After the Battle of Bunker Hill, the forces around Boston settled down
for a 9-month siege. Two days after General Washington arrived in
Cambridge on July 2, 1775, to take command of the army, the Provincial
Congress of Massachusetts ordered a committee to prepare a letter
informing him of the provisions that had been made for the sick and
wounded of the army. On the very same day, July 4, the Provincial
Congress appointed Andrew Craigie medical commissary and apothecary
for the Massachusetts army.[22]
Following a personal inspection by Washington on July 21 and the
establishment of the general hospital plan on July 27, the Continental
Congress elected Dr. Benjamin Church as director general of the newly
created medical department. Soon after this, Church conferred with
several Massachusetts officials regarding the appointment of
apothecaries for the medical store at Watertown. On August 3, a
committee of the Provincial Congress advised "that the Medical Store
in Watertown be continued where it now is, and that Mr. Andrew
Craigie, appointed by the late Congress Apothecary to the Colony, be
directed to take charge thereof, and prepare the necessary
compositions; and that Mr. James Miller Church be appointed Assistant
Apothecary to put up and distribute said Medicines...."[23]
The medical supplies were slow in coming from Philadelphia, as we have
already noted. On the other hand, troops were arriving daily, placing
an increased demand on all types of supplies, including drugs. One
event which undoubtedly resulted in delays in establishing proper
supply depots was the startling discovery that Director General
Church was guilty of holding treasonable correspondence with the
enemy. On October 16, Congress elected Dr. John Morgan to replace
Church.[24]
On December 2, by order of Morgan, Apothecary Craigie made an
inventory of the medical supplies in the general hospital at
Cambridge. The inventory included 120 different items, but only
limited quantities of the essential drugs.[25] There were 52 pounds of
Jesuits' bark, 18 pounds of cream of tartar, 76 pounds of purging
salts, 1 pound of camphor, 5 pounds of jalap, 1 pound of ipecac, and
1/2 pound of tartar emetic. The 44 pounds of gum ammoniac was reported
"damaged," and the 86 pounds of rhubarb was described as "bad."[26] An
inventory of medicines held by the different regimental surgeons in
Massachusetts indicated that all regiments had "but few medicines"
except for Colonel Hand's, which reported "a good supply."[27]
However, this rather meager inventory of drugs probably was not
inadequate. The siege of Boston resulted in few wounded soldiers, and
there was a surprisingly small amount of sickness in the army during
the winter of 1775-76; furthermore, towns not too distant still had a
limited supply of drugs on hand. Smith and Coit, of Hartford,
Connecticut, informed "their good Customers, and the public in
general, that notwithstanding the entire stop to Importation which
hath long since taken place, they still have on hand, small Quantities
of most Articles of the Apothecary Way ... which they mean to sell at
a reasonable retailing Price."[28] Jacob Isaacks of Newport, Rhode
Island, similarly advertised "a complete assortment of genuine
Medicines, with furniture for containing the same, to the amount of
about 300 pounds sterling; which medicines were purchased with cash,
and will be sold, at the prime cost and charges, without any advance.
Any of the lawful or Continental bills now current will be taken in
pay for the above medicines."[29]
Drug supplies also were quite adequate in Boston during the British
occupation. Sylvester Gardiner at "The Sign of the Unicorn and Mortar
in Marlborow Street" reported that "all kinds of the best and
freshest drugs and medicines ... are continued to be sold as usual."
However a cautionary note was added that drugs and medicines had been
"constantly imported every fall and spring to June last." Implicit in
the advertising is the suggestion that the securing of new supplies
was highly uncertain.[30]
A letter dated December 2, 1775, from a British officer in Boston to a
friend in Edinburgh observed that "many of our men are sick, and fresh
provisions very dear." However, the officer added, "but the Rebels
must be in a much worse condition...."[31] Drugs were imported into
Boston during the siege as evidenced by an advertisement on February
22, 1776, announcing "just imported from LONDON and to be sold at Mr.
Dalton's Store, on the Long-Wharf, a proper assortment of Drugs and
Medicines of the Best quality in Cases."[32]
By the end of February 1776, Washington had decided to try to end the
siege of Boston by seizing Dorchester Heights and placing his
artillery there in a position to bombard the town. General Howe
believed it was time to leave, and the British evacuated on March 17.
As the Continental Army moved into Boston, there was an outcry that
the British had poisoned a supply of drugs left behind. On April 15
the _Boston Gazette_ reported that "it is absolutely fact that the
Doctors of the diabolical ministerial butcher when they evacuated
Boston, intermixed and left 26 weight of Arsenick with the medicines
which they left in the Alms House."[33] Then, a week later, on April
22, appeared a series of testimonials that had been made by Joseph
Warren, Daniel Scott, and Frederick Ridgley at Watertown on April 3d
"by order of the Director-General of the Continental Hospital." Warren
swore under oath that on or about March 29 he had gone into the
workhouse [almshouse] "lately improved as an hospital by the British
troops stationed in said town" and upon examining the state of "a
large quantity of Medicine" left in the medicinal storeroom had found
about 12 or 14 pounds of arsenic intermixed with the drugs, which were
found "to be chiefly capital articles and those most generally in
demand."[34]
Despite this incident, we have the word of Morgan that "a large,
though unassorted stock of medicines" was collected in Boston when the
British evacuated.[35] Hospital Surgeons Ebenezer Crosby and Frederick
Ridgley reported that "at the evacuation of Boston ... all the Mates
of the Hospital that could be spared from Cambridge ... were employed
in packing up and sending off [to Cambridge] drugs, medicines and
other hospital stores, collected by order of Dr. Morgan, the quantity
of which appeared great."[36]
Inasmuch as few medicines were listed in the inventory of stores left
by the British on the wharfs and in the scuttled ships in the
harbor,[37] it appears that most of these drugs obtained in Boston
were confiscated from the homes, offices, and shops of the Loyalists
who fled when the British evacuated. Morgan reported that he had taken
possession of the medicines and furniture of Dr. Sylvester Gardiner's
shop, and a small stock of drugs from the office of Dr. William
Perkins, a private practitioner.[38] No inventory of these supplies
has been located thus far, but a contemporary biographer of Sylvester
Gardiner records that the confiscated drugs from his shop "filled from
20 to 25 wagons."[39] This is not unlikely because Gardiner's
apothecary shop was one of the largest and most prosperous in the
Colonies prior to the Revolution.[40]
Soon after the British evacuated Boston, the Greenleaf apothecary shop
in Boston was again supplying medicines to the Continental Army. The
Greenleaf ledger[41] shows that on May 25 the shop sold nearly L4
worth of "Sundry Medicines ... [to] the Committee of War, State of
Massachusetts Bay." Then, on June 20, the Massachusetts Assembly
resolved that "Dr. John Greenleaf of Boston be requested to supply the
Chief Surgeon of ... Colonels Marshall's, Whitney's and Craft's
Regiments ... with medicines as may be necessary...."[42] A short
time later the Assembly advanced "up to L50 to Greenleaf for
purchasing such medicines as he cannot supply from his own store."[43]
The Greenleaf ledger shows that over L32 worth of medicines were sold
for Colonel Whitney's regiment and over L36 worth for Colonel
Marshall's regiment between June 13 and November 20, 1776. Thus, drugs
were available; but until the fall of '76, Greenleaf was having
difficulty in obtaining an abundant supply.