Concord is a pleasant little village, including within its borders about

one hundred dwellings. It lies upon the Concord River, one of the

tributaries of the Merrimac, near the junction of the Assabeth and

Sudbury Rivers. Its Indian name was Musketaquid. On account of the

peaceable manner in which it was obtained, by purchase, of the

aborigines, in 1635, it was named Concord. At the north end of the broad

street, or common, is the house of Colonel Daniel Shattuck, a part of

which, built in 1774, was used as one of the depositories of stores when

the British invasion took place. It has been so much altered, that a

view of it would have but little interest as representing a relic of the

past.

The road between Concord and Lexington passes through a hilly but

fertile country. It is easy for the traveler to conceive how terribly a

retreating army might be galled by the lire of a concealed enemy. Hills

and hillocks, some wooded, some bare, rise up every where, and formed

natural breast-works of protection to the skirmishers that hung upon the

flank and rear of Colonel Smith's troops. The road enters Lexington at

the green whereon the old meeting-house stood when the battle occurred.

The town is upon a fine rolling plain, and is becoming almost a suburban

residence for citizens of Boston. Workmen were inclosing the Green, and

laying out the grounds in handsome plats around the monument,

* The following is a copy of the inscription:

* Here, On the 19th of April, 1775, was made the first forcible

resistance to British Aggression. On the opposite bank stood the

American militia, and on this spot the first of the enemy fell in the

War of the Revolution, which gave Independence to these United States.

In gratitude to God, and in the love of Freedom, This Monument was

erected, A.D. 1836.

The Lexington Monument--The "Clark House" and its Associations.--

Tradition of the Surprise--Abijah Harrington.

553which stands a few yards from the street. It is upon a spacious

mound; its material is granite, and it has a marble tablet on the south

front of the pedestal, with a long inscription.' The design of the

monument is not at all graceful, and, being surrounded by tall trees, it

has a very "dumpy" appearance. The people are dissatisfied with it, and

doubtless, ere long, a more noble structure will mark the spot where the

curtain of the revolutionary drama was first lifted.

After making the drawings here given, I visited and made the sketch of

"Clark's House," printed on page 523.

There I found a remarkably intelligent old lady, Mrs. Margaret Chandler,

aged eighty-three years. She has been an occupant of the house, I

believe, ever since the Revolution, and has a perfect recollection of

the events of the period.

Her version of the escape of Hancock and Adams is a little different

from the published accounts, which I have adopted in the historical

sketch. She says that on the evening of the 18th of April, some British

officers, who had been informed where these patriots were, came to

Lexington, and inquired of a woman whom they met, for "Mr. Clark's

house." She pointed to the parsonage; but in a moment, suspecting their

design, she called to them and inquired if it was Clark's _tavern_ that

they were in search of. Uninformed whether it was a _tavern or a

parsonage_ where their intended victims were staying, and supposing the

former to be the most likely place, the officers replied, "Yes; Clark's

tavern."

"Oh," she said, "Clark's tavern is in that direction," pointing toward

East Lexington. As soon as they departed, the woman hastened to inform

the patriots of their danger, and they immediately arose and fled to

Woburn. Dorothy Quincy, the intended wife of Hancock, who was at Mr.

Clark's, accompanied them in their flight. Paul Revere soon afterward

arrived, and the events already narrated then occurred.

I next called upon the venerable Abijah Harrington, who was living in

the village. He was a lad of fourteen at the time of the engagement. Two

of his brothers were among the

* The following is a copy of the inscription: "Sacred to the Liberty and

the Rights of Mankind!!! The Freedom and Independence of America--sealed

and defended with the blood of her sons--This Monument is erected by the

Inhabitants of Lexington, under the patronage and at the expense of the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to the memory of their Fellow-citizens,

Ensign Robert Monroe, Messrs. Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan

Harrington, Junr., Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, and John Brown, of

Lexington, and Asahel Porter, of Woburn, who fell on this Field, the

first victims of the Sword of British Tyranny and Oppression, on the

morning of the ever-memorable Nineteenth of April, An. Dom. 1775. The

Die was Cast!!! The blood of these Martyrs in the Cause of God and their

Country was the Cement of the Union of these States, then Colonies, and

gave the Spring to the Spirit, Firmness, and Resolution of their Fellow-

citizens. They rose as one man to revenge their Brethren's blood, and at

the point of the Sword to assert and defend their native Rights. They

nobly dared to be Free!!! The contest was long, bloody, and affecting.

Righteous Heaven approved the Solemn Appeal; Victory crowned their Arms,

and the Peace, Liberty, and Independence of the United States of America

was their glorious Reward. Built in the year 1799."

** This view is from the Concord Road, looking eastward, and shows a

portion of the inclosure of the Green. The distant building seen on the

right is the old "Buckman Tavern," delineated in Doolittle's engraving

on page 524. It now belongs to Mrs. Merriam, and exhibits many scars

made by the bullets on the morning of the skirmish.

Incidents of the Battle at Lexington.--Jonathan Harrington and his

Brother.--Anniversary Celebration at Concord in 1850.

554minute men, but escaped unhurt. Jonathan and Caleb Harrington, near

relatives, were killed The former was shot in front of his own house,

while his wife stood at the window in an agony of alarm. She saw her

husband fall, and then start up, the blood gushing from his breast. He

stretched out his arms toward her, and then fell again. Upon his hands

and knees he crawled toward his dwelling, and expired just as his wife

reached him.

Caleb Harrington was shot while running from the meeting-house. My

informant saw almost the whole of the battle, having been sent by his

mother to go near enough, and be safe, to obtain and convey to her

information respecting her other sons, who were with the minute men.

His relation of the incidents of the morning was substantially such as

history has recorded. He dwelt upon the subject with apparent delight,

for his memory of the scenes of his early years, around which cluster so

much of patriotism and glory, was clear and full. I would gladly have

listened until twilight to the voice of such experience, but time was

precious, and hastened to East Lexington, to visit his cousin, Jonathan

Harrington, an old man of ninety, who played the fife when the minute

men were marshaled on the Green upon that memorable April morning. He

was splitting fire-wood in his yard with a vigorous hand when I rode up;

and as he sat in his rocking-chair, while I sketched his placid

features, he appeared no older than a man of seventy. His brother, aged

eighty-eight, came in before my sketch was finished, and I could not but

gaze with wonder upon these strong old men, children of one mother, who

were almost grown to manhood when the first battle of our Revolution

occurred! Frugality and temperance, co-operating with industry, a

cheerful temper, and a good constitution, have lengthened their days,

and made their protracted years hopeful and happy. * The aged fifer

apologized for the rough appearance of his signature, which he kindly

wrote for me, and charged the tremulous motion of his hand to his labor

with the ax. How tenaciously we cling even to the appearance of vigor,

when the whole frame is tottering to its fall! Mr. Harrington opened the

ball of the Revolution with the shrill war-notes of the fife, and then

retired from the arena. He was not a soldier in the war, nor has his

life, passed in the quietude of rural pursuits, been distinguished

except by the glorious acts which constitute the sum of the achievements

of a good citizen.

I left Lexington at about three o'clock, and arrived at Cambridge at

half past four. It was a lovely autumnal afternoon. The trees and fields

were still green, for the frost had

* The seventy-fifth anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord

was celebrated at the latter place on the 19th of April, 1850. In the

procession was a carriage containing these venerable brothers, aged,

respectively, nearly ninety-one and ninety-three; Amos Baker, of

Lincoln, aged ninety-four; Thomas Hill, of Danvers, aged ninety-two; and

Dr. Preston, of Billerica, aged eighty-eight. The Honorable Edward

Everett, among others, made a speech on the occasion, in which he very

happily remarked, that "it pleased his heart to see those venerable men

beside him; and he was very much pleased to assist Mr. Jonathan

Harrington to put on his top coat a few minutes ago. In doing so, he was

ready to say, with the eminent man of old, 'Very pleasant art thou to

me, my brother Jonathan!'" He died in March, 1854.

Ride to Cambridge.--Early History of the Town.--Washington's Head-

quarters.

555not yet been busy with their foliage and blades. The road is

Macadamized the whole distance; and so thickly is it lined with houses,

that the village of East Lexington and Old Cambridge seem to embrace

each other in close union.

Cambridge is an old town, the first settlement there having been planted

in 1631, co-temporaneous with that of Boston. It was the original

intention of the settlers to make it the metropolis of Massachusetts,

and Governor Winthrop commenced the erection of his dwelling there. It

was called New Town, and in 1632 was palisaded. The Reverend Mr. Hooker,

one of the earliest settlers of Connecticut, was the first minister in

Cambridge. In 1636, the General Court provided for the erection of a

public school in New Town, and appropriated two thousand dollars for

that purpose. In 1638, the Reverend John Harvard, of Charlestown,

endowed the school with about four thousand dollars. This endowment

enabled them to exalt the academy into a college, and it was called

Harvard University in honor of its principal benefactor.

Cambridge has the distinction of being the place where the first

printing-press in America was established. Its proprietor was Nathen

Day, and the capital that purchased the materials was furnished by the

Reverend Mr. Glover. The first thing printed was the "Freeman's Oath,"

in 1636; the next was an almanac; and the next the Psalms, in meter. *

Old Cambridge (West Cambridge, or Menotomy, of the Revolution), the seat

of the University, is three miles from West Boston Bridge, which

connects Cambridge with Boston. Cambridgeport is about half way between

Old Cambridge and the bridge, and East Cambridge occupies Lechmere's

Point, a promontory fortified during the siege of Boston in 1775.

Arrived at Old Cambridge, I parted company with the vehicle and driver

that conveyed me from Concord to Lexington, and hither; and, as the day

was fast declining, I hastened to sketch the head-quarters of

Washington, an elegant and spacious edifice, standing in the midst of

shrubbery and stately elms, a little distance from the street, once the

highway from Harvard University to Waltham. At this mansion, and at

Winter Hill, Washington passed most of his time, after taking command of

the Continental army, until the evacuation of Boston in the following

spring.

Its present owner is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, professor of modern

languages in Harvard University, and widely known in the world of

literature as one of the most gifted men of the age. It is a spot worthy

of the residence of an American bard so endowed, for the associations

which hallow it are linked with the noblest themes that ever awakened

the inspiration of a child of song.

"When the hours of Day are number'd,

And the voices of the Night

Wake the better soul that slumber'd

To a holy, calm delight;

Ere the evening lamps are lighted,

And, like phantoms grim and tall,

Shadows from the fitful fire-light

Dance upon the parlor wall,"

--Longfellow

* Records of Harvard College.

Description of Washington's Head-quarters at Cambridge.--Phillis, the

black Poet.--Washington's Letter to Phillis.

556then to the thoughtful dweller must come the spirit of the place and

hour to weave a gorgeous tapestry, rich with pictures, illustrative of

the heroic age of our young republic. My tarry was brief and busy, for

the sun was rapidly descending--it even touched the forest tops before I

finished the drawing--but the cordial reception and polite attentions

which J received from the proprietor, and his warm approval of, and

expressed interest for the success of my labors, occupy a space in

memory like that of a long, bright summer day.

This mansion stands upon the upper of two terraces, which are ascended

each by five stone steps. At each front corner of the house is a lofty

elm--mere saplings when Washington beheld them, but now stately and

patriarchal in appearance. Other elms, with flowers and shrubbery,

beautify the grounds around it; while within, iconoclastic innovation

has not been allowed to enter with its mallet and trowel to mar the work

of the ancient builder, and to cover with the vulgar stucco of modern

art the carved cornices and paneled wainscots that first enriched it. I

might give a long list of eminent persons whose former presence in those

spacious rooms adds interest to retrospection, but they are elsewhere

identified with scenes more personal and important. I can not refrain,

however, from noticing the visit of one, who, though a dark child of

Africa and a bond-woman, received the most polite attention from the

commander-in-chief. This was Phillis, a slave of Mr. Wheatley, of

Boston. She was brought from Africa when between seven and eight years

old. She seemed to acquire knowledge intuitively; became a poet of

considerable merit, and corresponded with such eminent persons as the

Countess of Huntingdon, Earl of Dartmouth, Reverend George Whitefield,

and others. Washington invited her to visit him at Cambridge, which she

did a few days before the British evacuated Boston; her master, among

others, having left the city by permission, and retired, with his

family, to Chelsea. She passed half an hour with the commander-in-chief,

from whom and his officers she received marked attention. *

* Phillis wrote a letter to General Washington in October, 1775, in

which she inclosed a poem eulogistic of his character. In February

following the general answered it. I give a copy of his letter, in

illustration of the excellence of the mind and heart of that great man,

always so kind and courteous to the most humble, even when pressed with

arduous public duties.

"Cambridge, February 28,1776.

"Miss Phillis,--Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach my hands

till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, to have given an

answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important occurrences,

continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention,

I hope wall apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the

seeming, but not real neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your

polite notice of me in the elegant lines you inclosed and however

undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and

manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents; in honor of

which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the

poem, had I not been apprehensive that, while I only meant to give the

world this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the

imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give

it a place in the public prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge,

or near head-quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by

the Muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her

dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedient, humble servant,

Geo. Washington." *

* "I have not been able to find," says Mr. Sparks, "among Washington's

papers, the letter and poem addressed to him." Her lines "On the Heath

of Whitfield," "Farewell to America," and kindred pieces, exhibit

considerable poetic talent. The following is a specimen of her verse,

written before she was twenty years of age. It is extracted from a poem

on "Imagination"

"Though winter frowns, to fancy's raptured eyes The fields may flourish

and gay scenes arise; The frozen deeps may break their iron bands, And

bid their waters murmur o'er their sands; Fair Flora may resume her

fragrant reign, And with her flowery riches deck the plain; Sylvanus may

diffuse his honors round, And all the forests may with leaves be

crown'd; Showers may descend, and dews their gems disclose, And nectar

sparkle on the blooming rose."

* in 1773, when she was at the age of nineteen, a volume of her poems

was published in London, dedicated to the Countess of Huntingdon. They

give evidence of quite extensive reading and remarkable tenacity of

memory, many of them abounding with fine allusions to freedom, her

favorite theme. After the death of her master, in 1776, she married a

man of her own color, but who was greatly her inferior. His name was

Peters. She died in Boston, in extreme poverty, on the 5th of December,

1781, aged nearly thirty-one years.

The "Riedesel House."--Description of the Place by the Baroness

Riedesel.--Attestation of the genuineness of Phillis's Poetry.

557A few rods above the residence of Professor Longfellow is the house

in which the Brunswick general, the Baron Riedesel, and his family were

quartered, during the stay of the captive army of Burgoyne in the

vicinity of Boston. I was not aware, when I visited Cambridge, that the

old mansion was still in existence; but, through the kindness of Mr.

Longfellow, I am able to present the features of its southern front,

with a description.

In style it is very much like that of Washington's head-quarters, and

the general appearance of the grounds around is similar. It is shaded by

noble linden-trees, and adorned with shrubbery, presenting to the eye

all the attractions noticed by the Baroness of Riedesel in her charming

Letters. ** Upon a window-pane on the west side of the house

* This is from a pencil sketch by Mr. Longfellow. I am also indebted to

him for the fae-simile of the autograph of the Baroness of Riedesel. It

will be perceived that the i is placed before the e in spelling the

name. I have heretofore given it with the e first, which is according to

the orthography in Burgoyne's State of the Expedition, &c., wherein I

supposed it was spelled correctly. This autograph shows it to be

erroneous. Mr. Longfellow's beautiful poem, "The Open Window," refers to

this mansion.

** She thus writes respecting her removal from a peasant's house on

Winter Hill to Cambridge, and her residence there: "We passed three

weeks in this place, and were then transferred to Cambridge, where we

were lodged in one of the best houses of the place, which belonged to

Royalists. Seven families, who were connected by relationship, or lived

in great intimacy, had here farms, gardens, and splendid mansions, and

not far off orchards, and the buildings were at a quarter of a mile

distant from each other. The owners had been in the habit of assembling

every afternoon in one or another of these houses, and of diverting

themselves with music or dancing, and lived in affluence, in good humor,

and without care, until this unfortunate war at once dispersed them, and

transformed all their houses into solitary abodes, except two, the

proprietors of which were also soon obliged to make their escape. "On

the 3d of June, 1778, I gave a ball and supper, in celebration of my

husband's birth-day. I had invited all our generals and officers, and

Mr. and Mrs. Carter. General Burgoyne sent us an apology, after he had

made us wait for him till eight o'clock. He had always some excuse for

not visiting us, until he was about departing for England, when he came

and made me many apologies, to which I made no other reply than that I

should be extremely sorry if he had put himself to any inconvenience for

our sake. The dance lasted long, and we had an excellent supper, to

which more than eighty persons sat down. Our yard and garden were

illuminated. The king's birth-day falling on the next day, it was

resolved that the company should not separate before his majesty's

health was drank; which was done, with feelings of the liveliest

attachment to his person and interests. Never, I believe, was 'God Save

the King' sung with more enthusiasm, or with feelings more sincere. Our

two eldest girls were brought into the room to sec the illumination. We

were all deeply moved, and proud to have the courage to display such

sentiments in the midst of our enemies. Even Mr. Carter* could not

forbear participating in our enthusiasm."--Letters and Memoirs relating

to the War of American Independence, and the Capture of the German

Troops at Saratoga: By Madame De Riedesel.

* The following curious attestation of the genuineness of the poems of

Phillis is printed in the preface to the volume. Many of the names will

be recognized as prominent in the Revolution. .

** "To the Public.--As it has been repeatedly suggested to the

publisher, by persons who have seen the manuscript, that numbers would

be ready to suspect they were not really the writings of Phillis, he has

procured the following attestation from the most respectable characters

in Boston, that none might have the least ground for disputing their

original: 'We, whose names are underwritten, do assure the world that

the poems specified in the following page were (as we verily believe)

written by Phillis, a young negro girl, who was, but a few years since,

brought an uncultivated barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been,

and now is, under the disadvantage of serving as a slave in a family in

this town. She has been examined by some of the best judges, and is

thought qualified to write them.

"'The Hon. Thomas Hubbard, The Hon. John Irving, The Hon. James Pitts,

The Hon. Harrison Gray, The Hon. James Bowdoin, John Hancock, Esq.,

Joseph Green, Esq., Richard Carey, Esq., His Excellency Thomas

Hutchinson, Governor The Hon. Andrew Oliver, Lieut. Governor The Rev.

Charles Chauncey, D.D., The Rev. Mather Byles, D.D., The Rev. Edward

Pemberton, D.D., The Rev. Andrew Eliot, D.D., The Rev. Samuel Cooper,

D.D., The Rev. Mr. Samuel Mather, The Rev. Mr. John Moorhead, Mr. John

Wheatley (her master!.'"

Autograph of Riedcsel.--The "Washington Elm."--Bunker Hill Monument.--

Desecration of the Spot

558may be seen the undoubted autograph of the accomplished general,

inscribed with a diamond point. It is an interesting memento, and is

preserved with great care. The annexed is a fac simile of it.

During the first moments of the soft evening twilight I sketched the

"Washington elm," one of the ancient _anakim_ of the primeval forest,

older, probably, by a half century or more, than the welcome of Samoset

to the white settlers. It stands upon Washington Street, near the

westerly corner of the Common, and is distinguished by the circumstance

that, beneath its broad shadow, General Washington first drew his sword

as commander-in-chief of the Continental army. (a) * Thin lines of

clouds, glowing in the light of the setting sun a July 3, 1775 like bars

of gold, streaked the western sky, and so prolonged the 1775-twilight by

reflection, that I had ample time to finish my drawing before the night

shadows dimmed the paper.

Early on the following morning I procured a chaise to visit Charlestown

and Dorchester Heights. I rode first to the former place, and climbed to

the summit of the great obelisk that stands upon the site of the redoubt

upon Breed's Hill. As I ascended the steps which lead from the street to

the smooth gravel-walks upon the eminence whereon the "Bunker Hill

Monument" stands, I experienced a feeling of disappointment and regret,

not easily to be expressed. Before me was the great memento, huge and

grand--all that patriotic reverence could wish--but the ditch scooped

out by Prescott's toilers on that starry night in June, and the mounds

that were upheaved to protect them from the shots of the astonished

Britons, were effaced, and no more vestiges remain of the handiwork of

those in whose honor and to whose memory this obelisk was raised, than

of Roman conquests in the shad ow of Trajan's Column--of the naval

battles of Nelson around his monument in Trafalgar Square, or of French

victories in the Place Vendôme. The fosse and the breast-works were all

quite prominent when the foundation stone of the monument was laid,

* This important event is recorded on page 564, where a picture of the

tree is given.

** This monument stands in the center of the grounds included within the

breast-works of the old redoubt on Breed's Hill. Its sides are precisely

parallel with those of the redoubt. It is built of Quincy granite, and

is two hundred and twenty-one feet in height. The foundation is composed

of six courses of stones, and extends twelve feet below the surface of

the ground and base of the shaft. The four sides of the foundation

extend about fifty feet horizontally. There are in the whole pile ninety

courses of stone, six of them below the surface of the ground, and

eighty-four above. The foundation is laid in lime mortar; the other

parts of the structure in lime mortar mixed with cinders, iron filings,

and Springfield hydraulic cement. The base of the obelisk is thirty feet

square; at the spring of the apex, fifteen feet. Inside of the shaft is

a round, hollow cone, the outside diameter of which, at the bottom, is

ten feet, and at the top, six feet. Around this inner shaft winds a

spiral flight of stone steps, two hundred and ninety-five in number. In

both the cone and shaft are numerous little apertures for the purposes

of ventilation and light. The observatory or chamber at the top of the

monument is seventeen feet in height and eleven feet in diameter. It has

four windows, one on each side, which are provided with iron shutters.

The cap-piece of the apex is a single stone, three feet six inches in

thickness and four feet square at its base. It weighs two and a half

tons. Almost fifty years had elapsed from the time of the battle before

a movement was made to erect a commemorative monument on Breed's Hill.

An association for the purpose was founded in 1824; and to give eclat to

the transaction, and to excite enthusiasm in favor of the work, General

La Fayette, then "the nation's guest," was invited to lay the corner-

stone. Accordingly, on the 17th of June, 1825, the fiftieth anniversary

of the battle, that revered patriot performed the interesting ceremony,

and the Honorable Daniel Webster pronounced an oration on the occasion,

in the midst of an immense concourse of people. Forty-survivors of the

battle were present; and on no occasion did La Fayette meet so many of

his fellow-soldiers in our Revolution as at that time. The plan of the

monument was not then decided upon; but one by Solomon Willard, of

Boston, having been approved, the present structure was commenced, in

1827, by James Savage, of the same city. In the course of a little more

than a year, the work was suspended on account of a want of funds, about

fifty-six thousand dollars having then been collected and expended. The

work was resumed in 1834, and again suspended, within a year, for the

same cause, about twenty thousand dollars more having been expended. In

1840, the ladies moved in the matter. A fair was announced to be held in

Boston, and every female in the United States was invited to contribute

some production of her own hands to the exhibition. The fair was held at

Faneuil Hall in September, 1840. The proceeds amounted to sufficient, in

connection with some private donations, to complete the structure, and

within a few weeks subsequently, a contract was made with Mr. Savage to

finish it for forty-three thousand dollars. The last stone of the apex

was raised at about six o'clock on the morning of the 23d of July, 1842.

Edward Carnes, Jr., of Charlestown, accompanied its ascent, waving the

American flag as he went up, while the interesting event was announced

to the surrounding country by the roar of cannon. On the 17th of June,

1843, the monument was dedicated, on which occasion the Honorable Daniel

Webster was again the orator, and vast was the audience of citizens and

military assembled there. The President of the United States (Mr.

Tyler), and his whole cabinet, were present. In the top of the monument

are two cannons, named, respectively', "Hancock" and "Adams," which

formerly belonged to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. The

"Adams" was burst by them in firing a salute. The following is the

inscription upon the two guns:

"SACRED TO LIBERTY.

* "This is one of four cannons which constituted the whole train of

field-artillery possessed by the British colonies of North America at

the commencement of the war, on the 19th of April, 1775. This cannon and

its fellow, belonging to a number of citizens of Boston, were used in

many engagements during the war. The other two, the property of the

government of Massachusetts, were taken by the enemy "By order of the

United States in Congress assembled, May 19th, 1788."

* Mr. Carter was the son-in-law of General Schuyler. Remembering the

kindness which she had received from that gentleman while in Albany, the

baroness sought out Mr. and Mra. Carter (who were living in Boston) on

her arrival at Cambridge. "Mrs. Carter," ahe says, "resembled her

parents in mildness and goodness of heart, but her husband was

revengeful and false." The patriotic zeal of Mr. Carter had given rise

to foolish stories respecting him. "They seemed to feel much friendship

for us,' says Madame De Riedcsel; * though, at the same time, this

wicked Mr. Carter, in consequence of General Howe's having burned

several villages and small towns, suggested to his countrymen to cut off

our generals' heads, to pickle them, and to put them in small barrels,

and, as often as the English should again burn a village, to send them

one of these barrels; but that cruelty cwas not adopted."

Description of Bunker Hill Monument.--View from its Chamber. Its

Construction and Dedication.--"Hancock" and "Adams."

559and a little care, directed by good taste, might have preserved them

in their interesting state of half ruin until the passage of the present

century, or, at least, until the sublime centenary of the battle should

be celebrated. Could the visitor look upon the works of the patriots

themselves, associations a hundred-fold more interesting would crowd the

mind, for wonderfully suggestive of thought are the slightest relics of

the past when linked with noble deeds. A soft green-sward, as even as

the rind of a fair apple, and cut by eight straight gravel-walks,

diverging from the monument, is substituted by art for the venerated

irregularities made by the old mattock and spade. The spot is beautiful

to the eye untrained by appreciating affection for hallowed things;

nevertheless, there is palpable desecration that may hardly be forgiven.

The view from the top of the monument, for extent, variety, and beauty,

is certainly one of the finest in the world. A "York shilling" is

charged for the privilege of ascending the monument. The view from its

summit is "a shilling show" worth a thousand miles of travel to see.

Boston, its harbor, and the beautiful country around, mottled with

villages, are spread out like a vast painting, and on every side the eye

may rest upon localities of great historical interest. Cambridge,

Roxbury, Chelsea, Quincy, Medford, Marblehead, Dorchester, and other

places, where

View from Bunker Hill Monument.--The Past and the Present.--Dorchester

Heights.--Condition of the Fortifications

560

"The old Continentals,

In their ragged regimentals,

Falter'd not,"

and the numerous sites of small fortifications which the student of

history can readily call to mind. In the far distance, on the northwest,

rise the higher peaks of the White Mountains of New Hampshire; and on

the northeast, the peninsula of Nahant, and the more remote Cape Anne

may be seen. Wonders which present science and enterprise are developing

and forming are there exhibited in profusion. At one glance from this

lofty observatory may be seen seven rail-roads, * and many other avenues

connecting the city with the country; and ships from almost every region

of the globe dot the waters of the harbor. Could a tenant of the old

grave-yard on Copp's Hill, who lived a hundred years ago, when the

village upon Tri-mountain was fitting out its little armed flotillas

against the French in Acadia, or sending forth its few vessels of trade

along the neighboring coasts, or occasionally to cross the Atlantic,

come forth and stand beside us a moment, what a new and wonderful world

would be presented to his vision! A hundred years ago!

"Who peopled all the city streets

A hundred years ago?

Who fill'd the church with faces meek

A hundred years ago?"

They were men wise in their generation, but ignorant in practical

knowledge when compared with the present. In their wildest dreams,

incited by tales of wonder that spiced the literature of their times,

they never fancied any thing half so wonderful as our mighty dray horse,

"The black steam-engine! steed of iron power--

The wond'rous steed of the Arabian talc,

Launch'd on its course by pressure of a touch--

The war-horse of the Bible, with its neck

Grim, clothed with thunder, swallowing the way

In fierceness of its speed, and shouting out,

' Ha! ha!' ** A little water, and a grasp

Of wood, sufficient for its nerves of steel,

Shooting away, 'Ha! ha!' it shouts, as on

It gallops, dragging in its tireless path

Its load of fire."

Street.

I lingered in the chamber of the Bunker Hill monument as long as time

would allow, and descending, rode back to the city, crossed to South

Boston, and rambled for an hour among the remains of the fortifications

upon the heights of the peninsula of Dorchester. The present prominent

remains of fortifications are those of intrenchments cast up during the

war of 1812, and have no other connection with our subject than the

circumstance that they occupy the site of the works constructed there by

order of Washington. These were greatly reduced in altitude when the

engineers began the erection of the forts now in ruins, which are

properly preserved with a great deal of care. They occupy the summits of

two hills, which command Boston Neck on the left, the city of Boston in

front, and the harbor on the right. Southeast from the heights,

pleasantly situated among gentle hills, is the village of Dorchester, so

called in memory of a place in England of the same name, whence many of

its earliest settlers came. The stirring events which rendered

Dorchester Heights famous will be noticed presently.

I returned to Boston at about one o'clock, and passed the remainder of

the day in visiting places of interest within the city--the old South

meeting-house, Faneuil Hall, the Province House, and the Hancock House,

all delineated and described in preceding pages. I am

* When I visited Boston, in 1848, it was estimated that two hundred and

thirty trains of cars went daily over the roads to and from Boston, and

that more than six millions of passengers were conveyed in them during

the preceding year.

** Job, xxxix., 24, 25.

Mementos of John Hancock--The State House.--Chantrey's Washington.--

Copp's Hill.--The Mather Tomb

561indebted to John Hancock, Esq., nephew of the patriot, and present

proprietor and occupant of the "Hancock House," on Beacon Street, for

polite attentions while visiting his interesting mansion, and for

information concerning matters that have passed under the eye of his

experience of threescore years.

He has many mementoes of his eminent kinsman, and among them a

beautifully-executed miniature of him, painted in London, in 1761, while

he was there at the coronation of George III. He also owns the original

portrait of Governor Hancock, of which the engraving on page 515 is a

copy.

Near Mr. Hancock's residence is the State House, a noble structure upon

Beacon Hill, the corner-stone of which was laid in 1795, by Governor

Samuel Adams, assisted by Paul Revere, master of the Masonic grand

lodge. There I sketched the annexed picture of the colossal statue of

Washington, by Chantrey, which stands in the open center of the first

story; also the group of trophies from Bennington, that hang over the

door of the Senate chamber. * Under these trophies, in a gilt frame, is

a copy of the reply of the Massachusetts Assembly to General Stark's

letter, that accompanied the presentation of the trophies. It was

written fifty years ago.

After enjoying the view from the top of the State House a while, I

walked to Copp's Hill, a little east of Charlestown Bridge, at the north

end of the town, where I tarried until sunset in the ancient burying-

ground. The earliest name of this eminence was Snow Hill. It was

subsequently named after its owner, William Copp.3 It came into the

possession of the Ancient and

Honorable Artillery Company by mortgage, and when, in 1775, they were

forbidden by Gage to parade on the Common, they went to this, their own

ground, and drilled in defiance of his threats. The fort, or battery,

that was built there by the British, just before the battle of Bunker

Hill, stood near its southeast brow, adjoining the burying-ground. The

remains of many eminent men repose in that little cemetery. Close by the

entrance is the vault of the Mather family. It is covered by a plain,

oblong structure of brick, three feet high and about six feet long, upon

which is laid a heavy brown stone slab, with a tablet of slate, bearing

the names of the principal tenants below. *** Oct 7, I passed the

forenoon of the next day in the ms. rooms of the Massachusetts

Historical Society, where every facility was afforded me by Mr. Felt,

the librarian, for examining the assemblage of things curious collected

there. (v) The printed books and manuscripts, relating principally to

American his-

* See map on page 395.

** This is a picture of Chantrey's statue, which is made of Italian

marble, and cost fifteen thousand dollars.

*** On some of the old maps of Boston it is called Corpse Hill, the name

supposed to have been derived from the circumstance of a burying-ground

being there.

****The following is the inscription upon the slate tablet: "The

Reverend Doctors Increase, Cotton, and Samuel Mather were interred in

this vault.

"Increase died August 27, 1723, Æ. 84. Cotton "Feb. 13, 1727," 65.

Samuel "Jan. 27, 1785," 79." *

(v) This society was incorporated in February, 1794. The avowed object

of its organization is to collect, preserve, and communicate materials

for a complete history of this country, and an account of all valuable

efforts of human industry and ingenuity from the beginning of its

settlement. Between twenty and thirty octavo volumes of its

"Collections" have been published.

*The library of Dr. Samuel Mather was burned at Charlestown, when it was

destroyed by the British in 1775.

Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.--Colonial and other

Relics.--Departure from Boston.

562tory, are numerous, rare, and valuable. There is also a rich

depository of the autographs of the Pilgrim fathers and their immediate

descendants.

There are no less than twenty-five large folio volumes of valuable

manuscript letters and other documents; besides which are six thick

quarto manuscript volumes--a commentary on the holy Scriptures--in the

hand-writing of Cotton Mather. From an autograph letter of that singular

man the annexed fac-simile of his writing and signature is given.

Among the portraits in the cabinet of the society are those of Governor

Winslow, supposed to have been painted by Vandyke, Increase Mather, and

Peter Faneuil, the founder of Faneuil Hall.

I had the pleasure of meeting, at the rooms of the society, that

indefatigable antiquary, Dr. Webb, widely known as the American

correspondent of the "Danish Society of Northern Antiquarians" at

Copenhagen. He was sitting in the chair that once belonged to Governor

Winslow, writing upon the desk of the speaker of the colonial Assembly

of Massachusetts, around which the warm debates were carried on

concerning American liberty, from the time when James Otis denounced the

Writs of Assistance, until Governor Gage adjourned the Assembly to

Salem, in 1774.

Hallowed by such associations, the desk is an interesting relic. Dr.

Webb's familiarity with the collections of the society, and his kind

attentions, greatly facilitated my search among the six thousand

articles for things curious connected with my subject, and made my brief

visit far more profitable to myself than it would otherwise have been.

Among the relics preserved are the chair that belonged to Governor

Carver, very similar in its appearance to the ancient one delineated on

page 438; the sword of Miles Standish; the huge key of Port Royal gate;

a samp-pan, that belonged to Metacomet, or King Philip; and the sword

reputed to have been used by Captain Church when he cut off that

unfortunate sachem's head.

The dish is about twelve inches in diameter, wrought out of an elm knot

with great skill. The sword is very rude, and was doubtless made by a

blacksmith of the colony. The handle is a roughly-wrought piece of ash,

and the guard is made of a wrought-iron plate. The circumstances

connected with the death of Philip will be noticed hereafter.

I lingered in the rooms of the society, copying and sketching, with busy

hands, until after one o'clock. An urgent call beckoning me homeward, I

departed in the cars for Norwich and New-London between two and three

o'clock in the afternoon, regretting that my tarry in the city of the

Pilgrims was necessarily so brief, and that I was obliged to forego the

pleasures of a visit to the neighboring villages, all of which are

associated with events of the Revolution. Before departure let us revert

to the history of Boston subsequent to the battle of Bunker Hill. That

event was but the beginning of the stirring scenes of the siege, which

terminated in success for the Americans. *

* This desk is made of ash. The semicircular front is about three feet

in diameter The chair, which belonged to Governor Winslow, is of English

oak. It was made in 1614.

Appointment of a Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.--

Washington's acceptance of the Office.--His Modesty.

563On the 15th of June, 1775, two days before the Bunker Hill battle,

the Continental Congress, in session in Philadelphia, resolved "That a

general be appointed to command all the Continental forces, raised or to

be raised for the defense of American liberty also, "That five hundred

dollars per month be allowed for the pay and expenses of the general." *

The most difficult question then to be decided was the choice of the man

for the responsible office. Military men of much experience were then in

the field at the head of the army be-leaguring Boston, and by the common

consent of the New England colonies General Artemus Ward was the

commander-in-ehief. It was conceded that he did not possess all the

requisites of a skillful and judicious commander, so essential for the

service; yet, it being doubtful how the New England people, and

particularly the soldiery, would relish the supercession of General Ward

by another, Congress was embarrassed respecting a choice. The apparent

difficulty was soon overcome by the management of the New England

delegation. The subject of the appointment had been informally discussed

two or three days before, and John Adams had proposed the adoption of

the provincial troops at Boston as a Continental Army. At the conclusion

of his remarks, he expressed his intention to propose a member from

Virginia for the office of generalissimo. All present understood the

person alluded to to be Colonel George Washington, whose commanding

military talents, as displayed in the service of Virginia, and his

capacity as a statesman, as exhibited in the Congress of 1774, had made

him exceedingly popular throughout the land. Acting upon this

suggestion, Thomas Johnson, a delegate from Maryland, nominated Colonel

Washington, and by a unanimous vote he was elected commander-in-chief.

On the opening of the session on the following morning, President

Hancock communicated to Washington, July 17, 1775 officially, a notice

of his appointment. He rose in his place, and signified his acceptance

in a brief and truly patriotic reply. ** Richard Henry Lee, Edward

Rutledge, and John Adams were appointed a committee to draught a

commission and instructions for the general; these were given to him

four days afterward. *** Four major generals, eight brig-

* Journals of Congress, i., Ill, 112.

** The following is a copy of his reply: "Mr. President,--Though I am

truly sensible of the high honor done me in this appointment, yet I feel

great distress, from a consciousness that my abilities and military

experience may not be equal to the extensive and important trust.

However, as the Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous

duty, and exert every power I possess in their service, and for the

support of the glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial

thanks for this distinguished testimony of their approbation. But, lest

some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it

may be remembered, by every gentleman in this room, that I this day

declare, with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the

command I am honored with. As to pay, sir, I beg leave to assure the

Congress that, as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to

accept the arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and

happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an

exact account of my expenses. Those, I doubt not, they will discharge,

and that is all I desire." His expressions of distrust in his own

ability to perform the duties imposed by the acceptance of the

appointment were heartfelt and sincere. In a letter to his wife, dated

the day after his appointment, he said, "You may believe me, my dear

Patsy [the familiar name of Martha], when I assure you, in the most

solemn manner, that, so far from seeking the appointment, I have used

every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness

to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness of its being a

trust too great for my capacity; and that I should enjoy more real

happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant

prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven

years." Washington was at this time forty-three years of age.

*** His commission was in the following words: "To George Washington,

Esq.--We, reposing special trust and confidence in your patriotism,

valor, conduct, and fidelity, do, by these presents, constitute and

appoint you to be general and commander-inchief of the army of the

United Colonies, and of all the forces now raised, or to be raised by

them, and of all others who shall voluntarily offer their services, and

join the said army for the defense of American liberty, and for

repelling every hostile invasion thereof; and you are hereby vested with

full power and authority to act as you shall think for the good and

welfare of the service. And we do hereby strictly charge and require all

officers and soldiers under your command to be obedient to your orders,

and diligent in the exercise of their several duties. And we do also

enjoin and require you to be careful in executing the great trust

reposed in you, by causing strict discipline and order to bo observed in

the army, and that the soldiers be duly exercised, and provided with all

convenient necessaries. And you are to regulate your conduct in every

respect by the rules and discipline of war (as here given you), and

punctually to observe and follow such orders and directions, from time

to time, as you shall receive from this or a future Congress of these

United Colonies, or committee of Congress. This commission is to

continue in force until revoked by this or a future Congress. Signed,

John Hancock, President." The original of this commission, with other

relics of the illustrious chief, is carefully preserved in a glass case,

in a room of the Patent Office building at Washington City.

Departure of Washington for the Camp.--Reception at New York, Watertown,

and Cambridge.--Takes Command of the Army

1775

564adiers, and one adjutant general were appointed, * and the pay of the

several officers was agreed upon. **

Washington left Philadelphia for the camp at Cambridge on the 21st of

June, where he arrived on the 2d of July. He was every where greeted

with enthusiasm by crowds of people, and public bodies extended to him

all the deference due to his exalted rank. He arrived at New York on the

25th, escorted by a company of light horse from Philadelphia. Governor

Tryon arrived from England on the same day, and the same escort received

both the distinguished men. There Washington first heard of the battle

of Bunker Hill. He held a brief conference with General Schuyler, and

gave that officer directions concerning his future operations. Toward

evening, on the 26th, he left New York, under the escort of several

military companies, passed the night at Kingsbridge, at the upper end of

Manhattan or York Island, and the next morning, bidding adieu to the

Philadelphia light horse, pressed on toward Boston. He reached Watertown

on the morning of the 2d of July. The Provincial Congress of

Massachusetts, presided over by James Warren, was in session, and voted

him a congratulatory address. Major-general Lee, who accompanied him,

also received an address from that body. They arrived at Cambridge at

two o'clock in the afternoon, and Washington! established his head-

quarters at the house prepared for him, delineated on page 555.

On the morning of the 3d of July, at about nine o'clock, the troops at

Cambridge were drawn up in order upon the Common to receive the

commander-in-chief. Accompanied by the general officers of the army who

were present, Washington walked from his quarters to the great elm-tree

that now stands at the north end of the Common, and, under the shadow of

its broad covering, stepped a few paces in front, made some remarks,

drew his sword, and formally took command of the Continental army.

That was an auspicious act for America; and the love and reverence which

all felt for him on that occasion never waned during the eight long

years of the conflict. When he resigned that commission into the hands

of Congress at Annapolis, not a blot was visible upon the fair

escutcheon of his character; like Samuel, he could boldly "testify his

integrity" **** in all things.

* The names of these several officers are contained in a note on page

190.

** The pay of the several officers was as follows, per month: major

general, $166, and when acting in a separate department, $330; brigadier

general, $125; adjutant general, $125; commissary general, $80 quarter-

master general, $80; his deputy, $40; paymaster general, $100; his

deputy, $50; chief engineer, $60; three aids-de-camp for the general,

each, $33; his secretary, $66; commissary of the musters, $40.

*** The house seen in this sketch is one of the oldest in Cambridge,

having been built about 1750. I has been in the possession of the Moore

family about seventy-five years. Since I visited Cambridge I have been

informed that a Mrs. Moore was still living there, who, from the window

of that house, saw the ceremony of Washington taking command of the

army.

**** 1 Samuel, xii., 3

Council of War.--Character of the Army.--Punishments.--Riflemen. Number

of Troops in the Field.--A model Order.

565Washington called a council of war on the 9th. It was composed of the

major July 1775 generals and the brigadiers, and the object of the

council was to consult upon future operations. The eommander-in-chief

found himself at the head of an army composed of a mixed multitude of

men of every sort, from the honest and intelligent citizen, possessed of

property and station, to the ignorant knave, having nothing to lose, and

consequently every thing to gain. Organization had been effected in a

very slight degree, and thorough discipline was altogether unknown.

Intoxication, peculation, falsehood, disobedience, and disrespect were

prevalent, and the punishments which had been resorted to were quite

ineffectual to produce reform. * It was estimated by the Council that,

from the best information which could be obtained, the forces of the

enemy consisted of eleven thousand five hundred effective men, while the

Americans had only about fourteen thousand fit for duty. ** It was

unanimously decided by the Council to maintain the siege by

strengthening the posts around Boston, then held by the Americans, by

fortifications and recruits. It was also agreed that, if the troops

should be attacked and routed by the enemy, the places of rendezvous

should be Wales's Hill, in the rear of the Roxbury lines; and also that,

at the present, it was "inexpedient to fortify Dorchester Point, or to

oppose the enemy if he should attempt to take possession of it."

Some riflemen from Maryland, Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania,

enlisted under the orders of Congress, and led by Daniel Morgan, a man

of powerful frame and sterling courage, soon joined the camp. *** Upon

their breasts they wore the motto "Liberty or Death." A large proportion

of them were Irishmen, and were not very agreeable to the New

Englanders. Otho Williams, afterward greatly distinguished, was

lieutenant of one of the Maryland companies. Both these men rose to the

rank of brigadier.

The first care of the commander-in-chief was to organize the army. ****

He arranged it into three grand divisions, each division consisting of

two brigades, or twelve regiments, in

* These punishments consisted in pecuniary fines, standing in the

pillory, confinement in stocks, riding a wooden horse, whipping, and

drumming out of the regiment.

** The following return of the army was made to Adjutant-general Gates

on the 19th of July:

*** These men attracted much attention, and on account of their sure and

deadly aim, they became a terror to the British. Wonderful stories of

their exploits went to England, and one of the riflemen, who was carried

there a prisoner, was gazed at as a great curiosity.

**** The following general order was issued on the 4th of July, the day

after Washington took command of the army: "The Continental Congress

having now taken all the troops of the several colonies, which have been

raised, or which may be hereafter raised for the support and defense of

the liberties of America, into their pay and service, they are now the

troops of the United Provinces of North America; and it is hoped that

all distinction of colonies will be laid aside, so that one and the same

spirit may animate the whole, and the only contest be, who shall render,

on this great and trying occasion, the most essential service to the

great and common cause in which we are all engaged. It is required and

expected that exact discipline be observed, and due subordination

prevail through the whole army, as a failure in these most essential

points must necessarily produce extreme hazard, disorder, and confusion,

and end in shameful disappointment and disgrace. The general most

earnestly requires and expects a due observance of those articles of

war, established for the government of the army, which forbid profane

cursing, swearing, and drunkenness; and in like manner, he requires and

expects of all officers and soldiers, not engaged on actual duty, a

punctual attendance on divine service, to implore the blessings of

Heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense." This brief order

may be regarded as a model. In a few words, it evokes harmony, order,

the exercise of patriotism, morality, sobriety, and an humble reverence

for and reliance upon Divine Providence. It includes all the essential

elements of good government. These principles were the moral bonds of

union that kept the little Continental army together during the dreary

years of its struggle for the mastery.

Arrangement of the Army.--Location of the several Divisions.--Officers

of the same.--General Joseph Spencer.

566which the troops from the same colony, as far as practicable, were

brought together. The right wing, under Major-general Ward, consisted of

two brigades, commanded by Generals Thomas and Spencer, * and was

stationed at Roxbury and its southern dependencies. The left wing was

placed under the command of General Lee, and consisted of the brigades

of Sullivan and Greene.

The former was stationed upon Winter Hill; the latter upon Prospect

Hill. The center, stationed at Cambridge, was commanded by General

Putnam, and consisted of two brigades, one of which was commanded by

Heath, and the other by a senior officer, of less rank than that of

brigadier. Thomas Mifflin, who accompanied Washington from Philadelphia

as aid-de-camp, was made quarter-master general. Joseph Trum-

* Joseph Spencer served as a major and eolonel during the Seven Years'

War. He was a native of East Haddam, in Connecticut, where he was born

in 1714. He was with the Continental army in the expedition against

Rhode Island, in 1778, and assisted in Sullivan's retreat. He soon

afterward resigned his commission, and left the army, when he was chosen

to be a delegate in Congress from his native state. He died at East

Haddam in January, 1789, aged seventy-five years. General Seth Pomeroy,

who was appointed with Speneer and others, refused to serve, and Speneer

took rank next to Putnam in the army at Boston. This removed, in a

degree, the difficulty that was apprehended in settling the rank of some

of the officers. By this arrangement, General Thomas, who was Ward's

lieutenant general, was made the first brigadier.

Relative Position of the belligerent Armies.--American Fortifications.--

Emerson's Picture of the Camp.

567bull, a son of the patriot governor of Connecticut, was appointed

commissary general, and upon Joseph Reed, of Philadelphia, was bestowed

the post of secretary to the commander-in-chief. In the course of a few

months Reed returned to Philadelphia, and was succeeded in office by

Robert H. Harrison, a Maryland lawyer.

The relative position of the belligerent armies was, according to a

letter written by Washington to the President of Congress, on the 10th

of July, as follows: the British were strongly intrenched on Bunker

Hill, about half a mile from the chief place of action 1775 on the 17th

of June, with their sentries extending about one hundred and fifty yards

beyond the narrowest point of Charlestown Neck. Three British floating

batteries were in the Mystic River near Bunker Hill, and a twenty-gun

ship was anchored below the ferry-place between Boston and Charlestown.

They had a battery upon Copp's Hill in Boston, and the fortifications

upon the Neck, toward Roxbury, were strengthened. Until the 7th, the

British advance guards occupied Brown's Buildings, about a mile from

Roxbury meetinghouse. On that day a party from General Thomas's camp

surprised the guard, drove them in, and burned the houses. The bulk of

the army, commanded by General Howe, lay upon Bunker Hill; and the light

horse, and a corps of Tories, remained in Boston.

The Americans had thrown up intrenchments on Winter and Prospect Hills,

in full view of the British camp, which was only a mile distant. Strong

works were also thrown up at Roxbury, two hundred yards above the

meeting-house. Strong lines were made across from the Charlestown Road

to the Mystic River, and by connecting redoubts, there was a complete

line of defense from that river to Roxbury. *

A letter written by the Reverend William Emerson, a chaplain in the

army, a few days after Washington's arrival, gives the following life-

like picture of the camp: "New lords, new laws. The generals, Washington

and Lee, are upon the lines every day. New orders from his excellency

are read to the respective regiments every morning after prayers. The

strictest government is taking place, and great distinction is made

between officers and soldiers. Every one is made to know his place, and

keep in it, or to be tied up and receive thirty or forty lashes,

according to his crime. Thousands are at work every day from four till

eleven o'clock in the morning. It is surprising how much work has been

done. The lines are extended almost from Cambridge to the Mystic River;

so that very soon it will be morally impossible for the enemy to get

between the works, except in one place, which is supposed to be left

purposely unfortified, to entice the enemy out of their fortresses. Who

would have thought, twelve months past, that all Cambridge and

Charlestown would be covered over with American camps, and cut up into

forts and intrenchments, and all the lands, fields, and orchards laid

common--horses and cattle feeding in the choicest mowing land, whole

fields of corn eaten down to the ground, and large parks of well-

regulated locusts cut down for fire-wood and other public uses. This, I

must say, looks a little melancholy. My quarters are at the foot of the

famous Prospect Hill, where such preparations are made for the reception

of the enemy. It is very diverting to walk among the camps. They are as

different in their form as the owners are in their dress, and every tent

is a portraiture of the temper and taste of the persons who encamp in

it. Some are made of boards, and some of sail-cloth; some partly of one

and partly of the other. Again, others are made of stone or turf, brick

or brush. Some are thrown up in a hurry; others are curiously wrought

with doors and windows, done with wreaths and withes, in the manner of a

basket. Some are your proper tents and marquees, looking like the

regular camp of the enemy. In these are the Rhode Islanders, who are

furnished with tent equipage and every thing in the most exact English

style. However, I think this great variety rather a beauty than a

blemish in the army." **

"While Washington was organizing the Continental army, Congress was

active in the

* The reader will more clearly understand the relative position of the

hostile forces and their respective fortifications, by a careful

examination of the map on the preceding page. It shows the various works

thrown up during the summer and autumn of 1775, and at the beginning of

1776.

* Spark's Life and Writings of Washington (Appendix), iii., 491.

Action of Congress.--Treason of Dr. Church.--The New England Colonies.--

Franklin's Post-office Book.

568adoption of measures to strengthen his hands, and to organize civil

government. Acting upon the suggestion of the Provincial Congress of New

York, we have already observed June 23, 1775 (ante Page 316) that

Congress authorized the emission of bills of credit. Articles Of War

were agreed to on the 30th of June, and on the 6th of July a Declaration

was issued, setting forth the cause and necessity for taking up arms. A

firm but respectful petition to the king was drawn up by John Dickinson,

the author of "Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer," &c., and adopted on

the 8th; and addresses to the inhabitants of Great Britain, Ireland,

Canada, and Jamaica, were adopted in the course of the month. The

Indians were not overlooked; it was important to secure their neutrality

at least; and three boards for Indian affairs were constituted: one for

the Six Nations and other northern tribes; a second for the Cherokees,

at the South; and a third for the intervening nations, on the borders of

Pennsylvania and Virginia. Already some Stockbridge Indians, from

Massachusetts, near the New-York line, the last remnant of the tribes of

Western New England, were in the camp at Boston; and Kirtland, the

missionary among the Six Nations of New York, was making overtures to

the Oneidas and the Mohawks. Congress also established a post-office

system of its own, extending in its operations from Falmouth (now

Portland, Maine) to Savannah, and westward to remote settlements. Dr.

Franklin was appointed post-master general. * An army hospital for the

accommodation of twenty thousand men was established. At its head was

placed Dr. Benjamin Church, of Boston, till this time a brave and

zealous compatriot of Warren and his associates. Soon after his

appointment he was detected in secret correspondence with Gage. He had

intrusted a letter, written in cipher, with his mistress, to be

forwarded to the British commander. It was found upon her; she was taken

to head-quarters, and there the contents of the letter were deciphered,

and the defection of Dr. Church established. He was found guilty, by a

court martial, of criminal correspondence with the enemy. Expulsion from

the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, and close confinement in

Norwich Jail, in Connecticut, by order of the general Congress, speedily

followed. His health failing, he was allowed to leave the country. He

sailed for the West Indies; but the vessel that bore him was never

afterward heard from. His place in the hospital was filled by Dr. John

Morgan, one of the founders of the Medical School in Philadelphia.

Church was the first traitor to the American cause.

The New England colonies, sustained by the presence of a strong army,

labored energetically in perfecting their civil governments. Connecticut

and Rhode Island, as we have observed, were always democratic, and

through the energy of Trumbull, the governor of the former, that colony

took an early, bold, and commanding stand for freedom. Nor was the

latter colony much behind her democratic colleague. Benning Wentworth,

governor of New Hampshire, having lost all political power, shut himself

up, for two months, in Fort William and Mary at Portsmouth, during which

time his house was pillaged by a mob. He prorogued the Assembly in July,

and then fled to Boston for safety. Massachusetts organized a House of

Representatives under the original charter; and as, according to the

provisions of that charter, the executive authority devolved upon the

Council in the absence of the governor and his lieutenant, that body,

chosen on the 21st of July, assumed such authority. Such continued to be

the government of the colony until the adoption of a state constitution

in 1780. A single executive committee was constituted, vested with all

the powers hitherto exercised by the several committees of

correspondence, inspection, and safety. This consolidation produced far

greater efficiency. Of the civil and military operations of other

colonies I shall write hereafter; for the present, let us view the

progress of events at Boston.

* In the General Post-office at Washington city I saw, several years

ago, the book in which Franklin kept his post-office accounts. It is a

common, half-bound folio, of three quires of coarse paper, and contained

all the entries for nearly two years. The first entry was November 17,

1776. Now more than fifteen hundred of the largest-sized ledgers are

required annually for the same purpose; the number of contractors and

other persons having accounts with the office being over thirty

thousand. There are about one hundred clerks employed in the department.

The belligerent Armies at Boston.--Skirmishes and other hostile

Movements.--Naval Operations on the Coast.--Navy Boards.

569During the remainder of the summer, and throughout the autumn, the

belligerents continually menaced each other, but neither appeared ready

for a general engagement. The British were awaiting re-enforcements, and

the Americans were too feeble in men, discipline, and munitions of war,

to make an assault with a prospect of success. Several skirmishes

occurred, and on two or three occasions a general battle was

apprehended.

The declaration of Congress, setting forth the causes and the necessity

for taking up arms, was read by President Langdon, * of Harvard, before

the army at Cambridge, on the 15th of July. On the 18th, it was read to

the division under General Thomas, at Roxbury, and also to the troops

under Putnam, upon Prospect Hill. At the close of the reading a cannon

was fired, three hearty cheers were given by the army, and the flag that

was presented to Putnam a few days before was unfurled. ** "The

Philistines on Bunker Hill," said the Essex Gazette, in its account of

the affair, "heard the shouts of the Israelites, and being very fearful,

paraded themselves in battle array." The 20th was observed as a day of

fasting by the whole army. On the 30th (Sunday), five hundred British

troops marched over Charlestown Neck, and built a slight breast-work; at

the same time a Brit ish floating battery was rowed up the Charles

River. Another party of troops sallied out toward Roxbury, drove in the

American sentinels, and set fire to a tavern. Frequent excursions were

made by both parties to the islands in the harbor, and skirmishes,

sometimes severe, were the consequences. These things kept the two

armies on the alert, and disciplined them in habits of vigilance.

British cruisers kept the New England coast, from Falmouth to New

London, in a state of continual alarm. They were out in every direction,

seeking plunder and endeavoring to supply the camp with fresh

provisions. Lieutenant Mowatt, commander of a British brig, made a

descent upon Gloucester, Cape Anne, and attempted to land. He was

repulsed, after he had thrown several bombs into the town without

serious effect. August 13. Stonington, in Connecticut, was bombarded for

a day; two men were killed, and September 30. the houses were much

shattered. In October, Mowatt was sent to Falmouth (now Portland, in

Maine), to obtain a supply of provisions from the inhabitants, and to

demand a surrender of their arms. They refused obedience, and boldly

defied him; whereupon, after giving time sufficient for the women and

children to leave the town, he bombarded and set it on fire. It

contained about five hundred buildings, and presently a large portion of

them were in flames. One hundred and thirty-nine houses, and two hundred

and seventy-eight stores and other buildings were destroyed; but the

resolute inhabitants October 7 maintained their ground, repulsed the

enemy, and prevented his landing. Bristol, on the east side of

Narragansett Bay, and other towns in the neighborhood, were visited in

like manner by the depredators. These wanton cruelties excited intense

indignation, and the American troops that environed Boston could hardly

be restrained from attacking the oppressors of their countrymen.

The Americans, as a countervailing measure, fitted out cruisers, and in

a short time each colony had a navy board. These privateers became very

formidable to the enemy, and the extent of British depredations along

the coast was greatly lessened. Washington sent out five or six armed

vessels to intercept supplies coming into the port of Boston, and some

important captures were made. Some of the American naval officers proved

very inefficient. Captain Manly, almost alone, at that time, sustained

the character of a bold and skillful commander, and he and his crew did

good service to the eause. They bravely maintained their position off

Boston Harbor, and in the course of a few weeks captured three valuable

* Reverend Samuel Langdon was a native of Boston, and graduated at

Harvard in 1740. He succeeded Mr. Locke as president of that

institution, in 1774. On account of a lack of urbanity, he was disliked

by the students, who made his situation so disagreeable that he resigned

the presidency in 1780. In 1781, at Hampton Fall, New Hampshire, he

resumed his ministerial labors, in which he continued faithful until his

death. This event occurred on the 29th of November, 1797, at the age of

seventy-four.

** This was the flag before alluded to, which bore on one side the motto

"An appeal to Heaven," and on the other "Qui transtulit, sustinet."

Capture of Ammunition.--Attempt to seize Manly.--Repulse of Linzee.--

Scarcity of Powder.--Expected Sortie.

570vessels, one of which was laden with heavy guns, mortars, and

intrenching tools--a valuable prize for the Americans at that time. Only

thirteen days before, Washington wrote to Congress, "I am in very great

want of powder, lead, mortars, indeed most sorts of military stores."

Captain Manly supplied him more promptly and bountifully than Congress

could do. The finest of the mortars was named Congress, and placed in

the artillery park at Cambridge.

Manly soon became a terror to the British, and the Falcon sloop-of-war,

Captain Linzee, was sent out to attempt to seize him. He was chased, in

company with a schooner, into Gloucester Harbor. The schooner was seized

by the enemy. Manly ran his brig ashore.

Linzee fired more than three hundred guns, and sent barges of armed men

to take the brig; but the crew and the neighboring militia behaved so

bravely that Linzee was repulsed, having lost nearly half his men.

Manly's vessel was got off without much damage, and was soon cruising

again beneath the pine-tree flag. *

1775 Early in August, Washington discovered that a great mistake had

been made in reporting to him the condition of the commissariat, in the

article of powder. "Our situation," he said, in a letter to Congress,

"in the article of powder, is much more alarming than I had the most

distant idea of."

"Instead of three hundred quarter-casks," wrote Reed, "we have but

thirty-two barrels."

Powder-mills were not yet in successful operation in the province, and

great uneasiness prevailed lest the enemy should become acquainted with

their poverty. Vessels were fitted out, on private account, to go to the

West Indies for a supply of powder. The Provincial Congress of

Massachusetts passed a law August 12prohibiting a waste of powder in

shooting birds or for sports of any kind, and every precaution was

adopted to husband the meager supply on hand.

Although Washington did not feel strong enough to make an assault upon

Boston, he was prepared to receive an attack from the enemy, and was

anxious for such an event. For weeks it had been rumored that the

British intended to make a sortie in full force; and, finally, the 25th

of August was designated as the day selected for the demonstration. It

was understood that Earl Percy was to have the command of Boston Neck,

where he expected to retrieve the honors which he lost in his retreat

from Lexington. In the mean while, the British were daily practicing the

maneuvers of embarking and debarking, and every movement indicated an

intention to make an effort to break up the circumvallating line of

provincials that hemmed them so closely in.

On Saturday night, the 26th of August, General Sullivan, with a fatigue

party of

1775 one thousand men, and a guard of two thousand four hundred,

marched, in imitation of the feat of Prescott's, to Plowed Hill (now

Mount Benedict), within point blank shot of

The Pine-tree Flag.2

* Bradford's History of Massachusetts, page 75.

** This engraving is a reduced copy of a vignette on a map of Boston,

published in Paris in 1776. The London Chronicle, an anti-ministerial

paper, in its issue for January, 1776, gives the following description

of the flag of an American cruiser that had been captured: "In the

Admiralty office is the flag of a provincial privateer. The field is

white bunting; on the middle is a green pine-tree, and upon the opposite

side is the motto, "Appeal to Heaven"

Fortifications on Plowed Hill.--Heavy Bombardment.--Condition of Troops

and People in Boston.

571the enemy's batteries on Bunker Hill, and before morning cast up such

intrenchments as afforded excellent protection against the cannons of

the British. Washington hoped this maneuver would bring on a general

action, and he rejoiced to hear the cannonade that opened upon the

American works in the morning, from Bunker Hill and a ship and two

floating batteries in the Mystic. More than three hundred shells were

thrown by the enemy on that occasion. * On account of the scarcity of

powder the cannonade was not returned. A nine pounder, planted on a

point at the Ten Hills Farm, played so effectually against the floating

batteries that one of them was sunk and the other silenced. The British

cannonade ceased at night. In the morning, troops were observed to be

drawn up on Bunker Hill, as if for marching. Washington now expected an

attack, and sent five thousand men to Plowed Hill ** and to the

Charlestown Road. It was a bold challenge for the enemy, but he

prudently refused to accept it. For several days he fired a few cannon

shots against the American works, but, perceiving them to be

ineffectual, he ceased all hostilities on the 10th of September. It was

about this time that the Continental army received seven hundred pounds

of powder from Rhode Island; "probably a part," says Gordon, "of what

had been brought from Africa." ***

The close investment of Boston by troops on land and privateers at sea

began to have a serious effect upon the officers, troops, and people in

the city. **** They had an abundance of salt provision, but, being

unaccustomed to such diet, many fell sick. Gage, doubtless, spoke in

sentiment, if not in words, as Freneau wrote:

"Three weeks, ye gods! nay, three long years it seems

Since roast beef I have touched, except in dreams.

In sleep, choice dishes to my view repair;

Waking, I gape, and champ the empty air.

Say, is it just that I, who rule these bands,

Should live on husks, like rakes in foreign lands?

Come, let us plan some project ere we sleep,

And drink destruction to the rebel sheep.

On neighboring isles uncounted cattle stray;

Fat beeves and swine--an ill-defended prey--

These are fit 'visions for my noonday dish;

These, if my soldiers act as I could wish,

In one short week would glad your maws and mine;

On mutton we will sup--on roast beef dine."

Midnight Musings; or, a Trip to Boston, 1775.

In daily apprehension of an attack from the provincials, and the chances

for escape hourly diminishing, they experienced all the despondency of a

doomed people. Gage was convinced that the first blow against American

freedom had been struck in the wrong place, and that the position of his

troops was wholly untenable. He had been re-enforced since the battle of

Bunker Hill, but the new-comers were a burden rather than an aid; for he

had the sagacity to perceive that twice the number of troops then under

his command were insufficient to effectually disperse the Continental

army, backed, as it was, by other thousands ready to step from the

furrow to the intrenchment when necessity should call. Idleness begat

vice, in various forms, in his camp, and inaction was as likely as the

weapons of his enemy to decimate his battalions. (v) Much annoyance to

the British officers was produced by the cir-

* During this cannonade, Adjutant Mumford, of Colonel Varnum's Rhode

Island regiment, and another soldier, had their heads shot off, and a

rifleman was mortally wounded.

** Bunker Hill, Plowed Hill, and Winter Hill are situated in a range

from east to west, each of them on or near the Mystic River.

*** Early in 1775, two vessels, laden with New England rum, sailed from

Newport to the coast of Africa. The rum was exchanged, at the British

forts, for powder; and so completely did this traffic strip the

fortresses of this article, that there was not an ounce remaining that

could be taken from the use of the garrisons. This maneuver produced a

seasonable supply for the provincials.

**** The number of inhabitants in Boston, on the 28th of July, was six

thousand seven hundred and fifty-three. The number of the troops was

thirteen thousand six hundred.

(v) Most of the soldiers were encamped on the Common, which was not, as

now, shaded by large trees, but exposed to the heat of the summer sun.

"It is not to be wondered," said a letter-writer, in August, "that the

fatigue of duty, bad accommodations, and the use of too much spirits,

should produce fever in the camp. The soldiers can not be kept from rum.

Six-pence will buy a quart of West India rum, and four-pence is the

price of a quart of New England rum. Even the sick and the wounded have

often nothing to eat but salt pork and fish."

American Hand-bills in the British Camp.--Opinions concerning the

Provincials.--Plan for relieving Boston

572culation of hand-bill addresses among the soldiers. They found their

way into the British camp; how, no one could tell. * They were secret

and powerful emissaries; for the soldiers pondered much, in their idle

moments, upon the plain truths which these circulars contained.

Every thing now betokened ruin to the royal cause. Even as early as the

25th of 1775 June, Gage said, in a letter to Dartmouth, when giving an

account of the battle of the 19th, "The trials we have had show the

rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be;

and I find it owing to a military spirit encouraged among them for a few

years past, joined with an uncommon degree of zeal and énthusiasm, that

they are not otherwise." Toward the close of July he wrote despairingly

to Lord Dartmouth. After averring that the rebellion was general, he

said, "This province began it--I might say this town; for here the arch

rebels formed their scheme long ago." He spoke of the disadvantageous

position of the troops, and suggested the propriety of transferring the

theater of operations to New York, where "the friends of government were

more numerous."

The few patriots who remained in Boston were objects of continual

suspicion, and subject to insults daily. They were charged with

sketching plans of the military works, telegraphing with the provincials

by signals from steeples, and various other acts, for which some were

thrown into prison. At length provisions became so scarce, and the

plundering expeditions sent out by Gage to procure fresh food were so

unsuccessful, ** that the commander determined to make arrangements for

the removal of a large number of the inhabitants from the town. It was

notified that James Urquhart, the town major, would receive the names

July 24, 1775 those who wished to leave. Within two days more than two

thousand names were handed in, notwithstanding there was a restriction

that no plate was to be carried away, and no more than five pounds in

cash by each person. Many people of property, who would gladly have

left, were unwilling to do so, for they knew that what property remained

would become a prey to the soldiery. Of those who departed, many women

quilted silver spoons into their garments. Coin was smuggled out of the

city in the same way. These refugees landed principally at Chelsea, and

scattering over the country, were all re-

* I saw one of these hand-bills among the Proclamations, &c., in the

Massachusetts Historical Society. It was an address to the soldiers who

were about embarking for America, and was printed in London. The writer,

in speaking of the course of the provincials, emphasizes, by italics,

printed in a single conspicuous line, the expression, "Before God and

man they are right!" On the back of this address is the following

endorsement, which was evidently printed in this country, the type and

ink being greatly inferior to the other. It alludes to the two camps:

the one on Prospect Hill, under Putnam; the other on Bunker Hill, under

Howe.

Prospect Hill. I. Seven dollars a month. II. Fresh provisions, and in

plenty. III. Health. IV. Freedom, ease, affluence, and a good farm.

Bunker Hill. I. Three-pence a day. II. Rotten salt pork. III. The

scurvy. IV. Slavery, beggary, and want.

** One of these, in August, was quite successful. In the neighborhood of

New London, a small British fleet obtained eighteen hundred sheep and

more than one hundred head of oxen. Frothingham (page 236) quotes a

letter from Gage to Lord Dartmouth, in which this important fact is

announced. This letter was published, and in the anti-ministerial London

Chronicle the following impromptu appeared:

"In days of yore the British troops Have taken warlike kings in battle;

But now, alas I their valor droops, For Gage takes naught but--harmless

cattle. "Britons, with grief your bosoms strike! Your faded laurels

loudly weep! Behold your heroes, Quixotte like, Driving a timid flock

of--sheep!"

Council of War.--Situation of the Army.--Washington's Complaints.--Gage

recalled.--His Life and Character.

573ceived with the open arms of hospitality every where, except a few

Tories who ventured to leave the city. These were treated with bitter

scorn, and there were many martyrs for opinion's sake. This measure was

a great relief to Gage; and the capture, about that time, of an American

vessel laden with fresh provisions, made food quite plentiful in the

city for a while.

The inactive and purely defensive policy pursued by both armies became

exceedingly onerous to Washington, and he resolved, if expedient, to

endeavor to put an end to it. Congress, too, became impatient, and

requested Washington to attack the enemy if he perceived any chance for

success. The commander-in-chief, accordingly, called a council of war on

the 11th of September. In view of the rapid approach of the time when

the term of 1775 enlistment of many of the troops would expire, and also

of the general unfavorable condition of the army, Washington desired to

make an immediate and simultaneous attack upon the city and the camp of

the enemy on Bunker Hill. But his officers dissented; and the decision

of the Council was "that it is not expedient to make the attempt at

present." Ten days afterward, Washington wrote a long letter to the

President of Congress, in which, after making a statement which implied

a charge of neglect on the part of that body, he drew a graphic picture

of the condition of the army. "But my situation," he said, "is

inexpressibly distressing, to see the winter fast approaching upon a

naked army, the time of their service within a few weeks of expiring,

and no provisions yet made for such important events. Added to these,

the military chest is totally exhausted; the paymaster has not a single

dollar in hand; the commissary general assures me that he has strained

his credit for the subsistence of the army to the utmost; the quarter-

master general is in precisely the same situation; and the greater part

of the troops are in a state not far from mutiny, upon a deduction from

their stated allowance. I know not to whom I am to impute this failure;

but I am of opinion that, if the evil is not immediately remedied, and

more punctuality observed in future, the army must absolutely break up."

Thus we perceive, that within three months after his appointment to the

chief command, Washington had cause to complain of the tardy movements

of the general Congress. Throughout the war, that body often pressed

like a dead weight upon the movements of the army, embarrassing it by

special instructions, and neglecting to give its co-operation when most

needed. It was only during the time when Washington was invested with

the powers of a military dictator, that his most brilliant military

achievements were accomplished.

It was in September that the expedition to Quebec, under Arnold, by the

way of the Kennebec, was planned. This important measure, and the

progress and result of the expedition, have already been noticed on

pages 190 to 194 inclusive.

Convinced of the inefficiency of Gage, and alarmed at the progress of

the rebellion, the king summoned that officer to England to make a

personal explanation of the state of affairs at Boston. Gage sailed on

the 10th of October, leaving affairs in the hands of General Howe. *

Before his departure, the Mandamus Council, a number of the prin-

* Thomas Gage, the last royal governor of Massachusetts, was a native of

England, and was an active officer during the Seven Years' War. He was

appointed Governor of Montreal in 1760, and, at the departure of Amherst

from America, in 1763, was commissioned commander-in-chief of the

British forces in America. He superseded Hutchinson as Governor of

Massachusetts, and had the misfortune to enter upon the duties of his

office at a time when it became necessary for him, as a faithful servant

of his king, to execute laws framed expressly for the infliction of

chastisement upon the people of the capital of the colony over which he

was placed. From that date his public acts are interwoven with the

history of the times. He possessed a naturally amiable disposition, and

his benevolence often outweighed his justice in the scale of duty. Under

other circumstances his name might have been sweet in the recollection

of the Americans; now it is identified with oppression and hatred of

freedom. He went to England in the autumn of 1775, where he died in

April, 1787. Gage expected to return to America and resume the command

of the army; but ministers determined otherwise, and appointed General

Howe in his place. The situation was offered to the veteran Oglethorpe,

the founder of Georgia, but as he would not accept the commission unless

he could go to the Americans with assurances from government that strict

justice should be done them, the post was assigned to Howe. This was a

tacit admission, on the part of ministers, that justice to the Americans

formed no part of their scheme.

Loyal Address to Gage.--Superiority of Howe.--Fortifications in Boston.-

-The "Old South" desecrated.--Officers frightened.

574cipal inhabitants of Boston, and several who had taken refuge in the

country, in all about seventy persons, addressed him in terms of loyal

affection, amounting to panegyric. It was certainly unmerited; for his

civil administration had been weak, and his military operations

exceedingly inefficient.

This was felt by all parties. His departure was popular with the army;

and the provincials, remembering the spirit displayed by General Howe in

the battle on Breed's Hill, anticipated a speedy collision. Howe was

superior to Gage in every particular, and possessed more caution, which

was generally founded upon logical deductions from fact. Governed by

that caution, he was quite as unwilling as Gage to attack the Americans.

He remembered the disparity in numbers on the 17th of June, and the

bravery of the provincials while fighting behind breast-works cast up in

a single night. He properly argued that an army of the same sort of men,

fifteen thousand strong, intrenched behind breast-works constructed by

the labor of weeks, was more than a match for even his disciplined

troops of like number, and prudently resolved to await expected re-

enforcements from Ireland before he should attempt to procure that

"elbow-room" which he coveted. * In the mean while, he strengthened his

defenses, and prepared to put his troops into comfortable winter

quarters. He built a strong fort on Bunker Hill, ** and employed six

hundred men in making additional fortifications upon Boston Neck. In the

neighborhood of the hay-market, at the south end of the city, many

buildings were pulled down, and works erected in their places. Strong

redoubts were raised upon the different eminences in Boston, and the old

South meeting-house was stripped of its pews and converted into a

riding-school for the disciplining of the cavalry. *** This last act

took place on the 19th of October, and the desecration greatly shocked

the feelings of the religious community. On October,1775 the 28th Howe

issued three proclamations, which created much indignation, and drew

forth retaliatory

* It is said that both officers and soldiers regarded the Americans with

a degree of superstitious fear, for many highly exaggerated tales of

their power had been related. Dr. Thatcher says (Journal, p. 38) that,

according to letters written by British officers from Boston, some of

them, while walking on Beacon Hill in the evening, soon after the

arrival of Gage, were frightened by noises in the air, which they took

to be the whizzing of bullets. They left the hill with great

precipitation, and reported that they were shot at with air-guns. The

whizzing noise which so much alarmed these valiant officers was no other

than the whizzing of bugs and beetles while flying in the air. Trumbull,

in his M'Fingall, thus alludes to this ludicrous circumstance:

"No more the British colonel runs From whizzing beetles as air-guns;

Thinks horn-bugs bullets, or, through fears, Mosquitoes takes for

musketeers; Nor 'scapes, as if you'd gain'd supplies From Beelzebub's

whole host of flies. No bug these warlike hearts appals; They better

know the sound of balls."

** This was a well-built redoubt. The parapet was from six to fifteen

feet broad; the ditch from fourteen to eighteen feet wide, and the

banquet about four feet broad. The galleries and parapet before them

were raised about twenty feet high, and the merlons at the six-gun

battery in the center were about twelve feet high, a a, two temporary

magazines; b b, barracks; c, guard-houses; di magazine; e, advanced

ditch; h h, bastions.

*** A Mr. Carter, quoted by Frothingham, writing on the 19th of October,

says, "We are now erecting redoubts on the eminences on Boston Common;

and a meeting-house, where sedition has been often preached, is clearing

out to be made a riding-school for the light dragoons." Gordon says, "In

clearing every thing away, a beautiful carved pew, with silk furniture,

formerly belonging to a deceased gentleman (Deacon Hubbard) in high

estimation, was taken down and carried to Mr. John Armory's house, by

the order of an officer, who applied the carved work to the erection of

a hog-stye."

Harsh Measures, and Retaliation.--Congress Committee at Head quarters.--

Little Navy organized.--Floating Batteries

575measures from Washington. The first forbade all persons leaving the

town without permission, under pain of military execution; the second

prohibited persons who were permitted to go from carrying with them more

than twenty-five dollars in cash, under pain of forfeiture--one half of

the amount to be paid to the informer; and the third ordered all the

inhabitants within the town to associate themselves into military

companies. Washington retaliated by ordering General Sullivan, who was

about departing for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to seize all officers of

government unfriendly to the patriots. Similar orders were sent to

Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, and Deputy-governor Cooke, of Rhode

Island.

While Howe was thus engaged, Washington was not idle. A committee of

Congress, consisting of Dr. Franklin, Thomas Lynch, and Benjamin

Harrison (father of the late President Harrison), arrived at head-

quarters on the 18th of October, to confer with the commander-in-chief

respecting future operations. Deputy-governor Griswold and Judge Wales,

of Connecticut; Deputy-governor Cooke, of Rhode Island; several members

of the Massachusetts Council, and the President of the Provincial

Congress of New Hampshire, were present at the conference, which lasted

several days, and such a system of operations was matured as was

satisfactory to General Washington. * A plan was agreed upon for an

entirely new organization of the army, which provided for the enlistment

of twenty-six regiments of eight companies each, besides riflemen and

artillery. Already measures had been adopted to organize a navy. As

early as June, Rhode Island had fitted out two armed vessels to protect

the waters of that colony; Connecticut, at about the same time, one or

two armed vessels; and, on the 26th of June, the Provincial Congress of

Massachusetts resolved to provide six armed vessels. None of the latter

had been got in readiness as late as the 12th of October, as appears by

a letter from Washington to the President of the Continental Congress.

Having received no instructions from Congress on the subject, Washington

took the responsibility, under his general delegated powers, of making

preparations to annoy the enemy by water. Agents were appointed to

superintend the construction of vessels, and to furnish supplies.

Captain Broughton, of Marblehead, received a naval commission from

Washington, dated September 2d, 1775, the first of the kind issued by

the Continental Congress through its authorized agent. Before the close

of October, six vessels of small size ** had been armed and manned, and

sent to cruise within the capes of Massachusetts Bay. Two strong

floating batteries were launched, armed, and manned in the Charles

River; and, on the 26th of October, they opened fire upon Boston that

produced great alarm and damaged several houses. The six schooners

commissioned by Wash-

1775

* While Dr. Franklin was at head-quarters, the Provincial Congress of

Massachusetts paid him the remaining moneys due him for services as

agent for the colony in England, amounting to nine thousand two hundred

and seventy dollars. Five hundred dollars had been sent to him from

London as a charitable donation for the relief of the Americans wounded

in the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, and for the widows and

orphans of those who were killed. This sum he paid over to the proper

committee.

** The names of five of these vessels were Hannah, Harrison, Lee,

Washington, and Lynch. The six commanders were Broughton, Selman, Manly,

Martindale, Coit, and Adams.

*** I am indebted to the kindness of Peter Force, Esq., of Washington

city (editor of "The American Archives"), for this drawing of one of the

American floating batteries used in the siege of Boston. It is copied

from an English manuscript in his possession, and is now published for

the first time. I have never met with a description of those batteries,

and can judge of their construction only from the drawing. They appear

to have been made of strong planks, pierced, near the water-line, for

oars; along the sides, higher up, for light and musketry. A heavy gun

was placed in each end, and upon the top were four swivels. The ensign

was the pine-tree flag, according to Colonel Reed, who, in a letter from

Cambridge to Colonels Glover and Moylan, dated October 20th, 1775, said,

"Please to fix some particular color for a flag, and a signal by which

our vessels may know one another. What do you think of a flag with a

white ground, a tree in the middle, the motto 'Appeal to Heaven?' This

is the flag of our floating batteries."

Vessels of War authorized by Congress.--Letters of Marque and Reprisal.-

-Condition of the Army before Boston.

576ington, and the floating batteries, sailed under the pine-tree flag.

The Continental Congress a October 13, 1775 authorized two vessels to

be fitted out and manned; (a) afterward two others, one b October 30.

of twenty and one of thirty-six guns, were ordered. (b) On the 28th of

November, a code of naval regulations was adopted. On the 1st of

February following (1776), the navy, if so it might be properly called,

was formed into a new establishment, being composed of four vessels--the

Hancock, Captain Manly; the Warner, Captain Burke; the Lynch, Captain

Ayres; and the Harrison, Captain Dyer. Captain Manly was the commodore

of the little fleet. * In November, the Massachusetts Provincial

Congress issued letters of marque and reprisal, and established courts

of admiralty. Such was the embryo of the navy of the United States. A

more detailed account of the organization of the navy and its operations

during the Revolution, will occupy a chapter in another portion of this

work. I have mentioned here only so much as related to operations

connected with the siege of Boston.

The term of enlistment of many of the troops was now drawing to a close,

and Washington felt great apprehensions for the result. Nearly six

months had elapsed since the battle of Bunker Hill, yet nothing had been

done, decisively, to alter the relations in which the belligerents stood

toward each other. The people began to murmur, and the general Congress

fretted. New enlistments were accomplished tardily, and in December not

more than five thousand recruits had joined the army. It became

excessively weakened in numbers and spirit, and as the cold increased,

want of comfortable clothing and fuel became an almost insupportable

hardship. Many regiments were obliged to eat their provisions raw, for

the want of wood to cook them. Fences, and the fruit and shade trees for

more than a mile around the camp, were used for fuel. The various

privations in the camp produced frequent desertions. The Connecticut

troops demanded a bounty, and being refused, resolved to leave the camp

in a body on the 6th of December. Measures were taken to prevent the

movement, yet many went off and never returned. The commander-in-chief

was filled with the greatest anxiety. Still, he hopefully worked on in

preparation for action, either offensive or defensive. A strong

detachment under Putnam broke ground at Cobble Hill (now M'Lean Asylum);

the works on Lechmere's Point were strengthened, and a call that was

made upon the New England militia to supply the places of the troops

that left the army in its hour of peril, was nobly responded to.

At the close of the year most of the regiments were full; and about ten

thousand minute men, chiefly in Massachusetts, were held in ready

reserve to march when called upon. The camp was well supplied with

provisions; ** order was generally observed, and in the course of a

fortnight a wonderful change for the better was wrought. The ladies of

several of the officers arrived in camp; and the Christmas holidays were

spent at Cambridge quite agreeably, for hope gave joy to the occasion.

***

* Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, iii., 516.

** The rations for the soldiers were as follows: corned beef and pork

four days in the week, salt fish one day, and fresh beef two days. Each

man had a pound and a half of beef, or eighteen ounces of pork a day;

one quart of strong beer, or nine gallons of molasses, to one hundred

men per week; six pounds of candles to one hundred men per week; six

ounces of butter, or nine ounces of hogs' lard per week; three pints of

beans or pease, per man, a week, or vegetables equivalent; one pound of

flour per day, and hard bread to be dealt out one day in the week.

*** Mrs. Washington arrived on the 11th of December, accompanied by her

son, John Parke Custis, and his wife. Some persons thought her in danger

at Mount Vernon, as Lord Dunmore was making the most determined hostile

movements against republicanism in Virginia. It was feared that he might

attempt to seize the person of Lady Washington, to be held as a hostage.

As the commander-in-chief could not leave the army, she was requested to

pass the winter with him at Cambridge. The expenses incurred by the

occasional visits of Mrs. Washington to the camp during the war were

charged to the government. Washington was careful to call attention to

this fact, and in the rendition of his accounts for settlement he refers

to it, and expresses a hope that the charges will be considered right,

inasmuch as he had not visited his home during his time of service, a

privilege which he was allowed by the terms of his appointment.

First unfurling of the Union flag.--Return of Colonel Knox, with heavy

artillery.

577

CHAPTER XXV.

"When Freedom, from her mountain height,

Unfurl'd her standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,

And set the stars of glory there.

She mingled with its gorgeous dyes

The milky baldrie of the skies,

And striped its pure celestial white

With streakings of the morning light;

Then from his mansion in the sun

She call'd her eagle-bearer down,

And gave into his mighty hand

The symbol of her choseth land."

Joseph Rodman Drake.

N the first of January, 1776, the new Continental army was organized,

and on that day the Union FLAG OF THIRTEEN STRIPES was unfurled, for the

first time, in the American camp at Cambridge. On that day the king's

speech (of which I shall presently write) was received in Boston, and

copies of it were sent, by a flag, to Washington. The hoisting of the

Union ensign was hailed by Howe as a token of joy on the receipt of the

gracious speech, and of submission to the crown. *. This was a great

mistake, for at no time had Washington been more determined to attack

the king's troops, and to teach oppressors the solemn lesson that

"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."

After the arrival of Colonel Knox with military stores from the north,

whither he had been sent in November, the commander-in-chief resolved to

attack the enemy, either by a general assault, or by bombardment and

cannonade, notwithstanding the British force was then nearly equal to

his in numbers, and greatly superior in experience. Knox brought with

him from Fort George, on forty-two sleds, eight brass mortars, six iron

mortars, two iron howitzers, thirteen brass cannons, twenty-six iron

cannons, two thousand three hundred pounds of lead, and one

* Washington, in a letter to Joseph Reed, written on the 4th of January,

1776, said, "The speech I send you. A volume of them was sent out by the

Boston gentry, and, farcical enough, we gave great joy to them without

knowing or intending it; for on that day, the day which gave being to

the new army, but before the proclamation came to hand, we had hoisted

the Union flag, in compliment to the United Colonies. But behold! it was

received in Boston as a token of the deep impression the speech had made

upon us, and as a signal of submission. So we hear by a person out of

Boston last night. By this time, I presume, they begin to think it

strange that we have not made a formal surrender of our lines." The

principal flag hitherto used by the army was plain crimson. Referring to

the reception of the king's speech, the Annual Register (1776) says, "So

great was the rage and indignation [of the Americans], that they burned

the speech, changed their colors from a plain red ground which they had

hitherto used, to a flag with thirteen stripes, as a symbol of the

number and union of the colonies." The blue field in one corner, with

thirteen stars, was soon afterward adopted; and by a resolution of the

Continental Congress, already referred to, passed on the 14th of June,

1777,* this was made the national flag of the United States.

*This flag bore the device of the English Union, which distinguishes the

Royal standard of Great Britain. It is composed of the cross of St.

George, to denote England, and St. Andrew's cross, in the form of an X,

to denote Scotland. This device was placed in the corner of the Royal

Flag, after the accession of James the Sixth of Scotland to the throne

of England as James the First. A picture of this device may be seen on

page 321, Vol. It. It must be remembered that at thia time the American

Congress had not declared the colonies "free and independent" states,

and that even yet the Americans proffered their warmest loyalty to

British justice, when it should redress their grievances. The British

ensign was therefore not yet discarded, but it was used upon their

flags, as in this instance, with the field composed of thirteen stripes,

alternate red and white, as emblematic of the union of the thirteen

colonics in the struggle for freedom. Ten months before, "a Union flag

with a red field" was hoisted at New York, upon the Liberty-pole on the

"Common," bearing the inscription--"George Rex, and the Liberties of

America," and upon the other side, "No Popery." It was this British

Union, on the American flag, which caused the misapprehension of the

British in Boston, alluded to by Washington. It was a year and a half

later (and a year after the colonies were declared to be Independent

states), that, by official orders, "thirteen white stars upon a blue

field" was a device substituted for the British Union, and then the

"stripes and stars" became our national banner.

Plan of Attack on Boston.--Re-enforcement of the Army.--Council of War.-

-Number of the Troops.--Situation of Washington.

578barrel of flints. In the harbor of Boston the enemy had several

vessels of war, * and upon Bunker Hill his works were very strong.

Washington's plan depended, in its execution, upon the weather, as it

was intended to pass the troops over to Boston, from Cambridge, on the

ice, if it became strong enough. The Neck was too narrow and too well

fortified to allow him to hope for a successful effort to enter the town

by that way. The assault was to be made by the Americans in two

divisions, under Brigadiers Sullivan and Greene, the whole to be

commanded by Major-general Putnam. Circumstances prevented the execution

of the plan, and January passed by without any decisive movement on the

part of either army. The American forces, however, were daily

augmenting, and they were less annoyed by the British cannon than they

had been, for Howe was more sparing of powder than Gage. **

The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, at its winter session,

organized the militia of the province anew. John Hancock, James Warren,

and Azor Orne were appointed major generals, and thirteen regiments were

formed. A new emission of paper money, to a large amount, was

authorized, and various measures were adopted to strengthen the

Continental army. Early in February, ten of the militia regiments

arrived in camp; large supplies of ammunition had been received; intense

cold had bridged the waters with ice, and Washington was disposed to

commence operations immediately and vigorously. He called a council

February, 1776 war on 16th, to whom he communicated the intelligence,

derived from careful returns, that the American army, including the

militia, then amounted to a little more than seventeen thousand men,

while that of the British did not much exceed five thousand fit for

duty. Many of them were sick with various diseases, and the small-pox

was making terrible havoc in the enemy's camp. *** Re-enforcements from

Ireland, Halifax, and New York were daily expected by Howe, and the

present appeared to be the proper moment to strike. But the council

again decided against attempting an assault, on account of the supposed

inadequacy of the undisciplined Americans for the task. They estimated

the British forces at a much higher figure; considered the fact that

they were double officered and possessed ample artillery, and that the

ships in the harbor would do great execution upon an army on the ice,

exposed to an enfilading fire. It was resolved, however, to bombard and

cannonade the town as soon as a supply of ammunition should arrive, and

that, in the mean time, Dorchester Heights and Noddle's Island (now East

Boston) should be taken possession of and fortified. The commander-in-

chief was disappointed at this decision, for he felt confident of

success himself. "I can not help acknowledging," he said, in a letter

February 18, 1776 to Congress, "that I have many disagreeable sensations

on account of my situation; for, to have the eyes of the whole Continent

fixed with anxious expectation of hearing of some great event, and to be

restrained in every military operation for the want of the necessary

means for carrying it on, is not very pleasing, especially as the means

* The Boyne, sixty-four guns; Preston, fifty guns; Scarborough, and

another sloop, one of twenty and the other of sixteen guns, and the

Mercury.

** From the burning of Charlestown to Christmas day, the enemy had fired

more than two thousand shot and shells, one half of the former being

twenty-four pounders. They hurled more than three hundred bombs at

Plowed Hill, and one hundred at Lochraere's Point. By the whole firing

on the Cambridge side they killed only seven men, and on the Roxbury

side just a dozen!--Gordon, i., 418.

*** Quite a number of people, sick with this loathsome disease, were

sent out of Boston; and General Howe was charged with the wicked design

of attempting thus to infect the American army with the malady.

* Journals, iii., 194.

Condition of the British Troops in Boston.--A Farce and its

Termination.--Bombardment of Boston.--Industry of the Patriots.

579used to conceal my weakness from the enemy conceal it also from our

friends, and add to their wonder." In the midst of these discouragements

Washington prepared for a bombardment.

The British troops in Boston were beginning to be quite contented with

their lot, and Howe felt almost as secure as if he was on the shores of

Old England. He wrote to Dartmouth that he was under no apprehension of

an attack from the rebels; and so confident were the Tories of the

triumph of British arms, that Cecan Brush, a conceited and sycophantic

Loyalist from New York, offered to raise a body of volunteers of three

January 19, 1776 hundred men, to "occupy the main posts on the

Connecticut River, and open a line of communication westward toward Lake

Champlain," after "the subduction of the main body of the rebel force."

* The enemy had also procured a plentiful supply of provisions, and the

winter, up to the 1st of February, was tolerably mild. "The bay is

open," wrote Colonel Moylan, from Roxbury. "Every thing thaws here

except Old Put. He is still as hard as ever, crying out, 'Powder!

powder! ye gods, give me powder!'" The British officers established a

theater; balls were held, and a subscription had been opened for a

masquerade, when Washington's operations suddenly dispelled their dream

of security, and called them to lay aside the "sock and buskin," the

domino, and the dancing-slipper, for the habiliments of real war. They

had got up a farce called "Boston Blockaded they were now called to

perform in the serio-comic drama of Boston bombarded, with appropriate

costume and scenery.

The design of Washington to fortify Dorchester Heights was kept a

profound secret, and, to divert the attention of Howe, the Americans

opened a severe bombardment and cannonade, on the night of the 2d of

March, from the several batteries at Lechmere's Point, Roxbury, Cobble

and Plowed Hills, and Lamb's Dam. Several houses in the city were

shattered, and six British soldiers killed. The fire was returned with

spirit, but with out serious effect. In the course of the bombardment,

the Americans burst the "Congress" thirteen inch mortar, another of the

same size, and three ten inch mortars.

On Sunday and Monday nights a similar cannonade was opened upon the

city. March 3,4, 1776 At seven o'clock on Monday evening, General

Thomas, with two thousand men, and intrenching tools, proceeded to take

possession of Dorchester Heights. A train of three hundred carts, laden

with fascines and hay, followed the troops. Within an hour, marching in

perfect silence, the detachment reached the heights. It was separated

into two divisions, and upon the two eminences already mentioned they

commenced throwing up breastworks. Bundles of hay were placed on the

town side of Dorchester Neck to break the rumble of the carts passing to

and fro, and as a defense against the guns of the enemy, if they should

be brought to bear upon the troops passing the Neck. Notwithstanding the

moon was shining brightly and the air was serene, the laborers were not

observed by the British sentinels. Under the direction of the veteran

Gridley, the engineer at Bunker Hill, they worked wisely and well. Never

was more work done in so short a time, and at dawn two forts were raised

sufficiently high to afford ample protection for the forces within. They

presented a formidable aspect to the alarmed Britons. Howe, overwhelmed

with astonishment, exclaimed, "I know not what I shall do. The rebels

have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in a

month." They had done more than merely raise embankments; cannons were

placed upon them, and they now completely commanded the town, placing

Britons and Tories in the utmost peril.

* Frothingham; from manuscripts in the office of the Secretary of State

of Massachusetts.

* This play was a burletta. The figure designed to represent Washington

enters with uncouth gait, wearing a large wig, a long, rusty sword, and

attended by a country servant with a rusty gun. While this farce was in

course of performance on the evening of the 8th of January (1776), a

sergeant entered suddenly, and exclaimed, "The Yankees are attacking our

works on Bunker Hill!" The audience thought this was part of the play,

and laughed immoderately at the idea; but they were soon undeceived by

the voice of the burly Howe shouting, "Officers, to your alarm-posts!"

The people dispersed in great confusion. The cause of the fright was the

fact that Majors Knowlton, Carey, had crossed the mill-dam from Cobble

Hill, and set fire to some houses in Charlestown occupied by British

soldiers. They burned fight dwellings, killed one man, and brought off

five prisoners.

Astonishment of the British.--Insecurity of the Fleet and Army.--

Preparations for Bombarding Boston.