.
140; a letter of Clinton (July 8th) in the _Sparks MSS._, no. lviii.;
Clinton's _Observations on Stedman's History_; the reports in the
_Gent. Mag. and Annual Register_; the early historical estimate in
Adolphus's _England_, ii. 346. Jones, _New York in the Revolutionary
War_, i. 98, gives the Tory view. There is a contemporary letter by a
British officer given in Lady Cavendish's _Admiral Gambier_, copied in
_Hist. Mag._, v. 68. Hutchinson (_Life and Diary_, ii. 92) records the
effects of the fight in England.[660]