MILITARY PREPARATIONS
As the spring of 1775 advanced, matters took on a constantly more
threatening aspect. The governor's force in Boston was steadily
increasing, and was approaching a total of four thousand men. Vessels of
war were with equal steadiness being added to the little fleet in the
harbor. With each budget of news from England it became evident that
Parliament would not yield, and at last came word that Lord North had
offered a joint resolution that New England was in a state of rebellion,
which both houses pledged their lives and fortunes to suppress. With
such a military force at his command, and with such moral support from
King and Parliament, Gage was in a position to take decided action.
No one could doubt what that action would be. Since September the
province had been gathering its meagre military supplies. It was but
common sense to seize them before they could be used. Soon after the new
year Gage began his measures. "Genl. Orders," writes disgruntled
Lieutenant Barker. "If any officers of the different Regts. are
_capable_ of taking sketches of a Country, they will send their names to
the Dep. Adj. Genl ... that is an extraordinary method of wording the
order; it might at least have been in a more genteel way; at present it
looks as if he doubted whether there were any such." However, there were
such, and in February the governor chose Captain Brown and Ensign De
Berniere (or Bernicre, as the name is sometimes spelled) and sent them
out to map the roads.
The little expedition was somewhat absurd, for the disguise which the
officers wore was sufficient to conceal them only from their friends.
When, at the first tavern at which they stopped, they remarked that it
was a very fine country, the black woman who waited on them answered,
"So it is, and we have got brave fellows to defend it, and if you go any
higher you will find it so." "This," admits Ensign De Berniere, whose
account of the expedition was left in Boston at the evacuation, and was
"printed for the information and amusement of the curious," "this
disconcerted us a good deal." From that time on, any one who took the
trouble to "eye them attentively" was in no doubt as to their real
character.
They went first to Worcester, where it was possible that the governor
might wish to send troops, to protect the courts as well as to seize
stores. The weather was rough and snowy, and the officers' task
correspondingly difficult; the countrymen, by persevering sociability,
kept them in an uneasy state of mind. After roughly mapping roads
concerning which the general should long before have had accurate
information, the two officers made their way to Sudbury, where they
hoped to rest with a sympathizer, after walking in a snow-storm for
hours. But the town doctor, though long a stranger at the house, came
to call, and the townspeople showed their host various other undesirable
attentions, so that in twenty minutes the two officers were glad to
leave the place. They arrived again safely at Worcester, "very much
fatigued, after walking thirty-two miles between two o'clock and
half-after ten at night, through a road that every step we sunk up to
the ankles, and it blowing and drifting snow all the way."
In spite of this experience, the two officers, a month later, undertook
a similar journey to Concord. In this they succeeded, returning with a
rough sketch of the roads, but bringing also their Concord host, who did
not think it safe to remain after entertaining them. They brought
information that in Concord there were "fourteen cannon (ten iron and
four brass) and two cohorns," with "a store of flour, fish, salt, and
rice; and a magazine of powder and cartridges."
They might, in their two journeys, have brought better information than
that the Concord Whigs "fired their morning gun, and mounted a guard of
ten men at night." The stores at Concord had far better protection than
these, as the two officers should have learned at Framingham, where they
watched the drill of the militia company. "After they had done their
exercise, one of their commanders spoke a very eloquent speech,
recommending patience, coolness, and bravery (which indeed they very
much wanted), particularly told them they would always conquer if they
did not break, and recommended them to charge us coolly, and wait for
our fire, and everything would succeed with them--quoted Caesar and
Pompey, brigadiers Putnam and Ward, and all such great men; put them in
mind of Cape Breton, and all the battles they had gained for his majesty
in the last war, and observed that the regulars must have been ruined
but for them."
Had the two officers known it, every town in the province had just such
a militia company, which at set seasons met, and drilled, and listened
to good old-fashioned exhortations to valor. It would not take long,
therefore, for the neighboring towns to send their companies to
reinforce the guard of ten men which Concord set over its stores every
night. And yet the province was not satisfied with this ancient militia
organization, for it had set up another to strengthen it.
The militia was composed, as it had been since the foundation of the
colony, of the whole body of male inhabitants of proper military age. In
some cases even clergymen drilled in the ranks. More than once this
militia had gathered to repel an expected attack of French or Indians;
it had stood between the settlers and their foes from the days of Miles
Standish down to the French and Indian War. The martial spirit still
prevailed among the youth of the colony, and each town took pride in its
company. In 1774 John Andrews thus records his innocent delight in the
appearance of the Boston trainbands:--
"Am almost every minute taken off with agreeable sight of our militia
companies marching into the Common, as it is a grand field day with
us.... They now vie with the best troops in his majesties service, being
dress'd all in blue uniforms, with drums and fifes to each company
dress'd in white uniforms trim'd in y^e most elegant manner; with a
company of Grenadiers in red with every other apparatus, that equal any
regular company I ever saw both in appearance and discipline, having a
grand band of musick consisting of eight that play nearly equal to that
of the 64th. What crowns all is the Cadet company, being perfectly
compleat and under the best order you can conceive of, with a band of
musick likewise, that perform admirably well. What with these and
Paddock's company of artillery make y^e completest militia in America;
not a drummer, fifer, and scarcely a soldier but what are in compleat
uniforms and thoroughly instructed in the military exercises."
It was this Boston Cadet company that, at the affront to its leader
Hancock had returned its standard to the governor and disbanded. Gage
knew too well that others of the companies were thoroughly disaffected.
In fact, many of the Boston young men left the town before hostilities
began, and were ready to join with their country brethren in showing
that their military training was worth something.
Yet early in the fall it was recognized in the colony that the militia
system was not sufficient, being too slow of movement to meet any such
sudden expedition as that which Gage sent to seize the powder. It is not
surprising, therefore, to find John Andrews reporting on October 5 the
existence of a new body of troops, "which are call'd _minute men_,
_i.e._ to be ready at a minute's warning with a fortnight's provision,
and ammunition and arms." There is doubt of the origin of this body, but
it was first officially accepted in Concord, where the town adopted
definite terms of enlistment, the more important of which reads:--
"We will ... to the utmost of our power and abilities, defend all and
every of our charter rights, liberties, and privileges; and will hold
ourselves in readiness at a minute's warning, with arms and ammunition
thus to do."[56]
Tradition says that the terms of the enlistment were interpreted
literally, and that wherever the minute men went, to the field, the
shop, or to church, gun and powder-horn and bullet-pouch were ready to
hand. It is scarcely an exaggeration to suppose that, as represented by
French's statue, the farmers actually left the plough in the furrow and
snatched up the ready rifle.
One further preparation was also made. The rallying point was possibly
Worcester, where were the courts and some few stores; but it was more
probably Concord. The shortest route to Concord, or to the road between
Concord and Boston, was known to the captain of every company of minute
men within a hundred miles. But that the captains should be notified of
any emergency was essential. A complete system of couriers for
spreading news was projected in September, and now was in good working
order, so that, with Boston as a radiating point, the summons could be
sent over the province with the greatest rapidity. By virtue of his
efficiency, trustworthiness, and picturesque personality, Paul Revere is
accepted as the type of the men who stood ready for this service.
This system, further, had been tested. The spontaneous response to the
Powder Alarm in September had been ready enough, for the men of
Connecticut and New Hampshire were in motion before the next day. But
through the winter of 1774-1775 there had been minor alarms at each
little expedition on which Gage sent his soldiers. By these the new
system was proved efficient. Whether the troops marched to Jamaica Pond,
to the "punch bowl" in Brookline, or even went, by sea and land, as far
as Salem, the militia of the surrounding towns showed a prompt curiosity
as to the object of the excursion. These fruitless musters, far from
making the minute men callous to alarms, served to prepare them to meet
the great occasion which they foresaw would finally come. For that they
were in excellent practice.
As to Concord itself, it had become very important. The Congress, which
after its first week in Concord had been sitting in Cambridge, now
returned, and from the 22d of March until the 15th of April[57] sat
daily in the meeting-house. The Committee of Safety remained still
longer, busy with the gathering of supplies. It is within this period
that Berniere and Brown came on their spying expedition to Concord, and
were directed by a woman to the house of Daniel Bliss. A threat of the
Whigs to tar and feather her sent her to the officers for refuge, and
word presently came to Bliss that the Whigs "would not let him go out of
the town alive that morning." This fate the officers and their host
avoided by leaving in the night. What became of the woman is not said,
but we may be easy about her: no injury, and in fact no serious
indignity, was put upon a woman in New England at this period. The
officers returned to Boston with a report of the stores in Concord.
This may have increased the anxiety of the Committee of Safety. Already
they had voted, "requiring Colonel Barrett of Concord to engage a
sufficient number of faithful men to guard the Colony's magazines in
that town; to keep a suitable number of teams in constant readiness, by
day and night, to remove the stores; and to provide couriers to alarm
the neighboring towns, on receiving information of any movements of the
British troops."[58] A watch was kept upon the British movements; and
finally, when, on the 15th, Warren sent Paul Revere from Boston with
warning of suspicious movements, the Committee felt that soon Gage must
strike. On the 18th it ordered the removal of some of the stores. "That
very night," says Tolman, without knowledge of affairs in Boston, the
work was begun.
Meanwhile, in response to another vote of the committee, the British had
been under close observation. The vote was that "members of this
Committee belonging to the towns of Charlestown, Cambridge, and Roxbury,
be required at the Province expense to procure at least two men for a
watch every night to be placed in each of these towns, and that said
members be in readiness to send couriers forward to the towns where the
magazines are placed, when sallies are made by the army by night." In
view of these preparations, it scarcely needs to be said that there was
nothing accidental about Concord fight. Some day Gage was bound to
strike at Concord, and for that day the Whigs were ready.
It is now that Paul Revere comes prominently into the course of events.
Revere was a Boston craftsman of Huguenot descent, who was and is well
known as a silversmith, engraver, and cartoonist. His prints and
articles of silverware sell to-day for high prices, and his house in
North Square has recently been fitted up as a public museum, chiefly on
account of a single act at a critical moment. One is glad to know,
however, that Revere's fame is not accidental. His pictures are
historically interesting; we should be the poorer without his prints
which give views of Boston, and without his picture of the Massacre. His
silver--we have mentioned his punch-bowl for the "immortal
Ninety-two"--is usually beautiful. From the foundry which he established
later in life came cannon, and church-bells which are in use to-day. And
finally his famous ride, the object of which would have been brought
about had Revere been stopped at the outset, was but one out of many.
[Illustration: REVERE'S PICTURE OF BOSTON IN 1768.]
"In the year 1773," says Revere of himself,[59] "I was employed by the
selectmen of the town of Boston to carry the account of the Destruction
of the Tea to New York, and afterwards, 1774, to carry their despatches
to New York and Philadelphia for calling a Congress; and afterwards to
Congress several times." Revere does not mention the fact that he was
himself a member of the Tea-Party. When he goes on to speak of still
more important events, he suppresses the fact that he was one of the
leaders, if not the chief leader, of the Boston artisans.
"In the fall of 1774, and winter of 1775, I was one of upwards of
thirty, chiefly mechanics, who formed ourselves into a committee for the
purpose of watching the movements of the British soldiers, and gaining
every intelligence of the movements of the Tories. We held our meetings
at the Green Dragon Tavern. We were so careful that our meetings should
be kept secret, that every time we met, every person swore upon the
Bible that they would not discover any of our transactions but to
Messrs. Hancock, Adams, Doctors Warren, Church, and one or two more....
In the winter, towards the spring, we frequently took turns, two and
two, to watch the soldiers, by patrolling the streets all night."
Such was the watch, then, kept upon the royalists, and such were the
preparations to receive the troops when they should march out. We know
now that Gage was informed of them, for among those whom Revere names as
confidants of the mechanics there was a traitor to the cause. Yet though
Gage knew of the organization of the Whigs, of its efficiency he had
apparently not the glimmer of an idea. It was with no expectation of
serious results that, when at last he learned that the resolution
declaring the colonies to be in rebellion had passed Parliament, he
slowly put himself in motion to seize the stores of the provincials.
The Americans were keenly aware of all his movements. There were two
common methods of leaving the town, one by the Neck, the other over
Charlestown ferry. But these routes lay through towns, either Roxbury
or Charlestown, and to march so openly meant to give the alarm. The
Americans were ready for Gage to take a third route: across the Charles
by means of boats, and then by unfrequented roads until striking the
highway at Cambridge Common. This way the Whigs suspected he might
choose, and this they found he did.
Gage's preparations were almost open. The boats of the men-of-war were
hauled up and repaired at the foot of the Common. On the 14th, in the
night, they were launched, and moored at the sterns of the men-of-war.
On the 15th was given out in general orders that "'The Grenadiers and
Light Infantry in order to learn Grenadrs. Exercise and new evolutions
are to be off all duties till further orders.'--This," remarks
Lieutenant Barker of the King's Own, "I suppose is by way of a blind. I
dare say they have something for them to do."
This "something" was either one or both of two objectives: the stores at
Concord, and the persons of Adams and Hancock, then known to be staying
at the house of the Reverend Jonas Clark in Lexington. That this latter
objective was seriously considered, at least by the Americans, we shall
see from Revere's narrative. There never has been proof that Gage
endeavored to seize either them or Warren. But in any case the stores
were in danger, and strict watch was kept.
There was evidence enough of a coming expedition. As before the
Massacre, there were soldiers' rumors that something was to happen, and
the name of Concord was whispered about. On the night of the 18th word
came in from the country that parties of officers were riding here and
there. This same notice was sent by vigilant patriots to Hancock at
Lexington. In Boston itself different persons noticed that the troops
were astir. Word of all this came from various sources to Warren who,
relinquishing for a while his sittings with the Committee of Safety, had
for some days been working for it at the post of responsibility and
danger. Warren finally decided that he must act. He sent for the men
who had pledged themselves for this service, and gave them his
directions.
One of these men was William Dawes, of whom, except for his actions on
this night, we know little. Obeying his instructions, he took horse, and
rode across the Neck to go to Lexington by way of Roxbury and Watertown.
"About ten o'clock," writes Revere, "Dr. Warren sent in great haste for
me, and begged that I would immediately set off for Lexington, where
Messrs. Hancock and Adams were, and acquaint them of the movement, and
that it was thought they were the objects." Revere was ready. In
returning on the 15th he had arranged signals to his friends in
Charlestown to inform them what route the British would take; he knew,
also, how he should cross--for the ferry was closed at nine o'clock--and
where he should get his horse. From Warren's Revere went home, got his
"boots and surtout," and started. Two of his friends rowed him to
Charlestown in a boat which was kept ready for the purpose, another was
already despatched to make certain of the route the British would take.
[Illustration: THE OLD NORTH CHURCH
(From which Paul Revere's signals were displayed.)]
Of the person and the actions of this other friend there has been much
dispute. The weight of evidence seems to show that on making sure of the
route of the British, he went to the Old North Church, still standing in
Salem Street, and from its steeple displayed the signal. I make no
positive assertion that he spent any time in watching the British;
Revere, knowing the route, may have signalled in order to make sure that
the news crossed the river, even though he himself might fail. The
person who displayed the signals seems to have been one Newman, the
sexton of the church, rather than Captain Pulling, a friend of Revere's.
At any rate, the signals were hung while Revere was crossing the river
to Charlestown. He passed unobserved not far from the _Somerset_
man-of-war, and remarks that "it was then young flood, the ship was
winding, and the moon was rising." On landing, his Charlestown friends
told him they had already seen the signals. Revere (if we still suppose
that he needed to make sure of the route) himself must have taken a look
at the signal lanterns, as in Longfellow's poem. "Two if by sea." This
poetical language means merely that the troops were preparing to cross
the river in their boats. This is the traditional account of Revere's
action. A contemporary memorandum states, however, that on landing
Revere "informed [us] that the T [troops] were actually in the boats."
"I got a horse," says Revere, "of Deacon Larkin," which horse the deacon
never saw again. Before Revere started he again received warning that
there were British officers on the road, but he was quite cool enough to
take note of the beauty of the night, "about eleven o'clock and very
pleasant." Crossing Charlestown Neck, he started on the road for
Cambridge, when he saw before him two horsemen under a tree. As Revere
drew near, they pushed out into the moonlight, and he saw their
uniforms. One of them blocked the road, the other tried to take him,
and Revere, turning back, galloped first for Charlestown and then
"pushed for the Medford road." Revere made the turn successfully; the
officer who followed, ignorant of the locality, mired himself in a clay
pond. Revere's road was now clear. He reached Medford, and roused the
captain of the minute men; then, hastening on through Menotomy, now
Arlington, and thence to Lexington, he "alarmed almost every house." He
reached Lexington about midnight, and went directly to the house of the
Reverend Jonas Clark, where Hancock and Adams were sleeping under a
guard of the militia. Revere asked admittance, and the sergeant informed
him that the family had requested that no noise be made.
"Noise!" replied Revere in the phrase familiar to every schoolboy,
"you'll have noise enough before long--the regulars are coming out!"[60]
The family was accordingly at once aroused.
Meanwhile the troops had actually started. "Between 10 and 11 o'clock,"
says Lieutenant Barker, "all the Grenadiers and Light Infantry of the
Army, making about 600 Men, (under command of Lt. Coll. Smith of the
10th and Major Pitcairn of the Marines,) embarked and were landed on the
opposite shore of Cambridge Marsh." This phrasing is not immediately
clear to one of to-day. In those days every regiment had two special
companies, the heavy-armed grenadiers, so called because they originally
carried hand-grenades, and the light-infantry company. These were
frequently detached for special duty, as the present, when the Light
Infantry would be used for flanking purposes. Thus every regiment in
Boston was represented in the expedition--and we may add in the list of
killed and wounded on the following day. The number is generally
estimated at eight hundred. They were commanded by the colonel who had
been longest on duty in New England. Smith was in character too much
like Gage himself. The general would have done better to send one of
his brigadiers.
One at least of the brigadiers was reasonably alert. According to
Stedman, Lord Percy was crossing the Common after learning from the
general that a secret expedition had just started. Perceiving a group of
men talking together, the nobleman joined them in time to hear one say,
"The British troops have marched, but have missed their aim."
"What aim?" asked Lord Percy.
The reply was, "The cannon at Concord." Percy, in much perturbation, at
once returned to the general and told him that his secret was known.
Poor Gage complained that his confidence had been betrayed, "for that he
had communicated his design to one person only besides his lordship."
The student of the time sees in this story a side-thrust at Mrs. Gage,
on whom, as an American, the officers were ready to blame the knowledge
of secrets which were gained by Yankee shrewdness alone. In this case we
have seen that it was Gage that betrayed himself to the eyes of
Revere's volunteer watch. The general hastily sent to order the guard at
the Neck to let no one leave the town. But he was too late: Dawes was
gone, Revere was on the water, and the news was out.
The expedition was bungled at the very start. "After getting over the
Marsh, where we were wet up to the knees," says Lieutenant Barker, "we
were halted in a dirty road and stood there till two o'clock in the
morning, waiting for provisions to be brought from the boats and to be
divided, and which most of the men threw away, having carried some with
'em." As they waited there they might have heard signal guns, and
learned that in a constantly widening circle of villages, "the bells
were rung backward, the drums they were beat." The news had three hours'
start of them. At last, at two on the 19th, having "waded through a very
long ford up to our middles," wet, dirty, and loaded with the heavy
equipment of the period, they started on their march.
FOOTNOTES:
[56] Tolman, "The Concord Minute Man," 12.
[57] I take many facts in the following pages from the three pamphlets
by George Tolman, "The Concord Minute Man," "Preliminaries of Concord
Fight," and "Events of April Nineteenth." These, published by the
Concord Antiquarian Society, are invaluable to the student of this
period.
[58] "Preliminaries," 23-24.
[59] After the Revolution, Revere wrote a narrative of the events in
which he was concerned. It is to be found in several books, notably
Goff's "Life of Revere."
[60] Most of these facts are from Frothingham's "Siege," 57-59, and from
Revere's letter.