A REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE Written [ & illustrated by ERNEST PEIXOTTO YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Bequest of Amelia Daggett Sheffield in memory of GEORGE ST. JOHN SHEFFIELD, '63 1937 George StJohn Sheffield BOOKS BY ERNEST PEIXOTTO PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS EACH VOLUME ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR A REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE . net, $2.50 OUR HISPANIC SOUTHWEST .... net, 2.50 PACIFIC SHORES FROM PANAMA . net, 2.50 BY ITALIAN SEAS . . net, 2.50 THROUGH THE FRENCH PROVINCES net, 2.50 ROMANTIC CALIFORNIA net, 2.50 A REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia A REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE Being an Account of a Series of Visits to Battlegrounds & Other Places Made Memorable by the War of the Revolution Written & Illuftrated by Ernest Peixotto NEW YORK Printed & Publifhed by Charles Scribner'S Sons MDCCCCXVII Copyright, 1917, by Charles Scribner's Sons Published October, 1917 , TO WILLIAM BUNKER OF THE STURDY STOCK THAT DEFENDED ITS LIBERTIES IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED PREFACE Some years ago I systematically visited the scenes and battle-fields connected with the Revolution, undertaking a sort of pilgrimage — a series of journeys that covered a period of almost fourteen months, my motive being to furnish illustrations for Henry Cabot Lodge's "Story of the Revolution." The only book I could procure to guide me was Los- sing's classic "Field-Book of the Revolution," an admi rable work, indeed, but so bulky, so unwieldy, and so verbose that it makes rather complicated reading. Be sides, in many particulars it is now quite out of date. Many of the scenes have radically changed since 1850; many of the landmarks he describes have disappeared; while, on the other hand, much has been done by pa triotic people to mark and make interesting the Revolu tionary battle-grounds since his day. While engaged upon this pilgrimage I met many peo ple — local authorities, men of importance, who had made special researches into the history of their own particular region and were kind enough to give me pamphlets and articles that they had written or data that they had col lected — material that seemed to me most interesting. So, as there appeared to be no recent book devoted to vii PREFACE the topographical history of the Revolution, I made up my mind to write one, but one busy period after another has hitherto prevented the accomplishment of that purpose. During this past year, however, I have again gone over the ground, and to my illustrations that originally ap peared in "The Story of the Revolution" I have added a number of others and particularly a number of maps which I hope may be of real assistance to the reader in following the narrative. Now that a new wave of patriotism has swept over the land and created a revival of the "American spirit," as it is called, the moment seems peculiarly propitious to awake anew the story of the deeds of our ancestors — the men who risked their lives and staked their all to found our nation and make its ideals possible. I wish to thank all those who helped me on my wan derings — and they are many — the kind friends and the chance acquaintances who made these journeys interest ing and pleasurable and aided so much in giving me an opportunity to see things and to unearth documents that I should otherwise have surely overlooked. E. P. New York, 1917 vill CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTORY 1 AROUND BOSTON 7 I. The Beginning 9 II. Lexington and Concord 17 III. Bunker Hill 39 TICONDEROGA AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN . . 49 TO THE PLAINS OF SARATOGA 67 I. Ticonderoga to Fort Edward .... 69 II. The Green Mountains 76 III. The Mohawk Valley 87 IV. Saratoga 101 DOWN THE HUDSON ......... 115 ABOUT NEW YORK 145 IN THE JERSEYS 173 I. Trenton 175 II. Princeton 191 III. Morristown 204 ix CONTENTS PAGE BOUND ABOUT PHILADELPHIA 213 I. Chadd's Ford and the Brandywine . . 215 II. Germantown 228 III. Valley Forge 236 PHILADELPHIA 247 CAMPAIGNS IN THE CAROLINAS 271 I. Charleston 2J3 II. Through South Carolina 289 III. Guilford Court House 307 THROUGH VIRGINIA 315 I. Williamsburg 317 II. Yorktown 329 III. Hampton Roads 341 MOUNT VERNON 345 WASHINGTON 361 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia The Old North . . Lexington Green at the Present Time Buckman Tavern . The Boulder and Harrington House Major Pitcairn's Pistols The Wright Tavern, Concord Barrett House, near Concord Concord Bridge . Daniel French's Statue of the "Minuteman" Flag Carried by the Bedford Militia at Concord Grave of British Soldiers near the Bridge at Concord Vicinity of the Washington Elm, Cambridge . The Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga Ruins of the Officers' Quarters at Ticonderoga Ruins of Old Fort Frederick, Crown Point Map Illustrating Burgoyne's Campaign Map of Ticonderoga Battle Monument, Bennington The Catamount Tavern, now completely destroyed The Ravine near Oriskany Old Stone Church at German Flats xi . Frontispiece PAGE 11 19 202123 25 27 29 323435 47 555660 6365 80819195 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE General Herkimer's House and Grave 98 Castle Church, near Danube . ... . . ... 99 The Home of General Philip Schuyler at Old Saratoga . . 103 Cellar in the Marshall House, Schuylerville, which was Used as a Hospital by the British . . . . .108 Old Battle Well, Freeman's Farms . . 113 The Hudson River at West Point 124 Parts of the Great Chain which was Stretched across the Hudson 125 Old Fort Putnam, Showing the Magazines 131 Stony Point and the Medal Awarded to Anthony Wayne . . . 135 Headquarters at Tappan from which the Order for Andre's Execu tion was Issued . 138 '76 Stone House in which Andre was Imprisoned 140 Stone Marking the Place of Andre's Execution 142 Old Houses on State Street, New York City 148 Tomb of Alexander Hamilton, Trinity Churchyard 149 The Monument to Montgomery, St. Paul's Church .... 151 Washington's Pew, St. Paul's Church 152 Map of Operations near New York City ... .... 153 View from Old Fort Putnam (now Fort Greene), Brooklyn . . 156 Battle Pass, Prospect Park, Brooklyn . . . 159 The Jumel Mansion . . .... 165 Site of Fort Washington, Looking toward Fort Lee 171 The Point at Which Washington Crossed the Delaware River . 179 Map of Operations around Trenton and Princeton .... 184 Old King Street (now Warren Street), Trenton ... .188 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Old Quaker Meeting House, near Princeton Stony Brook Bridge, near Princeton House and Room in Which General Mercer Died Nassau Hall, Princeton .... . . Washington's Headquarters, Morristown Map of Vicinity of Philadelphia Washington's Headquarters, near Chadd's Ford Lafayette's Headquarters, near Chadd's Ford Birmingham Meeting House, near Chadd's Ford The Chew House, Germantown The Old Potts House at Valley Forge . . View from Fort Huntington, Looking toward Fort Washington PAGE 192193197199 207217219 221225231239242 Bell Used in Camp at Valley Forge . 243 The Assembly Room, Carpenter's Hall 251 Independence Hall, Chestnut Street Front .... . 255 Room in Which the Declaration of Independence was Signed 257 View of Independence Hall from the Park Side .... 258 Stairway in Independence Hall .... . . ... 259 The Betsy Ross House ... .261 The Pringle House, Charleston 275 St. Michael's Church . .276 Statue of William Pitt, Charleston . . 277 Charleston Harbor . . . 280 Fort Moultrie . . ... 282 Map of Campaigns in the Carohnas, Showing Comwallis's March from Charleston to Virginia .... . . 291 xiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Comwallis's Headquarters at Camden, S. C 295 Monument to Daniel Morgan, Spartanburg ... ... 305 The Battle-field at Guilford Court House 311 The Home of the President of William and Mary College, Williams burg . . . 319 Bruton Church and the George Wythe House .... 321 Hall in Carter's Grove . . . . 323 British Intrenchment at Yorktown, and Map Showing the Posi tion of the French and American Troops . . . 330 York River, Seen from the Inner British Works and Looking toward Gloucester Point . ... ... 333 The Moore House ... .... ... 335 Principal Street in Yorktown, Showing Monument Commemorat ing the Surrender 336 Governor Nelson's Home . . 337 Washington's Home at Mount Vernon 349 Room in Which Washington Died . . 357 Tomb of Major L'Enfant at Arlington 367 XIV INTRODUCTORY INTRODUCTORY I PROPOSE, on this Revolutionary Pilgrimage, to take the reader, step by step, to all the important localities connected with our War of the Revolu tion. We shall start at Lexington and Concord, and finish at Yorktown. En route, we shall visit battle-fields and historic sites, and see them as they appear to us to day. We shall also note what has been done to com memorate the events that took place upon them and perpetuate their memories. We shall see traces of old redoubts; the ruined walls of Ticonderoga; the streets of Trenton; the spot where Washington crossed the Dela ware; the buildings and churches wherein historic events were enacted — the places associated with Washington, Stark, Greene, Marion, Lafayette, and the other heroes of the Revolution. I propose also to take with us, as guides, eye-witnesses of the. events they describe — those who have left us the best records of what they themselves saw — authors long since silent, contemporaries, sometimes illiterate, of the events they write about, and, in some instances, the chief actors in them; so that we shall read upon the spot, for example, Paul Revere's own account of his "Midnight Ride," Ethan Allen's own narrative of the taking of 3 INTRODUCTORY Ticonderoga; a Princeton student's account of the events that took place about his college'; a Quaker's graphic recital of what he saw of the battle of the Brandywine; Major Andre's own description of the "Mischianza," and Comwallis's personal despatches of the siege of York- town. Thus I hope to make my story vivid and living. For the clarity of my text, I shall omit some of the less im portant campaigns and treat the main episodes as nearly in chronological order as my journey will permit. For, primarily, I shall tell my story by geographical sections, starting in New England and ending in the South. Professor Albert Bushnell Hart wrote, in the "Ameri can Historical Review," more than a decade ago, that "too little attention has been paid to the geographical and topographical side of American history, and a prime duty of Americans is the preservation and marking of our historical sites." I heartily agree with this point of view. My chief hope in writing this book is that, by stimulating interest in Revolutionary landmarks, it may indirectly contribute to their worthy and lasting preservation. Through the admirable work of local chapters of the Sons and Daughters' of the Revolution and of the Order of the Cincinnati, as well as of such active associations as the Society for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, many historic houses have been rescued from oblivion or destruction, appropriately "restored," and marked with tablets, the best form of inscription for identifica- 4 INTRODUCTORY tion. These patriotic societies have also placed upon many of the battle-fields of the Revolution unobtrusive " markers," showing positions of troops and sites of in terest. But much more can be done. Many of us know the historic spots round about our own particular locality. The New Englander, for in stance, knows Bennington and Lexington; the New Yorker, Oriskany and Fort Edward, but could many of them tell me, I wonder, in what State the battles of the Cowpens and King's Mountain were fought — both turning-points in the Revolution? And do most of us realize that Valley Forge and the field of Guilford Court House are to-day public parks, set out with memorial arches and monuments ? The custom of visiting battle-fields is very prevalent in Europe. Monuments and historic tablets are national methods of education, aiding to visualize the events they commemorate and serving to impress them upon the public mind. From them and their stories, people inspire themselves with patriotism and inculcate it in their chil dren. In America such is far less the case. The Civil War veterans make pilgrimages to the scenes of their struggles, it is true, but otherwise few of us look back ward. Our eyes are riveted upon the future, forget ting that we may learn many important lessons from the teachings of the past. Let us, then, in these momentous days, read again the story of our nation's birth; of the sacrifices and abnega tion of our forefathers before our country became so 5 INTRODUCTORY rich. Let us read again the story of our Revolution, and inspire ourselves anew with the fine old ideals of the "Spirit of '76." There is much of interest to be seen on our Revolu tionary Pilgrimage — surprisingly much, as I think I shall be able to prove, and in these days of automobiles it is an easy matter to visit these historic spots. When I first went over the ground, some years ago, it was quite a different matter, for many of the places were remote from railways, and it took hours of driving to reach them. Recause of motors also, the hotels have been much improved since then, many of the old road- houses haying been resurrected and converted into pros perous hostelries, well equipped for comfort and good cheer. I have personally visited all the localities described in this book — first, some years ago, as I state in my preface, and again, recently, to refresh my memory and ascertain what further has been done to mark the Revolutionary sites. Roth tours were singularly interesting, and I wish my reader the same pleasure that I had, if he should elect to undertake a similar journey. AROUND ROSTON AROUND BOSTON THE BEGINNING OUR pilgrimage will naturally begin in Boston, for in Boston and its vicinity the first organized resistance to British oppression was made ; while the old city still conserves more mementoes of the days that preceded the actual outbreak of hostilities than any other in our country. The lion and the unicorn on the old State House gable had looked down upon the Boston massacre, when, on a clear March night in 1770, the new-fallen snow was tinged with the blood of unarmed citizens; near the corner of Washington and Essex Streets once stood the Liberty Tree, in .whose shade the "Sons of Liberty" used to meet and discuss their grievances. From the door of the Old South Meeting House — still one of the city's venerated landmarks — a crowd of men, disguised as savages, set out for Griffin's wharf, where they boarded the Dartsmouth, the Eleanor, and Beaver and dumped their cargoes of tea into the harbor. Through a window above the pulpit of this same meeting-house, Doctor Warren was introduced on the fifth anniversary of the Boston massacre, that is, on the 5th of March, 1775, and its walls echoed the ringing 9 REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE sentences, bold and prophetic, of his oration to the townspeople: "Our streets are again filled with armed men; our harbor is crowded with ships . of war, but these cannot intimidate us; our liberty must be preserved, it is dearer than life. . . . Our country is in danger; our enemies are numerous and powerful, but we have many friends and, determining to be free, heaven and earth will aid the resolution. You are to decide the important ques tion, on which rests the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves." Thus events were shaping to a crisis, and the town was a centre of patriotic ferment. John Hancock and Samuel Adams were busy. Paul Revere and his friends were holding their meetings at the Green Dragon Tavern, and carefully watching the movements of the British troops. Near where this tavern once stood, in the North End, — once Boston's "Little Britain," now. its "Little Italy," — fronting the small triangular North Square, still stands a humble dwelling. When Paul Revere bought it, in 1770, it was nearly a hundred years old, and it still looks almost as it did when first built. A patriotic group, the Paul Revere Memorial Association, has cleared away excres cences, replaced the old diamond-shaped, leaded window- panes, and the square, fat chimney, and closed the shops that once disfigured its front, so that now the house has again assumed the appearance it had when Paul Revere occupied it in 1775. His own flintlock hangs above the 10 AROUND BOSTON living-room mantel; his toddy-warmer is on the kitchen shelf; and prints from his copper-plates and his adver tisements in the "broadsides" — the single-sheet news papers of the day — are displayed in the rooms up-stairs. From this very house, as we see it to-day, he set forth on his famous "midnight ride." But a few minutes' walk away, over in Salem Street, Christ Church, now known as the Old North, rears its shapely spire. So conspicuously did this once tower above the houses on Copp's Hill that by it mariners used to shape their course up the bay. If you are agile enough you still may climb this steeple. A flight of wooden stairs leads first to the bell-ringer's cham ber, then on to the bell-loft itself, where hang eight bells, whose inscriptions, cast in the bronze, tell their remarkable history. On number one you read: "This peal of bells is the gift of generous persons to Christ Church, Boston, New England, Anno 1744"; on number three : ' ' We are the first ring of bells cast for *" J>K$3M^$'3S&. the British Empire in THE OL.D "NORTH.-*-. Tie Signal Lantern of FAUL REVERE difpl&yed in the ftccple of this church April. 18 177s warned the country of ihe march rf the Britifh troop* to Lexington and concord. m __---¦ -33V TV?, '"- 1 \ J* REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE North America"; and on number eight: "Abel Rudhall of Gloucester cast us all. Anno 1744." Their joyful voices sounded the repeal of the Stamp Act and proclaimed Comwallis's surrender and, in between, many another event of those stirring Revolutionary days. From the loft in which they hang I mounted again, by a succession of hazardous ladders, to a gallery above them, and thence to the lantern that forms the crown ing feature of the steeple, turning a round-headed window to each point of the compass. The sun poured merrily into the eastern window, through which I could see far down the bay, with its shipping and necks of land. From the south window I could discern the sky-scrapers and big office-buildings of the modern city, and the gilded dome of the State House shining conspicuously on the top of Beacon Hill. The west window revealed, above the tree-tops of Copp's Hill burying-ground, the Charles River, with its terminals and dockyards, and Cambridge spreading out beyond; while, to the north, the Bunker Hill monument pointed like a giant finger upward above the red houses of Charlestown. From my conspicuous point of vantage I realized so well how far the beacons, placed within this lantern, could cast their fitful beams — how plainly they could be seen from all the countryside. And this was Paul Re- vere's thought when he agreed with Colonel Conant, in Cambridge, to place his signal lanterns in the Old North steeple. I shall now let Paul Revere himself tell the story of 12 AROUND BOSTON these lanterns, and of his famous ride on the night of the 18th of April, 1775.* "In the fall of 1774 and winter of 1775, I was one of upwards thirty, chiefly mechanics, who formed ourselves into a committee for the purpose of watching the move ments of the British soldiers and gaining every intelli gence of the movements of the tories. We held our meet ings at the Green Dragon Tavern. We were so careful that our meetings should be kept secret, that every time we met, every person swore upon the bible that they would not discover any of our transactions but to Messrs. Hancock, Adams, Doctors Warren, Church, and one or two more. . . . "The Saturday" night preceding the 19th of April about 12 o'clock at night, the boats belonging to the trans ports were all launched, and carried under the sterns of the men-of-war. . . . On Tuesday evening, the 18th, it was observed that a number of soldiers were marching towards the bottom of the Common. About 10 o'clock, Dr. Warren sent in great haste for me and begged that I would immediately set off for Lexington, where Messrs. Hancock and Adams were, and acquaint them with the movement and that it was thought they were the objects. . . . "The Sunday before, by desire of Dr. Warren, I had been to Lexington to Messrs. Hancock and Adams who were at the Rev. Mr. Clark's. I returned at night through Charlestown; there I agreed with a Colonel Conant, and some other gentlemen, that, if the British went out by water, we would shew two lanthorns in the north church steeple; and if by land, one, as a signal; * A letter from Colonel Paul Revere to the corresponding secretary, in the " Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society," for the year 1798. " 13 REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE for we were apprehensive it would be difficult to cross the Charles River, or get over Boston Neck. I left Dr, Warren, called upon a friend,* and desired him to make the signals. I then went home, took my boots and surtout, went to the north part of the town where I had kept a boat; two friends rowed me across Charles River, a little to the eastward where the Somerset man of war lay. It was then young flood, the ship was wind ing, and the moon was rising. They landed me on the Charlestown side. When I got into town, I met Colonel Conant and several others; they said they had seen our signals. I told them what was acting and went to get me a horse; I got a horse of Deacon Larkin. . . . "I set off upon a very good horse; .it was then about eleven o'clock, and very pleasant. After I had passed Charlestown Neck, and got nearly opposite where Mark was hung in chains, I saw two men on horseback, under a tree. When I got near them, I discovered they were British officers. One tried to get ahead of me, and the other to take me. I turned my horse quick and galloped toward Charlestown Neck, and then pushed for Medford road. . . . The one who chased me, endeavoring to cut me off, got into a clay pond, near where the new tavern is now built. I got clear of him, and went through Med ford, over the bridge, and up to Menotomy. In Medford, I awaked the Captain of the minute men; and after that I alarmed almost every house till I got to Lexington. I found Messrs. Hancock and Adams at the rev. Mr. Clark's. . . ." Now, before he proceeds, let us follow him thus far upon his road. According to his narrative, he crossed * His old friend, Captain John Pulling, a merchant of Boston and a vestryman of Christ Church. 14 AROUND BOSTON the Charles somewhere in the vicinity of present-day Charlestown Bridge, passed via the Neck into Cambridge, and started out to Lexington by the main road, now called Massachusetts Avenue. But, meeting the officers, he turned back, took the Medford Road through Somerville, and across the Mystic lowlands. This route to-day forms part of the city's suburbs, and is built up until you attain the Mystic River, where first you reach open country. Following it recently, I found the Mystic lowlands newly parked and set out with lawns and avenues of trees. Soon we came into the twisting streets of old Medford, with its comfortable houses shaded by towering elms — one of those pleasant towns that impart such charm to the environs of Boston, its newer homes interspersed with just enough old dwell ings to give variety and create the special atmosphere that characterizes the older settlements of Massachusetts. At Medford Common we turned sharp to the left and made for West Medford, where a sign-board, nailed to a tree, told us we were really upon the right trail and fol lowing "Paul Revere's Ride." We crossed the Mystic "over the bridge," as he says, with the Mystic Lakes lying off to the right, and then came "up to Menotomy," now Arlington, its old name, however, perpetuated upon the sign of one of the local banks. Here at Arlington we met the main road from Boston, to which I have alluded — Massachusetts Avenue — the road that Paul Revere started to take when he fell in with the officers, and the one that the British troops did 15 REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE take later in the night,- when they set out for Lexington in the darkness, marching in secrecy and silence, to ar rest "Messrs. Hancock and Adams and then, at Con cord, to seize the military stores known to be collected there." 16 II LEXINGTON AND CONCORD MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE leads directly through Arlington and East Lexington to Lexington Green. As you turn its last elbow and pass the historic Munroe Tavern* you perceive straight before you, Henry Kitson's bronze statue of the Minuteman, gun in hand, peering down the road from the top of a great boulder, watching expectantly for the British Regulars. And thus did the minutemen, warned by Paul Revere and by William Dawes, another messenger who arrived a little later, stand in the gray dawn of the 19th of April, expectant, calm, and firm, grimly awaiting the arrival of the redcoats. Revere, after warning the people of Lexington, had en deavored to reach Concord and spread the alarm there, but half-way he was intercepted by a British patrol and taken back to Lexington where the officers relieved him of his horse and left him. He thus resumes his narrative in a sworn statement that I have before me in a facsimile of his original hand writing : " I then went to the house where I left Messrs. Adams and Hancock, and told them what had happened; their * See page 37. 17 REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE friends advised them to go out of the way; I went with them about two miles a cross road; after resting myself, I sett off with another man to go to the Tavern to en quire the News; when we got there, we were told the troops were within two miles. We went into the Tavern to git the Trunk of papers belonging to Col. Hancock; before we left the house, I saw the Ministerial Troops from the Chamber window. We made haste and had to pass thro' our Mihtia, who were on a green behind the meeting house, to the number as I supposed of about 50 or 60. I went thro' them; as I passed, I heard the commanding officer speake to his men to this purpose, 'Lett the troops pass by, and don't molest them, with out they begin first.' "I had to go a cross road, but had not got half gun shot off, when the Ministerial troops appeared on right behind the Meeting House; they made a short halt, when one gun was fired; I heard the report, turned my head, and saw the smoake in front of the Troops, they immediately gave a great shout, ran a few paces, and then the whole fired." This, his account, agrees, perfectly with recorded his tory. The tavern to which he alludes, still fronts upon the Green, and is known as the Buckman Tavern. In it the militia assembled that morning, and from it marched forth to take their place upon the Common. Their fine is marked by a rough boulder that bears upon its face Captain Parker's words, substantially as Revere records them: "Stand your ground; don't fire until fired upon, but if they mean to have a war let it begin here." If you place yourself beside this boulder, it will take 18 AROUND BOSTON but little imagination to reconstruct the scene. The big, barn-like meeting-house stood near the statue of the Minuteman, where a tablet marks its site. The old wooden belfry, so clearly shown in DooUttle's primitive engraving of the scene, stood near it. "The Ministerial Lexington Green at the Present Time troops appeared on right behind the Meeting House" and formed their line with Major Pitcairn at their head. The first shot was fired from his pistol. Jonathan Har rington, one of the patriots who fell at the first volley, dragged himself to his house, that still stands behind you, and died at his wife's feet. Beyond, a little way up the Woburn Road, stands the home of the Reverend Jonas Clark, in which Hancock and Adams were sleeping when awakened by Paul Re vere. This Clark house is the most interesting of all 19 REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE Buckman Tavern the present-day structures of Lexington, and we grate fully owe its preservation from destruction to the efforts of the Lexington Historical Society. Its oldest portion, the one-story ell, was built in 1698 by the Reverend John Hancock, who reared his five children in it. His second son, grown a wealthy Boston merchant, built on the main portion of the house for his father, who died in it 20 AROUND BOSTON in 1752. Three years later the Reverend Jonas Clark, who had married one of Hancock's granddaughters, moved in to become the village pastor. Edward Everett, who knew Clark, recalls his sym pathetic voice, "to which all listened with reverence and delight," and describes him as a clergyman who "enlightened and animated the popular mind," a learned theologian, a correct and careful writer. As we have just seen, he was related by marriage to the John Han cock of the Revolutionary period, who had spent many of his boyhood days in this old home of his grand father. On the 18th of April, 1775, there was another guest in the house besides the two distinguished patriots who occupied the large room on the ground floor. This was Dorothy Quincy, John Hancock's betrothed, whom he The Boulder and Harrington House 21 REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE married in the following August — the one romantic note in all this grim Lexington tragedy. Paul Revere tells us that Hancock and Adams left Mr. Clark's house after his second warning. Rut the pastor remained, and he has written for posterity a clear account of what he himself saw from his own house, for at that time there was nothing but open country be tween the parsonage and the village green. I quote the following extracts from his little-known narrative: "At half an hour after four (in the morning) alarm guns were fired and the drums beat to arms; the militia were collecting together. About 50 or 60, or possibly more, were on the parade, others coming toward it. In the mean time the troops, having stolen a march upon us, and, to prevent any intelligence of their approach, having seized and held prisoners several persons whom they met unarmed, seemed to come determined for mur der and bloodshed; and that whether provoked to it or not ! When within half a quarter of a mile of the meet ing house, they halted and the command was given to prime and load; which being done, they marched on till they came up to the east end of said meeting house, in sight of our mihtia, (collecting as aforesaid) who were about 12 or 13 rods distant. . . . Immediately upon their appearing so suddenly and so nigh Captain Parker, who commanded the mihtia, ordered the men to disperse and take care of themselves; and not to fire. — Upon this our men dispersed; — but many of them not so speedily as they might have done. "About the same time, three officers . . . advanced to the front of the body and . . . one of them cried AROUND BOSTON out 'Ye villains, ye rebels, disperse. Damn you dis perse' or words to that effect. . . . The second of these officers, about this time, fired a pistol toward the mihtia as they were dispersing . . . which was immediately followed by a discharge of arms from said troops, suc ceeded by a very heavy and close fire upon our party, dis persing, so long as any of them were within reach. Eight were left dead upon the ground ! Ten were wounded. The rest of the com pany, through divine goodness, were (to a miracle) preserved in this murderous ac tion ! . . . One circum stance more; before Major Pitcairn's Pistols the brigade quitted Lexington, to give a further specimen of the spirit and character of the officers and men of this body of troops. After the mihtia company were dispersed and the firing ceased, the troops drew up and formed in a body on the common, fired a volley and gave three huzzas by way of triumph, and as expression of the joy of victory and glory of conquest ! Of this transaction I was a witness, having at that time a fair- view of their motions, and being at a distance of not more than 70 or 80 rods from them." Treasured in the Clark house, from which the patriot- minister watched this scene, I found the bell-clapper that sounded the alarm from the wooden belfry, and the very drum that William Diamond beat to assemble the mihtia that April morning. There, too, is the identical brace of pistols that belonged to Major Pitcairn, and from which he fired the first shot of the war — weapons that 23 REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE he lost later in the day, together with his horse and ac coutrements, when he was wounded in a skirmish at Fisk's Hill. The pistols were sold to Nathan Rarrett, of Concord, who in turn presented them to General Israel Putnam, and he carried them throughout the war. Half an hour after giving their "three huzzas," the British troops took up their march again and proceeded to Concord, six miles away, with the purpose of seiz ing the. military stores collected there in the Barrett house. Thither we shall now follow them by the same road that they took — a highway that winds up and down through a rough and broken country, interspersed with little groves of pines and cedars. Stone walls and apple- orchards border the road, and over them at times, on the hill-crests, you see out to far distances and obtain views of rolling fields dotted here and there with farm houses. About midway to Concord we noticed a tablet record ing the fact that here "ended the midnight ride of Paul Revere," for it was at this spot that he was stopped by the British patrol. Longfellow, in the celebrated poem that has made of Revere's name a household word, takes him farther than he went: "It was two by the village clock, When he came to the bridge in Concord town," which fines are not borne out by fact, as Paul Revere never reached old Concord. 24 AROUND BOSTON We did, however, and as the hilly road from Lexington finally led us into the town memories other than those connected with the Revolution for a moment crowded my brain. There, to the right, rose the gables of "The Wayside "ithat was Hawthorne's home; then we passed fi -"-.,' ¦--£ The Wright Tavern, Concord Orchard House and the School of Philosophy, so inti mately connected with the Alcotts, and opposite the calm white house set in pine-trees where Ralph Waldo Emer son wrote his "Essays." But as soon as we reached Concord Green the Revolu tionary atmosphere returned, for the great white meet ing-house, now somewhat modernized, the old burying- 25 REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE ground with its slate headstones, and, most of all, the Wright Tavern, all vividly recall the events that pre ceded the Concord fight. At the tavern that still turns its shingle to the road and retains much of its old-time appearance, Major Pitcairn, the sinister hero of the day, stopped for his glass of toddy and gave vent to his idle boasts. When making the accompanying drawings I spent a fortnight in this ancient hostelry, seduced by the charm of a neat room "up-chamber," with its view, through chintz curtains and small window-panes, of the great white meeting-house opposite, where the First Provin cial Congress met. Indeed, so charming a place is Concord that I recall that sojourn with the greatest pleasure. To reach the battle-ground, you follow Monument Street until you pass, upon your right, an old house with a buUet still embedded in its wall. Then you turn toward the river, beside the Old Manse, hallowed by so many memories, "worthy to have been one of the time- honored parsonages of England, in which, through many generations, a succession of holy occupants pass from youth to age and bequeath each an inheritance of sanc tity to pervade the house and hover over it as with an atmosphere," to quote Hawthorne's own description of it. Its back windows overlook the Old North Bridge and the battle-field. From one of them — a window in the study upon the second floor, in which her grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson; later wrote his "Na- 26 AROUND BOSTON ture," and in which Hawthorne prepared for the press his "Mosses from an Old Manse" — Phcebe Bliss Emer son, wife of the parish minister and grandmother of Ralph Waldo, watched the battle that memorable April morning. Her direct descendants still occupy the Manse, and have preserved its rare and subtle atmosphere intact, for the portraits that hang in the hall, the antique furniture, the panelhng and the hand-printed wall-papers of the old rooms still compose a perfect picture of the life of long ago. Recently, when we were visiting some friends who live just out of Concord, these people were among the guests at dinner. Later in the evening, I read to them the fol lowing account of the Concord fight, a document that I unearthed, re produced in fac simile, and of which they had never heard, nor had any of the other Concord people that I met. It was written by an Amos Barrett, but what rela tion, if any, he was to Colonel j^-- ¦ \v Barrett House, near Concord 27 'it' ( - REVOLUTIONARY PILGRIMAGE James Rarrett, who commanded the Concord minute- men, I have not been able to ascertain. His is the most graphic eye-witness's account of the battle that I have been able to find. He prefaces his story by telling of the march of the British troops through Cambridge and Lexington toward Concord, and then continues: "We at Concord heard that they were coming. The bell rung at three o'clock for alarm. As I was a minute man, I was soon in town and found my captain and the rest of my company at the post. It wasn't long before there was another minute company. (One company, I believe, of minute men was raised in almost every town, to stand at a minute's warning.) Before sunrise there were I beheve 150 of us and more of all that was there. We thought we would go and meet the British. We marched down towards Lexington about a mile or mile and a half and we see them a-coming. We halted and staid till they got within about 100 rods, then ordered to the about face and marched before them with our drums and fifes going and also the British. We had grand music. We marched into town and over the north bridge a little more than half a mile and then on a hill not far from the bridge, where we could see and hear what was a-going on. . . . "While we were on the hill by the bridge, there were 80 or 90 British came to the bridge and there made a halt. After a while they began to tear the planks from the bridge. Major Buttrick said if we were all his mind, he would drive them away from the bridge — they should not tear that up. We all said we would go. We, then, were not loaded. We were all ordered to load, and had 28 *w®t%