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 ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 
 How THE War Began. 
 
 % Series of .Shcttbcs 
 
 FROM ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES. 
 
 EDWARD E. HALE. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 LOCKWOOI), BROOKS, AND COMPANY, 
 
 ;;si Washincton Stkf.ft 
 
 1875. 
 
JNO. S. LOCKWOOD. 
 
 WALTER D. BROOKS. 
 
 PHINBAS S. TOBEY. 
 
 LOCKWOOD, BROOKS. & CO.. 
 
 (^Successors to Noyes, Holmes, &r^ Co.) 
 
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 Invite attention to their varied stock, which they 
 
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 Catalogues of all Publishers furnished on application. 
 
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 rates. 
 
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 Pupils, wholesale and retail. 
 
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 receipt of price. 
 
 Z., B., 6^ Co. would invite special attention of Library Committees 
 and other book buyers to their superior facilities for furnishing 
 every thing in the line ef BOOKS or STATIONERY, with 
 promptness and at low prices. 
 
 Special attention is now asked to the publications of 
 
 THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 (Instituted in 1814), 
 
 Of which Lockwood, Brooks, & Co. are now tlie sole publishers. 
 Catalogues furnished gratis on application. 
 
ONE HUNDRED YEAES AGO. 
 
 How THE War Began. 
 
 FROM ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD E. HALE. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 LOCKWOOD, BROOKS, AND COMPANY, 
 
 381 Washington Street. 
 
 1875. 
 

 
 Copyright. 
 LoCKWOOD, Brooks, & Co. 
 
 1875. 
 
 Boston : 
 
 Stereotyped and Printed by 
 
 liAND, Avery, & Co. 
 
ONE HUNMED YEARS AGO. 
 
 This year will long be remembered as " the centennial year." 
 As every anniversary approaches, we are all tempted to study anew 
 its history ; and by that happy law by which history, like nature, 
 " gives us more than all she ever takes away," we are able to bring 
 together some anecdotes, to explain some mysteries, and to connect 
 some inexplicable movements, as our ancestors could not do. 
 
 Only a hundred years ago, for instance, it was still the fashion in 
 America to call George III. the " best of kings," to call the troops 
 sent out from England the " ministerial troops," and to hang in effigy 
 not the king, but Lord North, like the Earl of Bute, and others 
 supposed to be the king's false advisers. We know now, what our 
 fathers did not suspect, that it was the king's obstinacy which held 
 his ministers to their work. Lord North would gladly have 
 resigned three years before he did, but that the king fairly implored 
 him not to desert him. We know, in short, that, if to any one Eng- 
 lishman the policy can be assigned which resulted in the dismember- 
 ment of an empire, that Englishman was the King of England. 
 
 For many years, the defeat of the Americans at Bunker's Hill 
 was to the people of New England a sore matter, which they 
 could not account for to their minds, which they still felt uneasy 
 about (as if some one had blundered), and which, in a word, rankled 
 as all defeats do in the memories of a brave people. We know now, 
 what they could not guess, that that battle virtually affected the 
 tactics of the English generals througli, the war, and, in a certain 
 sense, may be said to have decided the war. The respect for the 
 American troops which was learned in the horrible carnage of that 
 day accounts for Howe's remaining quiet within his lines in Boston 
 for nearly a year afterwards ; it accounts for the reserve or shyness 
 of all his movements after he made New York his centre ; it 
 accounts, in short, for the languid way in which the war was carried 
 on by every English leader, excepting Lord Cornwallis. This result 
 of the battle of Bunker's Hill has made it one of the decisive battles 
 
4 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 of history ; but of that our fathers had no idea while they were 
 tr^dng to discover who was responsible for their failure. • 
 
 It is the object of this series of sketches to bring before the reader 
 of to-day such original descriptions of the eventful days of one 
 hundred years ago as have not been often reprinted, and as shall 
 show to him how they were regarded by the lookers-on. It is impos- 
 sible, within the compass of these pages, to go into the details of the 
 narrative of each event of 1775, nor is it desirable. Those details 
 will be presented by local orators as the successive days of celebra- 
 tion shall come round, with the aid of the hills and streams, the 
 highways and byways, in or near which each scene was enacted^ — 
 illustrations so much more precise than can be any map or picture ! 
 But no orator can vie with the letter, or ballad, or speech of the 
 moment in showing what is of even more interest than the statistics 
 of armies, or the narrative of battle, — how the men and women felt, 
 who, for the first time perhaps, found themselves face to face with 
 war. The special object of these papers is to permit those men and 
 women, on both sides, to speak for themselves. 
 
 The year 1775, also, was for New England a centennial year. One 
 hundred years before, in 1675, Philip's war had broken out, — the 
 most perilous crisis of the history of New England. In that dreadful 
 struggle, ten towns were wholly destroyed, forty others were more or 
 less injured. There were but eighty or ninety towns in all. The 
 population of Massachusetts was rated at thirty thousand whites, 
 of whom six thousand were rated as fighting men. Of these six 
 thousand, one in every ten or twelve was killed, or carried away cap- 
 tive. The debt of tha colony when " Philip's war " was over was 
 more than the amount of its* personal property. 
 
 In one hundred years, ending with 1775, the population had 
 increased tenfold, from thirty thousand to three hundred thousand, 
 a ratio much larger than that of the last century. The increase in 
 wealth and strength was proportional. 
 
 But in 1775 the people of New England were looking forward, and 
 not back. I am not aware that any writer or speaker of that crisis 
 ever alluded to the year as the centennial of the great struggle of the 
 colonial history. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE MONTH OF MARCH IN BOSTON. 
 
 A HUNDRED years ago, in the month of March, Gen. Gage, with 
 thirty-five hundred men, was in Boston, looking for the opening of the 
 spring, and hoping for re-enforcements from England. He had 
 written to Lord Dartmouth, that, if England would begin with an 
 army twenty thousand strong, she would save blood and treasure in 
 the end. He had also sent Capt. Balfour, with a hundred men 
 and three hundred stand of arms, to Marshfield, to encourage the 
 loyalists there. The captain reported that they were well received ; 
 and the general felt encouraged to make new conquests. 
 
 He struck next at Salem, where he heard that there were some 
 .brass cannon and gun-carriages. Col. Leslie was sent out on Sun- 
 day, Feb. 26, 1775, to take them. He landed at Marblehead while 
 the people were at meeting ; but his object was suspected, and news 
 immediately sent to Salem. When Col. Leslie reached the North 
 Bridge, the drawbridge was up ; and one of those parleys followed, 
 which, in all that history, showed how anxious were both parties to 
 keep within the forms of law. The people who had assembled told 
 Col. Leslie that it was a private way, and that he had no right to 
 travel on it, or to use the drawbridge. He undertook to ferry over 
 a party in two scows, known then and now, in the language of New 
 England, by the proud name of " gondolas." ^ Their owners jumped 
 in, and began to scuttle them. In the scuffle which ensued, some 
 were pricked with bayonets. The Salem people, to this hour, say 
 that blood was drawn, and claim the honor of the first " bloodshed " 
 of the Revolutionary War. This is certain, that they made the first 
 resistance to a military force of England. Nay, there are those who 
 hint, under their breath, that, after one hundred years, the Salem 
 people would be willing to sacrifice a few grandfathers, if they could 
 have the honor which, as things fell, has lighted on Lexing^;on and 
 Concord. It is no fault of theirs that they lost it. 
 
6 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 Leslie did not v/ish to force matters. Rev. Tliomas Barnard, the 
 minister, was on hand, as a minister should be on such occasions. 
 He persuaded the colonel to be moderate, and promised that the 
 bridge should be lowered, if the detachment did not march more 
 than thirty or fifty rods on the other side. It was, for Leslie, a clear 
 case of being " for the law, but agin enforcing it." He agreed to 
 this. The bridge was lowered. The guns had been removed in the 
 meanwhile. The detachment marched its thirty rods, and marched 
 back again ; and Col. Leslie returned to Boston. A company of 
 minute-men from Danvers arrived just as he was leaving town. 
 Observe Danvers. 
 
 Trumbull in " Mac Fingal " gives this account of this expedition : — 
 
 *' Through Salem straight, without delay, 
 Tlie bold battalion took its way ; 
 Marched o'er a bridge, in open sight 
 Of several Yankees anned for fight; 
 Then, without loss of time or men, 
 Veered round for Boston back again, 
 And found so well their projects thrive, 
 That every soul got home alive." 
 
 In the next number of " The Massachusetts Spy," the paper for 
 March 2, 1775, one of the wits thus describes this expedition : — 
 
 " Caius Lessala was despatched from Castellinum two hours after sunset, on the 
 5th of the Kalends of March (answering to our 25th of February), with near three 
 hundred picked men in a galley, under verbal orders to land at Marmoreum, and proceed 
 to Saleminum while the inhabitants of both places were engaged in celebrating a 
 solemn institution. Lessala was not to open his written orders till he reached the 
 causeway. He conducted the affair with a despatch and propriety worthy of his 
 character, expecting to find he had been sent to surprise one of Pompei/s fortified 
 magazines. But great indeed was his chagrin, when he read that his eiTand was only 
 to rob a private enclosure in the North Fields of that village. He suddenly returned 
 to Castellinum, nientioned some obstruction of a fly-bridge, and, not without a little 
 resentment in his eyes, told Csesar that 'the geese had flown.' " — Vit. Cms. Edit. 
 Americ. Fol. 1775. 
 
 Meanwhile Gen. Gage was feeling the country in other directions. 
 As February closed, he sent Capt. Brown and an ensign, Bernicre, on 
 foot to Worcester, to examine the country Avith reference to a march 
 inland. That two officers of the army could not ride in uniform, 
 with proper attendance, into the interior, was evidence enough that 
 the mission Gen. Gage was employed in was hopeless. These two 
 gentlemen went disguised as " countrymen " with " bi-own cloathes, 
 and red handkercliiefs round their necks." It is edilyiug to think 
 of the skill with which two such Englishmen would maintain such a 
 disguise. Bernicre's journal of the expedition is very funny. They 
 
The Month of March in Boston. 7 
 
 travelled on foot, and were, of course, recognized every few miles. 
 Here is a specimen : — 
 
 "From tliat we went to Cambridge, a pretty town, with a college built of brick. 
 The ground is entirely level on which the town stands. We next went to Watertown, 
 and were not suspected. It is a pretty large town for America, but would be looked 
 upon as a village in England. A little out of this town we went into a tavern, — a Mr. 
 Brewer's, a Whig. We called for dinner, which was brought in by a black woman. 
 At first she was very civil, but afterwards began to eye us very attentively. She then 
 went out, and a little after returned, when we observed to her that it was a very fine 
 country ; upon which she answered, ' So it is ; and we have got brave fellows to defend 
 it; and, if you go up any higher, you will find it so.' This disconcerted us a good 
 deal ; and we imagined she knew us from our papers, which we took out before her, as 
 the general had told us to pass for surveyors. However, we resolved rkot to sleep 
 there that night, as we had intended. Accordingly we paid our bill, which amounted 
 to two pounds odd shillings ; but it was old tenor. After we had left the house, we 
 inquired of John, our servant, what she had said. He told us that she knew Capt. 
 Brown very well ; that she had seen him five years before at Boston, and knew him 
 to be an officer, and that she was sure I was one also, and told John that he was a 
 regular. He denied it ; but she said she knew our errant was to take a plan of the 
 country ; that she had seen the river and road through Charlestown on the paper. 
 She also advised him to tell us not to go any higher ; for, if we did, we should meet with 
 very bad usage." 
 
 They then took John into their company at inns and other places ; 
 and at Sudbury, at the Golden Ball, since immortalized by Mr. Long- 
 fellow, they were fortunate enough to find a Tory landlord in Mr. 
 Jones. " Can you give us supper ? " — "I can give you tea, if you 
 like." This was the Shibboleth that revealed a friend of govern- 
 ment." Mr. Jones accredited them to other Tory innkeepers in the 
 county above. They were sadly frightened on the rest of their 
 journey ; but till they came to Mr. Barnes's, at Marlborough, they had 
 beds to sleep in. There their luck turned. No sooner were they 
 under his roof, than Sons of Liberty began to intimate that they must 
 not stay ; and poor Mr. Barnes had to lead them out by a back-way. 
 The tired officers took up their march. 
 
 " We resolved to push on at all hazards, but expected to be attacked on the cause- 
 way. However, we met nobody there, so began to think it was resolved to stop us in 
 Sudbury, which town we entered when we passed the causeway. About a quai-ter 
 of a mile in the town, we met three or four horsemen, from whom we expected a few 
 shot. When we came nigh, they opened to the right and left, and quite crossed the 
 road. However, they let us pass through them without taking any notice, their open- 
 ing being only chance ; but our apprehensions made us interpret every thing against 
 us. At last we arrived at our friend Jones's again, very much fatigued, after walking 
 thirty-two miles between two o'clock and half-after ten at night, through a road that ' 
 every step we sunk up to the ankles, and it blowing and drifting snow all the way. 
 Jones said he was glad to see us back, as he was sure we should meet with ill usage 
 in that part of the country, as they had been watching for us some time ; but said he 
 found we were so deaf to his hints, that he did not like to say any thing, for fear we 
 should have taken it ill. We drank a bottle of mulled Madeira wine, which refreshed 
 us very much, and went to bed, and slept as sound as men could do that were very 
 much fatigued." 
 
8 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 The 5th of March came, and Dr. Warren dehvered the oration 
 on the "Massacre." It was the fifth celebration, — Lovell, Warren 
 himself, Church, and Hancock had delivered orations on similar occa- 
 sions. The Old South was crowded. The English officers occupied 
 the steps to the pulpit, and some of them were in it. Warren and 
 his friends entered by a ladder on the outside. The officers did not 
 interfere ; and he went on with the address. It is pointed, vehement, 
 but always ingenious in the determination to avoid an issue which 
 could be called treasonable. Take this passage as a hint to these gen- 
 tlemen around him, of what Warren and his friends were learning. 
 
 " Even the sending troops to put these acts in execution is not without advantages 
 to us. The exactness and beauty of their discipline inspire our youth with ardor in 
 the pursuit of miUtary knowledge. Charles the Invincible taught Peter the Great the 
 art of war. The battle of Pultowa convinced Charles of the proficiency Peter had 
 made." 
 
 Here is one of the statements, undoubtedly true of Warren and his 
 friends, that they were not seeking independence. There were men 
 in that church who were. 
 
 " But pardon me, my fellow-citizens : I know you want not zeal or fortitude. Tou 
 will maintain your rights, or perish in the generous struggle. However difficult the 
 combq,t, you will never decline it when freedom is the prize. An independence on 
 Great Britain is not our aim. No : our wish is, that Britain and the Colonies may, 
 like the oak and ivy, grow and increase in strength together. But, whilst the infat- 
 uated plan of making one part of the empire slaves to the other is persisted in, the 
 interest and safety of Britain, as well as the Colonies, require that the wise measures 
 recommended by the Honorable the Continental Congress be steadily pursued, whereby 
 the unnatural contest between a parent honored and a child beloved may probably 
 be 'brought to such an issue as that the peace and happiness of both may be estab- 
 lished upon a lasting basis. But if these pacifick measures are ineffectual, and it 
 appears that the only way to safety is through fields of blood, I know you will not turn 
 your faces from your foes, but will undauntedly press forward until tyranny is trod- 
 den under foot, and you have fixed your adored Goddess Liberty fast by a Brunswick's 
 side on the American Throne." 
 
 George the Third and Liberty, like William and Mary, seated on 
 an American throne, probably had their last appearance, even in 
 prophecy, on that day. 
 
 The end of the address is, — 
 
 "Having redeemed your country, and secured the blessing to future generations, 
 •who, fired by your example, shall emulate your virtues, and learn from you the 
 heavenly art of making millions happy with heartfelt joy, with transports all your 
 .own, you cry, The glorious work is done ! then drop the mantle to some young Elisha, 
 and take your seats with kindred spirits in your native skies." 
 
 Capt. Chapman of the Welch Fusileers sat on the pulpit-stairs. 
 
 He drew from his pocket a handful of bullets as Warren spoke, and 
 
 held them in view of the people round him. Warren did not pause, 
 
 but dropped a white handkerchief on the bullets. The daily record 
 
 is full of such pretty parables. 
 
The Month of March in Boston. 9 
 
 But the efforts of the patriots to keep off the issue were met, 
 almost of course in a garrison-town, by the outrages of irresponsible 
 soldiers. Every act of violence by them was, of course, put on record 
 immediately. Here is a letter dated on the 12th of March : — 
 
 March 12, 1775. 
 An honest coiintr3rman, Thomas Ditson of Billerica, was inquu-ing on Wednesday 
 for a firelock. A soldier heard him, aud told him he had one he would sell. Away 
 goes the ignoramus, and after paying the soldier very honestly for the gun, which was 
 only an old one without a lock, was walking off, when half a dozen seized him, and 
 hurried the px)or fellow away, under guard, for breach of the act against trading with 
 the soldiers ; and, after keeping him in dui'ess all night, the next morning, instead of 
 carrying him before a magistrate, who, on complaint, would have fined him, as has 
 been the case in several instances, the officers condemned the man, without a hearing, 
 to be tarred and feathered, which was accordingly executed. After stripping him 
 naked, and covering him with tar and feathers, they mounted him upon a one-horse 
 truck, and surrounding it with a guard of twenty soldiers with fixed bayonets, 
 accompanied with all the drums and fifes of the regiment (Forty-seventh), and a 
 number of officers, negroes, sailors, &c., exhibited him as a spectacle through the 
 principal streets of the town. They fixed a label on his back, on which was written, 
 "AjviEPacAN Liberty, or a specimen of Democracy ;" and, to add to the insult, they 
 played " Yankee Doodle." 
 
 • "0 Britain ! how art thou fallen ! " 
 
 What a wretched figure will the Boston expedition hereafter make on the his- 
 torick page ! 
 
 The Billerica selectmen remonstrated to Gen. Gage in a well- 
 written paper, which ends with ominous words : — 
 
 " May it please your Excellency, we must tell you we are determined, if the inno- 
 cent inhabitants of our country towns must be interrupted by soldiers in their lawful 
 intercourse with the town of Boston, and treated with the most brutish ferocity, we 
 shall hereafter use a different style from that of petition and complaint." 
 
 While March was speeding in this hopeless way on this side of the 
 water, Franklin, unenlightened by any electric-telegrapli, was still 
 making plans in London for an accommodation. Of all his work, 
 nothing is finer than the conception and execution of the negotiation 
 be then conducted, and, of all his writing, nothing better than the 
 description of it which he wrote out at sea, before March was over, 
 on his return to America. He left his place as representative of 
 the Massachusetts Assembly to Arthur Lee. Bollan was the repre- 
 sentative of the Council. 
 
 No. 3 of " The Crisis," an anonymous political pamphlet of the 
 
 time, seemed too violent to be borne ; and each House ordered that it 
 
 should be burned by the hangman. Here is the description of the 
 
 cremation : — 
 
 " Yesterday (March 6), No. 3 of * The Crisis,' and a pamphlet with the same title, 
 containing thoughts on American affairs, were burnt by the common hangman at 
 Westminster Hall gate, pursuant to a unanimous order of the Houses of Lords and 
 Commons. As soon as the condemned papers were burnt, a man threw into the fire 
 • The Address of both Houses of Parliament to his Majesty, declaring the Bostonians 
 
10 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 in Actual Rebellion,' likewise * The Address of the Bishops and Clergy assembled in 
 Convocation.' The sheriffs were much hissed for attending; and the populace 
 diverted themselves with throwing the fire at each other. 
 
 "And this day, at twelve o'cloclv, the sheriffs attended at the Eoyal Exchange for 
 the above purpose; but, as soon as the fire was lighted, it was put out, and dead dogs 
 and cats thrown at the officers. A fire was then made in Cornhill ; and the execu- 
 tioner did his duty. Sheriff Hart was wounded in the wrist, and Sheriff Plumer in 
 the breast, by a brickbat. Mr. Gates, the city marshal, was dismounted, and with 
 much difficulty saved his life." 
 
 This is the beginning, and perhaps worst passage in " The Crisis," 
 No. 3. Whatever vehemence came into the American literature 
 is certainly quite matched by their London brethren. It has proved 
 to be quite true. 
 
 "To THE King. 
 
 "Sir, — To follow you regularly through every step of a fourteen-years' shameful 
 and inglorious reign would be a task as painful as disagreeable, and far exceed the 
 bounds of this paper. But we are called upon by the necessity of the times, the 
 measures you are pursuing, by every principle of justice and self-preservation, and by 
 the duty we owe to God and our country, to declare our sentiments (with a freedom 
 becoming Engluhmen) in some of those dreadful transactions and oppressions which 
 the kingdom has labored under since the glory and lustre of England's crown was 
 doomed to fade upon your brow, and to point out to you, sir, your own critical and 
 dangerous situation. 
 
 "Sir, it is not your rotten troop in the present House of Commons; it is not your 
 venal, beggarly, pensioned Lords ; it is not your polluted, canting, prostituted Bench 
 of Bishops ; it is not your whole set of abandoned ministers ; nor your army of Scotch 
 cut-throats, — that can protect you from the people's rdlge, when driven by your oppres- 
 eions, and, until now, unheard-of cruelties, to a state of desperation." 
 
 The temper of London may be judged from the fact that John 
 
 Wilkes was mayor. He had very little question about what was 
 
 coming, and as little question about proclaiming it. On the 7th of 
 
 February, on Lord North's resolution for an address to the king to 
 
 shut the Colonies out from the fisheries, Wilkes made a speech, which 
 
 was printed in full in the Boston papers at the end of March. He 
 
 closed in these prophetic words : — 
 
 "Sir, this address is founded in injustice and cruelty. It is equally contrary to 
 the sound maxims of true policy, and to the unerring rule of natural right. The 
 Americans will defend their property and their liberties with the spirit of freemen, — 
 with the spirit I hope we should. They will sooner declare themselves independent, 
 and risk every consequence of such a contest, than submit to the yoke which admin- 
 istration is preparing for them. An address of so sanguinary a nature cannot fail of 
 driving them to despair. They will see that you are jireparing not only to draw the 
 sword, but to burn the scabbard. You are declaring tbem rebels. Every idea of a 
 reconciliation will vanish. They will pursue the most rigorous measures in their own 
 defence. The whole continent will be dismembered from Great Britain, and the xvide 
 arch of the raised empire fall. But I hope the just vengeance of the people will 
 overtalco the author of the pernicious counsels, and the loss of the first province 
 of the empire be speedily followed by the loss of the heads of those ministers who 
 advised these wicked and fatal measures." 
 
 With the reading of this speech March went out in Boston. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 LEXINGTON AND CONCORD. 
 
 " On the nineteenth day of April, one thousand seven hundred 
 and seventy-five, a day to be remembered by all Americans of the 
 present generation, and which ought, and doubtless will be handed 
 down to ages yet unborn, the troops of Britain, unprovoked, shed 
 the blood of sundry of the loyal American subjects of the British 
 king in the field of Lexington." 
 
 These words are the prophetic introduction of the " Narrative of 
 the Excursion of the King's Troops ujider the Command of Gen. Gage," 
 which the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts sent to England a hun- 
 dred years ago. With infinite care the Congress drew up depositions, 
 which were sworn to before " his Majesty's justices of the peace," that, 
 with all legal form, they might show to all the world who were the 
 aggressors, now the crisis had come. Then they int],'usted the pre- 
 cious volume of these depositions to Richard Derby of Salem, who sent 
 John Derby with them to England. The vessel made a good run. 
 She arrived on the 29th of May with the official papers and " The 
 Essex Gazette," which had the published accounts. " The Sukey," 
 Capt. Brown, with the government accounts, forwarded by Gen. Gage, 
 did not arrive till eleven days after. Meanwhile, Arthur Lee and all 
 the friends of America in London were steadily publishing the news 
 of the " ministerial " attack on the people, and the people's repulse of 
 the army. The public charged the government with concealing the 
 news. Thus was it, that, when 
 
 " The embattled farmers stood, 
 And fired the shot heard round the world," 
 
 they told their own story. 
 
12 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 All parties had had fair notice that the crisis was coming ; and they 
 had a good chance to guess how it was coming. On the 30tli of 
 March, by wa/ of seeing how people would bear the presence of an 
 army, and ho\v the army would march after a winter's rest and rust, 
 Earl Percy with five regiments marched out over Boston Neck, into 
 the country. Boston people can trace him by walking out on Wash- 
 ington Street, where the sea-water then flowed on both sides, up the 
 liill at Roxbury, on the right of the church, and heeding Gov. Dud- 
 ley's parting-stone, which still stands, let them take Centre Street, 
 " to Dedham and Rhode Island." Along that road to Jamaica Plain, 
 Earl Percy marched, his drums and fifes playing " Yankee Doodle." 
 The spring was very early. Some soldiers straggled, and trampled 
 down gardens and fields that were planted, perhaps since last fall. 
 From Jamaica Plain, Earl Percy led them across to Dorchester ; 
 and by the Dorchester road they came. home. Very indignant 
 ■was the Provincial Congress and the committees of safety a;t this 
 first " invasion " of the country ; and all people guessed that Con- 
 cord would be the point of the next " excursion," because at Con- 
 cord was one of the largest deposits of stores which the Province of 
 Massachusetts had collected in its preparations against the British 
 empire. What these preparations were, we will try to tell on the 
 next page. 
 
 As early as Feb. 9, the Provincial Congress had intimated their 
 intention of stopping such " excursions." They had appointed the 
 celebrated " Committee of Safety," with the express purpose of check- 
 ing them. Of this committee, — 
 
 " The business and duty it shall be, most carefully and diligently to inspect and ob- 
 serve all and every such person or persons as shall at any time attempt to carry into 
 execution, by force, an act of the British parliament, entitled ' An Act for the Better 
 Eegulating the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England ' 
 . . . which said committee, or any five of them, provided always that not more than 
 one of the said five shall be an inhabitant of the town of Boston, shall have power, 
 and they arc hereby empowered and directed, when they shall judge that such attempt 
 or attempts are made, to alarm, muster, and cause to be assembled with the utmost 
 expedition, and completely armed, accoutred, and supplied with provisions sufficient for 
 their support in their march to the place of rendezvous, such and so many of the militia 
 of this Province as they shall judge necessary for the end and purpose of opposing such 
 attempt or attempts, and at such place or places as they shall judge proi:)er, and them 
 to discharge as the safety of the Province shall permit." 
 
 This, it will be observed, was full preparation for war, only the 
 Provincial Congress meant that Gen. Gage should strike the fii'st blow. 
 
 Meanwhile, our friends Bernicre and Brown, whose sad tramp to 
 Worcester we traced in the last number of Old and New, were 
 sent to see what there was at Concord. They left their journal behind 
 
Lexington and Concord. 13 
 
 them, when, the next year, the English army evacuated Boston ; and 
 so we are able to trace their march to-day. 
 
 And so it happened that on the evening of the 18th of April, 
 when, it was supposed, most of the Boston people were in bed, about 
 eight hundred soldiers — grenadiers, light-infantry, and marines — 
 were embarked in the boats of the navy, very near the place where 
 the Old Providence Station stood, where then the tide rose and fell. 
 Remember that there was no bridge at that time from Boston on any 
 side. The little army was ferried across to Lechmere's Point, not 
 far from the Court House of to-day ; lost two hours in going so 
 far, and then took up its silent line of march through Cambridge, 
 by what is still remembered as Milk Row. At the tavern in Menot- 
 omy, now West Cambridge, the rebel committee of safety had been 
 in session the day before. Dear Old Gen. Heath, then only " our 
 colonel," whose memoirs come in in the most entertaining read- 
 ing of the time, had been there. But he had gone home to Roxbury. 
 Here is his account of what happened to those who staid : — 
 
 *' On the 19tb, at daybreak, our general was awoke, called from his bed, and in- 
 formed that a detachment of the British army were out, that they had crossed from 
 Boston to Phipps's Farm in boats, and had gone towards Concord, as was supposed, 
 with intent to destroy the public stores. They probably had notice that the com- 
 mittees had met the preceding day at Wetherby's Tavei-n, atMenotomy; for, when 
 they came opposite to the house, they halted. Several of the gentlemen slept there 
 during the night. Among them were Col. Orne, Col. Lee, and Mr. Gerry. One of 
 them awoke, and informed the others that a body of the British were before the house. 
 They immediately made their escape, without time to dress themselves, at the back- 
 door, receiving some injury from obstacles in the way, in their undressed state. They 
 made their way into the fields." 
 
 Heath had met on his way home officers who tried to keep the news 
 of the "excursion" from reaching Concord; but the countr}'- was 
 alarmed, and Col. Smith sent back to Boston for a re-enforcement. 
 Gen. Gage had expected the request, and had ordered the first 
 brigade under arms at four that morning. These orders were 
 carried to the first brigade-major's. He was not at home ; and, when 
 he came home, his servant forgot to tell of the letter. At four 
 o'clock no brigade appeared. At five o'clock Col. Smith's express 
 came, asking the re-enforcement. On inquiry, it proved that no 
 orders were given ; and it was not till six that a part of the brigade 
 paraded. They waited till seven for the marines. Is not all this 
 like a village muster to-day ? At seven, there being still no marines, 
 it proved that the order for them had been addressed to Major Pit- 
 cairn, who was by this time far away, and had indeed begun the Avar 
 already, without knowing it, by firing his pistol on Lexington Com- 
 
14 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 mon. So the half of the brigade waited, and waited, till the 
 marines could he got read}', and when they were ready, at nine 
 o'clock, started over Boston Neck ; for now they had no boats : so 
 that they must e'en go six miles round by land, as every Bostonian 
 will see. So they came to Dudley's parting-stone, playing " Yankee 
 Doodle " again ; but, Avhen they reached the stone this time, they 
 took the right-hand road " to Cambridge and Water town." A Rox- 
 bury boy who sat on a stone wall to see them pass prophesied thus 
 to Percy, referring to the history of his noble house, — 
 
 " You go out by ' Yankee Doodle ; ' but you will come back by 
 ' Chevy Chase.' " 
 
 "While the half-brigade was waiting for the marines on what is now 
 Tremont Street, its line crossing the head of Beacon Street, a little 
 boy nine year's old, named Harrison Gray Otis, was on his way to the 
 old school in School Street, where. Parker's stands to-day. Here is 
 his account of it, printed for the first time. It is, so far as we know, 
 the only glimpse we have of Boston life on that memorable day. 
 
 " On the loth April, 1775, 1 went to school for the last time. In the morning, about 
 seven, Piercy's brigade was drawn up, extending from ScoIIay's buildings, through 
 Tremont Street, and nearly to the bottom of the mall, preparing to take up their 
 march for Lexington. A corporal came up to me as I was going to school, and turned 
 me off, to pass down Court Street ; which I did, and came up School Street to the 
 schoolhouse. It may well be imagined that great agitation prevailed, the British line 
 being drawn up four yards only from the schoolhouse-door. As I entered school, I 
 heard the announcement of ' deponite lihros,' and ran home for fear of the regulars. 
 Here ended my connection with Mr. Lovell's administration of the school. Soon 
 afterwards I left town, and did not return until after the evacuation by the British, in 
 March, 1776." 
 
 Col. Smith and his eight hundred had pressed on meanwhile. The 
 alarm had been so thoroughly given in Lexington, that, at two o'clock, 
 the militia had assembled (one hundred and thirty in number) ; and 
 John Parker, their captain, had ordered them to load with powder 
 and ball. This John is the grandfather of one Theodore, who will 
 appear two generations afterwards. No sign of any troops ; and the 
 men were dismissed, with orders to assemble again at the beat of 
 drum. Most of them thought that the Avhole was a false alarm. 
 But Gage's officers, in the advance of the English column, came back 
 to it on its march, and reported that five hundred men were in arms. 
 Major Pitcairn of the marines had command of six companies of 
 light infantry in advance. He caught all of Parker's scouts, except 
 Thaddeus Bowman, who galloped back to Lexington Common, and 
 gave to Parker tidings of the approach of the column. 
 
 Parker ordered the drum to beat ; and his men began to collect. 
 
Lexington and Concord. 15 
 
 He ordered Sergeant William Monroe to form them in two ranks, a 
 few rods north of the meeting-house. The English officers, hearing 
 the drum, halted their troops, bade them prime and load, and then 
 marched forward at double-quick. Sixty or seventy of the militia 
 had assembled. The tradition is, that Parker had bidden the men 
 not fire till they were fired upon, but added, " If they mean to 
 have a war, let it begin here." Double-quick on one side ; on the 
 other, Sergeant Monroe forming his men as well as he can. Major 
 Pitcairn is in the advance. " Ye villains, ye rebels, disperse ! Lay 
 down your arms ! Why don't ye lay down your arms ? " He saw a 
 gun flash in the pan. The men did not disperse. Pitcairn declared, 
 till the day he died at Bunker Hill, that he gave no order to fire, 
 that he commanded not to fire ; and it seems to be admitted that he 
 stuck his staff or sword downward, as the signal to forbear firing. 
 But some men in his party fired irregularly, and hurt no one. Then 
 came a general discharge from the English line, and many men were 
 killed or wounded. The militia returned the fire, — some before 
 leaving their line, some after, — and the war was begun. Here is 
 Capt. John Parker's account of the fight, one of the papers which 
 Capt. Derby carried to London : — 
 
 "I, John Parker, of lawful age, and commander of the militia at Lexington, do 
 testify and declare, that on the nineteenth instant, in the morning, about one of the 
 clock, being informed that there were a number of the regular officers riding up and 
 down the road, stopping and insulting people as they passed the road, and also 
 infoi-med that a number of the regular troops were on their march from Boston, in 
 order to take the Province stores at Concord, I ordered our militia to meet on the 
 common in said Lexington, to consult what to do ; and concluded not to be discovered, 
 nor meddle, or make with said regular troops, if they should approach, luiless they 
 should insult or molest us ; and, upon their sudden approach, I immediately ordered 
 our militia to disperse, and not to fire. Immediately said troops made their appear- 
 ance, and, rushing furiously on, fired upon and killed eight of our party, without 
 receiving any provocation therefor from us." 
 
 •'Middlesex ss., April 25, 1775. 
 
 *' The above-named John Parker personally appeared, and, after being duly cau- 
 tioned to tell the whole truth, made solemn oath to the truth of the above deposition 
 by him subscribed before us. 
 
 " William Eeed. 
 *' Joshua Johnson. 
 " William Stickjstey. 
 ■ ^ " Justices of the Peace." 
 
 That is the way those people went to war. They fought one day ; 
 and then they made depositions to secure the truth of history. 
 Henry Clay was greatly amused when a New-England historian told 
 him of these depositions. He heard the story in some detail, and 
 then said, " Tell me tha,t again." 
 
16 One Ilundred Years Ago. 
 
 But they did not stop for depositions then. The militia retired : 
 some here, some there. The English troops fired a volley on the 
 common, and gave three cheers. Col. Smith came up with the main 
 party ; and they all pressed on to Concord. Two of their party had 
 been wounded. Major Pitcairn's horse was struck by a ball ; and, 
 after the column left Lexington, six of the regulars were taken 
 prisoners. The musket of one of them is in the State House to-day. 
 
 INIeanwhile the Concord militia had the alarm, and had formed. 
 The minute-men, and some of the militia from Lincoln, the next town, 
 had joined them. Some of the companies marched down the Lex- 
 ington road till they saw the approaching column. They saw they 
 were outnumbered ; and they fell back to a hill, about eighty rods 
 distance back of the town, where they formed. Col. Barrett, their 
 commander, joined them here. He had been at work that day, 
 executing such commands as these, given by the committee of safety 
 the day before. They are worth looking back upon as illustrations 
 of the preparations of these dtiys. 
 
 «« April 18, 1775. 
 
 " Voted, That part of the provisions be removed from Concord; viz., fifty barrels 
 of beef from thence to Sudbnry, with Deacon Plympton, a hundred barrels of flour 
 (of which what is in the malt-house in Concord be part), twenty casks of rice, fifteen 
 hogsheads of molasses, ten hogsheads of rum, five hundred candles. 
 
 " Voted, That the musket-balls under the care of Col. Barrett be buried under 
 ground in some safe place ; that he be desired to do it, and to let the commissary only 
 be informed thereof." 
 
 Still finding himself outnumbered. Col. Barrett then withdrew his 
 force over the North Bridge ; and the little English army marched 
 into the town. 
 
 Three of their companies were stationed at the bridge : three com- 
 panies were sent to Col. Barrett's house, two miles distant, to destroy 
 the magazines. Did they find the musket-bullets ? No. Another 
 party was sent to the South Bridge. In the centre of the town they 
 broke off the trunnions of three new cannon, destroyed what stores 
 they could find, among others some wooden spoons and trenchers, 
 which appear quite conspicuously in all the accounts. But from all 
 such work all parties were called by firing at the bridge. 
 
 All this time, the minute-men had been pouring in on the high 
 grounds where Col. Barrett had formed his men. They saw at last 
 that the troops had fired the town, in one place and another. The 
 court-house was on fire. Capt. William Smith of Lincoln volunteered 
 to take his company, and dislodge the guard at the bridge. Isaac 
 
Lexington and Concord. 17 
 
 Davis, of the Acton company, made the remark, which has become a 
 proverb, " Tliere is not a man of my company that is afraid " to go. 
 Col. Barrett ordered the attack, bade the column pass the bridge, 
 but not to fire unless they were fired upon. Again the passion for 
 law appeared : " It is the kiog's highway ; and we have a right to march 
 upon it, if we march to Boston. , Forward, march ! " They marched to 
 the air of " the White Cockade," the quickest step their fifes could play. 
 Laurie, in command of the English party, crossed back on the 
 bridge, and began to take up the planks. Major Buttrick, who com- 
 manded the attacking party, hurried his men. When they were 
 within a few rods, the English fired, in three several discharges. 
 Mr. Emerson, the minister of Concord (who, also, will appear two 
 generations afterwards), came nearer the soldiers than those that 
 were killed. Three several discharges were made by the English ; 
 and Mr. Emerson " was very uneasy till the fire was returned." 
 Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer were killed ; and then Major But- 
 trick gave the order to fire. The English retired. The Provincials 
 crossed the bridge, and part of them ascended the bold hill, which 
 visitors to Concord remember, behind the meeting-house, on the right 
 of the town. The English party under Parsons returned from Barrett's, 
 and crossed the bridge again ; but they were left to join the main 
 body without offence. 
 
 One English soldier had been killed, and several wounded. Col. 
 Smith delayed his return till he could find carriages for his wounded; 
 and it was noon before he began his return. Meanwhile, north and 
 south and west, couriers had been speeding, announcing that the 
 Lexington militia had been fired on. The minute-men, the country 
 through, had started on their march. They did not know what poin.t 
 to strike. They did not know what they were to do when they came 
 there. But they marched : they were determined to be in time ; and 
 in time they were. The populous country between Boston and Con- 
 cord was in arms. The men knew every inch of ground, and, after they 
 had had their shot at the regulars in one place, ran across country, 
 and tried them again in another. " They are trained to j)rotect 
 themselves behind stone walls," wrote Gen. Gage to the ministr3^ 
 " They seemed to drop from the clouds," says an English soldier. 
 Poor Smith and his party, after thirty miles of tramping, came back 
 to Lexington Common, in no mood for giving three huzzas there. 
 They made quick marching of it, and were there by two. They left 
 Concord at noon. 
 
 " A number of our. officers were wounded," says Bernicre ; " so 
 that we began to- run rather than retreat in order. The whole be- 
 haved with amazing bravery, but little order." 
 
18 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 Here Percy met them with his Late re-enforcement ; here they 
 rested, and then resumed the retreat, to receive just the same treat- 
 ment in every defile. At West Cambridge, the Danvers company, — ■ 
 observe Danvers again, — the flank company of the Essex regiment, 
 had come up. Fifteen miles they had marched in four hours, across 
 Essex County. It was sunset before the head of what column was 
 left crossed Charlestown Neck. All Boston was on Beacon Hill, 
 watching for their return. Through the gathering twilight, men 
 could see from the hill the flashes of the muskets on Milk Row ; and 
 Percy had to unlimber his field-pieces, and bring them into use again. 
 It was at West Cambridge that Dr. Warren so exposed himself, that 
 a pin was struck out of the hair of his earlock. Heath was by this 
 time exercising some sort of command. The head of the English 
 column was at Bunker Hill, when an aide of Pickering's rode up to him, 
 to announce that the Essex regiment was close behind him. Danvers 
 had gone across country : the rest of the regiment had marched 
 direct to Boston. Heath judged that it was too late for any further 
 attack. The English, on their side, planted sentries at the Neck. 
 Heath planted them on the other side, and ordered the militia to lie 
 on their arms at Cambridge. 
 
 But, long before this time, the news of the march had travelled 
 north and west and south. The memory of the rider " on the white 
 horse " is still told in tradition, reminding one, as Gov. Washburn 
 has said, of the white horse in the Revelation. The march and 
 retreat were on Wednesday. On Sunday morning they had a rumor 
 of it in New York ; and on Tuesday they had a second express from 
 New England with quite a connected storj^ This story was so defi- 
 nite, that they ventured to send it south by express as they received 
 it from New Haven. To Elizabethtown, to Woodbridge, to New 
 Brunswick, to Princeton, it flew as fast as horse could carry it. 
 The indorsements by the different committees show their eager 
 haste. It was in Baltimore on the 27th. It was in George- 
 town, S.C., on the 10th of Ma}^ 
 
 It told how the king's troops were besieged on Winter Hill ; how 
 Lord Percy was killed, and another general officer of the English, on 
 the first fire. " To counterbalance this good news, the story is, that 
 our first man in command (who he is, I know not) is also killed." 
 No man since has known who " our first man in command " was. 
 There was no commander all day long. 
 
 The despatch was all untrue. But it told of war, and it fired 
 the whole country. On the 20th of April an army was around 
 Boston, and the siege had begun. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HOW THE SIEGE BEGAN. 
 
 Here is the circular which the Committee of Safety sent to every 
 town in Massachusetts, on the morning after the " battle of Lexing- 
 ton " and " Concord fight." 
 
 " Gentlemen, — The barbarous murders committed on our innocent bi-ethren, 
 on Wednesday the 19th instant, have made it absolutely necessary that we imme- 
 diately raise an army to defend om- wives and our children from the butchering 
 hands of an inhuman soldiery, who, incensed at the obstacles they met with in 
 their bloody prog'ress, and enraged at being repulsed from the field of slaughter, 
 will, without the least doubt, take the first opportunity in their power to ravage 
 this devoted country with fire and sword. We conjure you, therefore, by all that 
 is dear, by all that is sacred, that you give all assistance possible in forming an 
 army. Our all is at stake. Death and devastation are the instant consequences 
 of delay. Every moment is infinitely precious. An hour lost may deluge your 
 country in blood, and entail perpetual slavery upon the few of your posterity who 
 may survive the carnage. We beg and entreat, as you will answer to your country, 
 to your own consciences, and, above all, as you will answer to God himself, that 
 you wiU hasten and encourage, by all possible means, the enlistment of men to 
 form the army, and send them forward to headquarters at Cambridge, with that 
 expedition which the vast importance and instant urgency of the affair demand." 
 
 This circular was written by Dr. Warren, who for sixty days had 
 acted as the chairman of the Committee of Safety of Massachusetts, 
 and represented the State, not to say the united colonies, — and rep- 
 resented them with intense fire, untiring energy, and solid good sense. 
 What might have been, who shall tell ? But the little bit which we 
 have of a revelation of Warren's abilities, leads one to recur to the 
 impression of the time. There was, so far as can be seen, a popular 
 enthusiasm for Warren, such as no other leader commanded. Prob- 
 ably no reader will carefully read his letters and speeches without 
 falling in with the estimate which the impulsive men of his time 
 
20 * One ^Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 formed of liim, — that here was a leader wholly worthy of the 
 cause. •■ 
 
 The minute-men staid for a few days at Cambridge and at Rox- 
 bury. By the 24th of April, Gen. Artemas Ward, who was in com- 
 mand, began to be uneasy because so many of them were returning 
 home ; and he urged the Provincial Congress, which had assembled by 
 this time, to hurry their preparations for enlisting an army, and to 
 let him have, on that day, his orders for the enlistment. The Con- 
 gress had, on the day before, which was Sunday, voted that an army 
 of thirty thousand was necessary. Meanwhile, Gen. Gage had had 
 enough of " excursions ; " and what is popularly called the " Siege of 
 Boston" began with the 20th of April. A letter of the 26th, from 
 Dr. Warren to him, makes the first suggestion for the removal from 
 the town of its inhabitants. To this Gage agreed, on condition that 
 they should surrender their arms ; and a large number of fire-arms 
 were surrendered on the 27th of April at Faneuil Hall. The enu- 
 meration is enough to show the military habit of the time. There 
 were " seventeen hundred and seventy-eight fire-arms, six hundred 
 and thirty-four pistols, nine hundred and seventy-three bayonets, and 
 thirty-eight blunderbusses," — a very large supply for a town of 
 seventeen thousand people, had they not been a people accustomed to 
 count one-fifth of their population " fighting men," if we may bor- 
 row the words which Mrs. Child put into the mouth of James Otis. 
 
 Thomas Gage, the unfortunate pivot on which turned the fate of 
 the English empire at this moment, was, as need hardly be said, the 
 younger son of an English nobleman. The eternal laws asserted 
 themselves all through this business. And, because England was 
 governed by an aristocracy, it happened that George Sackville, who 
 had been cashiered for cowardice, was now secretary for the colonies ; 
 that Sir John Burgoyne was on his way to re-enforce Gage ; and that 
 Gage, being second son of Viscount Gage, was in command. He 
 first appears in our history as an aide of Braddock's ; and he and 
 George Washington served together in that campaign. He married 
 in New York one of the Kembles of New Jersey ; he was with Wolfe 
 at Quebec ; he was colonel of the Twenty-second Regiment of foot, 
 and, as he knew America, was selected to be the military governor to 
 whom the English Government intrusted its plans.^ 
 
 1 Gov. Gage was bom about 1720, and was at this time fifty-five years old ; Gen. Ward was forty- 
 seven ; Wan-en was thirty-four ; and Wasliington was forty-three. Gage was virtually disgraced after 
 bis return. Ho died April 2, 1787 (not 1788, as in ;ill the biographical dictionaries wo have consulted, 
 except the French). Uia oldest son Ucnry became Mscouut Gage ou tlie death of his viucle, our 
 Gov. Gage's brother. 
 
Sow the Siege Began. 21 
 
 Gage at first assented to the proposal that the inhabitants should 
 leave the town, onlj'- making the condition that but thirty wagons 
 should cross the Neck at a time. A great many availed themselves 
 of the permission ; so many, that the Tories were alarmed, and they 
 alarmed the general. On the day of the battle, two hundred Tories 
 had offered him their services, and were enrolled under Ruggles of 
 Hardwick, who, it is said, was the best soldier in the colonies. Old 
 people used to say he should have been the commander-in-chief of 
 the American army, had he not been on the wrong side. The Tories 
 thought the presence of the inhabitants necessary to save the town ; 
 that the American army would burn it. At last they threatened to 
 lay down their arms, and leave the town themselves, if Gage per- 
 mitted farther departure of the inhabitants ; and Gage gave way. 
 
 Meanwhile the Provincial Congress had prepared the statement of 
 the battle of Lexington, which we described in the last chapter 
 Warren gave the following order to Capt. John Derby : — 
 
 In Committee op Safety, April 27, 1775. 
 Resolved, That Capt. Derby be directed, and he hereby is directed, to make for 
 Dublin, or any other good port in Ireland, and from thence to cross to Scotland or 
 England, and hasten to London. This direction is given, that, so he may escape 
 all cruisers that may be in the chops of the channel to stop the communication of 
 the provincial intelligence to the agent. He will forthwith deliver his papers to 
 the agent on reaching London. 
 
 J. Warren, Chairman. 
 
 P.S. — You are to keep this order a pi:o found secret from every person on earth. 
 
 Freighted with his precious cargo of depositions, Capt. Derby 
 cracked on, and outsailed every thing on the seas. " The Sukey," 
 Capt. Brown, had sailed four days before him, with Gage's account ; 
 but Derby arrived in London eleven days in advance of her. Here is 
 Horace Walpole's account of the reception of the news, in a letter to 
 Horace Mann : — 
 
 June 5, 1775. 
 You must lower your royal crest a little, for your Majesty's forces have re- 
 ceived a check in America; but this is too sad a subject for mirth. I cannot tell 
 you any thing very positively: the ministers, nay, the orthodox Gazette, holds its 
 tongue. This day se'nnight, it was divulged by a "London Evening Post " ex- 
 traordinary, that a ship on its way to Lisbon happened to call at England, and left 
 some very wonderful accounts, nay, and affidavits, saying, to wit, that Gen. Gage 
 had sent nine hundred men to nail up the cannon, and seize a magazine at Con- 
 cord, of which the accidental captain owns, two cannon were spiked or damaged. 
 A hundred and fifty Americans, who swear they were fired on first, disliked the 
 proceeding, returned blows, and drove back the party. Lord Percy was de- 
 
22 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 spatched to support them; but, new recruits arrivinsr, his Lordship sent for better 
 advice, which he received, and it was to retire, which he did. The king's troopa 
 lost a hundred and fifty, the enemy not a hundred. The captain was sent for to 
 be examined, but refused. He says Gage sent away a sloop four days before he 
 sailed, which sloop, I suppose, is gone to Lisbon; for in eight days we have no 
 news of it. The public were desired by authority to suspend their belief; but 
 their patience is out; and they agree in believing the first account, which seems the 
 rather probable, in that another account is come of the mob having risen in New 
 Yorlc, between anger and triumph — have seized, unloaded, and destroyed the car- 
 goes of two ships that were going with supplies to Gage; and, by all accounts, that 
 whole continent is in a flame. 
 
 So here is the fatal war commenced. 
 
 " The child that is unborn shall rue 
 The hunting of that day." 
 
 This allusion to Lisbon may have been a mask. Derby does not 
 seem to have gone to Lisbon. If he did, he was back at Salem 
 on the 18th of July ; and here is the account then published of his 
 mission : — 
 
 Cambridge, July 21. 
 
 Capt. John Derby, who sailed from Salem for London a few days after the 
 battle of Lexington, returned last Tuesday, and the same day came to head- 
 quarters in this place. 
 
 Very little intelligence has yet transpired : we only learn that the news of the 
 commencement of the American war threw the people in England, especially the 
 city of London, into great consternation, and occasioned a considerable fall of the 
 stocks; that the ministry (knowing nothing of the battle, till they saw it pub- i 
 lished in the London papers) advertised in " The Gazette," that they had received 
 no account of any action, and pretended to believe that there had been none; that 
 the parliament was prorogued two days before Capt. Derby arrived, but, it was 
 said, would be immediately called together again; that when he left London, 
 which was about the 1st of June, no account of hostilities had been received by 
 the ministry from Gen. Gage, notwithstanding the vessel he despatched sailed four 
 days before Capt. Derby; that our friends increased in number, and that many 
 who had remained neuter in the dispute began to express themselves warmly in 
 our favor; that we, however, have no reason to expect r.iiy inercy from the min- 
 istry, who seem determined to pursue their measures (long since concerted) for 
 ruining the whole British empire. 
 
 Capt. Derby brought a few London papers, some as late as the first of June; but 
 we have not been able to obtain a sight of them: we are informed they contain 
 very little news, and scarce any remarks on American affairs. 
 
 [Extract of a letter from London, dated June 1, 1775.] 
 " The intelligence, by Capt. D., of the defeat of G. Gage's men under Lord P. by the 
 Americans, ou the 19th of April last, has given very general pleasure here, as the news- 
 papers will testify. 'Tis not -with certainty that one can speak of the disposition of peo- 
 ple in Englauil with respect to the contest with America, though Ave are clear that the 
 friends of America increase every day, particularly since the above intelligence. It Ls 
 believed the ministers have not as yet formed any plans in consequence of the action of 
 
 \ 
 
Holo the Siege Began. 23 
 
 April 19th. They are in total confusion and consternation, and wait for G. Gage's des- 
 patches by the , Capt. Erown. 
 
 In the same paper with the above, in the news from London, 
 appears the following : — 
 
 London, May 31. 
 Lord North, when he received the unhappy news to government, that the provin- 
 cials had defeated Gen. Gage's troops, was struck with astonishment, turned pale, 
 and did not utter a syllable for solne minutes. 
 
 The captain of the vessel who lately brought the news of the defeat of the king's 
 forces has been sent for by the Privy Council ; but he is too honest a man to dissem- 
 ble i^ls sentiments, or conceal the truth. 
 
 Nothing was ever more successful than the enterprise by which the 
 American account of the opening of the war was thus given to all 
 Europe in advance of the English general's : indeed, it reminds one 
 of the skill with which our Southern brothers kept a news-maker 
 squat by the side of each telegraph-office of importance in England, 
 through the late war ; only, in the case of Lexington, the Provincial 
 Congress took depositions, and sent the truth. The ministry, as 
 Walpole says, begged people to suspend their judgment; that the 
 news was probably false. On which Arthur Lee published a card to- 
 say that all the papers were at the Mansion House, and any maa 
 might see them there. 
 
 Walpole's allusion to " Chevy-Chase " is suggestive. It had been 
 made on this side,. and so made, that the Percy of that day under- 
 stood it. 
 
 As his brigade marched through Roxbury on the fatal 19th of 
 April, the band was playing, by way of contempt, "Yankee Doodle." 
 A smart boy observing it, as the troops passed through Roxbury, made 
 himself extremely merry with the circumstance, jumping and laugh- 
 ing, so as to attract the notice of his lordship, who asked him at what 
 he was laughing so heartily, and was answered, " To think how 3'ou 
 will dance by and by to Chevy- Chase.'''' Gordon adds, that the repartee 
 stifck by his lordship the whole day ; and Gordon, for an anecdote 
 like this, is first-rate authority.^ 
 
 Meanwhile, as a part of the understanding by which the poor of 
 
 1 There is another anecdote of the time, on the " Yankee Doodle " of Percy's Brigade. " When tho 
 second brigade marched out of Boston to re-enforce the first, nothing was played by the fifes and dnima 
 but ' Yankee Doodle,' which had become their favorite tune ever since that notable exploit, which 
 didsuch honor to the troops of Britain's king, of tarring and feathering a poor countryman in Boston, 
 and parading with him through the principal streets, under arms, with their bayonets fixed. Upon 
 their return to Boston, after the excursion to Lexington, one asked his brother-officer how he liked 
 the tune now. ' Damn them ! ' (returned he) ' they made us dance it till we were tued.' Since wliicli 
 * Yankee Doodle ' sounds less sweet to theii- eai-s." 
 
24 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 Boston were permitted to come out, the Tories outside were per- 
 mitted to come in. Here is Lady Frankland's request for a pass, and 
 the inventory of a baronet's wife proposing to emigrate. She ad- 
 dresses it to Dr. Warren : — 
 
 HoPKiNTON, May 15, 1775. 
 
 Lady Franhland presents her compliments to the Committee of Safety; begs 
 leave to acquaint them, that, according to their request, she has sent in a list of 
 things necessary for her intended voyage; which, obtained. Lady F. -will esteem a 
 peculiar favor, and begs she may have her pass for Thursday. 
 
 A list of things for Ladij Frankland: Six trunks, one chest, three beds and 
 bedding, six wethers, two pigs, one small keg of pickled tongues, some hay, three 
 bags of corn. 
 
 The Congress granted the prayer, with the courtesy and precision 
 of one of Homer's heroes. 
 
 Resolved, that Lady Frankland be permitted to go to Boston with the following 
 articles, viz.: seven trunks; all the beds with the furniture to them; all the boxes 
 and crates ; a basket of chickens, and a bag of corn ; two barrels and a hamper ; 
 two horses and two chaises, and all the articles in the chaise, excepting arms and 
 ammunition ; one phaeton, some tongues, ham, and veal, and sundry small bundles. 
 
 Lady Frankland is the charming woman wliom Dr. Holmes has 
 immortalized ; who saved her husband's life wlien Lisbon fell in 
 ruins. She was now leaving, for the last time, the stately mansion 
 in Hopkinton, which is described in Mrs. Stowe's " Oldtown*." 
 
 The estimate made at the Provincial headquarters was that five 
 thousand of the people of Boston would be destitute when they came 
 out ; and the Congress assigned them homes in every town in the 
 colony. But no such number as five thousand came out, and Whigs 
 and Tories sufi'ered the hardships of the siege together. 
 
 In the month of May, during the siege, we have no local news- 
 paper. " The Boston Evening Post " was the last which kept its 
 flag flying. In its weekly issue of the 24th of April appear these sad 
 little announcements : — 
 
 BosTOK, April 24, 1775. 
 
 The unhappy transactions of last week are so variously related that we shall 
 not at present undertake to give any particular account thereof. 
 
 The Printers of the Boston Evening Post hereby inform the Town, that they 
 shall desist publishing their Papers after this Day, till Matters are in a more set- 
 tled State. 
 
 On the 25th of May, Gens. Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, arrived 
 with re-enforcements. So confident were they of what our Yankees 
 
How the Siege Began. 25 
 
 call " a good time," that it is on record that they had provided them- 
 selves with hooks, lines, and other fishing-tackle, for their amuse- 
 ment. Alas ! unless they bobbed for flounders and tomcod from 
 Long Wharf, they had little chance that way. 
 
 When they were going into Boston, they met a packet coming out, 
 bound to Newport, when Burgoyne asked the skipper of the packet, 
 " What news is there ? " And being told that Boston was sur- 
 rounded by ten thousand country people, asked, " How many regu- 
 lars are there in Boston?" And being answered, " About five thou- 
 sand," cried out with astonishment, " What, ten thousand peasants 
 keep five thousand king's troops shut up ! Well, let us get in, and 
 we'll soon find elbow-room." Hence this phrase, " elbow-room," was 
 much used through all the Revolution. Gen. Burgoyne is designated 
 by " Elbow-room " in the satires of the time. It is said that he loved 
 a joke, and used to relate, that after his Canada reverses, while a pris- 
 oner of war, he was received with great courtesy by the Boston peo- 
 ple as he stepped from the Charlestown ferry-boat ; but he was really 
 annoyed, when an old lady, perched on a shed above the crowd, cried 
 out at the top of a shrill voice, " Make way, make way ! The gen- 
 eral's coming ! Give him elbow-room ! " ^ 
 
 The British works in Boston were considerably enlarged as the 
 month went by. A report by Col. Heath, which is preserved in his 
 MSS., and has never, until now, been printed, gives the following 
 estimate of Gage's forces, and a statement, which will be interest- 
 ing to Boston people, of the fortifications in the month of March : — 
 
 "The [British] army at present consists of about 2,850 men, encamped as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 On Boston Common, about ; 1,700 
 
 On Fort Hill, about 400 
 
 On Boston Neck, about 340 
 
 In the Barracks at Castle William 330 
 
 Quartered in King Street 80 
 
 Total, 2,850 
 
 " Two mudd Breastworks have been erected by them on Boston Neck, at the 
 distance of about ninety or one hundred rods in front of the old fortifications; the 
 works well constructed and well executed; the thickness of the merlons or parapet, 
 about nine feet; the height, about eight feet; the width of the ditch at the top, 
 about twelve feet, at the bottom five feet; the depth, ten feet. These works are 
 nearly completed, and at present mounted with ten brass and two Iron Cannon: a 
 Barrack is erecting behind the Breastwork, on the north side of the Neck. 
 
 " The old Fortification, at the entrance of the Town of Boston [where Dover 
 
 1 See Frothingliam's Siege of Boston. 
 
26 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 Street now crosses], is repairing and greatly strengthened, by the addition of tim«- 
 ber and earth to the walls, of about twelve feet: those works are in considerable 
 forwardness; and at present ten pieces of Iron Cannon are mounted on the old 
 platforms. A Block house, brought from Governor's Island, is erectmg on the 
 south side of the Neck, at the distance of about forty or fifty rods from the old 
 fortification: this work is but just begun." 
 
 The month of May did not pass without frequent alarms, some 
 well and some ill founded. On the 8th of May, there was a rumor 
 of another " excursion," so well defined, that the minute-men and 
 militia of the ten next towns were called into service. On the 13th, 
 Putnam marched twenty-two hundred men into Charlestown, quite 
 to the ferry, and back to Cambridge. They were unmolested by 
 Gage, or by his ships, though they passed within range. On the 
 21st, all Weymouth, Braintree, and Hingham, turned out to defend 
 Grape Island. Warren was under fire through the whole of this 
 affair ; and his modest account of it is the best we have. On the 27th, 
 the chief skirmish of all these took place at Hog Island, next Nod- 
 dle's Island, which is now East Boston. In this " engagement," 
 the English general lost a sloop, twelve swivels, and several men. 
 Gen. Putnam was in command on our side ; and an exaggerated 
 report of the affair helped to make him a major-general. On the 
 whole, in these matters of the islands, the besiegers did better than 
 the besieged. Gen. Gage hardly understood yet, perhaps, how soon 
 he should need fresh provisions. In two different affairs, the pro- 
 vincials took off thirteen hundred sheep from under his eyes. The 
 Provincial Congress were more thoughtful, when they refused to 
 let Lady Frankland bring in her " wethers." 
 
 It was on the 10th of May that Ethan Allen took Ticonderoga ; 
 telling the sleepy colonel in command, " that he took it in the name 
 of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress. The careful 
 annalists observe that the congress did not meet till after the sur- 
 render. Little did Allen care. His despatch to the Massachusetts 
 Provincial Congress makes no mention of Arnold, who had asso- 
 ciated himself with the expedition. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BATTLE OF BUKKEE'S HILL. 
 
 George Bunker, an English Puritan, had left England, and ar- 
 rived in Charlestown in New England, as early as 1634. In the next 
 year he was made a freeman. New England antiquaries will know 
 what is meant, when we say that he was disarmed in November, 
 1637, as a supporter of Wheelwright : but in the following year he 
 was made the constable of Charlestown ; and in 1639 the General 
 Court made to him a grant of fifty acres. He was among the last 
 " batch " of people to whom fifty acres was granted, on the plea 
 that the " first planters " were allowed fifty acres to each person. 
 
 Whether he took these special fifty acres on and around the hill 
 which still bears his name, I cannot tell. But he is the man who 
 owned this hill ; and, because he owned it, it was and is " Bunker's 
 Hill." He lived and died, unconscious that Bunker's Hill was to be 
 one of the important places in history, and a point where one of 
 the decisive battles of the world was to be fought. 
 
 Bunker's Hill, the highest eminence in the peninsula of Charles- 
 town, is so high, that it " commands," as militaiy men say, the north- 
 ern part of Boston, and especially the northern part of the harbor 
 of Boston. On the south-east of Boston, the hills of what we call 
 South Boston, which were called " Dorchester Heights " a hundred 
 years ago, command the southern part of Boston, and the whole of 
 Boston harbor. The evident military value of the Charlestown and 
 Dorchester Heights was perceived at once by both parties, as soon 
 as the " siege of Boston " began. 
 
 In a letter from Gen. Burgoyne of the English army, to Lord 
 Stanley, he says, — 
 
 " Boston, June 25, 1775. 
 " It was absolutely necessary that we should make ourselves masters of these 
 heights" [Bunker's Hill and Dorchester Heights], "and we proposed to begin with 
 Dorchester.' Every thing was accordingly disposed. My two colleagues and myself 
 (who, by the by, have never differed in one jot of military sentiment) had, in concert 
 with Gen. Gage, formed the plan. Howe was to land with the transports on the point ; 
 
 27 
 
28 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 Clinton, in the centre ; and I was to cannonade from the causeway or the Neck ; each 
 to take advantage of circumstances. The operations must have been very easy. 
 This was to have been executed on tlie 18th" [Sunday]. 
 
 Information of the. English movements and councils was so care- 
 fully conveyed to the Provincial Congress, that they knew all this as 
 well as Burgoyne did. Here is their report, as they made it on the 
 20th of June to the Congress at Philadelphia. It is a good illustra- 
 tion of that game of chess which is called war ; and the reader will 
 see, that, in this case, the rebels won the first move. They say, — 
 
 " June 20, 1775. 
 "We think it an indispensable duty to inform you that re-enforcements from Ire- 
 land, both of horse and foot, being arrived (the numbers unknown), and having good 
 intelligence that Gen. Gage was about to take possession of the advantageous posts in 
 Charlestown and on Dorchester Heights, the Committee of Safety advised that our 
 troops should jprepossess them, if possible." 
 
 The Committee of Safety, as the reader must remember, took the 
 place, in the extemporized government of Massachusetts, of the 
 governor. The Committee of Safety was the Executive. Here is' 
 their order for the occupation of the hill, — 
 
 " TT'Viereas, it appears of importance to the safety of this colony that possession of 
 the hill called Bunker's Hill, in Charlestown, be securely kept and defended, and also, 
 some one hill or hills on Dorchester Neck be likewise secured: therefore, i^esoZuetZ 
 unanimously. That it be recommended to the council of war, that the above-mentioned 
 Bunker's Hill be maintained by sufficient forces being posted there ; and, as the pecu- 
 liar situation of Dorchester Neck is unknown to this committee, they desire that the 
 council of war take and pursue such steps respecting the same as to them shall 
 appear to be for the security of this colony." 
 
 Under this order of the committee. Gen. Ward directed a detach- 
 ment under Col. Prescott, — consisting of Prescott's, Frye's, and 
 Bridge's regiments, — and a fatigue-party of two hundred Connecticut 
 troops, to parade at six o'clock in the evening, with all the intrench- 
 ing-tools, in the Cambridge camp. They were also ordered to furnish 
 themselves with packs and blankets, and Avith provisions for twenty- 
 four hours. Also Capt. Samuel Gridley's company of artillery, of 
 forty-nine men and two field-pieces, was ordered to parade. The 
 Connecticut men, drafted from several companies, were put under the 
 gallant Thomas Knowlton, a captain in Gen. Putnam's regiment. 
 
 They all marched from Cambridge at nine o'clock, anil arrived in an 
 hour at the top of Banker's Hill, which is indeed but just inside of 
 Charlestown Neck. From the top of Bunker's Hill, to Copp's Hill in 
 Boston, where, the English had a battery, is almost exactly one mile 
 as the bird flies ; to the top of Beacon Hill, as it then existed, was a 
 
Battle of BunJcer's Hill 29 
 
 little less than a mile and a half. Beacon Hill was then one hundred ' 
 and thirty-eight feet above the sea ; Bunker's Hill was one hundred 
 and ten feet above the sea ; and Copp's Hill, about fifty-eight feet. 
 If the purpose of fortifying Bunker's Hill were to attack the fleet in 
 the harbor, that purpose would hardly be attained by a post there. 
 To a certain extent, the vessels could be sheltered from Bunker's Hill 
 by Breed's Hill, as it has since been called, a lower eminence, sixt}^- 
 two feet above the sea, directly in line from Bunker's Hill to the 
 Copp's Hill batteries. 
 
 Again : if the object were simply to keep the English troops from 
 seizing the heights, it was necessary to take possession of both sum- 
 mits, the higher and the lower, at the same time. In saying this, I 
 speak on very high military authority. Had the intrenching party 
 satisfied themselves with intrenching on Bunker's Hill only,, the Eng- 
 lish commanders would have immediately formed under the cover of 
 Breed's Hill, and could even have fortified themselves on the south- 
 ern slope of that hill, in works that could not have been reached 
 from batteries on Bunker's Hill. The exact curve fire of our times, 
 which drops shell with precision on the heads of troops unprotected 
 by bomb-proof, was not one of the accomplishments of these days, 
 nor was it possible to the artillery in possession of the rebels. 
 
 These must have been the various considerations urged on the 
 leaders of the Americans when they found themselves on Bunker's 
 Hill. Col. Prescott called the field-officers around him, Col. Gridley 
 and Gen. Putnam among others, and showed them his orders. 
 Should he fortifj^ the summit of Bunker's Hill, or should he proceed 
 to the lower hill (which at that time had no distinctive name), from 
 which he could'more easily harass the fleet ? The consultation was 
 long and doubtful ; but the bold determination was taken, of advan- 
 cing half a mile nearer to Boston, and taking post on the lower hill. 
 It is said that Gen. Putnam was present ; and it is also said that one 
 general officer opposed the intrenching the lower hill. It is certain 
 that Putnam, through the day, was eager to throw up works on the 
 higher summit, and was actually at work there when the redoubt 
 was lost. The decision, as I have implied, was the correct decision, 
 according to the military view of the present day. No effort should 
 have been made to hold either post without the support of the other. 
 
 Gridley, the colonel of engineers, insisted that some decision should 
 be made ; and when, after more than an hour, it was determined to 
 begin on the lower hill, he marked out his lines skilfully. At mid- 
 night, six hundred men were at work heartily but silently on the 
 redoubt which he laid out. It seems to have been skilfully planned. 
 
30 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 It was eight rods long on its strongest and longest point, which faced 
 Charlestown. The two sides were nearly as long. The eastern side, 
 towards Boston, commanded an extensive field, where, as on the 
 south side, the ground descended steeply. The north side, towards 
 Bunker's Hill, was left more open. A breastwork extended about 
 one hundred yards towards the north, following the slight decline of 
 the hill on that side. This work ended at or near a slough, or 
 swampy place, on the north side of the hill. Such was the work 
 planned by Gridley, well forwarded before daylight, and advanced by 
 the steady labor of the force employed till nearly eleven o'clock. 
 At Putnam's request, the intrenching-tools were then sent back to 
 him at Bunker's Hill, where he was eager to establish a strong 
 enough work to hold that hill also. In a military point of view, 
 as has been said, Putnam was undoubtedly right in his determina- 
 tion to do so. 
 
 At four o'clock in the morning, " The Lively," Capt. Linzee, an Eng- 
 lish vessel which lay in the river, off the present Navy Yard, opened 
 fire on the works. The sound broke the silence of the morning, and 
 called the people of the North End to see the scene. It was thus the 
 place of Linzee to fire the first shot upon Prescott's works. Two 
 generations after, Prescott's grandson, the historian, William Hick- 
 ling Prescott, married Linzee's grand-daughter. Tlie swords which 
 the two officers wore on the day of battle thus came into his peaceful 
 possession. While he lived, they were crossed in his library ; and 
 after his death they were placed together in the Massachusetts 
 Historical Library, in token and omen of the friendship between 
 the two nations, which was to be sealed and made certain by the 
 sacrifices of that day and of the war. 
 
 It is not so much the intention of this series of papers to go into 
 every detail of those eventful days, as it is to show the reader in the 
 nineteenth century how they were regarded in their time, and how 
 he is best to arrange the various anecdotes which the anniversary 
 celebrations are certain to call forward. 
 
 So soon as the artillery-fire of " The Lively," and Gridley's fire in 
 reply, from his field-pieces, showed to Gage and the other English 
 generals what was passing, they determined to attack the works 
 before they were strengthened. Of their accounts, Burgoyne's is 
 the most picturesque. It is in these words, in a letter to Lord 
 Stanley, which was published as soon as it arrived in England : — 
 
 " On the 17th, at dawn of day, we found the enemy had pushed intrenchments 
 with great diligence during the night, on the heights of Charlestown; and we evi- 
 dently saw that evei'y hour gave them fresh strength : it therefore became necessary 
 
Battle of Bunker's Hill 31 
 
 to alter our plan, and attack on that side. Howe, as second in command, was de- 
 tached with about two thousand men, and landed on the opposite side of this penin- 
 sula, covered with shipping, without opposition : he was to advance from thence up 
 the hill which was over Charlestown, where the strength of the enemy lay : he had 
 imder him Brig. -Gen. Pigot. Clinton and myself took our stand (for we had not 
 any fixed post) in a large battery directly opposite to Charlestown, which commanded 
 it, and also scaled the heights above it, and thereby facilitating Howe's attack. 
 Howe's disposition was exceedingly soldierlike: in my^ opinion it was perfect. As 
 his first arm advanced up the hill, they met with a thousand impediments from, 
 strong forces, and were much exposed. They were also exceedingly hurt by musketry 
 from Charlestown, though Clinton and I did not perceive it until Howe sent vis word 
 by a boat, and desired us to set fire to the town, which was immediately done. We 
 threw a parcel of shells, and the whole was instantly in flames. Our battery after- 
 wards kept an incessant fire on the heights. It was seconded by a number of frigates, 
 floating-batteries, and our ship-of-the-line. ... 
 
 "A moment of the day was critical. Howe's left were staggered : two battalions 
 had been sent to re-enforce them ; but we perceived them on the beach, seeming in 
 embarrassment what way to march. Clinton then, next for business, took the part, 
 without waiting for orders, to throw himself into a boat to head them : he arrived in 
 time to be of service. The day ended with glory, and the success was most impor- 
 tant, considering the ascendency it gave the regular troops ; but the loss was uncom- 
 mon in officers for the numbers engaged." 
 
 Compare this account with that made by order of the Provincial 
 Committee of Safety. This was prepared by Rev. Dr. Cooper, Rev. 
 Mr. Gardner, and Rev. Peter Thacher ; the skill of the ministers as 
 men of literature being called upon, drolly enough, for a report, 
 which was intended as a correction of Gage's statements. It is 
 understood that the report was drawn up by Thacher, who saw the 
 battle from the other side of Mystic River. Their narrative of the 
 action itself is in these words : — 
 
 " Between twelve and one o'clock, a number of boats and barges, filled with the reg- 
 ular troops from Boston, were observed approaching towards Charlestown: these 
 troops landed at a place called ' Moreton's Point,' situated a little to the eastward of our 
 works. This brigade formed upon their landing, and stood thus formed till a second 
 detachment arrived from Boston to join them : having sent out large flank guards, 
 they began a very slow march towards our lines. At this instant, smoke and flames 
 were seen to arise from the town of Charlestown, which had been set on fire by the 
 enemy, that the smoke might cover their attack upon our lines, and, perhaps, with a 
 design to rout or destroy one or two regiments of provincials who had been posted in 
 that town. If either of these was their design, they were disappointed ; for the wind, 
 shifting on a sudden, carried the smoke another way ; and the regiments were already 
 removed. 
 
 " The provincials, within their intrenchments, impatiently waited the attack of the 
 enemy, and reserved their fire till they came within ten or twelve rods ; and then be- 
 gan a furious discharge of small-arms. This fire arrested the enemy, which they for 
 some time returned without advancing a step, and then retreated, in disorder and with, 
 great precipitation, to the place of landing ; and some of them sought refuge even 
 within their boats. Here the oflicers were observed, by the spectators on the opposite 
 shore, to run down to them, using the most passionate gestures, and pushing the men 
 forward with their swords. At length they were rallied, and marched up, with appar- 
 
32 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 ent reluctance, towards the intrenchment. The Americans again reserved their fire 
 nntil the enemy came within five or six rods, and a second time put the regulars to 
 flight, who ran in great confusion towards their boats. 
 
 " Similar and superior exertions were now necessarily made by the ofiicers, which, 
 notwithstanding the men discovered an almost insuperable reluctance to fighting in 
 this cause, were again successful. They formed once more ; and, having brought some 
 cannon to bear in such a manner as to rake the inside of the breastwork from one end 
 of it to the other, the provincials retreated within their little fort. The ministerial 
 army now made a decisive effort. The fire from the ships and batteries, as well as 
 from the cannon in front of their army, was redoubled. The ofiicers in the rear of 
 the army were observed to goad forward the men with renewed exertions ; and they 
 attacked the redoubt on three sides at once. The breastwork on the outside of the 
 fort was abandoned ; the ammunition of the provincials was expended ; and few of 
 their arms were fixed with bayonets. Can it, then, be wondered that the word was 
 given by the commander of the party to retreat? But this he delayed till the redoubt 
 was half filled with regulars, and the provincials had kept the enemy at bay some time, 
 coiif routing them with the butt-ends of their muskets. The retreat of this little hand- 
 ful of brave men would have been effectually cut off, had it not happened that the 
 flanking party of the enemy, which was to have come upon the back of the redoubt, 
 was checked by a party of the provincials, who fought with the utmost bravery, 
 and kept them from advancing fartlier thauthe beach. The engagement of these two 
 parties was kept up with the vitmost vigor ; and it must be acknowledged that this 
 party of the ministerial troops evidenced a courage worthy a better cause. All their 
 efforts, however, were insufficient to compel the provincials to retreat till their main 
 body had left the hill. Perceiving this was done, they then gave ground, but with 
 more regularity than could be expected of troops who had no longer been under dis- 
 cipline, and many of whom had never before seen an engagement." 
 
 The reader who did not know that these two narratives were, one 
 by Gov. Biirgoyne, who saw the action from Copp's Hill in Boston, 
 and the other by Peter Thacher the minister who saw it from exactly 
 the opposite side of the field, and with exactly opposite prejudices, 
 would never know that the same action was described. It has been 
 the business of every historian of the battle to collect tjie detail which 
 shall fill up the narrative. This is to a great extent done ; and, in 
 the full detail given by Mr. Frothingham, {he successive stages of 
 the battle may be wrought out intelligibly. 
 
 The traditional three attacks unquestionably took place, although 
 neither Burgoyne nor Gage alludes to them. The closing words of 
 Peter Thacher's account allude to a feature in the action not so 
 generally understood, — the almost independent position of the Amer- 
 ican left wing. 
 
 While Gen. Pigot with the English left was assailing the redoubt 
 in the first of the three attacks. Gen. Howe led his right wing along 
 the shore of Mystic River, hoping to turn the American lines. 
 To prevent this, Col. Prescott had sent two field-pieces with Col. 
 Knowlton and the Connecticut troops down the hill to the river. 
 Ivnowlton was the officer on whom AVashington passed so noble a 
 
Battle of Bunker's Hill 33 
 
 eulogium the next year, when he was killed. He was killed in the 
 region now comprised in the Central Park of New York ; and Con- 
 necticut must see to it, that his monument is added to that of other 
 heroes there. Kuowlton had stationed himself near the southern 
 front of Bunker's Hill proper, behind a fence, which was stone below, 
 with two rails of wood above. He strengthened this line by a parallel 
 line of fence, filling in between with grass. While he was thus en- 
 gaged, he was re-enforced by Stark. 
 
 Stark's report is wretchedly meagre : — 
 
 " Upon which I was required by the general to send a party, consisting of two 
 hundred men, with oflacers, to their assistance; which order I readily C/beyed, and 
 appointed and sent Col. Wyinan commander of the same. And about two o'clock in 
 the afternoon express orders came for the whole of my regiment to proceed to Charles- 
 town to oppose the enemy, who were landing on Charlestown Point. Accordingly we 
 proceeded ; and the battle soon came on, in which a number of officers belonging to 
 my regiment were Idlled, and many privates killed and wounded." 
 
 From other accounts, we have more detail of the action here. Cal- 
 lender's American field-pieces opened on Howe's party with great 
 effect. Knowlton bade his men hold their fire till the enemy came 
 within fifteen rods, and they did so. When the word was given, the 
 result was horrible to see or to tell. The companies were terribly cut 
 up, wavered, broke, and retreated, as, at nearly the same time, Pigot's 
 did before the redoubt, on the other wing of Howe's advance. 
 
 In the second attack on the redoubt, Howe directed his artillery to 
 be served with grape. They had no proper balls, an incident fre- 
 quently referred to. The artillery moved nearly up to the line of the 
 breastwork in a narrow road, which will be seen upon the map, par- 
 allel with the Mystic, on the northern slope of Breed's Hill. The 
 object was to rake the redoubt, and thus open a way for the infantry. 
 A second time, Howe was in front of Stark and Knowlton. Both 
 there and at the redoubt, the American fire was held as before, even 
 to a shorter range. At both points the English gave way. This was 
 the period when the English were re-enforced from Boston, and 
 when Clinton joined them as related by Burgoyne. 
 
 In the third attack, the English artillery gained its position, so 
 that it could enfilade the breastwork. The defenders of the 
 breastwork took refuge in the redoubt. Prescott did not waver. 
 Most of his men had but one round of ammunition, and few had 
 more than three ; but he bade them hold their fire as before, and 
 they did till their enemy was within twenty yards. The English 
 were now advancing in column, having been taught their terrible 
 lesson by the former experiences. The column wavered under 
 
84 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 Prescott's fire, but rushed on with the bayonet ; and Clinton's 
 and Pigot's men, on the southern and eastern sides, reached the 
 shelter of its walls. Prescott bade the men who had no bayonets 
 retire to the rear of the redoubt, and fire on the enemy as they 
 mounted. A fine fellow climbed the southern side, cried, " The 
 day is ours ! " and fell. The whole front rank shared his fate. But 
 the game was played. These .Avere the last shots. The Englishmen 
 poured over the parapet ; and Prescott gave his unwilling order to 
 retreat. 
 
 He always said, that, even without powder (and he had none), he 
 could have held the hill, had his men had bayonets. The following 
 very curious letter, is, I believe, the first allusion to the engagement, 
 in the records of the Provincial Congress, after it occurred : — 
 
 Cambhidge, June 19, 1775. 
 It is requested that the troops may be stipplied also with a large number of 
 spears or lances for defending the breastworks. In the late action, spears Bought have 
 saved the intrenchment. By order of the general. 
 
 Joseph "Wabd, Secretary. 
 
 An order was actually given for the manufacture of two thousand 
 of these spears. 
 
 The redoubt was flanked on both sides ; but all parties were 
 too close for the English to fire, even if their pieces were charged, 
 which is not probable. Warren was killed here ; Gridley was 
 wounded ; and the Americans lost more men than at any period of 
 the battle. 
 
 Meanwhile our friends at the rail-fence, the left wing of the 
 Americans, held their own. When Prescott's disorganized command 
 had passed them, they covered his retreat, and retired in good order. 
 
 Now was the moment which Putnam had foreseen, for which he 
 had been trying to fortify the higher hill. Pomeroy of Northampton 
 joined him in trying to rally the retreating forces there. But it was 
 not possible. The whole body retired over the Neck, and met the 
 re-enforcements which had been ordered too late to their relief. One 
 piece of cannon at the Neck opened on the enemy, and covered the 
 retreat. 
 
 The following report is the brief account which the Massachusetts 
 Congress sent to the Congress in Philadelphia. It is their report of 
 June 20 ; and this passage fpllows that which has been cited above : — 
 
 "Accordingly, on Friday evening, the 16th inst., this was effected by about twelve 
 hundred men. About daylight, on Saturday morning, their line of clrcumvallation, 
 on a small hill south of Bunker's Hill, in Charlestown, was closed : at this time, 
 'The Lively,' man-of-war, began to fire upon them. A number of our enemy's 
 
Battle of BunJcer^s Hill "* 35 
 
 ships, tenders, cutters, scows, or floating-batteries, soon came up, from all which the 
 fire was general by twelve o'clock. About two, the enemy began to land at a point 
 which leads out from Noddle's Island, and immediately marched up to our intrench- 
 ments, from which they were twice repulsed, but, in the third attack, forced them. 
 Our forces which were in the lines, as well as those sent for their support, were 
 greatly annoyed on every side by balls and bombs from Copp's Hill, the ships, scows, 
 &c. At this time the buildings in Charlestown appeared in flames in almost every 
 quarter, kindled by hot balls, and is since laid in ashes. Though this scene was al- 
 most horrible, and altogether new to most of our men, yet many stood and received 
 wounds by swords and bayonets, before. they quitted thoir lines. At five o'clock the 
 enemy were in full possession of all the posts within the isthmus. 
 
 " The number of killed and wounded on our side is not known, but supposed by 
 some to be about sixty or seventy, and by some considerably above that number. 
 Our most worthy friend and president, Dr. Warren, lately elected a major-general, is 
 among them. This loss we feel most sensibly. . . . The loss of the enemy is 
 doubtless great. By an anonymous letter from Boston, we are told that they exult 
 much in having gained the ground, though their killed and wounded are owned about 
 one thousand; but this account exceeds every other estimation." 
 
 Prescott reported at headquarters, indignant that he had not been 
 better supported, and offered to retake the hills, if he might have 
 fifteen hundred men ; but Ward, who was at least prudent, declined. 
 
 Gen Gage, on the other side, knew very well at what terrible cost 
 his victory had been won. Here is his letter to Lord Dartmouth : — 
 
 " Boston, June 25, 1775. 
 " The success, of which I send your lordship an account by the present opportunity, 
 was very necessary in our present situation ; and I wish most sincerely that it had 
 not cost us so dear. The number of killed and wounded is greater than our forces 
 can afford to lose. The officers who were obliged to exert themselves have suffered 
 very much; and we have lost some extremely good officers. The trials we have had 
 show the rebels arc not the desijicable 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 enthusiasm, that they are otherwise." 
 
 Horace Walpole had written, July 6, before they had the 
 news : — 
 
 "The general complexion is war. AH advices speak the Americans determined; 
 and report says, the government here intend to pursue the same plan. I told you at 
 first I thought you and I should not see the end of this breach; and, if we do not, I 
 know not what posterity will see, — the ruin of both countries, at least of this. Caa 
 we sujiport the loss of America, or a long war ? 
 
 " There is a black cloud nearer. The livery of London have begun a quarrel with 
 the king, and have actually proclaimed war on his ministers, as you will see by the 
 papers. I do not take panic ; but, if any blow should hapj)en from America, the 
 mob of London is a fomiidable foe on a sudden. A minister may be executed before 
 he is impeached; and considering the number of American merchants in the city, 
 and of those who have connections in America, riots may be raised : but I hate to 
 prophesy. I have always augured ill of this quarrel, and washed my hands of iL" 
 
36 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 After the despatches came, he wrote : — 
 
 "Aug. 3. — In spite of all my modesty, I cannot help thinking I have a little 
 something of the prophet about me. At least, we have not conquered America yet. 
 I did not send you immediate word of the^ victory at Boston, because the success not 
 only seemed very equivocal, but because the conquerors lost three to one more than 
 tlie vanquished. The last do not pique themselves upon modern good breeding, but 
 level only at the officers, of wliom they have slain a vast number. Wo are a little 
 disappointed, indeed, at their fighting at all, which was not in our calculation. We 
 knew we could conquer America in Germany, and I doubt had better have gone 
 tliither now for that purpose, as it does not appear hitherto to be quite so feasible in 
 America itself. However, we are determined to Icnow the worst, and are sending 
 away all tlie men and ammunition we can muster. The Congress, not asleep neither, 
 have appointed a generalissimo, Washington, allowed a very able officer, who distin- 
 guished himself in the last war." 
 
 All accounts agree in describing the terrible dismay felt in Boston 
 as the wounded were brought over from the field. A letter published 
 by Mr. Drake says that the loyalists sent down their carriages, chaises, 
 and even hand-barrows to bring them up from the boats ; and old 
 people remember hearing their mothers tell of blood dropping from 
 the carts upon the pavement. Gen. Howe was said to have said, 
 " They may talk of their Mindens and their Fontenoys ; but there 
 was no such fire there as here." In truth, the French at Minden lost 
 seven thousand men out of fifty thousand. Howe lost at Bunker's 
 Hill one thousand and fifty-four men from a force which is variously 
 stated as two thousand, three thousand, and four thousand. In the 
 history of the Fifty-second Regiment, the statement is made, that one 
 of their light companies, led by Howe himself against Stark and 
 Knowlton, had every man either killed or wounded. 
 
 Howe escaped without hurt ; but it is remembered that his white 
 silk stockings were bloody from the blood which men had left on the 
 long grass through which he had to lead his troops. He quite ful- 
 filled the promise he made in the sj)eech which he addressed to his 
 own men before the assault, " I shall not desire one of you to go a 
 step farther than I shall go myself at your head." 
 
 It should be remembered, that, from 1762 to 1775, the English army 
 had not been under fire. To most of the privates, war was probably 
 as new as to their enemy. This may account for the exposure of 
 the officers. One hundred and fifty -seven officere were Id lied and 
 wounded in a total loss of one thousand and fifty-four. 
 
 The loss of the Americans was one hundred and forty killed, two 
 hundred and seventy-one wounded ; and they lost thirty prisoners. 
 Their force engaged was about fifteen hundred; but at Bunker's Hill 
 the hirger, and on the way there, they must have had, not under fire, 
 a thousand more men. 
 
Battle of Blinker^ s Hill. 
 
 37 
 
 As an illustration of the feeling cultivated in Boston among the 
 English troops, I am fortunate in being able to reprint from the origi- 
 nal broadside a quaint soldier's ballad. ^ 
 
 A SONG, 
 
 COMPOSED BY THE BRITISH SOLDIERS, AFTER THE FIGHT AT BUNKER HILI)} 
 
 JUNE 17, 1775. 
 
 It was on the seventeenth by brake of day, 
 
 The Yankees did surprise us, 
 With their strong works they had thrown up, 
 
 To burn the town and drive us ; 
 But soon we had an order come, 
 
 An order to defeat them: 
 Like rebels stout they stood it out 
 
 And thought we ne'er could beat them. 
 
 About the hour of twelve that day, 
 
 An order came for marcliing, 
 With three good flints and sixty rounds, 
 
 Each man hop'd to discharge them. 
 We marched down to the long wharf. 
 
 Where boats were ready waiting; 
 Witli expedition we embark' d, 
 
 Our ships kept cannonading. 
 
 And when our boats all filled were 
 
 With ofhcers and soldiers, 
 With as good troops as England had, 
 
 To oppose who dare controul us ; 
 
 1 Versions of parts of this ballad have been reprinted before from memory, 
 full version, except iu the original broadside, which is very rare. 
 
 I have not seen tho 
 
38 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 And when our boats all filled were 
 
 We row'd in line of battle, 
 Where show'rs of balls like hail did fly, 
 
 Our cannon loud did rattle. 
 
 • 
 
 There was Cop's hill battery near Charlestown, 
 
 Our twenty-fours they played, 
 And the three frigates in the stream 
 
 That very well behaved ; 
 The Glasgow frigate clear'd the shore, 
 
 All at the time of landing, 
 With her grape shot and cannon balls 
 
 No Yankee e'er could stand them. 
 
 And when we landed on the shore, 
 
 And drew up all together; 
 The Yankees they all man'd their works, 
 
 And thought we'd ne'er come thither : 
 But soon they did perceive brave Howe, 
 
 Brave Howe, our bold commander, 
 With grenadiers, and infantry, 
 
 We made them to surrender. * 
 
 Brave William Howe, on our right wing, 
 
 Cry'd, boys fight on like thimder ; 
 You soon will see the rebels flee 
 
 With great amaze and wonder. 
 Now some lay bleeding on the ground 
 
 And some full fast a running 
 ' O'er hills and dales and mountains high, 
 
 Crying, zounds! brave Howe's a coming. 
 
 They began to play on our left wing. 
 
 Where Pegot he commanded; 
 But we return'd it back again 
 
 With courage most undaunted. 
 To our grape shot and musket balls, 
 
 To which they were but strangers, 
 They thought to come in with sword in hand. 
 
 But soon they found their danger. 
 
 And when the works they got into. 
 
 And put them to the flight, sir, 
 Some of them did hide themselves. 
 
 And others died with fright, sir. 
 And then their works we got into 
 
 Without great fear or danger. 
 The work they'd made so firm and strong : 
 
 The Yankees are great strangers. 
 
Battle of BiinJcer^s Hill. ' 39 
 
 But as for our artillery 
 
 They all behaved dinty; 
 For while their ammunition held, 
 
 We gave it to them plenty. 
 But our conductor he go^ broke 
 
 For his misconduct, sure, sir; 
 The shot he sent for twelve pound guns 
 
 Were made for twenty-four, sir. 
 
 There's some in Boston pleas'd to say, 
 
 As we the field were taking, 
 We went to kill their countiymen, 
 
 While they their hay were making; 
 For such stout Whigs I never saw; 
 
 To hang them all I'd rather, 
 For making hay with musket-balls, 
 
 And buck-shot mixecj together. 
 
 Brave Howe is so considerate. 
 
 As to prevent all danger; 
 He allows half a pmt a day ; 
 
 To rum we are no strangers. 
 Long may he live by land and sea. 
 
 For he's beloved by many; 
 The name of Howe the Yankees dread, 
 
 We see it very plainly. 
 
 And now my song is at an end; 
 
 And to conclude my ditty. 
 It is the poor and ignorant. 
 
 And only them, I pity. 
 As for their king John Hancock, 
 
 And Adams, if they're taken, 
 Their heads for signs shall hang up high 
 
 Upon that hill call'd Bacon. 
 
 Here is the version of " The British Grenadiers," which was sung 
 by the army while in Boston. This has never been printed till now, 
 I think. " The British Grenadiers " is a tune as old as the Armada. 
 With every new war, a new set of verses is made for it. These were 
 the verses of the siege, as I have heard them from those who heard 
 them from those who had sung them in those days : — 
 
 "Come, come, fill up your glasses. 
 
 And drink a health to those. 
 Who carry caps and pouches 
 
 And wear theii- looped clothes. 
 
 • 
 
40 One Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 For be you Whis? or Tory, 
 
 Or any mortal tiling, 
 Be sure that you give glory 
 
 To George our Gracious King. 
 
 " "And -when the wars are over 
 
 We'll march with beat of drum: • 
 The ladies cry, ' So, ho, girls, 
 The grenadiers are come, — 
 The grenadiers wlio always 
 
 With love our hearts do cheer, 
 Huzza, huzza, huzza, huzza 
 For the British grenadier. " 
 
 Another verse was, — 
 
 " That patriot Jemmy Otis, 
 
 That bully in disguise. 
 That well-Known tyke of Yorkshire, 
 That magazine of lies! 
 And he will mount the rostrum, 
 
 And loudly he will bray, 
 Rebel, Rebel, Rebel, Rebel, 
 Rebel, America! " 
 
 An American ballad to the tune of " Anacreon in Heaven," now 
 known as " Star Spangled Banner," appeared in a Boston paper some 
 thirty years ago. But, though the first verse has the true ring, it is 
 not genuine. That verse shall close this chapter. 
 
 THE BALLAD OF BUNKER'S fflLL. 
 
 BY ONE WHO FOUGHT THERE. 
 
 We lay in the trenches we'd dug in the ground 
 
 While Phcebus blazed down from his Glory-lined Car ; 
 And then from the lips of our Leader renowned 
 This Lesson we heard in the Science of War! 
 " Let the Foeman draw nigh 
 Till the White of his Eije 
 Is in range with your Rijies, and then. Lads ! Let Flyl 
 And show to Columbia, to Britain, and Fame, 
 How Justice smiles awful when Freemen take Aim! " 
 
Note. — It may not be generally known that the great battle 
 fought within what are now the limits of Boston, was, by an inter- 
 esting coincidence, on the Saint's Day of St. Botolph, whose name 
 Boston bears. The original name of Botolph's town, given to the 
 town in Lincolnshire in which the noble Church of St. Botolph 
 stands, has been corrupted, to Boston. That name has been 
 brought across the water to this city ; but St. Botolph, whose Saint's 
 Day in the calendar is Jane 17, is still the godfather and patron saint 
 of Boston. St. Botolph and St. Adolph were two noble English 
 brothers. They were educated in Belgic Gaul ; and Adolph became 
 Bishop of Maastricht. His Saint's Day is June IT also. St. Bo- 
 tolph returned to England, where King Ethelmund gave him the 
 wilderness of Ikanho on which to found an abbey. Here he lived, 
 and here he died in the year 655. A part of his relics are at Ely, 
 a part at Thames, a part at Westminster, and a part at Peter- 
 borough. Four parishes in London, and a great many in other 
 parts of England, bear his name. 
 
TALES FOR TRAVELLERS. 
 
 A collection of stories, original and selected from the 
 best English and American authors; edited by 
 
 Rev. EDWARD E. HALE. 
 
 Printed on good paper, and in large type, for the 
 convenience of travellers. 
 
 Vol. I. IN HIS NAME. By Rev. Edward E. Hale. 
 
 2. TEN TIMES ONE IS TEN. By Rev. Edward E. 
 Hale. 
 
 3. STAND AND WAIT. By Rev. Edward E. Hale ; 
 and other stories. 
 
 4. A TALE OF THE SIMPLON ; and other tales. By 
 Rev. Edward E. Hale. 
 
 5. NICOLETTE AUCASSIN. By Rev. Edward E. 
 Hale ; and other tales. 
 
 6. LOST PALACE, &c.' By Rev. Edward E. Hale; 
 and others. 
 
 7. SPOONS IN A WHERRY; and other stories. By 
 Rev. Edward E. Hale ; and others. 
 
 RE^IDY SOOIV. 
 
 LOCKWOOD, BROOKS & Co., 
 
 381 WASHINGTON ST. (opp. FRANKLIN ST.) 
 
 JUST PUBLISHED. 
 
 ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 
 How the War began. A Series of Sketches from Original Authorities, com- 
 prising the 5th of March Massacre, the Battle of Lexington, Siege of Boston, 
 Battle of Bunker Hill. By Kcv. Edward E. Hale. 
 
 LOCKWOOD, BROOKS & CO., 
 
 3S1 WasliiiiRlon Si. (opp. Franklin St.) 
 
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