THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
William Pitt was partly to blame for the Revolutionary War. He claimed
that the Colonists ought not to manufacture so much as a horseshoe nail
except by permission of Parliament.
It was already hard enough to be a colonist, without the privilege of
expressing one's self even to an Indian without being fined. But when we
pause to think that England seemed to demand that the colonist should
take the long wet walk to Liverpool during a busy season of the year to
get his horse shod, we say at once that P. Henry was right when he
exclaimed that the war was inevitable and moved that permission be
granted for it to come.
Then came the Stamp Act, making almost everything illegal that was not
written on stamp paper furnished by the maternal country.
John Adams, Patrick Henry, and John Otis made speeches regarding the
situation. Bells were tolled, and fasting and prayer marked the first of
November, the day for the law to go into effect.
These things alarmed England for the time, and the Stamp Act was
repealed; but the king, who had been pretty free with his money and had
entertained a good deal, began to look out for a chance to tax the
Colonists, and ordered his Exchequer Board to attend to it.
Patrick Henry got excited, and said in an early speech, "Cæsar had his
Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third----" Here
he paused and took a long swig of pure water, and added, looking at the
newspaper reporters, "If this be treason, make the most of it." He also
said that George the Third might profit by their example. A good many
would like to know what he started out to say, but it is too hard to
determine.
[Illustration: PATRICK HENRY.]
Boston ladies gave up tea and used the dried leaves of the raspberry,
and the girls of 1777 graduated in homespun. Could the iron heel of
despotism crunch such a spirit of liberty as that? Scarcely. In one
family at Newport four hundred and eighty-seven yards of cloth and
thirty-six pairs of stockings were spun and made in eighteen months.
When the war broke out it is estimated that each Colonial soldier had
twenty-seven pairs of blue woollen socks with white double heels and
toes. Does the intelligent reader believe that "Tommy Atkins," with two
pairs of socks "and hit a-rainin'," could whip men with twenty-seven
pairs each? Not without restoratives.
Troops were now sent to restore order. They were clothed by the British
government, but boarded around with the Colonists. This was irritating
to the people, because they had never met or called on the British
troops. Again, they did not know the troops were coming, and had made no
provision for them.
[Illustration: THE BRITISH BOARDING 'ROUND.]
Boston was considered the hot-bed of the rebellion, and General Gage was
ordered to send two regiments of troops there. He did so, and a fight
ensued, in which three citizens were killed.
In looking over this incident, we must not forget that in those days
three citizens went a good deal farther than they do now.
The fight, however, was brief. General Gage, getting into a side street,
separated from his command, and, coming out on the Common abruptly, he
tried eight or nine more streets, but he came out each time on the
Common, until, torn with conflicting emotions, he hired a Herdic, which
took him around the corner to his quarters.
On December 16, 1773, occurred the tea-party at Boston, which must have
been a good deal livelier than those of to-day. The historian regrets
that he was not there; he would have tried to be the life of the party.
England had finally so arranged the price of tea that, including the
tax, it was cheaper in America than in the old country. This exasperated
the patriots, who claimed that they were confronted by a theory and not
a condition. At Charleston this tea was stored in damp cellars, where it
spoiled. New York and Philadelphia returned their ships, but the British
would not allow any shenanegin', as George III. so tersely termed it, in
Boston.
Therefore a large party met in Faneuil Hall and decided that the tea
should not be landed. A party made up as Indians, and, going on board,
threw the tea overboard. Boston Harbor, as far out as the Bug Light,
even to-day, is said to be carpeted with tea-grounds.
George III. now closed Boston harbor and made General Gage Governor of
Massachusetts. The Virginia Assembly murmured at this, and was dissolved
and sent home without its mileage.
[Illustration: BOSTON TEA-PARTY, 1773.]
Those opposed to royalty were termed Whigs, those in favor were called
Tories. Now they are called Chappies or Authors.
On the 5th of September, 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled
at Philadelphia and was entertained by the Clover Club. Congress acted
slowly even then, and after considerable delay resolved that the conduct
of Great Britain was, under the circumstances, uncalled for. It also
voted to hold no intercourse with Great Britain, and decided not to
visit Shakespeare's grave unless the mother-country should apologize.
[Illustration: BOSTON TEA PARTY, 1893.]
In 1775, on the 19th of April, General Gage sent out troops to see about
some military stores at Concord, but at Lexington he met with a company
of minute-men gathering on the village green. Major Pitcairn, who was in
command of the Tommies, rode up to the minute-men, and, drawing his
bright new Sheffield sword, exclaimed, "Disperse, you rebels! throw down
your arms and disperse!" or some such remark as that.
The Americans hated to do that, so they did not. In the skirmish that
ensued, seven of their number were killed.
Thus opened the Revolutionary War,--a contest which but for the
earnestness and irritability of the Americans would have been extremely
brief. It showed the relative difference between the fighting qualities
of soldiers who fight for two pounds ten shillings per month and those
who fight because they have lost their temper.
The regulars destroyed the stores, but on the way home they found every
rock-pile hid an old-fashioned gun and minute-man. This shows that there
must have been an enormous number of minute-men then. All the English
who got back to Boston were those who went out to reinforce the original
command.
The news went over the country like wildfire. These are the words of the
historian. Really, that is a poor comparison, for wildfire doesn't jump
rivers and bays, or get up and eat breakfast by candle-light in order to
be on the road and spread the news.
General Putnam left a pair of tired steers standing in the furrow, and
rode one hundred miles without feed or water to Boston.
Twenty thousand men were soon at work building intrenchments around
Boston, so that the English troops could not get out to the suburbs
where many of them resided.
[Illustration: GENERAL PUTNAM LEAVING A PAIR OF TIRED STEERS.]
I will now speak of the battle of Bunker Hill.
This battle occurred June 17. The Americans heard that their enemy
intended to fortify Bunker Hill, and so they determined to do it
themselves, in order to have it done in a way that would be a credit to
the town.
A body of men under Colonel Prescott, after prayer by the President of
Harvard University, marched to Charlestown Neck. They decided to fortify
Breed's Hill, as it was more commanding, and all night long they kept on
fortifying. The surprise of the English at daylight was well worth going
from Lowell to witness.
Howe sent three thousand men across and formed them on the landing. He
marched them up the hill to within ten rods of the earth-works, when it
occurred to Prescott that it would now be the appropriate thing to fire.
He made a statement of that kind to his troops, and those of the enemy
who were alive went back to Charlestown. But that was no place for them,
as they had previously set it afire, so they came back up the hill,
where they were once more well received and tendered the freedom of a
future state.
Three times the English did this, when the ammunition in the
fortifications gave out, and they charged with fixed bayonets and
reinforcements.
The Americans were driven from the field, but it was a victory after
all. It united the Colonies and made them so vexed at the English that
it took some time to bring on an era of good feeling.
Lord Howe, referring afterwards to this battle, said that the Americans
did not stand up and fight like the regulars, suggesting that thereafter
the Colonial army should arrange itself in the following manner before a
battle!
[Illustration: GENERAL HOWE'S SUGGESTION.]
However, the suggestion was not acted on. The Colonial soldiers declined
to put on a bright red coat and a pill-box cap, that kept falling off in
battle, thus delaying the carnage, but preferred to wear homespun which
was of a neutral shade, and shoot their enemy from behind stumps. They
said it was all right to dress up for a muster, but they preferred their
working-clothes for fighting. After the war a statistician made the
estimate that nine per cent. of the British troops were shot while
ascertaining if their caps were on straight.[4]
[Illustration: PUTNAM'S FLIGHT.]
General Israel Putnam was known as the champion rough rider of his day,
and once when hotly pursued rode down three flights of steps, which,
added to the flight he made from the English soldiers, made four
flights. Putnam knew not fear or cowardice, and his name even to-day is
the synonyme for valor and heroism.
[Footnote 4: The authority given for this statement, I admit, is meagre,
but it is as accurate as many of the figures by means of which people
prove things.--B. N.]
[Illustration: FRANKLIN'S MORNING HUNT FOR HIS SHOES.]