_The Siege of Boston._
The Challenge--Bold Plan of Washington--The Expedition to
Canada--The Conflagration of Falmouth--Barbarism of the
Foe--The Captured Brigantine--A gleam of Joy--Cruel treatment
of Ethan Allen--Correspondence with General Howe--Efficiency
of “Old Put”--A Servile War proposed by Dunmore--Lady
Washington arrives at the Camp--The Tumult Quelled--Peril of
the diminished Army--New York menaced--Deplorable condition of
the English--Washington fortifies Dorchester Heights--Boston
Evacuated.
Several weeks passed away, while Washington vigorously prosecuted
the siege of the British troops in Boston. Having strengthened his
intrenchments, and obtained a sufficient supply of ammunition, he was
quite desirous of inciting them to make an attack upon his lines.
A rumor reached him, the latter part of August, that General Gage,
annoyed by the scarcity of provisions, was preparing for a sortie,
in great strength. Washington endeavored to provoke the movement by
offering a sort of challenge.
He accordingly, one night detached fourteen hundred men, to seize
upon an eminence within musket shot of an important part of the
British lines upon Charleston Neck. He hoped that the enemy, upon
discovering the movement, would immediately advance to drive them back;
and that thus a general engagement might be brought on.
[Illustration: HOUSE WHERE LEE WAS CAPTURED.]
The task was executed with great secrecy and skill. With the earliest
dawn, the British, to their great surprise, saw the eminence crowned
with quite formidable ramparts. But Gage had learned a lesson at Bunker
Hill. He knew Washington, and was well aware that he was a foe to be
feared. The proud Englishman did not venture to accept the challenge.
It must have been to him a great humiliation. He kept his troops
carefully sheltered behind their works, and contented himself with a
bombardment, from his heavy guns, which did but little injury. The
Americans completed and held possession of this advanced post.
Washington found it difficult to account for the fact that the British
officers, at the head of their large and well-appointed troops, allowed
themselves to be hedged in by undisciplined bands of American farmers,
of whose military prowess they had loudly proclaimed their contempt. He
wrote:
“Unless the ministerial troops in Boston are waiting for
reinforcements, I cannot devise what they are staying there for, nor
why, as they affect to despise the Americans, they do not come forth
and put an end to the conflict at once.”
It is probable that Gates imagined that Washington’s troops, composed
of men who loved their homes, and who, as he knew, had enlisted only
till the 1st of January, would, as soon as the snows and storms of
winter came, disperse. He could then, with his fresh troops, sweep the
province of Massachusetts at his will.[98]
The country could not understand the reason for the apparent inactivity
of the American army. Washington was very desirous for a battle. But
a decisive defeat would prove the entire ruin of the national hopes.
Still some active movement seemed essential to reanimate the people.
After revolving the circumstances in his mind very carefully, he
summoned a council of war, and proposed that a simultaneous attack
should be made upon the enemy in Boston, by crossing the water in
boats, and, at the same time, impetuously assailing their lines on the
Neck. This was indeed a very bold measure. Washington must have had
great confidence in his men, to advance, with inexperienced militia,
against British regulars behind their ramparts. But it is very certain
that he had weighed all the chances, and that he had made every
possible preparation to guard against a decisive disaster.
“The success of such an enterprise,” he said, “depends, I well know,
upon the all-wise Disposer of events; and it is not within the reach
of human wisdom to foretell the issue. But if the prospect is fair the
undertaking is justifiable.”
The council was held on the 11th of September. Eight generals were
present. They unanimously decided that the project was too hazardous
to be undertaken, at least for the present.[99] Washington now turned
his attention to the expedition into Canada. Eleven hundred men were
detached, for the purpose, and encamped on Cambridge Common. Aaron
Burr, then a brilliant young man of twenty years, volunteered for
the service. Thus he entered upon his varied, guilty, and melancholy
career. Benedict Arnold, whose reputation for valor was established,
was intrusted with the command. The instructions which Washington gave
are characteristic of that noblest of men. The following extracts will
show their spirit:
“I charge you, and the officers and soldiers under your command, as
you value your own safety and honor and the favor and esteem of your
country, that you consider yourselves as marching, not through the
country of an enemy, but of our friends and brethren; for such the
inhabitants of Canada and the Indian nations have approved themselves,
in this unhappy contest between Great Britain and America; and that you
check, by every motive and fear of punishment, every attempt to plunder
or insult the inhabitants of Canada.
“Should an American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any
Canadian or Indian, in his person or property, I do most earnestly
enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the
enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it
will not be disproportioned to its guilt, at such a time and in such a
cause.
“I also give in charge to you, to avoid all disrespect to the religion
of the country and its ceremonies. While we are contending for our
own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights
of conscience in others; ever considering that God alone is the
judge of the hearts of men, and to Him only, in this case, are they
answerable.[100]
“If Lord Chatham’s son should be in Canada, and, in any way, fall into
your power, you are enjoined to treat him with all possible deference
and respect. You cannot err in paying too much honor to the son of so
illustrious a character and so true a friend to America.”
On the 13th of September, Arnold struck his tents and commenced
his long march through the almost unbroken wilderness. We have not
space here to detail the sufferings and romantic incidents of this
unsuccessful expedition. Though wisely planned, and energetically
executed, untoward circumstances, which could not have been foreseen,
prevented its success. The conduct of Arnold was approved by Washington
and applauded by the country generally.[101]
The time was rapidly approaching when the Americans must enlist a new
army. The Connecticut and Rhode Island troops were engaged to serve
only till the month of December. None were enlisted beyond the 1st of
January. Thus Washington would find himself entirely without troops,
unless new levies could be raised. The British, in Boston, cut off from
supplies by land, were fitting out small armed vessels to ravage the
coasts. Newport, Rhode Island, was the rendezvous of a strong fleet of
the enemy. Stonington was cannonaded. There was everywhere distress
and consternation. The British treated the Americans as if they were
criminals beyond the reach of mercy.
To check these marauding expeditions, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut, each fitted out two armed vessels. They cruised along
the whole coast of New England, to the waters of the St. Lawrence.
Portland, then called Falmouth, was one of the most heroic of the
New England seaports. Its sturdy inhabitants, by their proclaimed
patriotism, had become especially obnoxious to the enemy. Several armed
vessels were sent to lay the defenceless town in ashes. Two hours
were given to remove the sick and the infirm. Lieutenant Mount, in
command of this cruel expedition, entirely unauthorized by the rules of
civilized warfare, announced that he was instructed to burn down every
town between Boston and Halifax, and that New York, he supposed, was
already destroyed.[102]
The terrific bombardment was commenced about half-past nine o’clock,
on the morning of the 12th of October. One hundred and twenty-nine
dwelling-houses, and two hundred and twenty-eight stores, were
burned.[103] In view of this barbarism Washington wrote:
“The desolation and misery, which ministerial vengeance had planned, in
contempt of every principle of humanity, and so lately brought on the
town of Falmouth, I know not how sufficiently to commiserate; nor can
my compassion for the general suffering be conceived beyond the true
measure of my feelings.”
General Greene wrote, “O, could the Congress behold the distress and
wretched condition of the poor inhabitants, driven from the seaport
towns, it must, it would, kindle a blaze of indignation against the
commissioned pirates and licensed robbers. People begin heartily to
wish a declaration of independence.”
Though a hundred years have passed away since these deeds of wanton and
demoniac cruelty, the remembrance of them does now, and will forever
excite the emotion of every human heart against the perpetrators of
such crimes. The families of every town on the coast were in terror.
Mothers and maidens, pale and trembling, feared every morning that,
before night, they might hear the bombardment of those dreadful guns.
And these were the crimes which the government of Great Britain was
committing, that it might compel the Americans to submit to any tax
which Great Britain might impose upon them. There was no mystery about
this war. “Submit yourselves to us to be taxed as we please,” said
England. “If you do not we will, with our invincible armies, sweep your
whole country with fire and blood.”
At Portsmouth, which was daily menaced, there was a fortification of
some strength. Washington sent General Sullivan there to assist the
inhabitants in their defence. Washington wrote:
“I expect every hour to hear that Newport has shared the same fate of
unhappy Falmouth.”[104]
Gage was recalled by the British government. The battle of Bunker Hill
and the siege of their troops, in Boston, mortified the English.[105] A
committee of Congress visited Cambridge to confer with Washington. The
British in Boston could be bombarded, but not without danger of laying
the city in ashes. After several conferences, reaching through four
days, it was decided that an attack upon Boston would be inexpedient.
Congress had, however, voted to raise a new army, of a little over
twenty-two thousand men, for one year. Mr. Reed, Washington’s highly
valued and beloved secretary, found that his private concerns demanded
his return to Philadelphia.
General Howe succeeded General Gage in Boston. He was instructed, by
his government, that he was commissioned to quell the rebellion of
traitors, who merited the scaffold. In accordance with these principles
he conducted the war. Great contempt was manifested by the British
officers, for every form of religion, excepting that of the church of
England. The Old South Church was converted into a riding school, for
Burgoyne’s light dragoons. The North Church was torn down, for fuel.
Howe denounced the penalty of death upon any one who should attempt to
leave Boston without his permission. The inhabitants were commanded to
arm themselves, under British officers, to maintain order.
Throughout the country the tories were becoming more and more defiant,
and open in their opposition to the American cause. The ice of winter
would soon so bridge the bays, that the British troops, in Boston,
could, unimpeded, march from their warm barracks, to assail any portion
of the extended American lines. The annoyances of Washington were
indescribable. It was very difficult to find men ready to enlist.
The sentiment of patriotism, as it glowed in the bosom of George
Washington, was a very different emotion from that which glimmered in
the heart of the poor, obscure farmer’s boy, who was to peril life and
limb upon the field of battle, and who, if he fell, would soon be as
entirely forgotten as would be the cart-horse he might be driving.
Amid these scenes of toil, trouble, and grief, the American schooner
Lee, under Captain Manly, which had been sent out by Washington,
entered Cape Ann. It had captured a large and richly freighted English
brigantine. Indescribable was the joy, when a large and lumbering train
of wagons, in apparently an interminable line, came rumbling into the
camp of Cambridge. The wagons were decorated with flags, and bore a
vast quantity of ordnance and military stores.
There were two thousand stand of arms, one hundred thousand flints,
thirty thousand round shot, and thirty-two tons of musket balls. Among
the ordnance there was a huge brass mortar, of a new construction. It
weighed three thousand pounds. The army gazed upon it with admiration.
Putnam christened it. Mounting the gun, he dashed a bottle of rum upon
it, and shouted its new name of Congress. The cheers which rose were
heard in Boston, and excited much curiosity there to learn what could
be the occasion for such rejoicing in the American camp.
Soon after this Washington learned that Colonel Ethan Allen had been
captured near Montreal, and had been thrown, by the British General
Prescott, into prison fettered with irons. He could not have been
treated more brutally had he been the worst of criminals.
Washington immediately wrote a letter of remonstrance to General Howe.
In this letter he said:
“I must take the liberty of informing you that whatever treatment
Colonel Allen receives, whatever fate he undergoes, such exactly shall
be the treatment and fate of Brigadier Prescott, now in our hands. The
law of retaliation is not only justifiable in the eyes of God and man,
but is absolutely a duty, in our present circumstances, we owe to our
relations, friends, and fellow-citizens.
“Permit me to add, sir, that we have all the highest regard and
reverence for your great personal qualities and attainments; and the
Americans in general esteem it as not the least of their misfortunes,
that the name of Howe, a name so dear to them, should appear at the
head of the catalogue of the instruments employed by a wicked ministry
for their destruction.”[106]
Nothing can show more impressively the arrogant air assumed by these
haughty British officers, than Howe’s reply to this letter. Having
curtly stated that he had nothing to do with affairs in Canada he wrote:
“It is with regret, considering the character you have always
maintained among your friends as a gentleman, that I find cause
to resent a sentence, in the conclusion of your letter, big with
invectives against my superiors and insulting to myself, which should
obstruct any farther intercourse between us.”
The humane Americans could not carry out their threat. Prescott was
taken to Philadelphia, and thrown into jail, though not put in irons.
As his health seemed to be failing he was released on his parole.
Thomas Walker, a merchant of Montreal, wished to ascertain how he was
situated.
“To his great surprise he found Mr. Prescott lodged in the best tavern
of the place; walking or riding at large through Philadelphia and Bucks
counties, feasting with gentlemen of the first rank in the province,
and keeping a levee for the reception of the grandees.”[107]
Colonel Allen was held in close confinement and chains, until finally
he was exchanged for a British officer. Washington was indefatigable in
strengthening his old posts, and seizing new ones which would command
portions of the enemy’s lines. General Putnam was exceedingly officious
in these operations. The labors of the soldiers, in throwing up these
redoubts, were often carried on under a continual cannonade from the
British ships.
The British became much alarmed. A battery was raised on Phipps farm,
where the great mortar, the Congress, was mounted. A British officer
wrote:
“If the rebels can complete their battery, this town will be on fire
about our ears a few hours after; all our buildings being of wood or a
mixture of wood and brick-work. Had the rebels erected their battery
on the other side of the town, at Dorchester, the admiral and all his
booms would have made the first blaze, and the burning of the town
would have followed.[108] If we cannot destroy the rebel battery by
our guns, we must march out and take it sword in hand.”
One very great embarrassment was the want of powder. Washington found
it necessary often, to submit to a severe cannonading from the foe,
without returning the fire. Prudence required that the small amount of
powder the Americans had, should be reserved to repel direct attacks.
The winter fortunately proved to be one of unusual mildness. One of the
Americans officers wrote:
“Everything thaws here except old Put. He is still as hard as ever,
crying out for powder, powder, powder; ye gods, give us powder.”
There was great suffering in Virginia. The British governor, Lord
Dunmore, held the province under military rule. Many feared that he
would send a detachment and lay Mount Vernon in ashes. Lady Washington
was advised to seek a retreat beyond the Blue Ridge. But the armed
patriots were on the alert. Washington had left the management of the
large estate under the care of Mr. Lund Washington, in whose integrity
and ability he had entire confidence.
To his agent Washington wrote, “Let the hospitality of the house,
with respect to the poor, be kept up. Let no one go hungry away. If
any of this kind of people should be in want of corn, supply their
necessities, provided it does not encourage them to idleness. And I
have no objection to your giving my money in charity, to the amount of
forty or fifty pounds a year, when you think it well bestowed. What I
mean by having no objections is, that it is my desire that it should be
done. You are to consider that neither myself nor wife is now in the
way to do these good offices.”[109]
Mrs. Washington was very lonely, very anxious, very sad. By invitation
of her husband she visited him at Cambridge. Her son accompanied her,
and she travelled with her own horses and carriage. She took easy
stages, as Washington was very careful of his horses, which were
remarkable for their beauty.
The pageantry of aristocratic England pervaded the higher classes in
this country, at that time, much more than at the present day. Lady
Washington was escorted from town to town by guards of honor. At
Philadelphia she was received like a princess, and was detained several
days by the hospitalities of the patriotic inhabitants. The whole army
greeted her arrival at Cambridge with acclaim. She entered the camp in
a beautiful chariot, drawn by four horses. Her black postilions were
quite gorgeously dressed, in liveries of scarlet and white. This was
the usual style of the magnates of Virginia at that day.
The presence of Mrs. Washington was of great assistance to her husband.
She presided over his household, and received his guests with great
dignity and affability. Family prayers were invariably observed,
morning and evening. On the Sabbath Washington punctually attended the
church, in which he was a communicant.
A party of Virginia riflemen came to the camp. They were a strange
looking set of men, in half-savage equipments, with deer-skin hunting
shirts, fringed and ruffled. As they were strolling about, they met a
party of Marblehead fishermen. To the Virginians, the costume of the
fishermen was grotesque, with tarpaulin hats, flowing trousers, and
round jackets.
The two parties began to banter each other. There was snow upon the
ground; and snow-balls began to fly thickly. The contest grew warm.
It was a battle between Virginia and Massachusetts. Both sides were
reinforced. Angry feelings were excited. From snow-balls they proceeded
to blows. It became a serious tumult, in which more than a thousand
were engaged.
At this moment Washington appeared, mounted, and followed by a single
servant. There was something in his majestic frame and commanding air
which impressed the common mind with awe. He sprang from his horse,
plunged into the thickest of the mêlée, and seizing two of the most
brawny Virginians, held them at arm’s length, as though they had been
children, while he administered a very severe reproof. The other
combatants instantly dispersed. In three minutes there was not one left
upon the ground.[110]
In December a vessel was captured, which was conveying supplies,
from Lord Dunmore, in Virginia, to Boston. In a letter to General
Howe, found in the vessel, Lord Dunmore urged that the war should be
transferred from New England to the southern States. He said that
by liberating and arming the negroes, their force could be greatly
augmented, consternation could be thrown into all the southern
provinces, and victory would thus be speedy and sure. The despatch
alarmed Washington. He said:
“If this man is not crushed, before spring, he will become the most
formidable enemy America has. His strength will increase as a snow
ball.”
This proposition of Dunmore, and the barbarous treatment, by the
British officers, of the American prisoners of war, roused the
indignation of General Charles Lee to the highest pitch. He wrote:
“I propose to seize every governor, government man, placeman, tory, and
enemy to liberty on the continent, and to confiscate their estates;
or at least lay them under heavy contributions for the public. Their
persons should be secured in some of the interior towns, as hostages
for the treatment of those of our party, whom the fortune of war shall
throw into their hands.”[111]
Had these decisive measures been adopted, it would probably have saved
many American captives from an untold amount of misery. The month of
December was, to Washington, a period of great anxiety and perplexity.
The troops, whose time of service had expired, were rapidly leaving,
and but few came to occupy their places.
On the 1st of January, 1776, the army besieging Boston did not exceed
ten thousand men. These troops had no uniform, were wretchedly
supplied with arms, and there was a great destitution of ammunition
in the camp. The genius of Washington, in maintaining his post under
these circumstances, led even Frederick of Prussia to pronounce
him the ablest general in the world. It was indeed evident, during
those perilous months, that the aid of heaven was not always with the
heaviest battalions. Washington wrote to Congress:
“Search the volumes of history through, and I much question whether
a case similar to ours is to be found: namely, to maintain a post,
against the power of the British troops, for six months together;
without powder; and then to have one army disbanded and another raised
within musket-shot of a reinforced enemy. How it will end, God, in His
great goodness, will direct. I am thankful for His protection to this
time.”
Again he wrote, in strains which excite alike our sympathy, our
reverence, and our love:
“The reflection on my situation, and that of this army, produces many
an unhappy hour, when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people
know the predicament we are in, on a thousand accounts. I have often
thought how much happier I should have been if instead of accepting
the command, under such circumstances, I had taken my musket on my
shoulder, and entered the ranks; or, if I could have justified the
measure to posterity and my own conscience, had retired to the back
country and lived in a wigwam. If I shall be able to rise superior to
these, and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall
most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to
blind the eyes of our enemies.”
General Henry Knox had been sent to Ticonderoga, at the head of
Lake George, to transport cannon and ordnance stores to the camp at
Cambridge.[112] With marvellous energy he had surmounted difficulties,
apparently insurmountable. On the 17th of December he wrote to
Washington:
“Three days ago it was very uncertain whether we could get them till
next spring. Now, please God, they shall go. I have made forty-two
exceedingly strong sleds, and have provided eighty yoke of oxen, to
drag them as far as Springfield, where I shall get fresh cattle to take
them to camp.”
Early in January there was great commotion in Boston, visible from the
heights which the Americans held. A fleet of war-ships and transports,
crowded with troops and heavily laden with munitions of war, was
leaving the harbor, on some secret expedition.
The plan had been formed, by the British ministry, to take military
possession of New York, Albany, and the Hudson river; to treat as
rebels all who would not join the king’s forces; to station men-of-war,
with armed sloops, so as to cut off all communication between the
southern and the northern provinces.
Colonel Guy Johnson was to raise as large a force as possible, of
Canadians and Indians, and ravage the provinces of Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, and Connecticut. “This,” it was said, “would so distract
and divide the Provincial forces as to render it easy for the British
army, at Boston, to defeat them, break the spirit of the Massachusetts
people, depopulate their country, and compel the absolute subjection to
Great Britain.”[113]
Sir Henry Clinton[114] was in command of this naval expedition. The
fleet entered the harbor of New York on a morning of the Sabbath. The
whole city was thrown into consternation. Many of the inhabitants
immediately began to move their effects back into the country. Through
all the hours of the day, and of the ensuing night, the rumbling of
carts was heard in the streets, and boats were passing up the North
and the East rivers, heavily laden with goods and merchandise.[115]
Clinton professed to be very much surprised at the alarm of the
inhabitants. He said that he came with no hostile intent, but merely to
pay a short visit to his friend Governor Tryon.
General Lee, dispatched by Washington, was already in the city, with
a small escort. Quite an enthusiastic army hastily collected in
Connecticut, was ready and eager to march for the defence of the place.
Clinton could, with perfect ease, lay the city in ashes. But there
were perhaps as many tories as patriots in the city; and the tories
constituted the most opulent portion of the inhabitants. A general
conflagration would consume their mansions and property.
It is also said that General Lee, whose eccentricities, seemed, at
times, almost to amount to insanity, sent the menace to Colonel
Clinton, that if he, by a bombardment, set a single house on fire, one
hundred of Clinton’s most intimate friends should be chained by the
neck, to the house, and there they should find their funeral pyre.
Colonel Clinton knew well the character of General Lee, and that he
probably would not hesitate to execute his threat.[116]
The Duke of Manchester, alluding to this event, in the House of Lords,
said:
“My Lords: Clinton visited New York. The inhabitants expected its
destruction. Lee appeared before it with an army too powerful to be
attacked; and Clinton passed by without doing any wanton damage.”
The fleet disappeared, sailing farther south. Lee commenced, with great
energy, arresting the tories and raising redoubts for the defence of
the city. It would seem that Governor Tryon took refuge on board the
Asia, which was anchored between Nutten and Bedlow’s Islands.
The British, in Boston, continued, during the remainder of the
winter, within their tents. Gradually the American army augmented its
forces. Notwithstanding all the efforts of the British officers to
find amusement, their condition daily became more melancholy. Fuel
was scarce; food still more so; sumptuous feasting impossible. The
small-pox broke out. Poverty and suffering caused houses to be broken
open and plundered. Crime was on the increase, which the sternest
punishment could not arrest. The hangman was busy. The whipping post
dripped with blood. Four, six, even a thousand lashes were inflicted on
offenders. A soldier’s wife was convicted of receiving stolen goods.
She was tied to a cart, dragged through the streets, and a hundred
lashes laid on her bare back.
The situation of Washington was dreadful. He could not reveal his
weakness; for that would invite attack, and sure destruction. It was
loudly proclaimed that he had twenty thousand men, well armed, well
disciplined, behind impregnable ramparts, and abundantly supplied
with the munitions of war. These representations alarmed the British,
and saved him from assaults which he could not repel. But the country
clamored loudly, “Why did he not then advance upon the foe?” To his
friend, Mr. Reed, he wrote:
“I know the unhappy predicament I stand in. I know that I cannot be
justified to the world, without exposing my weakness. In short my
situation has been such that I have been obliged to use art to conceal
it from my own officers.”[117]
At length Colonel Knox arrived, from Ticonderoga, with his long train
of sledges, bringing more than fifty cannon, mortars, and howitzers,
with other supplies. Powder was also brought to the camp from several
quarters, and ten regiments of militia came in.
On Monday night, the 4th of March, Washington commenced, from several
points, a heavy cannonading of the British breastworks. The fire was
tremendous. Mrs. Adams, describing the scene to her husband, wrote:
“I could no more sleep than if I had been in the engagement. The
rattling of the windows, the jar of the house, the continual roar
of twenty-four-pounders, and the bursting of shells, gave us such
ideas, and realized a scene to us, of which we could scarcely form any
conception.”
Under cover of this fierce bombardment, a working party, of about two
thousand men, with intrenching tools and a train of three hundred
wagons, in silent and rapid march reached, unseen, the eminences of
Dorchester Heights, which commanded the harbor. It was eight o’clock
in the evening. They knew well how to use the spade, and vigorously
commenced fortifying their position. They worked with a will. Skilful
engineers guided every movement. Not a moment was lost. Not a spadeful
of earth was wasted. They had brought with them a large supply of
fascines and bundles of screwed hay.
Before the morning dawned a very formidable fortress frowned along the
heights. Howe gazed, appalled, upon the spectacle. He saw, at a glance,
that the Americans must be dislodged, or his doom was sealed. He
exclaimed, in his astonishment:
“The rebels have done more in one night, than my whole army would have
done in one month.”
Another British officer wrote, “This morning, at daybreak, we
discovered two redoubts on Dorchester Point, and two smaller ones on
their flanks. They were all raised, during the last night, with an
expedition equal to that of the genii belonging to Aladdin’s wonderful
lamp. From these hills they command the whole town, so that we must
drive them from their place or desert the post.”
Washington was watching, with intense anxiety, the effect which the
discovery of the operation would have upon the British. The commotion,
in the city, was very visible. Instantly the shipping in the harbor,
and every battery which could be brought to bear upon the works,
commenced the fiercest bombardment. All the hills around were covered
with spectators, witnessing the sublime and appalling spectacle. The
patriot soldiers were now familiar with cannon-shot, and paid little
heed to balls and shells, as they stood behind their ramparts, every
hour adding to their strength. Washington was in the midst of his
troops, encouraging them; and he was greeted with loud cheers as he
moved from point to point.
Howe kept up the unavailing bombardment through the day, preparing to
make a desperate night-attack upon the works, with a strong detachment
of infantry and grenadiers. In the evening twenty-five hundred men were
embarked in transports. But God did not favor the heavy battalions.
A violent easterly storm arose, rolling such surges upon the shore
that the boats could not land. It was necessary to postpone the attack
until the next day. But still the storm continued to rage, with floods
of rain. It was the best ally the Americans could have. It held the
British in abeyance until the Americans had time to render their works
impregnable.
The fleet and the town were at the mercy of Washington. Howe, intensely
humiliated, called a council of war. It was decided that Boston must
immediately be evacuated. Howe conferred with the “select men” of
Boston, and offered to leave, without inflicting any harm upon the
place, if permitted to do so unmolested. Otherwise the town would be
committed to the flames, and the troops would escape as best they
could. The reply of Washington was, in brief:
“If you will evacuate the city without plundering, or doing any harm, I
will not open fire upon you. But if you make any attempt to plunder, or
if the torch is applied to a single building, I will open upon you the
most deadly bombardment.”
The correspondence in reference to the evacuation continued for several
days. General Howe behaved like a silly boy. His fancied dignity, as
an officer of the crown, would not allow him to recognize any military
rank on the part of the Americans. He therefore indulged in the
childishness of sending an officer, with memoranda written upon pieces
of paper, addressed to nobody, and signed by nobody.[118]
The exasperated British soldiers committed many lawless acts of
violence, which General Howe, in vain, endeavored to arrest. Houses
were broken open and furniture destroyed. These depredations
imperilled the life of the army. Washington, if provoked to do so,
could sink their ships. General Howe issued an order that every
soldier, found plundering, should be hanged on the spot. An officer
was ordered to perambulate the streets, with a band of soldiers and a
hangman, and immediately, without farther trial, to hang every man he
should find plundering.
At four o’clock in the morning of the 17th of March, 1776, the
embarkation began, in great hurry and confusion. There were
seventy-eight ships and transports in the harbor, and about twelve
thousand, including refugees, to be embarked in them. These refugees
were the friends of British despotism, the enemies of free America. As
they had manifested more malignity against the American patriots than
the British themselves, they did not dare to remain behind. Washington
wrote, respecting them:
“By all accounts there never existed a more miserable set of beings
than those wretched creatures now are. Taught to believe that the power
of Great Britain was superior to all opposition, and that foreign
aid was at hand, they were even higher and more insulting in their
opposition than the regulars. When the order was issued, therefore,
for embarking the troops in Boston, no electric shock, no sudden clap
of thunder, in a word, the last trump, could not have struck them
with greater consternation. They were at their wits’ end, and chose to
commit themselves, in the manner I have above described, to the mercy
of the waves, at a tempestuous season, rather than meet their offended
countrymen.”[119]
Again he wrote, as he entered the town and beheld the ruin around him:
ordnance with trunnions knocked off, guns spiked and cannons thrown
from the wharves:[120]
“General Howe’s retreat was precipitate beyond anything I could have
conceived. The destruction of the stores at Dunbar’s camp, after
Braddock’s defeat, was but a faint image of what was to be seen in
Boston. Artillery carts cut to pieces in one place, gun-carriages in
another, shells broke here, shots buried there, and everything carrying
with it the face of disorder and confusion, as also of distress.”[121]
While the British were thus hurriedly embarking, the Americans stood
by the side of their guns, gazing upon the wondrous spectacle with
unutterable joy, and yet not firing a shot. A British officer afterward
wrote:
“It was lucky for the inhabitants now left in Boston, that they did
not. For I am informed that everything was prepared to set the town in
a blaze, had they fired one cannon.”