Qass- Book. i 4lk^ ^-^ '^^A '^'^\^%#^ ^ryJl^^-xS Sos+ovn. - A-' i fbj COMTnc i I t aX^VTlCII 17tli, 1870, CELEB K A T I O N O ]• T H E CENTENNIAL ANNIYERSARY O F T II E EVACUATION OF BOSTON n T THE B R I T I S PI ARMY, ]M^^\JRCII irth, 1776. RECEPTION OF THE WASHINGTON MEDAL. ORATION DE LIVE It ED IN MUSIC UALL, AND A CnRONlCI.E OF THE SIEGK OK BOSTON. BY GEOEGE K. ELLIS. ^'i s 1 11 : A. AVILLIAMS & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 2 8 3 Washington Street. 1 8 7 G. JO r t s e of ROCKWELL AND CHURCHILL. CITY PRINTERS, CITY OF BOSTON. In Board of ALUEttMEN, March 20, 1876. liesolvcd, That the thanks of the City Council are due, and they are hereby tendered, to George E. Ellis, D. D., for the very interesting historical oration delivered before the municipal authorities of this city on the 17th inst., that being the Centennial Anniversary of the Evacuation of the town of Boston by the British Army ; and that he be requested to furnish a copy of said oration for publication, together with such historical facts connected with the Siege of Boston as may be deemed worthy of preservation. Ordered. That fifteen hundred copies of the oration of George E. Ellis, D.D., delivered before the municipal authorities of this city on the 17th inst., be printed, together with an account of the proceedings connected with the observance of the Centennial Anniversary of the Evacuation of Boston by the British Army ; and that the expense thereof be charged to the appropriation for Printing. Passed; sent down for concurrence. JOIIK T. CLAPtK, Chairman. Passed in concurrence. Approved March 24, 187G. In Common Council, March 23, 1876. J. Q. A. BPvACKETT, PreHdct. SAMUEL C. COBB, Mayor. ' 1 » : P ■ ■. -a ■^ *- •- *-\ \ V* ,■ ^ •■ »^*7/. c ^'^ . l'^ rJ 'JMQa s, jll'^tncJuiH^MlL TO :M,DORC££ S T £ R,ROXBU-R:i.B^<^ OE L 1 W , C AM3Hl3>©E,Mi:DJ ORn, CliAJlLE ST OW i%fan5 of MaLDEJS and CHEL 5K .\, ^^//; ^/i<" ^IfJLJTA lir h'ORh S ConjinLctfd III tho/eFhcfs m the 7?ars Jjj^ aTidiJ]^ .. -rJ-. v.- 'c'.' i!A,- ' "^ ^ .VPaT tv. « of » " *^«»i...-t« /?**'»%*^ iMl^ySSr^^^^^uy/nU'Uc^rt^o/l^,^ ^r A <.■■ c 8 & x? ^ r^ ,^ ^/ rVv'i^v:-^- U' ' Co' ^ ./\,c^' ■> r^V„v V^n- > Jy \ \ 1r^ r^ CONTENTS Preliminary Arrangements . Decorations Illuminations Reception of the Washington Medal -Services in Music Hall Prav^r by Rev. Dr. Manning, Pastor of Old South Introductory liemarks of Mayor Cobb Address by George E. Ellis, D.D. . Chronicle of the Siege (By George E. Ellis, D. D.) The Provincial Forces Summoned . Commencement of the Siege of Boston The Poor in Boston .... General Burgoyne on the Situation . Intercourse between Town and Country Covenant between General Gage and the Proclamation by General Gage " Tlie Friends of Government" Tories in Town and Country . Lady Frankland Benjamin Tliomiison, Count Kuinibrd Fire in Boston .... Care for a Civil GoverniiKnt . Harvard College and Cambridge The Provincial Fortifications . Raids on the Harbor Islands . Incidents in the Provincial Camp Correspondence of Generals Lee and Burgoyne A Preliminary to the Declaration of Independence Dr. Benj. Church charged with Treachery A Visitor to the Camp .... A Characteristic Order by Washington Winter in the Camp .... Treatment of Prisoners .... PAGE 9 12 20 23 33 3+ 36 39 100 110 112 112 111 115 119 123 12+ 12(; 129 130 131 133 138 142 145 14G 149 151 l.Tl l.-i.-J I.U VI CONTENTS. PAGE Chronicle of the Siege — Continued. Burgoyne on the Situation in Boston . 158 Destruction of " Liberty-Tree " 160 Tlie Besieged in Boston 164 Commission by General Gage 164 Crean Brusli 165 Printing in Boston 166 Proclamations by General Gage 167 Burgoyne's Tliciitricals in Boston 168 General Howe in Command in Boston 170 Proclamations by General Howe 170 The Contract for the Evacuation and Safety of Boston .... 173 The Leave-Taking and Embarkation 175 Boston Harbor Reopened 180 Report of the Evacuation in England 180 Diaries and Letters in Boston during the Siege 182 Diary of Ezekiel Price 184 Letters to Gardiner Greene 187 Dr. Andrew Eliot 188 Diary of Timotliy Newell 192 The Boston Ministers during the Siege . 198 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Pelham's Map of Boston. Province House 1 Old State House 15 Long Wharf 18 ' 'Washington Medal 25 Hancock House 99 Panedil Hall 115 ■ Vicinitt of Boston, Ports 138 Prospect Hill and Bunker Hill — Flv Leaf 139 Theatrical Programme 169 [The Engravings of the Washington Mcilnl, and of the Fcirlificntions around Koston, were pre- pared for Dr. Spnrks' Life and Writings of Washington. Mrs Sparks has kindly granted the use of the plates for this volume ] PEELIMINAEY AEEMGEMENTS. DECOEATIONS AND ILLUMINATIONS. PRELIMINARY AERANGEMENTS. In his luaugural Address to the Cit}' Council of Boston, on the 3d of Januar}'', 187G, the Ma^-or, Hon. Samuel C. Cobb, referred to the Centennial Anniversaries of the last and the present j'ear iu the following words : — " Iu June last we had our ceutcnuial celebration of the Auuiversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill. I believe it is regarded on all hands as a gratifying success. It was a memorable day for Boston, as being the first public occasion on which the antagonists in the fields and the councils of the ci^dl war met together in considerable niuubers and in organized bodies, to exchange pledges of renewed amity and fraternal fellowshij) and of a future cordial co-operation in the duties of patriotism. It ajj- peared to awaken the hospitable feelings and the patriotic ardors of our own people, and we have had many testi- monies that om" welcome visitors from all sections of the country were jileased with their reception and entertain- ment. This year Philadelphia will be the seat of a more unposing observance, in celebration of the Centennial Auniversaiy of the Declaration of the ISTational Independ- ence. Our Avarmest sympathies will be with her on this grand occasion of national and international interest. Under the auspices of the State Conmiission, our people will contribute to the exposition the products of their 10 CENTENIs^IAL AXKIVEESART OF THE industry and art, and, I presiune, a large personal repre- sentation. " It does not apj^ear at present that any formal action on the subject is called for on the part of this municipal government. "On the SeAcnteenth of March next Avill occur the centennial anniversary of the Evacuation of Boston by the British troops. The City Council Avill consider what observance of the day, if any, will be appropriate in itself and acceptable to the people. And on the Fourth of July I presiune the City Govermnent will not omit the celebra- tion to which the people have been accustomed from the earliest times." At the meeting of the Board of xildermeii, Januaiy (Jth, 1876, the following order was adopted : — Ordered, That the Chairman and four members of the Board of Aldermen, with such as the Common Council maj' join, be a committee to consider and report in what way it will be expedient to celebrate, on the Seventeenth of March next, the Centennial anniversary of theEvacu- tion of Boston bj' the British armj-, and on the Fourth of July next, the Centennial anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence. Aud Aldermen John T. Clark, Chairman, Alvah A. Burrage, Hugh O'Brien, Choate Buruham, and Francis Thompson, were appointed as such committee. At the meeting of the Common Council, January 13, the order was passed in concurrence, and Councilmeu J. Q. A. Brackett, President, Curtis Guild, Edwin Sibley, John Sweetser, William G. Train, Otis H. Pierce, Frederick G. Walljridge, aud William Blanchard were joined. The order was approved by the Mayor, January 15, 1876. On the 17th of January the committee reported in pait, rcc- EYACUATIOX OF BOSTON^. 11 omraending that the Mayor and the Chairman of the Board of Aldcrineii be authorized to engage an orator for the Seventcentli of March, and an order to that effect was passed hy the City Council. On the 24th of January, the committee again reported, recom- mending that, in addition to the oration ah'ead\^ provided for, the Seventeenth of March be observed as follows : — By firing salutes at sunrise and sunset, and bj- ringing the church bells at sunrise, noon, and sunset ; that the occupants of the stoi'es and dwellings on 'Washington street be requested to decorate their buildings ; that the locations of the fortifications on Boston Neck, and other places of historic interest in the city, be decorated ; that Bunker Hill Monu- ment, Dorchester Heights, and the principal public buildings, be illu- minated ; and that the General Government be requested to fire salutes from the Nav}' Yard and the forts in the harbor ; and tliat the State authorities be requested to illuminate the State-House. Citizens resi- dent on tlie principal squares and thoroughfares were requested to illuminate their dwellings on tlie evening of the Seventeenth. The committee appended to their report the following order, which was adopted by the City Council, and approved by the Maj^or on the 5th of February : — Ordered, That the Joint Special Committee who were appointed to consider and report in what way the centennial anniversary of the evac- uation of Boston b}' the British army should be celebrated, be author- ized to m.ake arrangements for the proper celebration of that occasion, at an expense not exceeding five thousand dollars, to be charged to the appropriation for Incidentals. Ill accordance with the order passed l\v the Citj' Council, his Honor the Maj'or invited George E. Ellis, D. D., to deliver the oration, and the Reverend Jacob JI. Manning, D. D., to act as chaplain, on the occasion, and both gentlemen accepted the invitation. 12 CENTEN^riAL a:nts[iveesart of the DECOEATIONS. The season of the year being unfavorable for out-door decora- tions, the sub-committee haA'ing the matter in charge, deemed it advisable to designate such ]Dlaces only as were situated upon the lines of march of the advancing and retreating armies, beginning at the advanced line of the American fortifications in Roxbury, and terminating at the point of embarkation of the British troops on Long Wharf. The following places were thus designated : — AMERICAN FORTIFICATIONS. The origin.il line of American fortifications crossed what is now Washington street on the line of division between Boston and Roxburj-, near the present Clifton place. On the 23d of August, 1775, the work of fortifj-ing Lamb's Dam was begun, and upon the completion of that work the line of fortification was advanced to a point a little south of the present Northampton street. Lamb's Dam extended from about the junction of Hampden and Al- banj' streets to a point near the present Walnut place. It was orig- in.allj' built to keep the tide from overflowing the marshes, and followed very nearly the present line of Northampton street, diverging slightly to the southward as it neared the highway. At the termination of the Dam, on the upland, a strong breastwork was constructed, and from that the intrenchments extended across the highway. The works were completed September 10, 1775, without opposition from the British, although within musket-shot of their advanced posts. LOCATION OF BROWN'S HOUSE. The house and barn of Mr. Brown stood on the west side of the high- way, near the present location of Franklin square, and about twenty rods in adv.nnce of the British line. EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 13 The buildings were occupied bj- the British troops, and served as a post from which to anno}- the Americans. . Ou the 8th of July, 1775, a party of volunteers from the American array, under command of Majors Tupper and Crane, attacked the post, drove in the guard, and set fire to the buildings. This was the only armed conflict between the opposing armies which took place within the original limits of Boston. It was at Brown's house that General Biirgoyne proposed to meet General Lee, to discuss the diflerences existing between the colonies and the mother-countrj'. BRITISH FORTIFICATIONS ON THE NECK. The main line of the British fortifications crossed the Neck between Dedham and Canton streets. The works were considered very strong, mounting twentj- guns of heavj' calibre, together with six howitzers and a mortar battery. The road passed directly through the centre of the work and was closed by gates. The fortification nearest the town was known as the " Green Store Battery," and was situated just south of the present Williams Market. Its name was taken from the warehouse of Deacon Brown, wliich stood on the site of Williams Market, and was painted green. A baiTier was erected at this point, prior to 1640, as a protection against the Indians, and, in 1710, bj' vote of the town, a strong work was constructed there. In September, 1774, General Gage caused the remains of the old works to be strengthened. The road passed through the centre of the works, and was closed hy a gate and a drawbridge. A person who entered tiie town soon after it was evacuated, describing these fortifications, says, " We found the works upon the Neck entire, the cannon spiked up, the shells chiefly split, and manj- of the cannon carriages cut to pieces ; these lines upon the Neck were handsomely built, and so amazingly strong that it would have been impracticable for us to have forced them." The works were, bj- Washington's order, rendered useless after the continental army moved to New York, so that the enemy could not make them available in case thev should regain the town. 14 CENTENNIAL ANNIVEKSAET OF THE LIBERTY-TREE BUILDING. The Liberty-tree, so named from its being used on tlie first occasion of public resistance to tlie Stamp Act, stood near the present corner of Esses and Washington streets. It was one of a number of magnificent elms which grew in that locality. On the 14th of August, 1765, an effigy of Mr. Oliver, the stamp of- ficer, together with a boot with a devil peeping out of it, — an allusion to Lord Bute, — were discovered hanging on the tree, and soon after the same Mr. Oliver, much against his will, was compelled to meet the Sons of Liberty- at the tree, and make a public recantation of his sentiments in favor of the Stamp Act. In November, 17G5, two of the king's advisers were hung in effigy upon the tree. From 1765 until the British troops took possession of the town, the tree was famous as the place of meeting of the Sons of Liberty, and the ground around it was popularly known as Libert}' Hall. In 1767 a flag- stafi" was erected, which extended through and above the branches of the tree, and a flag displaj'ed from this staif was a signal for the assembling of the Sons of Libertj\ Under the branches of the tree mattei's of public concern were discussed during the stirring times which preceded the actual commencement of hostilities, and manj' of the prominent actors in the revolution ar}- conflict took a lively part in the proceedings. The tree was cut down in August, 1775, by the Tories and the British troops, much to the vexation of the patriots who remained in the town during the siege. While the tree was being cut down, a soldier, in attempting to remove a limb, fell and was killed. Alluding to the event, the " Essex Gazette," of August 31st, 1775, says, " Armed with axes, thej- made a furious attack upon it. After a long spell of laughing and grinning, sweating, swearing, and foaming, with malice diabolical, they cut down a tree because it bore the name of liberty." A freestone bas-relief, set in the front of the building on the corner of Essex and Washington streets, marks the spot where the tree stood. EVACUATION OF BOSTOX. 15 THE OLD SOUTH CHUECH. The present buikling was erected in 1729 ; when built it was situated in what was then considered the south part of the town, and was known as the South Meeting-house. The name " Old South" was given it after the erection of the '"New South" in Summer street. The building is especiallj' rich in historic associations. Here the orations on the anni- versaries of the Boston Massacre were delivered, and its walls resounded with the eloquence of many who afterwards exemplified their patriotism bj- deeds as w^ell as words. Here was held the meeting which culminated in the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor. The meeting was adjourned from Faneuil Hall, that building not being large enough to contain the crowd. The Old South Church was looked upon with especial disfavor b}^ the British, on account of the meetings of the patri- ots which were held there, and in 1775 it was taken possession of, at the instance of General Burgoyne, and converted into a riding-school for the use of the Queen's Light Dragoons. The east galleries were allotted to spectators, and a refreshment-room was fitted up in the first gallerj^ ; the pulpit and pews were removed and used for fuel, and the floor was covered with dirt and gravel. After the town was evacuated bj- the British the Old South Society worshipped in King's Chapel, which had been abandoned by its rector and congregation. THE OLD STATE-HOUSE. The present building was erected in 1748 for a town-bouse. The meetings of the Colonial Courts, the Provincial Council, and the General Court of the Colony were held in it. The representatives met in a chamber situated at the west end of the building, and here, according to John Adams, " Independence was born." The news of the accession of George III., the last crowned head pro- claimed in the colonies, was read from the balcon}-, and on the 18th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read from the same place, by the Sheriff, William Greenleaf. When the British troops were quartered in the town, it was used as a barrack, and in it Generals Gage, Howe, and Clinton held a Council of War, before the Battle of Bunker Hill. 16 CENTEJfiSriAL AKNIVERSARY OF THE In 178D ;i toinpoiar}- balcony was erected at the west end oC the bnihl- ing, from which General "Washington reviewed the procession whicli had escorted him into the town. After the organization of the State Government, the General Conrt met there until the completion of the present State-House, in 1798. The convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States began its sessions there, and in it the Constitution of Massachusetts was framed. In 1830 the building was dedicated as a Cit}- Ilall, and continued to be occupied for that purpose until the Court House, which stood on the site of the present Cit^' Hall, was remodelled, and the Cit^^ Government re- moved there. In 1838 the post-office was located there, at which time a force of fit'tcen clerks was sufficient to transact the business of the depart- ment. FANEUIL HALL. The hall erected and presented to the town by Peter Faneuil was completed in 1742, and at a town meeting on the 13th of September of that year, the building was accepted, and a vote of thanks passed to the donor. The action of the town was as follows : — " Ix Town MiiEriNO, Boston, September 13, 1712. " AVhereas information was given to this town, at their meeting in Jul}', 1740, that Peter Faneuil, Esq., had been generously pleased to offer, at his own proper cost and ch.irge, to erect and build a noble and compleat structure or edifice, to be improved for a market, for the sole use, benefit, and advantage of the town ; provided the town of Boston would pass a vote for that purpose, and lay the same under such proper regulations as shall bo thought necessary, and constantlj' support it for the said use ; "And whereas at the said meeting it was determined to accei)t of the offer or proposal aforesaid ; and also voted that the selectmen should be desired to wait upon Peter Faneuil, Esq., and to present the thanks of this town to him, and also to acquaint him that the town have, by their vote, come to a resolution to accept of his generous offer of erecting a market-house on J)ock square, according to his proposal ; And whereas Peter Faneuil, Esq., has, in pursuance thereof, at a \evy great expense, erected a noble structure, far exceeding his first proposal, in.asmuch as it contains not only a largo and sufficient accommodation for a market- place, but has also superadded a spacious and most beautiful town hall over it, and several other convenient rooms, which may prove very ben- EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 17 eficial to the town for oflicos, or otherwise; and the .said buiUling be- ing now finished, has delivered possession thereof to the selectmen, for the use of tlie town ; it is tlierefore " Voted, That the town do, with the utmost gratitude, receive and accept this most generous and noble benefaction, for the uses and inten- tions the\' are designed for, and do appoint the Honorable Tiiomas dishing, Esq., the Jloderator of this meeting, the Hon. Adam Winthrop, Edward Hutchinson, Ezekiel Lewis, and Samuel Waldo, Esqrs., Thomas Hutch- inson, Esq., the Selectmen and representatives of the town of Boston, the Hon. Jacob AVendell, Esq., James Bowdoin, Esq., Andrew Oliver, Esq., Capt. Nathaniel Cunningham, Peter Cliardon, Esq., and Mr. Charles Apthorp, to wait upon feter Faneuil, Esq., and, in the name of the town, to render bim their most hearty thanks for so bountiful a gift, with their prayers that this, and other expressions of his bountj* and charity, ma}' be abundantl}' recompenced with the divine blessing." Another vote was passed, that in testimonj' of the town's gratitude to Peter Faneuil, and to perpetuate his memory, "the hall over the market- place be named Faneuil Hall, and at all times hereafter be called and known by that name." As a further testimonj^ of respect, the selectmen were instructed to procure a portrait of Mr. Faneuil, at the town's expense, and place it in the hall. This building was one hundred b}' forty feet, and the hall would con- tain one thousand persons. It was burnt in 1761, and rebuilt, by order of the town, in 1763, a lottery being authorized bj- the State to aid in the design. In 1806, the width of the building was increased to eighty feet, and a third story was added. The first oration delivered in the hall was a eulogy on the death of Peter Faneuil, pronoimced bj' John Lovell, A.M., the master of the Latin School. During the siege of Boston the hall was fitted up into a theatre, where pla3-s, derisive of the patriots, were performed. "In this hall was first heard the eloquence of a Hancock, the two Adamses, a Bowdoin, a Mollineus, and a Warren. In this hall was first kindled that divine spark of liberty, which, like an unconquerable flame, has pervaded the continent — a flame, which, while it proved a cloud of darkness to the enemies of America, has appeared like a pillar of fire to the votaries of freedom, and happilj* lighted them to empire and independence." — Massachusetts Magazine. 18 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE MAIN GUARB-HOUSE OF THE BRITISH TROOPS. When the British troops landed in Boston, Governor Bernard gave up the State-House to them, much to the annoyance of the courts which sat there, and to the merchants and citizens who used the lower part of the building for an exchange ; after an unsucessful attempt to obtain possession of the Manufactory building for a barrack, other buildings were procured, in various parts of the town, in which the troops were quartered. The main guard was posted in a building on King street, directlj- opposite the south door of the State-House, and two field-pieces were pointed directlj' towards it. This was looked upon as a menace to the liberty of the people, and an attempt to overawe the legislative and judicial bodies which met in the State-House, and much indignation was expressed thereat. When the Superior Court met in November, 1769, James Otis moved, "That the court adjourn to Faneuil Hall, not only as the stench occasioned by the regulars in the representatives' chamber might prove infectious, but as it was derogatory' to the honor of the court to administer justice at the mouths of cannon and the points of bayonets." It was a detachment of the main guard, stationed in this building, which fired upon the people in King street, on the 5th of March, 1770. LONG WHARF. In 1709, Oliver Noyes, and others, proposed to the town to build and maintain a wharf with a sufficient common sewer, from the end of King (now State) street to low-water mark, " leaving a wa}- three feet wide on one of the sides thereof, as a highwa}' for the use of the inhabitants of said town and others, and to extend from one end of the same unto the other forever ; and leaving a gap of sixteen feet wide, covered over, for lighters and boats to pass and repass, about the middle of said wharf, or where the Selectmen shall direct, as also a passage-way on the new wharves, on each side, for carts, etc. ; leaving the end of said wharf free for the town, when they shall see reason, to plant guns for the defence of said town." The proposition was referred to the Selectmen, who, in 1710, reported in favor of accepting it, and they were authorized to execute the proper instruments, which they did on the 13th of May. The EVACUATION OP BOSTOJf. 19 wharf Tras known first as " Boston Pier," and in the act of incorporation, granted in 1772, is described as " Boston Pier, otherwise called the Long Wharf." The property was divided into twentj'-four shares, and descendants of some of the original owners still retain the ownership of shares and stores. In 1745, during the war with France, the town erected a breast- work and planted a line of guns upon the end of the wharf. This appears to be the only instance of the town's availing itself of the reservation contained in the grant to the proprietors. After the fall of Louisburg, Governor Shirley lauded here, and met with a brilliant reception. General Gage landed here in 1774, and was received by the members of the Council and House of Representatives. Some of the principal inhabitants of the town, with the companj* of cadets, escorted him to the Council Chamber amid salutes of artillery and the cheers of the ' ^ople. ISIost of the British troops landed here, and the 5th and 38th British regiments embarked from here for Bunker Hill. When the British evacuated the town this was the principal point of embarkation. A large quantity of stores was left upon the wharf, and General Gage's chariot was taken from the dock broken. A brigantiue, a sloop, and a schooner were scuttled and left there, and many articles were found in the dock, which had been thrown over by the British. 20 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSAKY OF TllB ILLUMINATIONS. On the eveuing of March 17, 1876, the following buildings were illuminated by the city authorities : — Faneuil Hall, City Hall, the Old State-House, and the Old South Church. The State-House was illuminated by the State authorities. Calcium lights were exhibited from the top of Bunker Hill Monument, at Dorchester Heights, from the top of the Lawrence School-house, and from the Cochituate stand-pipe at the Highlands. Fortifications were constructed by the Americans during the siege on Dorchester Heights, on the hill where the stand-pipe is situated, and on what was then known as Nook's Hill, the site of the Lawrence School-house. The following is a brief account of the last-mentioned places : — DORCHESTER HEIGHTS. The works on Dorchester Heights were constructed with a view of forcing the enem}- to attack the American lines. On the 26th of February, "Washington wrote : " I am preparing to take a post on Dorchester Heights, to try if the enemy will be so kind as to come out to us." The work of constructing the fortifications was commenced about eight o'clocli, on the night of tlie 4th of March, and when morning dawned, the works were in a condition to afford a good defence against small arms and grape-shot. The worlcs commanded both the harbor and the town, and left the British but one alternative, either to evacuate the town, or to drive the Americans from their fortifications. The latter course was determined upon, and twentj-four liundrcd men were ordered to rendezvous at Castle William, for the purpose of making a night attack upon the works. EVACUATION OP BOSTON. 21 That afternoon a furious storm arose ; the surf was so great upon the shore where the boats were to have landed that the}' could not have lived in it, and the design was abandoned. A council of war was held, and it was determined to evacuate the town. ROXBURY FORT. The Cochituate stand-pipe marks the site of what was considered one of the strongest forts constructed by the Americans during the siege. It was built under the direction of General Knox, and was known as the Roxbur}' Fort, sometimes called the High or Star Fort. The strength of its constrnction, and its position on the top of a steep hill, rendered it almost impregnable. NOOK'S HILL. The appearance, on the morning of March 17th, 177G, of ihe fortifica- tions on Nook's Hill hastened the departure of the British troops. It completeh- commanded the town, and its possession by the Americans would place the British forces at their mercj'. An attempt was made bj' the Americans to fortif}- it, on the 9th of March, a strong detachment being sent for that purpose ; but one of the men kindled a fire, which was seen by the British, who commenced a severe cannonade upon them. Five Americans were killed, and the detachment was forced to retire. On the IGth another detachment was sent to the hill, and succeeded in fortifying it, in spite of a heavy cannonade, and the next morning the British evacuated the town. EECEPTION OF THE WASHINGTON MEDAL. '://,)My//y "i y.£>^l-'yt 'y 'G(^9t^t.^i>^£^^i-- y/CAc. ^ /i/iVfey^e^^/ >/ -VJ,.)/, // ■4,;,. THE WASHINGTON MEDAL. The gold Medal commemorative of the Evacuation of Boston became the property of George Steptoe Washington, the son of Samuel Wash- ington, who was the General's elder brother. The next owner of the Medal was Dr. Samuel Walter Washington, eldest son of George Steptoe Washington. On the decease of the doctor at Hasewood, Vir- ginia, in 1831, his widow became possessed of the relic. She is still living. She had given it to her only son, George Lafa3-ette Washington, who had married the daughter of her brother, the Eev. Dr. John B. Clemson, of Claj-mont, Delaware. Ou the recent decease of George Lafayette Washington, the Medal became the property of his widow, Mrs. Ana Bull Washington, from wliom with proper certificates and vouchers, b}' the generous co-operation of fifty citizens of Boston, it has now been secured to the permanent ownership of this city, with which it is so gratefully identified, and has been deposited in the Public Librar3^ Thus it appears tliat the Medal has been transmitted through the descendants, in successive generations, of General Washington's elder brother. The}- have fully appreciated its intrinsic and symbolic value, and have anxiouslj- taken care for its safety under the risks and perils which have attended its preservation. It is, itself, a most beautiful and perfect specimen of workmanship of the die and mint, and is without a blemish or anj- perceptible wear of its sharp outlines. During our civil war its then owner, George Lafaj-ette Washington, was residing eleven miles from Harper's Ferry, on the main route to Winchester, where the belligerents held alternate possession. The Medal, in its original case of green seal-skin, lined with velvet, was enveloped in cotton, and, de- posited in a box, was buried in the dry cellar of a venerable mansion where General Washington usually spent many months of the genial portion of the j-ear. The original case, which fell into decay by this exposure, accompanies the Medal in its present repository-. 4 26 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE The successive owners of tliis precious heir-loom have often been solicited to part with it by private importunit}', or for public institutions, but have always declined to do so, having in view that if ever it passed out of their hands it should be to find its resting-place in the City of Boston. The losses to which its owners were subjected during the late war, concurring with the interest of the occasion of the centennial day W'hich it commemorated, combined to induce the measures which have had such a felicitous result. A member of the Washington family residing in Texas, being aware of the willingness of his kinswoman in Delaware to part with the Medal, on the conditions just referred to, addressed a letter, on the 6th of last December, to his Honor, Mayor Cobb, making proposals to bring about the intended object. As the Mayor did not judge it expedient to propose any official action to the city government, he consulted with the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop on the subject, who immediately prepared a subscription paper, which he, with the heartj- co-operation of the Mayor and of ex-Maj-or the Hon. Otis Norcross, succeeded in having filled to the necessary amount. While this measure was in progress the Rev. Dr. Clemson, the uncle of the late George Lafayette Washington, and the father of his widow, Mrs. Ann Bull Washington, not being aware of tlie facts just stated, on February 22, 1876, addressed a letter to the Hon. John C. Park, of this citj', opening a direct communication between the owner of tlie Medal and those who were interested in its transfer. In this letter Dr. Clem- son writes : " I might state that the Medal was verbally purchased by Governor Andrew, of your State, and on this honored day [the birth- da}- of Washington] was to have been presented to your citizens. But liis premature death prevented the consummation." This Medal, of which a description will be found in the foUovving pages of this volume, was the only gold medal given by Congress to General Washington. Between the date of March 25, 1776, w'hen this gift was bestowed by a resolve of Congress, and the year 1786, bj' votes of the same bodj', a series of ten more gold medals was struck at the Paris mint commemorative of the great events and the great men of the War of the Revolution. The French Government presented a set of these in silver, including also one in the same metal of that which had been given to him EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 27 in gold, to General Washington. It is asserted that they were prepared substantially' undei" the direction of Lafayette. This series of eleven, known as the " Washington Medals," on the decease of the childless General, were disposed of with other similar treasures, under the direc- tion of his administrator, Judge Bushrod Washington, among the heirs- at-law. They afterwards came into the possession of the Hon. Daniel Webster, and, soon after his decease, into the hands of his friend, the Hon. Peter llarvej-, of Boston. This gentleman, in April, 1874, most generouslj' bestowed them upon the Massachusetts Historical Societj-, in whose cabinet they are now gratefullj- treasured. Thus all the " Washington Medals " are now in the City of Boston. PKOCEEUINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL RELATIVE TO THE AV.\SIIIXGTON MEDAL. At a meeting of the Board of Aldermen, March 20, 1876, the following commimicatiou was received : — Executive Department, March 20, 1876. To THE Honorable the City Council : — Gentlemen, — It affords me much pleasure to inform you that the gold Medal presented to General George Washington b}- the American Con- gress in 1776, commemorative of the evacuation of Boston by the British troops, was recently purchased of the Washington family bj- a few of our citizens, to be given b}- them to the City of Boston and preserved in the Boston Public Library. This most valuable relic, so peculiarly interesting to Boston as commemorating the most important event in her historj-, has been placed in my hands, and by me transferred to the Trustees of the Public Library*, in whose custody" it is to remain, in accordance with the wishes of the donors. A copy of the subscription list, with the preamble stating the object of the subscription, is enclosed herewith. SAMUEL C. COBB, Mayor. 28 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE [cOPT.] The large gold Medal presented to "Washington, by Congress, for his services in expelling the British forces from Boston on the 17th of March, 1776, having remained in the Washington family for a hundred years, is now, owing to the circumstances of its immediate owner, privately offered for sale. The undersigned, feeling deeplj^ that such a memorial should be among the most cherished treasures of our city, and should certainlj' go nowhere else, lierebj' agree to be responsible to an amount not exceeding one hundred dollars each, for the purchase of the Medal, to be presented to the City of Boston, and preserved forever in the Boston Public Library. December, 1875. Robert C. Winthrop, John Amory Lowell, W. Amorj', John L. Gardner, Samuel C. Cobb, Robert M. Mason, Charles Francis Adams, Otis Norcross, N. Thayer, Cora F. Shaw, Martin Brimmer, William Gaston, Edward Austin, Abbott Lawrence, H. P. Kidder, James Parker, H. IL Hunnewell, S. D. Warren, Nathaniel J. Bradlee, J. Ingersoll Bowditch, Henrj- L. Pierce, T. G. Appleton, William Appleton, William Endicott, Jr. Charles Faulkner, Henry Lee, William S. Appleton, Mary Brewer, C. A. Brewer, George C. Richardson, Amos A. Lawrence, Ebeu D. Jordau, Walter Hastings, J. Huntington Wolcott, George W. Wales, E. R. Mudge, William W. Tucker, Henrj^ G. Denny, James L. Little, P. C. Brooks, Sidnej' Brooks, Isaac Thacher, Henry A. Whitney, Richard C. Greenleaf, Thomas Wigglesworth, Alvah A. Barrage, Alexander H. Rice, James Davis, E. B. Bigelow, Charles Whitney. Sent down. EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 29 At the meeting of the Common Council, March 23d, the com- munication was read and placed on file, and Mr. Guild, of Ward 9, after some appropriate remarks, offered the following resolves : — Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be i^iesented to Hon. Robert C. Winthrop and his associates, for their active interest and successful effort in procuring and presenting to the City Council of Boston the valuable Medal which was given to General Washington in commemoration of his distinguished sen'iees in compelling the surrender of the Town of Boston hy the British Arm}' in 1776. Resolved, That the members of the City Council are especially grati- fied that this precious memorial of Washington is henceforth to abide in this city, whose relief from peril was the occasion of its emission one hundred years ago. The resolves were read twice and passed. Sent up for concurrence. In Board of Aldermen, March 27, 1876, the foregoing resolves were passed iu concurrence, aud were approved by the Mayor March 28, 1876. SERA^CES IN MUSIC HALL. SERVICES IN MUSIC HALL, The Music Hall was well filled hy an intelligent and apprecia- tive audience, thoronghly imbued with the spirit of the occasion. The Legislature, the City Council, and members of the City Gov- ernment occupied seats upon the floor. Upon the platform were seated the principal civil, military and naval United States otEcers ; His Excellency the Governor and Staff; His Honor the Lieutenant Governor ; His Honor the Mayor ; the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, together with many leading citizens. The decorations Mere confined almost entirely to the platform, and were appropriate to the occasion. In front of the organ, extending from one side of the platform to the other and half way to the ceiling, was a maroon-colored curtain, the border trimmed with bunting of the national colors. In the centi'e of the npper edge was a tMblet bearing the date " 1776," surmoimtcd by au eagle. At the corners to the right and left respectively were fac- similes of the obverse and reverse of the Washington Medal. Below the centre tablet hung a white banner bearing upon it a representation of the Pine-Tree. Below this was an English flag and a representation of the first American flag, the staffs crossed. The front of the platform was decorated with evergreens and calla lilies. Upon the face of the upper balcony was a repre- sentation of the city seal, decorated with bnnting of the national colors. Attached to the front of the reading desk was the old oaken tab- let, bearing, in carving, the King's Arms, taken from tiie Province Si CENTEXXL\L AX:N'IVEESx1EY OF TILE House ;i hmidi-ed years ago ; preserved in the cabinet of the Mass. Historical Society, and Iqaned for the occasion. At 2.30 o'cloclc, after music by the Germania Band, His Honor tlie Mayor addressed the audience in the following words : — The members of tliis assembly are invited to give their attention Avhile prayer is oftered by the Rev. Dr. Manning, and at the close to unite in repeating the Lord's prayer. Rev. Dr. Manning, pastor of the Old South Churcli, then offered the following prayer : — PKAYER BY REV. DR^ MAXNIXG. Almighty God, Avhom Ave Avorship as the maker and upholder of worlds; Ave giA^e Thee our humble and most hearty thanks for all Thy favor and mercy toA\"ard our na- tive land. Especially do Ave noAV thank Thee for Thy goodness to this beloA'ed CommouAvealth : for Thy favor- ing proAddence in the days of its infancy and feebleness; and for the men Avhom Thou didst raise up in our OAvn city, at the time to Avhich our thoughts noAV^ go back, Avho forsook their homes and their dearest treasures and asso- ciations, and risked then* Uacs, that they might drive out the ai'med iuA-ader, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and to us their children. ~We thank Thee for the great deliverance anIiicIi Thou didst send them, Avhich Ave are this day met to commemorate. "VTe thank Thee that the mother-country, that Old England Avhosc oppres- sions proA'oked oiir fathers to take up arms against her, is to-day our firm friend and ally among the nations of the earth; and that the mother and daughter are united in EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 35 efforts to maintain a spirit of peace and good-will be- tween themselves, and to extend the blessings of a Chris- tian civilization throughout the Avorld. We thank Thee that Thou hast jireserved to so great a degree the valor and soundness of our Xew England stock, so that to-day the e3'cs of the nation are tiu'ned hitherward in the time of extremity, for men who shall stem the floods of corruption at home, and who shall worthily represent our spu*it and guard our interests in foreign courts. Prepare us now, we beseech Thee, to profit by the lessons of historic scenes and events which may pass in review before our minds. Let it be impressed iipon us, while we are listen- ing to Thy servant, that a pm"e and upright character is the most precious rehc of our past history which we can cherish; and that such a character, built up in us and our children, is the noblest monument Ave can erect to the memory of the men who laid the foundations of oiir gov- ernment. Bless, we beseech Thee, our enth-e land; all its rulers and all its people. Bless this beloved Common- wealth, the citizens and those who are in authority over us. Be gracious imto the city in which we dwell, bestow- ing Thy favor upon its government, upon its industries, upon its churches, its schools and its homes. Let us never degenerate from the heights of moral excellence where our fathers stood. But as the centuries pass away, one after another, may the character of om* people be lifted nearer and nearer to that perfect standard of recti- tude which is set before us in the teachings and example of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. Om" Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as 36 CEXTENXIAL AX^'I^"EESAEY OF THE it is in heaven. Give ns this clay our daily bread; and forgive lis our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. At the conclusion of the princr, the Germania Band played a selection, after Avhich the Mayor spoke as follows : — INTRODUCTORY REMARKS OF MAYOR COBB. Fellow Citizexs : — One hundi-ed years ago to-day the British anny, after standing a siege of almost a year, vacated the town of Boston at daybreak, and sailed down the harbor, bomid for Halifax. The Continental troops immediately marched hi and took triumphant possession. From that day to this no hostile force has trod the streets of the good old town. The nearest approach to such a humiliation was in 1863, when the Confederate army, at the culminating pouit of its successes and hopes, reached Gettysburg. That army did not arrive in Boston at that time. It did arrive on the 17th of Jime, 1875, by some of its representative organizations; not, however, breathing threatenings and slaughter, but bearing the olive-branch of Peace, coming with fraternal confidence and receivhig a fraternal welcome ; and on this very platform placed the pahnetto beside the pine-tree, — the two s^^nbols never to be separated again, so they said, and so we said. In a like spirit we will celebrate this anniversary of the Evacuation, hoping, amid the grateful and patriotic mem- ories that cluster about the occasion, to strengthen still further the bonds of concord between the lately hostile EVACrATIOX OF BOSTOX. 37 sections of the country, and also the relations of cordial aniit}' between the revolted colonies and the mother-coun- try, — foes a hundred years ago, but friends to-day by every motive of mutual interest and every sentuneut of kinship and every genei'ous hope for the world's peace and the progress of humanity. We do Avell, fellow-citizens, in coming together to-day to listen to the stor^- of the Siege and Evacuation. The telling of it has been confided to one eminently fitted by his studies and tastes to tell it thoroughly and well. . May we so listen to it as to be inspired with new thank- fulness to the God who upheld our fathers in theu* great struggle, and who has carried their children through all the trials and perils of the centiuy, and with new vows of de- votion to the unity and welfare of our country, our whole country, and the preservation and purity of its institu- tions. B}" a most happy coincidence mth the spirit of this oc- casion, I am privileged to announce a circumstance which will be a welcome delight to all our citizens. The oi'ator of the day Avould have had to remind you, that, in com- memoration of the great event of this day, and as an expression of the profound respect of the people for Washington, — the head of our armies, — the Congress at Philadelphia, which had appointed hun to his command, on learning that he had regained the possession of Boston, passed votes expressing then" warmest praise and grati- tude, and providing that a Medal in gold, commemorating the event, should be struck to be presented to him. That Medal, after the lapse of a hundred years, now visits for the fu'st time the city with which it has so vitally 38 CENTEiraiAL ANlSnVERSARY OF THE interesting associations. It has been cherished in the line of the Washington family, fondly prized, and watchfully guarded. It has come here to stay, and is the property of the city. By the consent of its recent OAvner, and the thoughtful liberality of a few of our citizens, it is hence- forward, with proper vouchers for its authenticity and transfer, to be deposited in the Public Libi-ary of the city. I now put it into yoiu" hands, sir, as yovi are about to rehearse the history of the event which it commemorates. At the conclusion of the Mnyor's remarks, the orator of the day, George E. Ellis, D.D., delivered the following address : — [The address is here printed at length, as it was written. Considerable parts of it were omitted in the delivery.] EVACUATION' OF BOSTOK. 39 ADDEESS OF GEORGE E. ELLIS, D.D. jjf/v Mayor and Fellow-Citizens : — The Memorial Medal Avhich you have put into my hands is itself the golden text, and substantially the orator and the discom-se of this Centennial Day. In the discharge of the grateful and enviable office which you have assigned to me, I can at best but interpret the de- vice and expand the legend of this precious token. Wrought of the purest of the metals, coined iuto grati- tude and reverence, a magnetic power of subtle and refii>- ing potency ought to inhere in it from the pm-e hands into which it first came. It was the first gift, a complimentary tribute accom- panying a hearty recognition of high service, — made by what we must call, by anticipation, oiu* repubUc. It ex- pressed the incipient nation's gratitude to its foremost man, then, ever since, and never more than now. An illegal assembly of delegates meeting at Philadelphia, from twelve rebelling colonies, — not yet asserting their Independence, but writmg loyally theu* grievances and petitions to the King of Great Britain, who had expressly forbidden their assembling, — had nevertheless commis- sioned a military chieftain to head and lead an array of ai-med patriots against the invading forces of that mon- 40 centen:n'lvl AxxivEKSiVn\' of the arch. He had done so for nine of the eleven months through which those troops, reinforced and supphed by a fleet in the open harbor, had been beleaguered on this peninsula. The sldll and energy of that commander devised measures by which the humiliated army and fleet of Britain were driven away, never to return here again. The Congress at Philadelphia — a thirteenth colony being now represented in it — voted its thanks and grati- tude to the commander-in-chief, and provided for this golden medal to be struck and presented to bun. John Adams, with two associates, was charged with arranging for its device and inscription, when it should be struck in Paris. The decorator of this hall for to-day's exercises has thrown out the semblance of the medal, in proportions not one whit too enlarged. It bears, on the obverse, a profile head of Washington, — said to have been an ad- mirable likeness, — encircled with an inscription in Latin, which reads in English, — " The American Congress to George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of its Armies : The Assertor of Liberty." On the reverse, Washington and his aids appear on horseback on the Heights of Dor- chester, amid field-works and muniments, the town of Boston in view, while the chief points to the fleet of ves- sels, whose sterns show that they are leaving the harbor. The inscription, Englished, is, " The enemy being first routed, Boston was recovered March xvii. JVHDCCLXXYT." There was an anticipation of triumph and of fame in this public gift, made at so early a stage in a long strug- gle, and in the opening of the national career of the august commander. Lofty and yet modest in its self- regards as was the dignity of his spirit, was not this EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 41 treasured gift, sometimes taken from its repository and in the retii'ement and home privacy of Washington, fondly gazed upon, with the reckonhigs of memory and a good conscience, in recalling tranquilly the anxious past? The medal, fully appreciated for its intrinsic and symbolic value, has been transmitted through the family of his elder brother. During our civil war it was held by those who lived where the combatants on either side were changing places. Then, for safe-keeping, it was buried in the ground some eleven miles from Harper's Ferry. Un- der ground was the proper place for it then; for it was not meet that it should be in the sunlight during the struggle over the life of the nation Avhich Washmgton had created and saved. Shall we not all rejoice, fellow-citi- zens, that just after a century has transpired since a great enterprise was consmnmated, this memorial of it has found its shrine in this rescued city? It will be for the scholar, the orator, and statesman who worthily owns the name and lineage of the honored and revered foimder of this Town and State, m the glorious summer mouth of the Nation's Centennial, to give elo- quent voice to the echo of a hundred years of the procla- mation of that nation's birth. My word is limited to this old peninsula of Boston. The event to-day commemo- rated, alike in the protracted and weary work which culminated in it, and in its place and unport m the yet more protracted series of struggles which it opened, has its transcendent interest and glory. We commemorate the Centennial of the one most memorable day in all the two and a half centuries of the history of Boston, — the day on which the only hostile force that has ever occupied 42 CENTENNIAL ANNIVEKSAHY OF THE it was cli'iven from it, that its scattered inhabitants might return to their own homes and peaceful ways of honest industry. The theme is not one for rhetorical ornament, nor for ideal, imaginative flights. Its historic facts carry with them stirred emotions and iastructive lessons. This, is the one day in- the long series of centennial commemo- rations, extending through seven years, that belongs especially and exclusively to this dear old town of Bos- ton, — tlie day of its great deliverance from pestUence, sword and famine. I must, therefore, look upon and address all around me as natives of Boston; or, in the exceptional cases of those of you who may not be so, as, whUe duly deploring the misfortune, at least its good citi- zens, including the sex that does not yet vote. Let us recall the old town as it was at the time with which we have to deal. OLD BOSTON. It was a pear-shaped peninsula, less than two miles in its extreme length, and but little more than one in its greatest breadth. It hmig to the main land at Roxbury by a slender stem or neck, of a mile in length, so low and narrow between tide-washed flats that it was often sub- merged. It was occupied by the first colonists here as their capital, because of these natural features; its sea- front, its water-borderings, and the ease of defending it at the ISTeck against Indians and wolves. There was a barrier constnicted for this pm-pose near Avhere the strong lines and defences of our besieged enemy were planted. The territoi'ial area and aspect of the peninsula had been scarcely changed at aU, ui theu- natm-al featm-es, at EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 43 the time of the siege from what they were when it was first settled. Extraordiuary clianges have been made since, most of tliem Avithiu the last half century. The origiaal seven hundred acres of sohd land have now be- come nearly fifteen hundred. The gain has been made by reclaiming the broad, oozy salt marshes, the estuaries, coves and bays, once stretching wide on its northern and southern bounds. Where the area was then the narrow- est it is now the widest. Besides the two elevations, Copp's and Fort Hill, which rose on the northern and southern ends of the promontory, another with triple summits — the only one of which that remains is the site of the State House — gave the name of Tri-moimtain, or Tremont, to the settlement. The sharp declivities and bold undulations of the surface of the peninsula had not been disturbed at the time of the siege. The hundred thoroughfares, lanes and alleys, with their naiTow courts and sinuous windings, have been broadened and straight- ened and extended and multiplied; the whole sm-face has been levelled and graded, every square mch of it has been turned over and over, and it has been bm-rowed under ground as diligently as it has been coursed above. More labor and money have been exi^ended upon the mere soU of this peninsula than upon the land surface of all oiu' other old cities. The granite ledges of the coast and of the interior, the forests of Maine, the sand and gravel of our country hills, have been deposited here to give us deep water margins, to fringe off our marshes, and to make new teiTitory. Abounding bridges and causeways make us forget that this town ever was a peninsula. The thought not irreverently suggests itself that if the Crea- 44 CENTENISnAL ANISIVERSAKY OF THE tor — as we used to say — but as science is now trying to teach us to phrase it, if the Evolving Power, had had re- gard to our wislies as to the disposal of land and water in this neighborhood, we might have been relieved of much cost and toil. The numerous islands in our beautiful bay bore still some remnants of their original woods, or were covered with tilled fields and pastures for flocks. The old town had been for nearly a hundred and fifty years the scene of peace, thrift and happiness — with the bufietings of human experience mingled in — for exiles, almost wholly from England, with their descendants. Just previous to the time of its sharp trial it was a privi- leged and an enviable heritage. It enjoyed an entail of blessings from the toils of a laborious, virtuous and God- fearing ancestry, and from a softened, but not repudiated, Puritan sway in its households and modes of life. From extant letters, diaries, family traditions, mercantile ledgers and dra^vings, the old town may be set forth with such charms of thrift and comfort, and tranquil prosperity, as to di"aw from some of its present citizens regrets that theu" times had not been then rather than now. Its homes and marts of business were occupied by people, mostly of one race and mother country and language, with common memories, traditions and interests. One little rill, and that from a most healthful and welcome stream, had then flowed in from a foreign source, giving us, with the Huguenot exiles, names gratefully cherished among us, as Bowdoin, Faneuil, Bassett, Sigourney, Johonnott, Dupee, Chardon, and others. " Well-to-do," " fore-handed," were the local phrases by which the general condition of the people would have EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 45 been described. There was real wealth, too, in the hands of some, with complacency, luxury and display. There were stately and substantial dwellings, with rich and solid furnishings, for parlor, dining-room, hall and cham- ber, with plate and tapestry, brocades and laces. There were portraits, by foreign and resident artists, of those who were ancestors, and of those who meant to be ancestors. There were formal costumes and manners for the gentry, with parade and etiquette, a self-respecting decorum in intercourse with their own and other classes, wann hospi- tality, good appetites, and abundant viands, liquid and solid, for all. The buildings were detached, none of them in blocks. The homes of many of the merchant princes and high magistrates were relatively more palatial than are any in the city to-day. They stood conspicuous and large, surrounded by generous spaces, with lawns and trees, with fruit and vegetable gardens, and fields for pas- ture, and coach and cattle barns. There were fine equi- pages, with black coachmen and footmen. There were still wide unfenced spaces, declivities and thickets, where the barberry bush, the flag and the muUen-stalk grew undisturbed. There were many quaint old nooks and corners, taverns and inns, "coffee-houses" — the di'hiking- vessels in which were not especially adapted to that beverage — shops designated by emblems and symbols, loitering places for news and gossip, resorts of boys and negroes for play or roguery, and some dark holes on wharf or lane. Boston was the chief mart of the prov- ince, which numbered nearly 349,000 when I^ew York had 238,000. The inhabitants in the toAvn were about 17,000. There were some 2,000 buildings, four being of 46 CENTEKKTAT, AJSTNTVERSAUT OP THE stone, of which King's Chapel alone remains. Between Beacon and the foot of Park street, stood the Work- house, the Poor-honse and the Bridewell, all facing the Common. On the site of the Park-street church stood the Granary; opposite, a large manufactory building, used by the British for a hospital. The Jail occupied the site of the present Court-House. King and Queen, now State and Court streets, were the most compactly covered and lined by taverns, dwellmgs, marts and offices of exchange. The house provided by the province for the British Governor was ojjposite the Old South, standing- far back, stately, commodious, with trees and lawn up to Wasliington street. The Old State House, with a dignity which it has not now, held the halls of the Council and the Representatives, with royal portraits and adornings. How little is there here now Avhich the patriots and citizens of the old days, if they came back, woidd recognize! They would thmk that we had set ourselves to obliterate all traces of them and their Avays. We camiot but regret the removal of all our old landmarks, and the changing of ancient names for new. True, the surface of the earth and its superstructures belong to the living generation, to be disposed wholly for its comfort and convenience. The dead can claun only a resting-place beneath it. They have by no means secm-ed even that always here ; and if they should come out from theu* repose many would have to select their grave-stones from an ornamental border, or would wonder how other people's names were inscribed over their tenements. In the interest of historians, sur- veyors, searchers of titles, of those who would know how things looked and were called before they were born, and EVACUATION OF BOSTOX. 47 who would be reasonably sui'e that they hold the fee of their oavh graves, let there be henceforward no needless changing of names, except it may be to restore old ones. For we not only wish to know our fathers, but should A«sh them to kaow us. Yet, as the years of strife were approaching, there had come in one qualifying element to the internal harmony and security of old Boston, for there were those under its roofs a century ago who were divided against themselves. For more than a half of its first hundred years the town and the colony had been substantially indejiendent of all for- eign control; pursuing industry and trade on its own re- sources; choosing its own magistrates and holding them to accoimt; making and administering its own laws; fight- ing its own battles with Indians, Dutch and Frenchmen; never, even in poverty or stress of peril, asking, but rather repudiating, public aid from abroad. King and Parhament had been tolerated as undesu-ed correspondents, for re- monstrant and deferential, and rather melancholy letters, but the ocean and some other things had had a very chill- ing eifect upon love. English armies had begun to find their Avay liither, to fight with us, or for us, incidentally to the moi'e exigent purpose of driving the French ofi" the continent; and, of com'se, England wanted remuneration for these services. For more than three quarters of a cen- tury before the war, this province, which had prospered best when most neglected, which had earned all the liber- ties it claimed, and never, for a moment, really yielded, had fallen under the sway of foreign masters. By its second charter, Kuig, Ministry and Parliament, represented here by crown officials, overnaled those legis- 48 OENTENTSriAl, ANNTVERSAET OF THE lative and judicial functions which had previously been freely disposed by the people. Boston became, in minia- ture, a vice-royalty, with court and church. A subtle but potent influence brought in foreign intei-ests and regards, feelings and manners, fashions and distuictious. The old sterling, thrifty, frugal stock of the people, holding their independence as toughly as a tradition, as they were about by fighting to make it a certainty, could not and would not harmonize with this new element. They would bow, but they would not bend. They would petition, but they would not comply. They would chaffer, but would ratify no bargain about libei'ty. Trade, too, though it had enriched, had demoralized a portion of the community; for nine-tenths of that trade was what is known in law as smuggling. A thousand vessels cleared from Boston in a year, com'sing our coasts and skimming all ojsen seas. The revenue laws imjoosed by Parliament, to restrain the mternal and the foreign traffic and commerce of the colonies, were so onerous and severe, that our people acted on the assumption, long be- fore they fought for and assured it, that the Idng of Eng- land had no right to a revenue from this side of the water, no more than any one can draw checks on a bank in which he has made no deposit. All manufactures, even of articles of prime necessity, from our own raw materials even, were strictly prohibited. Our people did not mean to be poor. They wished to keep their own books. They objected to a partnership Avhich did not increase theu* capital, nor extend the good-will of their concern. So that mth the crown officials resident here, their descendants, their satellites, and a class of merchants EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 49 whose interests, as traders, were rather with England than with America, we find tlie keen and vigorous materials of a party w*ithin the toAva hostile to its local and traditional spu'it. To these are to be added alike in the town, and throughout this as well as in the other provinces, a few men, high-minded and true-hearted, intelligent, respected for talent, culture, position and influence, who, with fond clingings to the mother-country, or with halting judgments as they cast the horoscope of the future, or with timid misgivings as to the probable issue of rebellion, shrank from a decision, put in cautions, raised remonstrances, or were goaded by the imi^atience or rudeness of popular measm-es into committing them- selves to the doomed side. These loyalists, tories, " gov- ernment-men," while being jealously watched and harshly treated by the liberty party, were correspondingly flattered and cajoled by the crown officials with promises of immu- nity and compensation. But all the inhabitants of the town, rebels and tories alike, were to be common sufferers in the fate awaiting them. THE PEEPAKATION FOR THE SIEGE. In this warring and distracted world, sieges, the belea- guerment of to^vns, cities and fortresses, by forces on sea or land, form one of the largest and most exciting elements of all history. A list of them might be classified, and duplicated even, under all the letters of the alphabet, tossing in strange confusion the troubled annals of all lands and all epochs. Stories of skilled manoeuvre and artful stratagem, stories of harrowing suffering and of sublime heroism, wrought into thrilling narratives of prose, or 7 50 CENTENOTAIi AITNIVEESAIIY OF TILE sung in the music and rhytlxm of immortal poetry, rehearse for us the literature of sieges. We riui over, in memory, the leading names of that alphabetical list, with Acre and Babylon, Calais and Derry, Gibraltar, Jenisalem, Luck- now, ISIalta and Metz, Paris and Pampeluna, Roehelle,] Saragossa and Sevastopol and Troy, not forgetting the atrocities and the nobleness so glowingly presented by our own Motley in liis history of the beleagured cities of the Netherlands. The passions of love and hate, of creed and empire, of blood and djaaasties, have been the weapons of assaUers or defenders; and with rare exceptions, in all sieges, the enemy has been without the citadel, and those witliin it have been guarding then" OA\ai homes. But this old town of Boston a centiny ago Avas invested by its own people against a foe who held it in thrall. The story of the con- tention, running through the ton previous years, which re- sulted m seven years of war on this continent, is, or ought to be, familiar for this Centemiial season to all Avho hear me. The record and the spectacle, as confined simply to this spot of earth, and crowded Avith matter of surpassing interest, are more than enough for our hurried glance to-day. The descendants of those exiles who, a centiuy and a half before, had settled upon this rough and barren prom- ontory, had turned weakness to strength, and had attained thrift and vigor from their rugged conditions. The spu'it of liberty was in their souls, and the power to maintain it was in their veins and fibre. They always had been free, in night, in distance, in neglect, and even in contempt. And they meant to be free, wdien, hopefully EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 51 and happily gathering the hai-vest from a hard soil and a hard tillage, they had become a coveted prize for parlia- mentary spoil and a royal revenue. Seven years before the catastrophe, crews of foreign sailors, and marines to protect its landing, had brought from over the seas a detachment of the royal araiy, who had taken military possession of this to^vn. Bad and treacherous advices from cro^vn olEcials here had been stealthily sent to the royal cabinet that two regiments of British regulars would overawe and crush out the demagogue spirit of a few restless men who were here fomenting rebellion. The further advices — a trifle, but not much wiser — were that five regunents Avould sweep the continent of rebellion. The larger number was multiplied many tunes, with mer- cenary allies, too; l)ut the continent was too large and hard for the broom. Protests, pleadings and remon- strances, with tongue and pen, had exhausted all their peaceful methods against the quartering of troops in the town. But still they came, with arrogance, insult and defiance, and finally held (lie town against the dwellers in its homes. Tlie fanners and mechanics of the adjoining country, in this environment of hill and valley, gathered almost in a circle around them, and bade them stay strictly in the close quarters where they were so unwel- come, or take themselves off by the water-way on which they came. Both parties, in due time, as we shall see, came to accord in the latter alternative. This beleaguerment of the soldiers of his Majesty on the little peninsula which they had invaded was the natural, though somewhat protracted, residt of every preceding incident in the controversy. If such troops 52 CENTENNIAL ANNIVEKSART OF THE came hither at all, the law provided for them barracks at the Castle, as the cows had a vested right to the Common, and the citizens to their streets and buildings. The commander even hail the conlidence to demand that the province should pay these troops; a proposition Avhich, of course, Avas not approved. The town-meetings were from the lirst, and all along to the siege, the great resource of the inhabitants, where courage and shrewdness, temporizing or firm decision, met every emergency as it arose. AVhen the mischief of these Boston town-meet- ings was realized by the royal councillors, their General was ordered to forbid the calling of another. But the selectmen replied that they had no occasion to call another, as the last one was kept alive by adjournment. So the General Avrote back, that, for all that he could see, or say, or do, one town-meeting might extend through ten years. What the people had foreboded from the presence of the soldiers occnrred in due time, on March 5, 1770, when a squad of them, on being annoyed and insulted by a few boys and their abettors, fired npon the crowd. The so-called " Horrid JVCassacre " furnished the theme for the annual oration on that day — "The Danger of Standing Armies in Populous Towiis in Times of Peace." Tlie occasion was duly honored by the appointed orator, six years afterwards, in Watertown, as the troops were pre- paring to evacuate. The destruction of the tea in oiir harbor, in December, 177o, was followed by the vindictive Parliamentary Bill, which tightly closed the Port of Bos- ton to all counnerce and water intercourse on June 1st, 177-1. the dav on whiili, with the melancholy tolling of EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 53 muffled bells, fitly enough, Hutchinson embarked for England. From that vengeful measure, more than from any other single event, may be dated the succession of measures upon both sides — though still to be wearily and wofuUy deferred for its final act — which broke the bond between England and her American colonies. In the pitiful con- dition to which it was now reduced, the melancholy and starving town appealed to the other towns in this prov- ince, and to the other provinces, and made its own cause one of warning and concern to the whole continent. The appeals were nobly answered, and generous contributions of goods, and food and money were made to the stricken and impoverished people from all the seaboard and inland settlements, including even Canada. A generous gift from the future commander appears on the list. Then came a royal breach of the organic provisions of the Province Charter, assuming for the King the appointment by mandamus of the Governor's councillors, and subverting the securities for the conduct of courts of justice. In the judgment of reason and equity, not as a prompting of passion, this royal breach was regarded as arresting the royal sway in tliis province. Henceforward the King's Governor became a military general instead of a civil magistrate; his official power was restricted immediately to this peninsula, or to whatever range he might cover with his forces. The province, as we shall see, first of its own impulse, and then by help of advice from the Conti- nental Congress, took measures for fonning and adminis- tering, as a substitute, a popular govenunent. That train of measm'cs was initiated in a Massachusetts Assembly, at 54: CENTENNIAL ANNIVEKSAHY OF THE Salem, in June, 1774, meeting with doors locked against the govci'nor's vetoing messenger, when delegates were^ commissioned to a Continental Congress. Committees of Correspondence busily pursued their sympathetic tasks. Attempts, once baffled and once successful, wei'c made by detachments of soldiers to seize supplies wliich the prov- ince was beginning to gather for the impending strife. Against the remonstrances of the Selectmen of Boston, enforced by those of the Continental Congress, General Gage renewed and strengthened the fortifications on the Neck, alleging that he did not design to prevent free ingress and egress, but only to protect his own troops. His official spies had more than once been sent out into the adjoining country, and returned with over-estimates of the stores which the provincials were gathering. Om' Centennial of the last year told us all there is to be told of the raid of April 19, after the stores at Concord, with the British invasion of the country, and of the humiliation of the disorderly return to town. Better would it have been for them then had they tarried longer in Charlestown. Certain ventures made by the provincials to secure hay and live stock iijjon the harbor islands, in defiance of British gunboats, fill the interval to the day of Bunker Hill. The story of that, too, has been exhaustively told. THE CLOSING IN OF BOSTON. The first stage in the investment of Boston, for the pur- pose of confining the royal forces to the peninsula, began on the evening of the day of Concord and Lexington. Minute-men, farmers, mechanics, and miscellaneous bands and groups, with such weapons as they could put their EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 55 hands on, and such rations as theh* households furnished for the moment, gathered upon every foot of soil on the surrounding main land of hill, field and marsh. They changed day by day for nearly a year ensuing, but only by substitution of persons and material. They came first as startled men rush out to a conflagration, and stay by to watch lest it should spread. Cattle were still browsing in the pastures, and horses were tethered to the carts they had drawn with their rustic freight. The picturesque groups, in the homely array of the farm or the workshop, with their arbors or shanties, and an occasional tent extemporized from a fishing-smack, as seen from a quiet distance might have suggested a gypsy encampment, or a spring picnic. But they stayed there so long and to such purpose, with such a work to do, and under the training of such a mas- ter mind and hand, as to become an army, uniformed, drilled, disciplined and officered for a campaign after the stern methods of war. The beleaguerment and invest- ment of the little sea-washed peninsula, which were to extend steadily, with sterner clasp and throttle for the eleven ensuing months, began then. There was still some passing in and out of the town, by land or water, under surveillance, allowed by privilege, or for purposes of necessity, or seized by spies, informers, deserters, or those of adventurous daring. But the invading forces were held to their contracted quarters, and hencefoi-ward Avere deprived of vegetables and fresh provisions, except such as they could seize from the islands, or obtain by a supply vessel. Then came the aggravation of the miseries of the patriotic inhabitants of the to^vn, insulted by the military, sneered at by their own fellow-citizens, — who boastfully 66 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSAKY OP THE lu'ld, as royalists, to Avhat they trusted was to be the win- inng" side, — straitened for the usual supplies of life, and reasonably apprehensive of pestilence and famine within, and of a full share in the perils of an assault from their friends outside. REMOVAL OF THE INHABITANTS OF BOSTON. Before the battle in Charlestown the distress and the dreads of most of the 17,000 inhabitants of the town in- driced them to make an appeal to Gen. Gage for liberty to leave it, as the fort iiieat ions on the Neek were rigidly guarded, the ferry-ways were closed, and not even a tishing- boat could leave the Avharves. The alternative of leaving or remaining Avas an embarrassing and cruel one for the people themselves; and the gi-anting or refusing permission was an equally perplexed and balanced alternative to the General. A protracted town-meeting in Faneuil Hall, including the whole of a Sunday, presided over by James Bowdoin, with jirayer by Dr. Eliot, was excitedly given to the matter. The result Avas a covenant, by Avhich the General agreed that such citizens, Avith their fiamilies, as Avished to go out, on depositing their arms, and agreeing not to take ])art in an assault on the toAAu, should have passes, and facilities by boat or carriage, for leaving Avith their etfects. Those Avho sought the liberty surrendered their AA'capons, and Avere prepared to desert their homes and Avarehouses, yielding them to risks of plunder, fire and destruction, to give up their occupations for a liveli- hood, and to take their chance, as dependents on their country friends. But the General faltered in his part of the covenant, alleging that arms and even cannon had been EVACTTATIOX OF BOSTOX. 67 carted out of the town, hidden under loads of manure and by other tricks. The loyahsts in the town protested against a measure which, in depriving it of all who sympathized with the rebels outside, strengthened their cause and in- terest, and would make them more inclined to bombard the garrison and all who were left in it. Under then- outcries, backed by the advice of some of his remaining councillors, Gage withheld the promised facilities for exit, made it difficult for any to obtain passes, positively forbade them to some applicants, limited the meaning of the word effects to clothing and household furniture, excluding goods, food, and even medicines, and thus aggravated at once anxiety for escape from the town, and the difficulty of securing it. The exigencies of the case, however, compelled him to allow the exit of a large proportion of the people, while he forbade the selectmen, and individuals of whom he was jealous, to join them. Gladly did he rid himself of the infirm and poor, the sick, women and children. It was estimated that before the battle in Charlestown 10,000 of the inhabitants had left the two peninsulas. All such of the exUes as had not friends willing and able to receive them were provided for by the province, with a tenderly-guarded condition that they v.cre not to be held to be paupers, but sustained by a fixed weekly allowance. In many cases, one or more members of a family, or agents of merchants, remained in town to guard interests or prop- erty at risk, and others, as just stated, were compelled to stay. So it happened that households were cruelly sep- arated during the whole siege, never seeing their several members, imagining and foreboding all forms of evil; and if occasionally conununicating at the lines, or by letters. 58 CENTENNIAIi ANNIVERSARY OP THE being cleprivcd of all privacy, as interviews were watched, and letters were opened on both sides. Thei'e was not then, nor is there to-day, a community of the same size on this peopled earth that would have been, or could be, more grievously racked and shattei'ed, more distracted and riven in wi'etchedness and ruin, than were the town and people of Boston under these rueful ex- periences. Trade, industry, security, all paralyzed; school and family discipline, Sunday ways, habits of order, obedience and revei'ence at once discredited; sickness unsolaced; death hung over with deeper shadows, and every bitter drop, not yet in the cup of miseries, reasonably anticipated as about to mingle in it, — all these were the beginning of sorrows. It was characteristic alike of the descent and the habits and principles of the people, that arrested apprenticesliips, closed schools, and defiled churches and prostrate family altars, were often first and most mournfully spoken of as deepening the gloom of the siege. It is also a matter of authentic and suggestive meaning that even the poorest mechanics and carpenters, of the native stock left in the town, refused the tempta- tion of high wages to work on the constniction of bar- racks for the Bi'itish soldiers, as the cold weather was coming on. The provincial authorities, at the request of General Gage, reciprocated his allowance of the de- pai'tui'e of imsjnnpathizing inhabitants from Boston, by pennitting certain country tories to seek a refuge in the town, among congenial fellowships. As the event proved, it would have been far wiser for them to have re- mained outside, debating their variances and making their EVACUATIOX OF BOSTON, 59 peace. A bitter destiny of misery, exile and poverty was before them. In the Ijattle at Charlestown the British forces gained , one square mile of the territory of the continent they were to sweep, and lost a thousand men. Xor was this their whole loss, nor the most enfeebling element in it. In that conflict they parted with their conceit and assurance that they had before them only the inglorious, though easy, task of dealing Avith mobs of poltroons and cowards, who could bluster, but would not fight, even in self-defence. The revelations made in the abounding reports and letters which have since come to light, as sent to England after that engagement, offer unpressive, and often amusing, evi- dence that oflScers and men had been roused to a sense of the seriousness of the task before them, and would readily have given over alike its glory and its risk. They had now two little sea-washed peninsulas to hold and guard for smnmer and winter quarters. The patriots, griping them at both necks, pestered them with many annoyances, planning mischief also for the ships in the bay, and making bold raids on the crops and flocks of the islands. The besiegers began to look less and less like a gypsy encamp- ment, or a picnic. They themselves came from four provinces, from which also, in some mysterious way, unaided by magazines or a commissariat, they drew such abundant supplies of food that there was even waste of it. After a certain fashion, too, they had officers. Such of them as were not housed in the college buildings and in neighboring dwellings erected shelters near the hills which they fortified. Three distinct themes of separate, thought of related and (30 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSAKY OP THE absorbing interest, present themselves, as requiring thought and notice in rehearsing the Siege of Boston, viz., the work of civiUans in providing and administering a government; the training of tlie patriot forces in camp, and also of their conunander; and the experiences of the beleaguered toAvn. CIVILIANS CONSTRUCTING A GOVEKNMENT DURING THE SIEGE. It is to be remembered that, during the whole siege, Massachusetts was still, at best, but one first of Twelve, then of Thirteen United British Colonies, not yet United States. The bond of allegiance was not severed, nor the pride and love for a foreign fealty yielded up, though hostile forces of the .realm had shed blood and were at open war on field and camp. There was an element of the humorous and the grotesque in the situation, if one had heart to ti'ace it out amid tlie sterner conditions. Curious, perplexing, mystifjong it is to tlie mousing reader to scan the public and private papers of those times. One can easily prove from them that nothing short of rebellion and independence Avas seen in the vista by those who first opened the debate with the mqther-country; and, as easily, that the same men, or their doubles, denied the charge even of sedition, and expi'essed amazement and dread of the very idea of an as- sertion of independence. And yet every country tOA\Ti, as well as the capital, Avas from tlie first committed, in speech and writing, to claims and covenants which could not possibly stop at any stage short of it. The bird of free- dom had got out of its nest and taken wing. Our village orators and nascent politicians became masters in all ob- EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 61 jurgatory rhetoric, and in all the ebiillitions of patriotism. The dictionaries of those days had been ransacked for all the opprobrious adjectives they could furnish to be at- tached to the single commodity of Tea, and the most sting- ing terms were drawn upon in dealing with the mcasui-es connected with the decoction that had been made of it in our harbor. The philippics and rallying cries and burn- ing appeals of those days will never lose their latent heat. True, we did not then maintain an eagle at the public ex- pense. But we were in training to use him, with claw and beak, spread-wing and scream, when we should adopt him. It was the birth-time of what has been called American oratory, or Fourth of July eloquence. A writhing patriot embaiTassed the digestion of his fellow-citizens by the outburst, " The martial standard of war is erected in the very bowels of your town ! " The eagle has now attained his maturity, and we shall approve that he henceforward assume the calm dignity of age. But during the siege of Boston the pens of sagacious and able men were engaged in more deliberate and tem- pered efforts than those of the tongues of some ardent orators. They were providing for that most urgent of all social securities, whether in times of peace or of war, the supremacy of the civil over the military power. The royal mandate, in riding over the charter of Massachusetts, had destroyed one branch of its Legislature and subverted its judicial courts. Genei-al Gage, by his proclamation of June 12, declaring the province in rebellion, and estabUsh- ing martial law, with the proscription of pati-iot leaders, was held to have vacated his civil authority over the prov- ince that he might hold militaiy sway over Boston. The 62 CENTEIsriflAL ANNTVEESAEY OF THE province, thex'efore, was without a legislature and an exec- utive, without a magistracy and a judiciaiy. Government was undermined and annulled. The old royal sanction and method of it could not be revived, and it was for the people to decide whether they would dispense with gov- ernment, or avert anarchy by constituting it. The Provin- cial Congress, on May 5, accepted the gauge wliich the garrisoned Governor had thrown down, put their own interpretation upon it, and resolved, " that General Gage had disqualified himself for serving the colony m any ca- pacity; that no obedience was in future due to him; that he ought to be guarded agaiust as an imnatural and invet- erate enemy." A\ ith a \dew to an instant provision for the emergency, the Provincial Congress had the ready re- source of reverting to their old and honored forms of self- administration, but wisely waited, as did other provinces, for advice from the Continental Congress, about "taking up and exercising the powers of civil govermnent." The Provincial Congress at Watertown had occasion, on May 18, 1775, to say that they "were determined to preserve their dignity and power over the military" — their own military. It was a sublime triumph of the traditions, principles and spirit which had trained the people of Massachusetts, that, at a temporary and alarming crisis, when the powers of magistrates and the functions of judges were suspend- ed, there should have been the least need of them in out- bursts of local disorder, or even in controversies of man with man. The alternative of a popular government, in- stituted and ratified by forms familiar from the long past, and sure of the approval and obedience of those whose EVACUATION- OF BOSTON. 63 free-will created and sanctioned them, was at once availed of. Cautiously, but firmly, and with daily advances over a course which opened for its own successive stages, this and the other provinces engaged in the needful work of being their own legislators. Advice, recommendations, requests, urgent appeals, steadily led on to the bold ven- tures of requisition, till popular assent and approval, en- forced by the stern necessities of the case, warranted the assumption and exercise of a coercive power. The Conti- nental Congress, still addressing and petitioning the king of Great Britain, as still the sovereign of this part of his realm, were hesitating, luidecisive, temporizing, about giving the explicit instructions which the provinces had asked for the estabUshment of government. But still, according to the saying which repeats the homeliest, as well as the profoundest wisdom, "one thing came after another," and in due time the instructions , came, with an indorsement. ]^o undue encomiums, though they have been warm and lavish, especially from the other side of the ocean, have been passed upon what we may call the State papers of this and the other provinces and of the Continental Congress of those troubled years. There is a tone and character common to them all. In them civilians guided and directed in due subordination the swords of officers and soldiers. Beginning with wi-itings from the Select- men of Boston and the papers covering the altercations of Representatives of Massachusetts with the three Gov- ernors, Bernard, Hutchinson and Gage, then proceeding with those of the Conunittee of Correspondence, of the Coimcil of War, of the Coromittee of Safety, the resolu- 64 CENTENNIAIi AKNIVERSART OF THE tions of Town-Meetings, the mstructions to delegates, the documents of the Provincial Congresses, and ending with the formal papers of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, we cannot but marvel to-day over the mod- eration, the discretion, the acumen, the aptness and co- gency of their tone, method and contents. They have the exactness, pith and directness most desirable and eifective in the best class of legal and official doc- uments, without verbiage, complication or mere in- genuity in word fence. Whether these papers are merely appointments or recommendations of occasions for days of Fasting and Thanksgiving according to the revered New England usage, for a smgle province, or for the continent, or relate to provisions for a paper currency, or concern matters in which a local might conflict with a general airection of common interests, we note the same admirable qualities in them. The most formal of the manifestoes and declarations designed to be read abroad, were written Avith such power and pertinency as to be efficient pleaders of our cause. The following are the words of the Earl of Chatham in the House of Lords : — " When your lordships look at the papers transmitted us from America, when you consider their decency, firm- ness and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself I must avow, that in all my readings, — and I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master States of the world, — for solidity of reason, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, imder a complication of difficult circmnstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia." KVACrATIOX OF BOSTOX. b.> 111 one class of those State papers, such as addresses and petitions to the king, and those declaratory of princi- ples and purposes, preceding that of Independence, the reader of our day is struck by a certain adroit, subtle, acute skill, sometimes almost suggestive of art or disin- genuousness, in plea, remonstrance, avowal or profession. It was the cue, so to speak, of their writers, to distinguish broadly between the mind, intent and inclination of the King on his throne and in his i^rivacy, and the purposes and measures of his Parliament and Cabinet. Notorious is it noAV that the stiflf and unyielding obstinacy of the King, his almost insane perversity and persistency against the advice of his ministers, and even their desire to lay down their otfice, goaded on the strife from stage to stage ; while Lord JSTorth was a tool, and hardly an agent. Of course our fathers did not know, or perhaps even imagine, the facts in the case. But we can hardly conceive they were, at the same time, so stolid, and yet so ingenious, as this class of their papers would make them appear. Their avowals of love, and loyalty and devoted allegiance to his Majesty, and of their desire to comply in all things with Avhat were, or — as they understood it — what ought to be his reasonable expectations from his subjects here, were most profuse and ardent, sometimes excessive and hardly masculine. But they fairly offset this mode and tone of addressing him by the most defiant, objurgatory and denunciatory way of dealing with his advisers. They wrote to and of the ministry and parliament Avith an admirable effrontery, as if they were really thwarting his Majesty's kind inten- tions and purposes. So, while the patriot forces were 'J ()() C'KNTENMAI. AXXIVKHSAItY OK TlIK coopinj;' iiji the king's troops in Boston, and plundering liis store-shiit-s, the Congress at Philadelphia was inscrib- ing to hiui addresses and petitions of such a temper and profession, that one might almost infer that they "would have Aveleomed him to cross 'the sea and take a seat in their assembly, or accept from them a connnission to head their army in driving otf his own soldiers. Tlu'v had motive, if not reason, for thus 2)rofessing love for their monarch, while denouncing his ministers. So his troops here were spoken of as "the vile and contemptible agents of a vengeful and wicked ministry"; or, as Washington phrased it, " a diabolical ministry.'' This was the sting of the letters addressed by him to Generals Gage and Howe, on the treatment and exchange of prisoners, and which they so sharjdy resented. It was a keen mortitication and provocation to liritish officers and soldiers to be uniformly spoken of and dealt Avith as this policy of the so-called rebels dictated. Gage called it, on the part of "Washington, an "insinuation;" and Ilowe re- plied to it as an " invective against his superiors, so insult- ing to himself as to obstruct any further intercourse.'' A similar character is noticeable in these State papers in then- professions of loyalty and willingness to recognize the royal, and even the parliamentary and ministerial au- thority Avithin certain limits — very cloudily detined, how- ever. But every way and form in which it Avas proposed that that authority should be exei-cised Avas pronounced a grievaiice. It is impossible for ns to trace, distinctly, any practicable theory by AA'hith the patriots Avould adjust their relations to their mother-country, so that they might still be subjects, as they said they Avere willing to be, and EVACUATION* OF liOSTON". 67 yet not Ije in eii])jection, as they resolved they -would not be. The eontroversy was constantly shifting its grounds, and changing shape, color and substance. It seemed to some in England as if we wei-e tricking and trifling with them. On the first arrival of the troops, one of the votes passed at a Boston town-meeting, Sept. 13, 1768, was, '' As there is at this time a prevailing apprehension of approach- ing war with France, eveiy inhabitant is requested to provide himself witii a well-fixed fire-lock, musket, accou- trements and anniiunition." There was no more prospect of such a war with France, than of her then bombarding Boston with a licet of iron-clad steam monitors. At first we protested against being taxed by Parliament, because not represented in it; the implication Ijeing that, if Ave were represented in it, we would assume our share in par- liamentary levies and subsidies. Afterwai-ds, when rep- resentation was offered us, we replied that it w(Mild be inconvenient to avail ourselves of it. The simple truth is, our civilians, as petitioners, remon- strants and ])leadei-s, did not reach to the tap-root of the controversy, till successful resistance by actual fighting laid it open to the light, viz., that distance, lapse of time, divergence of interests, and our own growth to self-man- agement, made it preposterous altogether that America should be a fief of Great Britain. It was but a practice in casuistry for us to be complaining of grievances in the infraction of the royal charter. The supreme grievance was that our life, liberty and property were any way in- volved in a charter. AVe must trace to the utterances of tongue and pen in those days, full as much as to weapons of war, the embit- 68 CENTENXIAL ANXIVEIiSAKY OF THE tcnnent of feeling, jealousies and mutual antipathies be- tween the people of Great Britain and her colonies, -which, Avith a latent persistency in their transmission, and occa- sionally intensely aggravated in their manifestation, were yielding to time and reason, till they were revived in the complications of our civil war. Obliviousness of the people in her Amencan colonies, and utter iudifterence to- Avards them, as a decayed or barbarized branch of the old ancestral stock, were the prevailing feelings of English- men as the storm was gathering-. An astounding amaze- ment that these people should liave a word to say for themselves as being still, and still claiming the rights of, Englishmen, came with the first threat of resistance. This feeling passed successively through the phases of hauteur, scorn, contempt, passionate hate and vengeful malice. True, Ave had ardent friends among A^arious classes of the British peo]}le, and bold and eloquent cham- pions of some portion of our Avhole cause in Parliament. But even the most discerning and forecasting of this party in opposition, Avhile tAvo or three among them dared to forebode that our complete severance and independence might ensue on our resistance to tyranny, did not venture to define a consistent policy toAvards us Avhich Avould practically reconcile us to any method of foreign rule. The qualities Avhich Englishmen then, and ever since, have most disliked m lis are conceit, boastfnlness, self- suificiency and self-complacency, — the very traits Avhich, by blood and lineage, Ave derive from our English an- cestry, and Avhich, though someAA'hat melloAved b}' a livelier humor and good natm-e, are none the less exhibited almost as otfensively by the progeny as by the parent stock. EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 69 Such was the work which the civiUans of province and continent were doing discreetly and with fideHty, as they cautiously felt their way on to the construction of a nation, during those eleven months through which old Boston was a British garrison, and a patriot host en- vironed it, first to confine, then to annoy it, and finally to di'ive it away. THE PATRIOT CAMP AND ARMY. We cannot call those swarms and groups of country- men an arm}', even until a long time after Washington took command, on July 3d. The province had mustered, enrolled and officered her own militia and volunteers, and the other ^ew England provinces had sent forces simi- larly organized — loosely — yet, as it proved, they met the emergency. They Avere enlisted for very short terms: knew little of subordination or discipline: were apt to come and go at their own wills: clung to their own local associations: and preferred to allot titles and rank as colonels, majoi's, captains, and so on, to the men Avhom they had known on their village commons, at town-meet- ings, and in the taverns on muster days. Some of these ofiicers and men had seen service in the French and Indian wai's. Gen. Ward was their commander. After a fashion, they held the envii-ons of Boston, through a circuit of hill, valley and mai-sh, of nearly twenty miles, including guards at outposts, with military works, of their own fashion, too, on some prominent and some exposed points. They had nothing to be called ordnance, but few muskets, and those very poor ones, fewer bajonets, and scarce a scattering of powdei-. Yet they did not part witli 70 CEXTEXXIAL AXXIVERSAEY OF THE a single square foot of the soil on which they had planted themselves. Though almost incessantly can- nonaded fi"om the British works on both peninsulas and from the gunboats, not a score of them Avere killed during the whole siege. The scene, as slightly sketched by a few persons who had an eye for nature as well as for human- ity, was sng'gestive and imjJressive, if not beautiful. In the glorious summer months of foliage and herbage over that splendid panorama, the excited groups Avrought busily by day, and kept watch by night, turning the hill-tops into citadels, and tranipmg the tilled fields, the sustenance of their households and cattle. An encampment of about fifty friendly Stockbridge Indians nestled in a grove on the present site of the Watertown Arsenal. The riflemen from Virginia and Maryland lurked venturesomely in the nearest hiding-places, and were a serious annoyance to the enemy in picldng off any who were exposed as mai-ks. The remnant of the native forest was ciit away in the severities of the following winter, and it was long before nature recovered her sway over the scene. Two grand and fruitful studies in the portraiture of character and the development of a mighty task would offer themselves in the attempt to delineate the camp of the patriots. One would be the self-training of the august commander; the other would be the formation and organization of an army disciplined and made effective froui crude, extemporized, fluctuating, and even resisting materials: and this, too, under perplexities and disabilities such as were never before encountered by a General in ancient or modern warfare. EVACUATION" OF BOSTOX. 71 THE PATRIOT COMMANDER. When Washington, in the glory of his manhood, at the age of forty-three, shaped and moulded in form, feature and mien after natm-e's finest modelling, sat mounted under the shade of the elm-tree on Cambridge Common, we might have seen in him the frontispiece and title-page of a new volume of the world's biography and history. He had had military experience in the Avilderness, con- verse mth men, and practice in the administration of local magistracy. But the Commander-in-Chief was made and trained here. And while he was learning here the art of war, the method of self-mastery in which his pupilage began, trained him to such a knowledge of the arts of peace as to fit him to be the master-ruler of the country which he had created. Congress had commissioned hun as commander without providing him with an army, and the army Avhich they imagined as in existence they did not furnish with Aveapons, sustenance or pay. And for any powers of authority, range of sway, or defined plans, either in civU or military affans, Congress, to which the connnander was responsible as a servant, was as shadowy and imaginary a body as was the army of which he was the head. But he surveyed the work before him, and sununoned his advisers and helpers. One is tempted to say, — indeed, he wrote it liimself, — that he would not have assumed the responsibilities committed to him had he foreseen the conditions, discomfitures and perplexities which were to thicken upon him. The nobler then was the constancy Avhich met, Avithout quailing, all these thronging spectres as thcA' came out of shadow into 72 CKXTEXXrVL AXNIVKltSARY OF THE reality. Enough that what he liad to encounter of them day by day yielded to the resources in himself and in Providence. It was never a distrust or regret about the cause that came even in liis most depressed hour, but a preference for the command of a regiment to that of the army. He rode the circuit of the lines, detecting successively the Avealv points, and strengthening and multiplying the defences, till he had filled every gap in them. The out- bursts of a resolved and defiant spirit in popular ha- rangues and in the writings of ardent patriots, had natur- ally led him to expect that he should here find amoug the rustic groups some of the jirinuiry, essential qualities of soldiers in a camp; and also, in the provincial constitu- ency of these soldiers, a i-eadincss to respond to his call for needful measures and su[)plies. Sadly and oppress- ively was his noble spirit tried by strange deficiencies and contrary tokens in these matters. And herein lay the grandeur of his magnanimity and of his eqiuniimity. In- stead of yielding to dismay and so losing the mastery over himself, he boldly faced the facts with which he had to deal, traced them to natural and, so far, to necessary, occasiims, temporized with them j)atiently, slowly mingled in with them qualifying and restraining agencies, and then saw them yield to his calm and steadfast purpose. He found the men, in what could hardly be called the ranks, enlisted but for days or weeks; their companies Avere fragments, and their I'cgiments were skeletons ; their officers were their village or county notables, commis- sioned by local partialities, and on terms of rude and dis- orderly familiarity with their men. All of them Avere on EVACUATIOX OF BOSTOX. 73 provincial establishments, crude, raw and temporary. Dissension and jealousy Avere incident to enforced sub- ordination, and an adjustment of rank and the restraints of discipline. Most of these extemporized soldiers felt at liberty to come and go at their pleasure, taking for granted that more, just like them, could come in their room. They had left houses, fields, mills, workshops, and families, without guardians or laborers. Who was to care for those at home, aye, or provide the food by-and-by for the wastefulness of camps? So, whether loiterers or enlisted, the mass of those Avhom Washington fii'st saw as constituting his command were inconstant and unsteady, and to some extent intractable. Yet the very vagrancy and fliTCtuation of these provincial forces led the enemy in Boston to overestimate their numbers and the efiective- ness of the service they could perform. This misleading fancy was in fact the reason why the patriot camp was not vigorously assailed when it was realh^ the most ex- posed and weak. Yet an enormous amoiuit of hard work with hand and spade had been done on the in- trenchmcnts, though engineers were wholly lacking, and tools were few and poor. When Washmgton instituted an inquiry, the result reported to him was, that he had 14,500 men fit for some soii; of military service. But of such as could be relied on as soldiers he never had that number during the whole siege, and there were critical intervals in the ex[5iration of enlistments, and the dilatory substitution of ncAv recruits, when he had not even 4,000. On an extreme emergency he would rely for a few days on the militia. This Avas the situation of the commander in full view of a vigilant 10 74: CENTENNIAL ANNIVEKSAUY OE TlIK oiiomy, whose Ibri-e "was ostiniated at 11,500, thoroughly olliceivd, oqviippoil, discipliued and suppliod, and uith an auxiliary Hoot in the bay and rivers. The huk of jjowder in the patriot camp Avas a matter of such anxiety to Washington, that even his cttbrts to obtrtiu it, by any shift and fr(.)m any quarter, were most jealously disguisetl, that the enemy might not come to a full knowledg-e of the fact. Yet it Avould seem as if this deticiency must have been well known in Boston through deserters or tories. The Massachusetts Assembly, too, by a ivsolve of Aug. 17, 1775, had "recommended to the inhabitants of this colony not to fire a gun at beast, bird or mark, without real necessity therefoi*." Precautions had been taken to have the live stock of the neighboring towns driven back into the country, and a rendezvous had been designated for the provincials in the esent of their lines being broken. For Washington had resolved to hold his gi'ound and to strengthen his works, making as close an approach to the enemy as the natural features of the environs would permit. As soon as his eye had mas- tered the panorama, his thought and purpose rested upon those unoccupied southei'n heights on which his decisive batteries were at last planted. His all-engrossing work Avas to eftect the paramount object of bringing the pro- vincial forces inuler a continental, or general establish- ment, Avith corresponding commissions for ofHcers. During the first half of the siege of Boston, Washing- ton was in dread suspense and apprehension of an assault from the enemy, AAiiile he Avas so utterly unprepared to meet it. Through the last half of the siege he chafed, with somoAvhat better preparation, undei- the impatience of EVACUATION' OF BOSTOX. tO a constrained inactivity, because tlie enemy did not come out against him, and his own officers would not counsel a venture against them — which he twice proposed, once by boats, and once upon the ice. He was cheered in Octo- ber by a visit and conference with a committee from the Contmental Congress, with the sagacious Franklin at the head of it, to whom the town of his birth must have pre- sented itself from outside in a strange plight. The letters of the commander prove that his firmness never came so near faltering as when he was forced to realize, as autumn approached, that he might have to pass the winter and wait for the sprmg just where and as he was. The enemy would not bring the issue to a decision, and it was not wise for him to force one. With most anxious care he at once took measures for covering and warming the soldiers through the severities and the dismal shadows of a ^NTew England winter on those bleak hills. MidAvay in that winter the enlistments of a large portion of his men would expire; and some of them, in their straits or un- easiness, were for anticipating then* release. He was aVjle, however, to send forth a detachment for an enter- prise in Canada. Transports with aimed vessels were occasionally seen going out of the harbor, and Wash- ington was in painful perplexity as to their destina- tion. Thus he writes to Congress at the opening of the year 1776: "It is not in the pages of history, perhaps, to furnish a case like ours. To maintain a post Avithin musket-shot of the enemy for six months together without []>owder], and at the same time to dis- band one army and recruit another, within that distance of twenty odd British regiments, is more, pi-oljaljly, than 76 CENTEIOflAL ANNH'ERSAEY OF THE ever was attempted." These are the words of a calm re- serve, in xitteraiice, which were to be read before many listeners. But thoy hide the secret distress which bur- dened his spirit. ' This he occasionally discloses con- fidentially to his nearest friend and secretary, Joseph Heed, thus: "I have many an unhappy hour when all ai'ound me are wrapped in sleep." All the while the country, conscious of having serious ends in view, and of having- made ettbrt and sacrifice, was daily expecting some great movement to be ventured, and complaints reached AVashington of his supposed inactivity and indecision. He dared not silence these complaints by revealing wliat was fully laiown only to himself of his alarming exposiu*e, deficiencies and wcalaiess. He wrote to Eeed that the same means used to conceal his real situation from the enemy concealed it also from his friends, and that he had been obliged to avail himself of art to hide it from his own oflicers. He was cheered, near the close of the year 1775, by the arrival, Dec. 11, of Mrs. Washington, with her son, Mr. Custis and wife, Avhose society aflbrded him moments of solace. In the middle of January, in a council of officers, attended, at Washington's request, by John Adams, the General -scry earnestly urged the importance of an attack on the enemy before the arrival of reinforce- ments; but the council, agreeing in the dcsu-ability of the movement, pronounced our resources to be wholly inad- equate. On the twenty-fourth of the month, A>'ashington wrote to Congress, " IN'o man upon earth wishes more ardently to destroy the nest in Boston than I do. ^o person would be willing to go greater lengths than I shall to accomplish it, if it shall be thought advisable ; but if we EVACUATION" OP BOSTOX. 77 have neither powder to bombard with, nor ice to pass on, we shall be in no better situation than we have been in all the year; we shall be worse, because their works are stronger." These are but snatches and fragments out of the rehearsal of those incidents, and that i)eriod which marked the in- vestment of Boston. The signal quality of the time and scene was, that it Avas the school of training and discipline for the patriot army, and emphatically so for its com- mander. He had to defer to, and take advice from, a body which had no authority to require or exact the conditions needful to meet the wants of their General. Practically, there was committed to him, individually, dining the year preceding the Declaration of Independence, the enormous task of bringing the loose material of the provincial forces daily fluctuating before him, on a continental estabUsh- ment, and of holding them subject to terms required Iw an authority which any one of them might challenge as merely assumed. It was for him to devise and to dispose all the aiTangements and details necessary to effect that purpose. It was for bun to abate and reconcile the partialities and jealousies of officers and men; to exact rigid svibordination; to enforce a stiff military routine and observance in the camp with all punctilios and for- malities, and a stern prohibition of the familiarity and levity that had marked the relations between those Avho were to give and those who were to obey orders. It was for him to exercise a lynx-eyed watchfulness against sur- prises, treacheries and disasters ; to be constantly planning and accomplishing new defences and safer means for annoying the enemy. His advanced works Avere now 78 CEXTEKS7AL AlSTflYEESAKT OF THE SO close to those of the British, that the beUigerents were within musket-shot of each other. The naked eye or spy- glass could take note of the movements in either camp or garrison. For a long time the provincials had had to bear a frequent cannonading from the enemy, without being able to return it, harmless as it was. The new year had brought some siipplies, which, >vith their advanced works, allowed the provincials to retaliate. The great lesson Avhieh "Washington had to teach to each individual, officer or private, in his conunaud, was to learn to abate his own personal mdependence, that he might secure the independence of his country. There, too, he learned hoAv to deal with men, Avith friends as well as with enemies — Avith hiunan nature, in all its workings of impulse and motive, its nobleness and meanness. And, as his order-book gives abundant and impressive evidence, he Avas thoughtful of those strengthening or enfeebling agencies aa hich act upon health and A'irtue. He counselled cleanliness, high and pure morality, and the devoutness and reA^erence of religion in sentiment and observance. As the crisis of the situation was near, while forbidding cards in the camp, he adA^ised a serious preparation of mind as a security against coAvardice. One appreciative Avord, at least, is due to the letters Avhich Washington AATOte at this tune to Congress, Avhile meeting all the stern and dismal conditions of the service to which they had called him, and in Avhich then poAver and their resources could do so little either to dii-ect or to aid him. It is a small thing to say of those letters that they are remarkable productions for one untrained by literary culture. They are often strikingly felicitous in the choice EVACrATIOX OF BOSTOX. 79 of words, and in the form of expression. Biit beyond tliis, their tone and purport, then- dii'ectness, sunplicity and dig- nity of sentiment, express the self-respect of the writer, and a marvellously just apprehension of the relation in which he stood to the body which he addressed. He, at least, owed allegiance to Congress, if no one beside him did in the whole country. The agitations and excitements Avhich vexed his own spirit never passed into those letters. They are passionless, free from murmurs, complaints, cen- sorionsness and sharp invectives. Yet they never sacrifice force to tameness. They deal with facts; are concise; with no cloudiness or mystification of meaning; with no insinua- tions or implications beyond the assertion. He could be urgent with Congress without being impatient. He could make suggestions with deference. When, on rare occa- sions, he offered adAace, or even remonstrance, he did not disguise the intent in the fonn of it, but wrote it for Avhat it was, frankly, boldly; always making allowance for delays and indecisions incident to the composition and limited power of Congress, — as yet only an ad^-isory body, neither homogeneous nor harmonious, but feeling its way in an Tuiexplored course. And so his letters to individuals, official or private, when giving instructions or information, were direct, clear, positive, cautious — as the occasion required. "When he had to mediate between sensitive parties, or to complain, or to rebuke, his moderation held in check all vehemence or temper, and his own dignity was suggestive of the grace of it to others. His most approved form of censure Avas that which made an offender apportion his own sen- tence. All the while burdened with work for liis pen, 80 CENTENlSTAIi AJOSnVERSAET OI' THE frequently lacking a confidential secretary, he was writing almost daily letters of instruction and detail to the mana- ger of his land-estates. A reference to these homely letters of thrift and husbandry would not be in place here, ex- cept as they reveal a winning trait m his character. His emphatic direction is, that the hospitalities of his home, and especially its free dispensings of benevolence and money to the needy, shall in no wise fail or slacken. One ether engrossing anxiety was crowded into the burdens of the worn and worried chief in this early stage of a struggle^ which was to decide whether the halter or the wreath would be the emblem of his fate. "Wliile watching the beleaguered foe in Boston, he had to keep in thought a whole continent, with its coasts, and towns and people, and to prepare to meet the enemy where he might strike next. No graver's work on a map was ever more sharply cut than that which Avas wrought in his mind. THE INVESTED TOWN, SOLDIERS AND INHABITANTS. While civilians in local and continental councils, and soldiers in the wide-stretched camp so anxiously watched over by "Washington, were thus taking care for the pat- riot cause, the invested town of Boston, alike to those outside of it as to those within it, was the object of pain- ful and absorbing interest. From the General down to the humblest menial in his train, there was not a man that did not sooner or later realize that he had come on a fool- ish and bootless errand. The exposure of their situation, and the constant apprehension of an assault, required unceasing watchfulness, and the construction almost week bv week of some new defences. Their sufferings from EVACUATION OF BOSTON. 81 the prevalence of foul diseases, the numbei' of the sick and Avounded among them, and the scarcity of fresh pro- visions, vegetables and fuel, became, at one crisis, very serious and alarming. Ghastly efforts were made by the officers during the ■winter to amuse themselves with dances, theatricals, and a masquerade. The old South Church, given up to a riding-school, afforded shows of horsemanship, as seen by festive spectators from its east- ern gallery. Burgoyne got up a play to be acted in Faneuil Hall, which was, however, rudely arrested in its performance by the rattling of shot from the nearest pro- vincial battery. The remnant of patriotic inhabitants in the toAvn were grievously distressed. Some sought in vain the privilege of leaving it. Others, who resolved to stay and wait the catastrophe, were strictly watched, lest they sjiould communicate with the besiegers. The tory element too, natives and refugees from the country, showed the excitements of an intense bitterness and of a craven trepidation. The General summoned them to organize into an association, as a town-guard, armed and receiving rations. They became a serious burden to him, as, knowing well Avhat treatment they would receive from their outraged countrjanen, they demanded special pri\a- leges during the siege, and the first thought and fa^-or of the commander at the Evacuation. Gage was called home in October, eml^arking on the tenth, having received flat- tering addresses from the tories on his departure. He reported himself in London, ^NTov. 14. Burgoyne followed him in December. Howe was left in command. Before Gage went away he had allowed more of the inhabitants to leave the town, though under severer restrictions. In 82 CEXTEJSTNIAL AXXIVERSART OF THE November and December nearl^^ five hundred men, women and children, in a most pitiable condition, Avere put ashore at Chelsea and Point Shirley, and the provincials thought the design was to spread the small-jiox among them. But all the other annoyances and inflictions borne by the besieged were endurable by proud and self-respecting Bi'itish soldiers, in comparison with the humiliation and mortification of their position. Those whom they had sneered at and insulted as a rabble of unarmed country- men and cowards whom the smell of the red-coats' pow- der woidd tame into loyalty, were cooping them up on two small peninsulas, defying their vengeance, taunting their conceit, and, with scant charges of powder, retm-n- ing them their own balls. General Gage, assuming that the few disabled men that had been seized in the battle at Charlestown were in no sense prisoners of war, but felons " destined to the cord," put them into jail in Boston, with some of the citizens whom he suspected, and gave them jail diet. With dignified remonstrance Washington wrote to him, as he did afterwards to Howe, that we had some of their friends, as yet forbearingly dealt with, on whom retaliation could and would be visited. With a purpose of making a raid into the country, Gage had written for heavy remforcements, with ord- nance, wagons, horses and supplies. These were so delayed, so niggardly furnished, and so insufficient, that officers and men began to complain that the ministry had forgotten them, had brought them into peril and disgrace, and then abandoned them. Yet, as these supplies, from time to time, sailed in between our capes, our adroit skippers and 'longshoremen, intrepid and watchful, extern- ETACUATIOX OF BOSTOX. 83 poriziug their schooners and whale-boats into private vessels of war till they provided themselves AAnth better ones, as prizes, began the business which afterwards proved vastly rewarding. They turned over a large pro- jjortiou of the burden of the transports, oi'dnance, arms, powder, and all sorts of valuables, to the jDrovincials, who needed them quite as much as did the British. The Pro- vincial and Continental Congresses had both authorized the necessary measures for naval warfare with vessels of marque and reprisal. The pine-tree flag and a code of signals were at once adopted. At the end of Xovember, the stanch Commodore Manly took into Cape Ann the British ordnance brig "Xancy," so rich in her cargo for us and so grudged by the enemy, that AVashington, apprehending that a sturdy effort might be made to reclaim her, sent doA\Ti foiu* companies to protect her stores. Among these were 2,000 muskets — our General had just that number of men without any — 100,000 flints, 30,000 round-shot, more than thirty tons of musket-shot, eleven mortar-beds, and a brass mortar weighing nearly 3,000 pounds, to which " Old Put," helped by a bottle of rum, gave the name " Congress." A bold movement of Gen. Thomas, in Roxbur}', had narrowed the enemy's lines on the Xeck. It is marvellous to realize how comfortably and even lavishly the slender resoiu'ces of our ovra province for clothing, equipping, and feeding fighting men were rein- forced from English and Irish armories, magazines, flocks, coal-pits, and wine and beer vaults. And all this while British officers were writing home bitter complaints of their starved rations and mean food. From correspond- 84 CEXTENXIAL AXXrV'ERSAEY OF THE ence and documents wliicli have come to light in recent 3^ears Ave learn of the councils, advices, instructions, and half-formed plans, looking to the voluntary withdrawal by the British General from his inhospitable quarters. But the difficulty Avas about the going aAvay, the getting out, and the getting off. He could not divide his force, and he had not sufficient shipping in Avhich to remove men and propert3^ TNlien this Avas finally accomplished, as Ave shall see, it Avas by the allowance of the proAincials, and on the score of a consideration. AVhen all these humiliations of the besieged army became known in England, chagrin and ridicule diA-ided about equally the tone of the comments. HoAve's letters to Lord Dartmouth in ]!^OA'eml3er and December betray real alarm. He Avould leave Boston if he had tonnage enough. The questions, criticisms and censures uttered in Parliament Avere bitter and taunting from the oiDposition, obstinate and defiant from the ministry. On !N^oA*ember 1, Burke said of the army, the rebels " coop it up, besiege it, destroy it, crush it. Yom* officers are SAvept off by their rifles, if they shoAv their noses." Col. Barre said, " The}^ bm-n eA^en the light-house under the nose of the fleet, and carry off the men sent to repair it." With the barb of his keenest irony, Horace Walpole wrote to his clerical corre- spondent, August 7, 1775, "Mrs. Britannia orders her senate to j)roclaim Ajnerica a contment of coAvards, and A'ote it should be starved unless it Avould drink tea Avith her. She sends her only anny to be besieged in one of her toAvns, and half her fleet to besiege the terra Jirma; but orders her army to do nothing, in hopes that the Ameincan Senate in PhUadelphia Avill be so frightened at the British EVACUATIOX OF BOSTOX. 85 army being besieged in Boston, that it will sue for peace." He wrote to Conway, " We have thrown a pebble at a mastiff, and ai"e surprised it was not frightened." The ministers resolved to send enormous reinforcements and supplies, and at such mighty cost that the people of Britain have not jet finished paying for them. There were 5,000 oxen, 14,000 sheejj, etc., with hay and vinegar, oats, beans, flour, beer, coal, and even fagots. Extor- tionate freights, delays and disasters impeded the trans- portation, and the ocean tracks showed many of the dead animals floating. However, our privateers had a fair share in the spoil. Towards the end of the siege a flag, with drum and trumpet, went every Tuesday to the Roxbury lines, to aftbrd opportunities for such intercourse, conversation with friends, or the exchange of letters, or for the en- trance or exit of individuals, as was allowed on special favor, or for a money consideration. In old family cab- inets and antiquarian repositories there are extant, in rich abundance and variety, some time-stained papers, relating all sorts of private and public mcidents which transpired in Boston during those dreadful months. Most of the letters that passed by the flag are, of course, written as from the depths of wretchedness, and reproduce their ago- nies m the reader of them. Some of the papers, however, have a strange levity and jollity. AVe have a few diaries and scraps from the pens of resolute or timid patriots, men and women, Avho, by comjiidsion or free-will, stayed by the dear old home, through all its woes. The letters that got out of it by stealth or allowance unite the sundered heart- strings of the members of separated families, or report the 86 CENTENNIAL ANNI\':ERSARY OF THE state of remnants of wasting property. Wc read the household endearments in pet epithets and the breathings of piety; the announcement that this one has died, and the question if that one is alive ; the homely report of the state of the wardrobe of man, woman or child; lamenta- tions over the empty pantry, the cold hearths, or the cost of the poorest food. There is a constrained reticence about certain matters in these letters, which is itself richly sug- gestive. But there is the sternest reality in them all, of consuming anxiety, the dreary detail of sleeplessness, grief, unsolaced love, apprehensions and alarms of all pos- sible miseries not yet actual, and summaries of the work of poverty, pestilence, and military rule. One of the in- habitants, holding large property, for the protection of which he had i-emained in town, in writing to a friend in Philadelphia about the scarcity of food and fuel, grimly adds, that it is almost impossible for the bereaved to procure boards for the "underground tenements of their departed friends." The British commandei-, besides using one of the meet- ing-houses for a riding-school, one for a stable, and two for the storage of provender, and removing the steeple of another on the charge that it had been used for signalling, had ordered the destruction of the Old North Meeting- house — a solid timber structure, hardened by a century — and of a hundred wooden dwellings, for fuel. The soldiers had made away with the sills of wharves, with fences, orchards and trees, including, as a special spite, the Liberty Ti-ee. The officers had taken possession of the best private houses of the town, and their considera- tion as gentlemen preserved such buildings and their EVACUATIOK OF BOSTON. 87 contents from violence and pillage. On the approach of winter many of the troops had been sheltei-ed in deserted dwellings and warehouses, which had been emptied of the effects belonging to absent citizens. The furnitui-e and goods were mostly lost to the owners. The Common was burrowed over with pits by the soldiers, while small- pox, dysentery, scurvy, and other ailments induced a large mortality among them. The dead were buried in trenches at the foot of the Common, which thus gave a new place to the town for interments. Letters from officers and soldiers, written to friends in England, are equally sug- gestive in the communications made by them during the discomforts of their inglorious garrison life. It is fairly supposable, under conditions that may be ]-eadily defined, that the siege of Boston might have been conducted to a result securing the capitulation of the whole British force of men and ships. They might have been cut off from supplies through the only channel open to them, if the harbor could have been closed by a few sunken obstructions, and batteries well served could have been planted on opposite points and headlands. Plans, indeed, were proposed for seizing and destroying the Castle, and securing that result. Mr. Quincy, of Brain- tree, and others pressed upon Washington their scliemes for effecting it. The provincials had done many daring feats on the islands and harbor promontories, which they had stripped and desolated under the guns of the war- vessels. They would have done their part in shutting up the harbor; but Washington had not the heavy ordnance and powder which the enterprise demanded, nor could he weaken his force and battei-ies on the main. Feasible as bo CENTENNIAL ANNIVEUSAKY OF THE (lie undertaking' seemed, the means and resources were lacking-. Nor would the capitulation of that British army, shut in and starved, astounding as the report of it would have been, have had a decisive influence on the struggle. When, more than a year and a half afterwards, Bin'goyuc surrendered an army originally nearly as large as that in Boston, and our foreign alliances wei'e by that event scciu'ed, Britain resolved to tr}' still once more. Yet during the latter part of the siege, while Congress was still temporizing, it seems to have been thought that the Avhole struggle, so far as open warfare was concerned, might be concentrated and terminated here. The ord- nance brought by Knox, with such immense toil, over frozen lakes and through forests, from Ticonderoga and Crown Point, with shells from the king's stores in New York, and other spoils from the prizes, had given actual strength and inspiration of high courage and hopefulness to the provincials. They felt sure that they had the enemy wheie tliey could keep him, unless he chose to float away. The British General wrote to Lord Dartmouth that Boston Avas "the most disadvantageous place for all operations;'' and Washington wrote to Congress that " the siege was as close a one as any on earth can be." That was another of the few points in which both parties were in accord. Admiral Schuldam came into the hai'bor on New Year's day to take the place of Graves, there having been altercations between the latter and the Gen- eral, ai-isiug Irom comi)laint8, at the lack of support and supplies, which the amny had raised against the fleet. Schuldam brought with him copies of the king's "gra- EVACUATION OF BOSTOX. 89 cious speech," full of oljstinatc resolution. A mass of these precious documents were sent out to be dispersed through the patriot army, where the\' were received with contempt and ridicule. Washington wrote to Joseph Keed that before the papers came he '' had hoisted the Union flag, in compliment to the United Colonies," and its appearance was rashly interpreted in Boston as a token of submission and delight at the aforesaid ^'gracious speech." The flag, as you see it among the decorations of this hall, showed, without as yet any spangling of stars, thii'teen stripes of red on a white field, with the united red and white crosses of St. George and St. Andrew on a blue ground in the eornei'. The long-drawn issue between the besiegers and the besieged was to have its close in a compromise, as con- cerned the belligerents, yet in a triumph, the joy and satisfaction of which human language would be weak to exjiress, for the families of Boston. It has often been regarded as among the fatuities which characterized so much of the conduct of the war here by the British ministry and army, — alike in its efforts and in its over- sights, — that its commanders had not learned to improve, on the heights on the south side of Boston, the lesson taught them by those on the north side. Why had they not possessed themselves of the elevations nearest them in Dorchester? But the query admits of two answers, as the reasons for action or neglect were balanced. The British seem to liave given over an attempt to rush out into the country in any direction, as, if they got out, it would only be to hold one hill against a hundred others. 12 90 CENTENTSriAL ^^JSTNIVEESAEY OF HIE THE HEIGHTS OF DORCHESTER. A week after "Washington took command, a Council of "War had decided not to attempt to get possession of these heights, nor to oppose the enemy if they should occupy them. But the commander had from the first kept his eye and thought upon them as entering largely into the decision of the result. He had resolved, too, that a resolute efibrt should be made in one direction or another to di-ive off the enemy before the expected rein- forcements, known to be on the ocean, should arrive. His measures may or may not have been quickened by rumors of the design of a movement on the part of the enemy. It is to be remembered that, though all through the siege the combatants were supposed to obtain a general, and even minute, knowledge of each other's condition, situation and plans, thi-ough such adventurous persons as could evade the guards, or such as were allowed to leave or enter the town, all such information was to be received with lai-ge allowances for exaggeration or deception. On February 13 about 500 men under Colonel Leslie, with grenadiers and light infantry under Colonel Musgrave, had crossed to Dorchester Neck, destroyed some scattered buildings there, and taken prisoners the guard of six, getting away before they could be interfei'ed with. There were three elevations in that part of Dorchester now known as South Boston which were involved in the plans of "Washington. The old works upon them, re- newed in the war of 1812, have disappcai'cd, and the original features of the site have been almost wholly EVACUATIOJf OF BOSTOX. 91 obliterated by the hand of improvement. Crossing from Roxbury on the edge of the tide-water marshes by Dor- chester JS^eck, two summits, near the present reservoir and the Blind Asylum, offered sites which commanded a part of Boston and of the harbor. Below these, and closer to the water, nearest to Boston at Roxbury ISTeck, was another elevation, then called !N^ook's Hill, the site, at present, of the Lawrence School-house. The plans and preparations of "Washington for possessing these heights were so deliberate and thorough, so carefully studied in the minutest detail, so conditioned upon alter- native and co-operating movements of his own, and upon the action of the enemy, as to prove with what patient and brooding study he had wrought them out. There was in them no instigation of a surprise, no occasions of hurry and afterthought, no lack of any provision needful for success. Cheerfully, heartily, and without any with- holding of needful aid, were his plans and their details advanced by all on whom he relied. Many elemental influences which were baffling to the enemy favored him. His chief difficulty lay in the fact that the ground on the heights was frozen to the depth of eighteen inches, and the next was the exposure of Dorchester I^eck, over which his men and means must pass. The utmost dili- gence had been previously used by Colonel Mifflin and others to provide these means — three or four hundred ox-teams and carts, large quantities of fascines, chan- deliers, bundles of screwed hay to protect the Neck and to aid in the construction of'the defences, with barrels fastened together and filled with stones, sand and gravel, for rolling down from the declivities to break the I'anks of 92 CENTENNIAT. AMNIVEKSAUY OF THE the assailants. On the evcninj;- of Monday, March 4, a covering- and a working party, making 2,000 men, under General Thomas, started on the enterjirise, as qiiietly as possible, the direction of the wind also favoring the secrecy of their motions. It was also a part of the plan to engage the attention of the enemy by a vigorous cannonade on the other side of Boston, liy ten o'clock at night the men had raised a fort, proof against small arms and grape-shot, on each of the two farthest eleva- tions, menacing respectively the town, and the Castle and vessels. It was a mild, clear night for the season; warm work neutralized the chill air. A full moon overhead was ac- companied by a haze settling over the town and lowlands, and veiling the enterprise from the sentries of the enemy. A relief party came on at thi-ee o'clock in the morning, of Tuesday. Xot till some time after daybreak were the works disclosed to the British, and when Gen. Howe gazed at the spectacle, he is said to have declared, in his amazement, that the rebels had done more in a night than his whole army would have accomplished in months. He was at once waiued by the Admiral that the completion of the forts would require him to withdi-aw his vessels from the inner harbor. Of course the rebels nuist be dislodged, or he nnist evacuate the town. The day was the now historie tlfth of March, and as it was expected that it would repeat some of the scenes acted on Bunker's Hill, the word passed from Washington as a rallying cry, bidding the i)roviiK'ials i-emembei- the day of the " bloody massacre." Peter Thatcher duly delivered the oration at Watertown. Every movement of the enemy was rigidly watched, and EVACUATIOX OF BOSTOX. 93 the bystem of signalling arranged by "Washington com- municated information and directions through his whole lines. His arrangement was that if enough of the Bi-itish left Boston to storm the new works, as Avould warrant the venture, 4,000 men would emijark at the mouth of the Charles, in two divisions, under Sullivan and Greene, the whole commanded by Putnam. Sullivan's division was to have landed at the Powder-house, to take Beacon Hill, and Mt. lloram; while Greene's, landing near Barton's Point, should take that, and then joining the other division should force the enem^^'s line inside at the Xeck, and let in a detachment from Koxbury. A strong fleet of floating batteries was to have preceded the other boats. "Washing- ton seems to have been disappointed that the thwarting course adopted by the enemy had not brought his scheme to the trial. Gen. Howe, after a council of war, decided to make an immediate attempt to dislodge the provincials. The ex- citement and stir in the town were plainly visible to those who were so interested in watching every movement. The testimony of trustworthy observers then in the town, as afterwards given to their friends, was, that it was with sunken spirits, without alacrity or enthusiasm, and with the memory of the slaughter on the heights of Charles- town, that the red-coats, in force amounting to 2,400, under Lord Perc\', marched to the wharves to take boats for embai-king on the transports. The provincials eagerly awaited the movement, supposing the enemy would sweep up behind the heiglits and at once commence the assault. This, however, was not the design. The enemy dropped down to the Castle, intending to make the assault on 94 OKNTKNNIAL ANNIVKKSAUY OK 'I'llK AVi'diiesday, llic (Illi. ^riic (ri'sluMiiiij;- ol" llir wind drove tlircc ol"llu' li-Miisports on slu)r(' on ( Jovcrnor's lsl;nid,;nid a viok'nl U'nipeisl, with rain, lx\i;-inning at. night, and con- tinning tlu-ongli the next, dajjlrnstrated tlie pnrpose. In the meanwhile the provineialw, in jspile ol" tlie storni, eonlinned to strengthun their woi-lcen quoted, Burgoyne 114 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. may liavo "trembled" \\\\\\o lie wrote this letter, is found in the follow- ing criticism upon his superior oHicer : — " I think General Gage ijossesseil of every quality to maintain quiet govern- ment with honor to himself and happiness to those he governs ; his temper and his talents, of which he has many, are calculated to dispense the olfices of justice and humanity. In the military I believe him capable of figuring upon ordinary and given lines of conduct ; but his mind has not resources for great and sudden and hardy exertions which spring self-suggested in extraordinary characters, and generally overbear all opposition. In short, I think him a contrast to that cast of men, somewhere described — " ' Fit to disturb the pence of all llie -world, And rule it when 'tis wildest." " Unfortunately for us that cast of character, at least tlie latter part of it, is precisely wdiat we want here ; and I hope I shall not be thought to disparage my General and my friend, in pronouncing him unequal to his sittiation, when 1 add that I think it one in which Ctesar might have failed." INTERCOURSE BETWEEN TOWN AND COUNTRY. To all the inflictions visited npon the inhabitants of the town was soon added tlie risk to which the}' were subjected from any violent or warlike acts or demonstrations from the patriots gathering around the invested peninsula, who might feel prompted to measures ruinous alike to friend and foe. The relation was for a while a strange and perplexing one between the parties who had not as j"et irrevocablj- defined the issues and chosen sides. The forms of peaceful and respectful oflicial intercourse were kept up, with a conscious sense of their hollowness and insincerity. In spite of the eflbrls of restraint there was none the less a constant com- munication between the town and country. There was a coming and a going, sometimes opcnlj-, sometimes furtively ; various pretences se- cured libertj-, and monej' brought privileges then and there, as elsewhere and always. Indeed, even in the later and the longer stage of the siege everything that occurred in town or country, in either camp, was speedily known to the other party. Deserters, spies, and those who contrived to evade all guards, and to surmount all ditficiilties, got out of the town, CHEONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 115 and usuallj' went to give information at head-quarters. True, this was not alwaj's to be relied on. Wild rumors, sill}' tales, mischievous in- ventions, fabrications and exaggerations, taught a practised caution. A Mr. Mellicant, of Watertown, an officer on half-pay in the ro^-al service in Boston, was said to have frequently received information from our camp, by means of his wife, who passed the lines ; and the Committee of Safet}', acting on this case, were induced to provide as effectuall}- as possible against such intercourse. We must remember that the wida expanse of the water and the marsh land then surrounding the peninsula required much prowess of a rower or a swimmer in passing over it. COVENANT BETWEEN GENERAL GAGE AND THE INHABITANTS. Very soon after the affair at Lexington, the wliig, or patriotic inhabi- tants of Boston, realizing their anxieties and dangers, applied to Gen. Gage for liberty to leave it. At first he positively' refused. The case was an embarrassing one, and, as he saw, had two sides to it. For two reasons he would gladly have been rid of them ; as, first, they might keep up intercourse, exchange signals, and give information to those outside, and even aid them in case they made an assault ; and, second, he would be relieved of an element of disaffection near his soldiers, and of the probable necessity of providing the citizens with fuel and the means of sustenance. On the other hand, it was to be considered that, if the patriotic citizens were allowed to go out, with arms, mone}' and goods, they would strongly reinforce and encourage the rebels outside, while their continued presence in the town was some security for internal quiet, and against an assault. The latter considerations had sway with Gage. The selectmen were called upon to meet the crisis, as it was under- stood that the Governor meant to require of the citizens a surrender of their arms. A town-meeting was held at Faneuil Hall, on Saturdaj', April 22, at which the citizens objected to give up their arms, without pledge from the Governor of security for their lives and property, and liberty to leave the town. A committee chosen at once to wait upon liim and arrange matters was detained b}' him so long that the meeting was adjourned to the next day, Sunday, to hear the result of the conference. 11(5 ClIKONICLE OF THE SIEGE. The solemn d:iy aiul occasion made a solemn meeting, which \\as opened with prayer, by Dr. Andrew Eliot. The Hon. James Bowdoin presided and, as Chairman of the committee to confer with the Governor, re- ported in substance : — " That the committee had represented to the Governor the uneasiness of the inhabitants at the avenues of the town being shut up, and no person admitted to come in or go out, and the fears and apprehensions they were under with respect to the behavior of the troops in case of an attack from the cotmtry, etc. To which His Excellency replied, that he could not be answerable for tlie conduct of tlie troops, unless he had absolute assurance of the peaceable disposition of the inhabitants, and that none would be so satisfactory as the surrender of their arms : that upon doing this they should have liberty to remove out of town, with their effects, and have carriages to assist those that went by land ; iind he would desire the Admiral [Sam'l Greaves, who had succeeded Admiral Montagu on this station] to assist with his boats tliose who should remove by water." He also promised to nialvc provision that the poor should not snlfer. After some discussion at the meeting, the inhabitants, partially re- lieved, voted to comply with the proposal. They punctiliously kept their agreement, surrendering their arms, to be deposited in Faneuil Hall or elsewhere, under the care of the selectmen. The names of the owners were severally attached to them, and it was covenanted that they should be returned at a proper tinu>. In the journal of the Committee of Safety, at Cambridge, April 28, 1775, is the following entry : "Mr. Henderson Inches, who left Boston this day, attended, and informed the committee that the inhabitants of Boston had agreed with the General to have liberty to leave Boston with their efl'ects, provided that they lodged their arms with the selectmen of that town, to be by them kept during the present dispute, and that, agreeably to said agreement, the inhabitants had, on j-esterday, lodged' 1,778 fire-arms, 634 pistols, 973 bayonets, and 38 blunderbusses, with their selectmen." But when the owners of the arms after the evacuation sought them, they were found to be hopelessly damaged and worthless. The Loyalists, or "Government Men," in the town, were chagrined at this covenant with rebels, and said that Gage had yielded too much, and that some arms CHEOK"ICLE OF TIIE SIEGE. 117 bad boon concealed. A rigid searcli was made for everything in the shape of a weapon. The inhabitants, having met tlie terms of tlieir agreement, trusted that the Governor would fulfil his, but were disappointed and irritated bj' subsequent conditions. They had supposed that tliej- would be free to take with them all their moveable property at their pleasure, with facilities of land and water conve3-ance, as promised. But the Gov- ernor at once appointed a new ofDcer, under the title of Town Major, without a pass from whom he forbade anj- one to leave the town. Great difficulties were thrown in the wa}' of obtaining these passes. Some applicants w-aited days and weeks for them ; they were granted spasmodically, suspended for daj's and weeks, and then resumed. Some obtained them by bribes, some tlirougb tory friends. Then again very slight assistance was afforded \>y free boats, as the Admiral would not co-operate. All passage b}' carriages over the Neck was interdicted, and the aged, infirm and sick were great sufferers. But the meanest evasion of the covenant made bj' the Governor, and which brought his honor under a cloud, relieved onlj- by the plea that he had the advice of his counsellors and some tory lawj-ers, for the construction of the term, was as to the meaning of the word effects. The lawyers said it included only, "furniture, clothes, plate and money." The inhabitants insisted that it covered "provisions, merchandise, and all working tools." A committee was appointed to remonstrate with the Governor, but he held by the advice given him, and the exiles — passing an inspection by appointed officers — had to leave their goods behind them, or win favors hy bribery. These inspectors were tyrannous and abusive in their office. Three places of exit were provided and rigidly watched : the Neck, Charlestown Ferry and Long AVharf. Here men and women were searched, their bundles opened, food taken from them, and they and their effects kept out for nights in the streets till permitted to go. Not onl}- merchandise and provisions, but even medicine, came under prohibition for removal, and an intense feeling of hostility, with the wretchedness of despair, were excited in many persons who would have inclined to be moderate, and in the distressed members of sepa- rated families, aged and infirm parents, husbands, wives and children. The warmest partisans of the royal cause in the town were charged. 118 CHEONICLE OF THE SIEGE. probiiblj' with good reason, with inducing Gen. Gage to break the spirit and even the letter of his agreement. The tories denounced the arrangement, by which all who were in sj-mpath^- with the rebels outside were allowed to join them, as impolitic and of pernicious tendency'. Their departure would remove one of the chief securities against incendiarism and bombardment. On the day of the battle at Lexing- ton some two hundred of these tories, chiefly crown-officials and traders, had sent in their names to the General volunteering to arm in his service. The General gladly accepted the offer, and the volunteers were at once enrolled under Brigadier General Ruggles, a country torj-. A panic rose in this corps on the going out of the inhabitants, and after sharply remonstrating with the General they threatened to lay down their arms and even to go out themselves. The General, after temporizing, j-ielded to their remonstrances, and came to the persuasion that even the presence of women and children in the town might be a security to it. Hence tlie restrictions put upon the carrying out of the terms of his own covenant, and the final refusal of passes. The Committee of Safety at Cambridge, in a letter to the Selectmen of Boston, dated April 22, anticipating the contract with Gage, had approved it in these words : — " Gentlemen : — The Committee of Safety being informed that Gen. Gage has proposed a treaty with the inhabitants of the town of Boston, whereby he stipulates that the women and children, with all their effects, shall have safe conduct without the garrison; and their men also, upon condition that the male inhabitants within the town shall, on their part, solemnly engage that they will not take up arms against the King's troops, within the town, sliould an attacli be made from without, — we cannot but esteem those conditions to be just and reasonable ; and as the inhabitants are in danger of suffering from the want of provisions, which, in this time of general confusion, cannot be conveyed into the town, we are willing you shall enter into and faithfully keep the engagement afore mentioned, etc." Of course tlie Provincial Congress remonstrated against the embarrass- ments put upon the removal of the people, and against the final breach of his covenant by tlie General. Charlestown, though, till the battle of June 17th, nomiuallj' free from CHROXICLE OF THE SIEGE. 119 niilitaiy control, was still inimediatelj' overawed by tbe British and their ships. It was gradually- becoming deserted by its people, save by a few who tried to protect their propertj-. Its poorer inhabitants were provided for in the country towns. Unfortunatel}-, too, some of the people of Boston had been transferring goods and valuables to the doomed town, as if for greater securitj'. The librarj' of Dr. Mather had been deposited there. Of course all these goods of every kind were destroyed when the British fired the town. As earl^' as the first week in Maj' a guard at Charlestown Neck prevented the entrance of persons or provisions without a pass. General Gage seems to have regarded his demand for the delivery of arms as including those of all the inhabitants. He therefore issued on June 19lh the following proclamation : — "BY TPIE GOVERNOR. A PROCLAMATION. "Whereas, notwithstanding the repeated Assurances of the Selectmen and others, That all the Inhabitants of tlie Town of Boston had, bona Fide, de- livered their Fire-Arms unto the Persons appointed to receive them, though I had Advices at the same Time of the contrary ; and whereas, I have since had full Proof that many have been perfidious in this Respect, and have secreted great Numbers : "J Have thought fit to issue this Proclamation, to require of all Persons who have yet Fire-Arms in their possession, immediately to sun-ender them at the Court-House to such Persons as shall be authorized to receive them: and hereby to declare that all Persons in whose possession any Fire-Arms may hereafter be found, will be deemed Enemies to His Majesty's Government. " Given at Boston the Nineteenth Day of June, 1775, &c., &c. "THO'S GAGE. " By His Excellency's Command, " THO'S FLUCKER, Secr't/. " GOD Save the KING." 120 CHEOXICLE OF THE SIEGE. The following afterwards appeared at its date : — " NOTIFICATION. " ALL Persons who are desirous of leaving the Town of Boston are hereby called upon to give in their Names to the Town Major forthwith. " By Order of His Excellency the General, " JAjNLES URQUHART, Town Major. " Boston, 24th of July, 1775." The Provincial Congress, at Concord, April 14, recognized the pru- dence of the step by which manj- of the inhabitants of the town, who had been able to do so, had already left it, and provided for helping the poor to come out. On April 20, Joseph Warren, as Chairman of the Committee of Safety, addressed a respectfiil letter to General Gage, asking him as to the time that was to be allowed to those who wished respectively to go into or to come out of Boston, and suggesting that he remove the restriction by which he had limited the number of wagons that might be admitted at anj- one time to thirt3'. The matter of the liberation of the inhabitants was referred by the Provincial Congress to the Committee of Safet^^, and action hy the committee was impatiently asked for on April 30th. The committee reported on the same day, accepting Gage's terms, and agreeing that those who should go into the town might take with them their effects, excepting arms and ammu- nition. It was also thoughtfully- ordered that the members remaining in the coiintrj- towns of families, the heads of which might be in Boston, favoring the royal side, should not be treated with any violence or indignitj-. Furthermore, permission and facilities were granted to all who wished to remain in Boston to send out into the country for their moveable propertj-, excepting arms and ammunition. The ob- structions imposed by Gen. Gage continuing to prevent the egress of the inhabitants from the town, the Provincial Congress addressed a letter to Gen. Ward, at Roxbury, to do everything in his power to secure ingress and egress to all who, under the conditions, desired it. On May 9th, a committee was instructed to make " a spirited appli- cation " to Gen. Gage. Tiie result was the following letter, sent to him by the Congress, on May 10th : — CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 121 " To His Excellency General Gage: — " SlE, — This Congress have received frequent intelligence that their brethren, the inhabitants of the town of Boston, have to contend, in their removal therefrom, with numerous delays and embarrassments, contrary to the stipulation proposed and agreed to between Your Excellency and the selectmen of that town. " We think it our duty to remonstrate to Your Excellency, that, from the papers communicated to us by the said selectmen, it appeared, that the inhabitants were ijromised, upon surrendering their arms, that they should be permitted to leave the town, and carry with them their eflfects. The con- dition was immediately complied with on the part of the people ; since which, though a number of days have elapsed, but a very small proportion of the inhabitants have been allowed to talie the benefit of your covenant. "We would not aft'ront Your Excellency by the most distant insinuation that you intended to deceive and disarm the people by a cruel act of perfidy. A regard to your own character, as well as the fatal consequences which will necessarily result from the violation of your solemn treaties, must suggest sufficient reasons to deter a gentleman of your ranli and station from so injurious a design. But Your Excellency must be sensible, that a delay of justice is a denial of it, and extremely oppressive to the jieople now held in duress. " This Congress, though not the original party in the treaty, have talvcn every step in their power to facilitate the measure, and in the whole of their conduct have endeavored to evidence a disposition to act upon the principles of humanity and good faith, ahd still indulge hopes that the confidence of the inhabitants of Boston, in Your Excellency's honor and faithfulness, is not mis- placed ; and that, notwithstanding any disagreeable occurrences, naturally I'esulting from the confused state of the colony, which this Congress have discountenanced and endeavored to rectify, Your Excellency will no longer suifer your treaty with a distressed people, who ought by no means to be afi"ected thereby, to be further violated." The Committee of Safet\-, ou May 17th, passed the following vote: " Wliereas General Gage has not kept his agreement with the inhabitants of the town of Boston, but, notwithstanding his said agreement, has prevented, and even refused, said inhabitants, with their eflects, from removing into the country ; therefore, Resolved, That it be recommended to the Congress that they rescind their resolution of the 30th ultimo, l^ermittiug the inhabitants of this colony to remove, with their effects, 122 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. into the town of Boston, which resolution was founded upon said agree- ment." Aceordinglj-, the Congress, on the twentieth of the month, re- solved as follows: '■'■Whereas, this Congress did, on the 30th of April last, pass a resolve for permitting such inhabitants of the colony to re- move into Boston, with their effects, fire-arms and ammunition excepted, as should incline thereto, it being in consequence of Gen. Gage's promise to the inhabitants of Boston, that, upon resigning their arms and ammunition the}' should have liberty' to remove from said town with their efleets ; and ichereas, but a small proportion of the said inhabitants of Boston have been hitherto permitted to leave the town, and those only to bring their clothing and household furniture, thej- being con- strained to leave their provisions and all their other effects ; therefore, Resolved, That Gen. "Ward be and he herebj- is directed to order the guards in future not to suffer an}' provisions or effects, excepting furni- ture and clothing, to be carried into the town of Boston, so long as the said Gen. Gage shall suffer the persons or effects of the inhabitants of said town, contrary to his plighted faith, to be restrained." It is difficult to estimate, with much precision, the exact number of the inhabitants of Boston, of both sexes and of all ages, who removed from it under this first conditional allowance offered b}' the British com- mander. As we shall see, bj* and b}', another opportunitj- for a further portion of the distressed people to go out, though under still harder con- ditions, was offered, caused by the press of circumstances. The qualified privilege offered b}- the proclamation in April was practically impaired by so many embarrassments and caprices, that the exit of those who wished to avail themselves of it was wearil}' protracted all through the month of June. The alternative of going or remaining was to many but a balance of hardships and distresses. Large numbers of them, having no relatives in the country, and no kind of profitable employment or resources, felt that they would have to throw themselves on the charitj' of towns or individuals already heavily burdened, and looking forward to severer exactions. Thej' must leave their dwellings and their property, which they could not remove, to all the risks of disaster, mischief, violence, and of wanton riots of a military occupancy. To set against these were the steadily increasing scarcitj' and exorbitant prices of fuel and pro- visions, loss of means of living through trade or labor, fearful risks CHRONICLE or THE SIEGE. 123 from pestilential disease, the hateful presence of a foreign arm\-, and the constant peril of assaults from the patriots outside. There were supposed to have been about 17,000 inhabitants iu Boston when hostilities began at Lexington, and it was estimated that nearly or quite 12,000 had gone out by tlie end of June. More were yet, as above intimated, to go out in the autumn. There were several cases iu which one member of a family concluded to remain to look after house, property, shop or store, while the other members went into the country. Then the long months of separation, with all the varied calamities and apprehensions, keeping them at a fever heat, and with the extremest difficulty of communicating by letters, which were opened on both sides of the lines, were further aggravations of miserj-. The General com- pelled the selectmen to remain in the town, but thej' had scarce anything beyond sanitary functions, and a partial oversight of the poor. Town meetings of the citizens of Boston were held in Watertown. Records of these and of the doings of the selectmen are preserved in the City Clerk's office, but they are exceedingly meagre. Those of the meetings held at Watertown are largely occupied with provisions for the oration on "the horrid massacre," and with thanks to the orators. The Pro- vincial Congress did all that was iu its power by recommendations to provide, in the country towns, for the reception iu each of a certain number of exiles who had no private resources, and fixed on a weekly allowance to be paid for their support b}' the selectmen of such towns, or b}' their Committees of Correspondence. A spirit of mutual depend- ence and harmony, and a determination to continue resistance, meeting all its consequences, were very much quickened by these interminglings of the people from the town with those in the countr}'. "THE FRIENDS OF GOVERNMENT." Boston now became simply what some of those left in it called it, "a Garrison of the King." Besides the military-, it now had in it — we can scarcely say that it sheltered and protected — a motlej', discordant and uucomfort.able conglomeration of people. The countrj' towns had had at the same time several persons and a few families of whom they were glad to be rid. 124 CHROlSriCLE OF THE SIEGE. TORIES IN TOWN AND COUNTRY. These were then called Tories, afterwards Lojalists, and Refugees. Some of these received hard measure, and were treated undoubted!}- with severity, cruelty, and absolute injustice ; and unwisely so, as the event proved, for ends of policy. In several of tlie country towns were con- spicuous (jtizens, professional men or merchants, of influence and high social standing, who were more or less out of sympathy with what they regarded as the rashness, turbulence or violence of the spirit of liberty as it was then rising. They thought our grievances exaggerated ; doubt- ed if we could cope with Great Britain ; feared our burdens would be increased ratlier than lightened ; distrusted the hot-headedness of some whom thej' looked upon as demagogues ; and, with a hesitating and con- servative spirit, they counselled moderation and delaj-. Either from words known to have dropped from them, or from their bolder opposi- tion, or from their absence from the popular assemblies, such men came under suspicion, and were marked with distrust. The patriotic commit- tees of the towns took them in hand, went to examine them, or sum- moned them to a meeting to give an account of themselves by humiliation and avowals of sympathy- with the popular cause. Some, timidlj- or honestl}', made their peace. Others, who would not yield their convic- tions, were treated with indignity and violence, bj' mobs investing their dwellings, by threats of tar and feathers, and bj^ destruction or seizure of their property. These procedures confirmed them in their opinions and course of conduct, and stiffened their obstinac}'. Many of these, being hustled about and threatened in their own towns, had already found a troubled refuge in Boston. Others had come into the neighbor- hood of the Provincial camp as if reallj^ safer there than at home among gathering minute-men and under the surveillance of committees. With the softened spirit of a retrospective review of those days of fierce excitement, we cannot but mingle witli our pity for some indi- viduals who were proscribed as enemies to tlieir country, a regret for the severity, and sometimes gross injustice, with whicli thoy were treated. A broad distinction is to be drawn between the interested partisans of royalty engaged in profitable trade, or fawning upon the representatives CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 125 of power, in the town, and the professional men or private citizens in the country, who were forced to affiliate with them. There were peace-loving and ever}' way blameless gentlemen and ladies scattered over the province, who, on being roughly waited upon by a self-constituted com- mittee of " Sons of Liberty," began by simply objecting to, and then resenting, the catechising to which they were subjected. If any utterance or overt act on the part of such persons, indicating a lack of sympathy with the popular movement, could be charged against them, thej' were treated with great indignitj', — their names being posted as enemies or traitors, their houses and goods rifled, or their dwellings befouled b}- the process called, " a coating of Hillsborough paint." Threats of "tar and feathers" were, however, more frequentlj- uttered than carried out. A ver^' humiliating method was enjoined as the con- dition of full or probationar}' pardon for having offended the people. The penitent must fall on his knees before his townsmen, and, expressing deep contrition, implore their forgiveness. When Gage covenanted for the departure of the inhabitants of Boston, he asked that a letter should be written by the selectmen, to Dr. AYar- ren, at Watertown, desiring leave for all such persons in the country towns, as might wish to do so, to come unmolested into Boston, with their effects. The Provincial Congress, responding to the supposed fair- ness of Gage, on April 30, as above stated, granted such permission, and stationed officers at the Neck of Boston and Charlestown to secure them free entrance. Those wretched fugitives little realized then what the}' had j-et to endure from their exasperated countr3men, as the odium in which the}' were held was steadily intensified, and as their doom was confiscation, humiliation, expatriation and povert}'. Often did many of them, even from their pensioned refuge in the mother-countrj' and in its wild provinces, send back longing laments for the fields of New England. The sevei'est language which came from the pen of Washington was in denunciation of the Tories — "those execrable parricides whose counsels and aid have deluged their country with blood." Protesting against the treatment they had received, they said to the Whigs, "You make the air resound with the crj' of liberty, but subject those who differ from you to the humble condition of slaves, not permitting us to act, or even think, according to the dictates of conscience." The only reply they received 126 CimONICLE OF THE SIEGE. was, " The majority- in a free government must bear rule. There is an immense majority for libert}'. You take j'our side — for failure or tri- umph." From the opening of the struggle the crown promised to all Tories securit}' and compensation. LADY FRANKLAND. Among those persons living in the country-, whose sympathies led them to seek the protection of the British General by availing themselves of the privileges granted by Congress of removing into Boston, was a lady whose career had such elements of romantic interest as to prompt a special reference, in this connection, to her individual experience. The most lucrative crown office in Boston in the j-ears preceding the outbreak of strife was that of the Collector of the Customs. Though the salary attached to it was but £100, the perquisites of it made it ver^' profitable and more desirable than that of Governor of the prov- ince. Shirlej' made interest for the Collectorship, but had to content himself with the office of Governor, because he had at the time a more powerful rival. This rival is known bj- the name of Sir Charles Henry Frankland, grandson of a daughter, the youngest and favorite child, of Oliver Cromwell. He was born May 10, 1716, at Bengal, where his father was residing as Governor of the East India Company's factory. In 1741, in his twentj'-fifth year, he was made Collector of Boston. His winning and engaging manners, and other personal qualities, made Mm a great favorite in the vice-regal society of the town, and he was a gener- ous patron of King's Chapel and its rectors, and of Harvard College. He had with him a natural son, a little boy bearing the name of Henry Cromwell. On an official visit which he made to Marblehead in the j-ear 1 742 , his attention was drawn to the rustic beauty of a J"0ung girl of sixteen years, Agnes Surriage, a daughter of poor, but decent parents, who, with bare feet and limbs, was scrubbing the floor of the inn. He gave her half a crown with which she might buy shoes. On a second visit, soon after, seeing her again in the sanje condition, he ques- tioned her about her shoes. She replied that she had bought a pair, but kept them " to wear to meeting Sundays." Seemingly engaged by her charms and the promise of what she might be made to be, Frankland, by CHEOKICLE OF THE SIEGE. 127 consent of her parents, had her brought to Boston, there, at his expense, to receive the best education enjoj-ed by the daughters of the aristocracj- of the time and place. Four years after his first sight of her she became a member of his household in a relation which had not the sanction of legal or religious rites. To relieve the scandal of that relation which prevented this child of poverty from enjoying the social position she might have had as his wife, he purchased, in 1752, a large extent of land in the town of Hopkinton, twentj'-five miles from Boston, where he built and furnished sumptuousl}' a spacious manor-house, with out- buildings, gardens, parks and fine shrubberies, and where he kept a dozen or twentj' slaves. Here he maintained a bounteous hospitality while visiting Boston to attend to his official duties. There were many loyalists in Hopkinton, where lands had been purchased and an Episco- pal Church planted b}' Roger Price, the uncomfortable rector of King's Chapel. Having occasion to visit England on business, in 1754, his family con- nections would not recognize Agnes, who accompanied him. He was residing with her temporarily at Lisbon, when, as he was driving in a carriage with another lady, he was buried for more than an hour under the ruins of a falling building in the great earthquake which desolated that city on Nov. 1, 1755. In the horrors of his situation he lamented some of his faults and vices, and penitently resolved if he escaped death to amend his life. Being rescued with onlj- severe bruises, he took Agnes at once to a church, where the marriage rite was solemnized between them, which was soon after repeated bj' the chaplain of the ship, an Episcopal clergyman, as they were returning to England. His high-born friends now heartily received the rescued husband and the legal wife. Returning with her to Boston in 1756, he purchased, for a town-house, the splendid Clarke mansion in Garden Court street, next to Gov. Hutchinson's, still retaining the estate at Hopkinton. The writer of these pages, some twenty-five years ago, visited the fine country manor when it was occupied by the widow of Gen. Hildreth, who died there in 1857, in her eight3'-eighth year. She showed the writer a chamber to which it was said Frankland used to retire on the annix'ersarj' of his rescue from the earthquake, and there, wearing the clothes from which the marks of the catastrophe had not been removed, 128 CHKOIflCLE OF THE SIEGE. keep solemn fast-day.. The house was destroj^ed by an accidental fire in 1858. After another visit to and residence in Lisbon, as Consul General, Frankland returned to Boston in 1763. His failing health took him again to England with his wife and Henrj' Cromwell, where he died at Bath, in 1768. Lady Agnes, with the boj', herself childless, came back to Hopkinton, where the years passed quietly and pleasantly- till the siege of Boston. Of course, all the attachments of her later life were with those who were shut up in the garrisoned town, while her presence and influence were an offence to the rural stock of Hopkinton. In answer to her request that she might move to Boston, in order to embark for England, the Committee of Safetj-, on Ma3- 15, 1775, " Upon the application of Ladj- Frankland, Voted, that she have liberty to pass into Boston with the following goods and articles for her voyage, viz. : 6 trunks ; 1 chest ; 3 beds and bedding ; 6 wethers ; 2 pigs ; 1 small keg of pickled tongues ; some hay ; 3 bags of corn ; and such other goods as she thinks proper." The following permit was granted : — " To the Colony Guard: — " Permit Lady Frankland, of Hopkinton, with her attendants, goods, and the provisions above mentioned, to pass to Boston, by express order of the Committee of Safety. " BENJAlSilN CHURCH, Jr., Chairmmi. " Head-quarters, May 15, 1775." Notwithstanding this official action, an armed party in the town of Hopkinton, or on the waj' to Boston, under the lead of Mr. Abner Craft, resisted the lady's removal. The matter coming before the Provincial Congress, on May 18th, a committee was appointed to inquire into the facts of the case. On the report of this committee the Congress " Resolved, that Mr. Abner Craft be, and hereby is, directed forthwith to attend this Congress." After he had attended, made explanation and withdrawn, it was further " Resolved, that he should be geutlj^ ad- monished by the president, and be assured that the Congress were determined to preserve their dignity and power over the military." CHEONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 129 " Resolved, That Lad}- Franklaud be permitted to go into Boston with the following articles, viz. : seven truaks, all the beds and 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, hams and veal, sundr}' small bundles. Which articles, having been examined by a committee from this Congress, she is permitted to have them carried in, without an}' further examination." On the next da}-, Col. Bond, with a guard of sis men, was appointed to escort the lady with her effects to Boston, showing to General Thomas, at the lines, a copy of the resolves. She took refuge temporarilj- at her house on Garden-court street, from which she witnessed some of the horrors of the Battle at Charlestown and the Conflagration. She gave her services to the nursing of some of the wounded. She availed herself of the first opportunity to sail with Heurj- Cromwell for England, where, at the age of 57, she died, in 1783, a j'ear after she had formed a second marriage. BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT KUMFORD. Another individual, who was destined to attain a world-wide fame as a philanthropist and a man of science, appears iu a trj'ing and somewhat equivocal position, among those who at this time found refuge iu Boston. Born as the son of a farmer in Woburu, in 1753, showing from his earliest j'outh some of the qualities of genius, Benjamin Thompson, while teaching school in Concord, N. II., had married a rich widow, had risen in his social relations, and received, just before the opening of hostilities, a military commission from the voyal governor of New Hamp- shire. He had come under suspicion at Concord for tory proclivities, and being ill treated and threatened there had sought refuge iu his native place at Woburn, Mass. Here he had been confined, and, after a public examination, the Committee of Correspondence of that town had neither acquitted nor condemned him. He therefore appealed to the Committee of Safety for a full and fair trial, and an honorable dis- charge, alleging that his personal safety and reputation depended upon a thorough and impartial investigation of the charges against him. The 130 CIIEONIOLE OF THE SIEGE. only recoguition of bis case on the records of the Provincial Congress, is under date of Maj- 20 : " The petition of Benjamin Thompson to the Committee of Safety was read, and ordered to subside." The young man lingered awhile about Cambridge and Charlestown, and asked unsuccessfully for a commission and employment in the army that was forming. He did good service in helping to remove the library and apparatus of the college. At last, chagrined and irritated, he went off to Newport, from which he found passage to Boston. There he so ingratiated himself with the roj-alists, that, at the evacuation, he was sent bj' Gen. Howe with despatches for Lord George Germaine, under whom he became secretary in the department for the American war. These countrj' tories found in Boston some fellow-sufferers more or less conscientious than themselves, and either by selfish interest or the force of associations firm adherents of the ro3'al side. These were such of the councillors as had accepted the oflBce on appointment or command of the king in contravention of the Province Charter ; crown otiicials, and their partisans, with their families, interested in the revenue and in supplying the army ; a few merchants and traders, and a coterie of such as followed the fashions of the times. Such as these, with a few timid but true adherents of the popular cause, made up, with the soldiers, the inmates of the garrison. Some of the patriotic remnant kept a watch- ful eye on what was transpiring around them, and upon the plans of the enemy, and with great risk communicated valuable information to the besiegers outside. OccasionalU- a bright j-outh, or a bold man, would work his way from the town to the patriot camp. FIRE IN BOSTON. In the midst of all the direful trials attending the leaving Boston by so many of its people, occurred the calamity of a disastrous conflagra- tion, on Wednesday, the 17th of May. A party of soldiers were hand- ling cartridges in a store used as a barrack on the south side of the town dock, when by some accident the cartridges ignited, setting fire to the store. The flames spread rapidlj- till some thirty warehouses and buildings were destroyed, involving much valuable property, including some of the donations that had been sent to the poor of Boston. There CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 131 was much confusion, as the General had recently put the fire engines in charge of the soldiers, who did not know how to use them, and had afterwards to call in the aid of the citizens. Instead of ringing the bells as usual on an alarm, the soldiers beat the roll-call. There was a foolish rumor that the Whigs in the town had set the fire. CARE FOR A CIVIL GOVERNMENT. General Gage was now no longer the Governor of Massachusetts, so far as anj- recognized authority- over its people was concerned. His commands, orders and proclamations were limited to the little peninsula of Boston. The Provincial Congress, at Watertown, in May, resolved, that, bj- his arbitrary- course, he had disqualified himself to serve the col- ony as Governor, or in anj- other capacity ; that no obedience was due to him or his proclamations, and that he should be regarded as an unnatu- ral and inveterate enemy to the countiy. They recommended the towns and districts to choose Representatives for a General Assembly at Wa- tertown, Jul}- 19, opened a subscription for a loan to be committed to a Treasui'er of their own, who displaced the King's, and appointed May 11 for a daj' of fasting and pr.ayer. There is a significance in the wording and contents of the successive proclamations issued b3- the Provincial and Continental Congresses for days of solemn religious observance, Fast and Thanksgiving, marking the gradual waning of the sentiment of loyalty, or, at least, of the ex- pression of it. The matter and phraseologj- of these papers were evi- dently studied with care. The3' were not prepared by clergymen, but by lay committees. In the proclamation by which the Provincial Con- gress had appointed March 16 for a Fast day, the Divine blessing is implored to "rest upon George the Third, our rightful King, and upon all the royal family." In the proclamation which appointed May 11 for the same sacred observance, the fact is recognized that " the New Eng- land colonies are reduced to the ungrateful alternative of a tame submis- sion to a state of absolute vassalage to the will of a despotic minister," or of meeting the dire necessity by arms in self-defence. The sentiment of loyalty breathes only the petition, " that the people of Great Britain and their rulers may have their eyes open to discern the things that shall 132 CHEONICLE OF THE SIEGE. make for peace," etc. Again, on a report of a committee appointed to prepare a resolve for a Fast day on Jiih' 13, an amendment was voted for introducing a petition for a "blessing on the Continental Congress," and a prayer for the "unity of the colonies." On June 22 the proclama- tion was once more recommitted for an amendment, and "Mr. "Webster and Deacon Fisher " were added to the committee. AVhen the proclama- tion goes forth, the " crueltj- and barbarity " of the two recent assaults are emphasized, but neither Parliament nor King finds a place in the prayers. But after the appointment of the daj', its observance was superseded by a proclamation in which the Continental Congress had designated Julj- 20 " as a day of public Inimiliation, fasting and prayer" for "the inhabitants of all the English colonies on the continent." In this a blessing is invoked upon "our riglitful sovereign, King George the Third," and a reconciliation is prayed for "with the parent State, on terms constitutional and honorable to both." The varying phraseol- ogj' of these documents, bj- which, in good time, God was asked to bless and save " tlie People," instead of "the King," was a matter of observa- tion and criticism in England. The circulation of the proclamations into all the towns, from the pulpits of the churches of wliich they were read, followed by observances in the assemblies and the liouses, was one of the best mediums of sympathy', influence and confidence between the tentative government of the province and the people. That tenta- tive government was allowed and recognized, under the emergency, till it could find confirmation and exercise authority bj' organic provisions and sanctions. The following is the replj- of advice and instruction given by the Con- tinental Congress in reply to the call from Massachusetts, on Ma3- 16, for direction in the matter of civil government : — " In Congress, Friday, June 9, 1775. " Resolved, That no obedience being due to the Act of Parliament for alter- ing the Charter of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, nor to a Governor or Lieu- tenant-Governor who will not observe the directions of, but endeavor to sub- vert that Charter, the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor are to be considered as absent, and these offices vacant. And as there is no Council there, and the inconveniences arising from the suspension of the powers of Government are intolerable, especially at a time when General Gage hath actually levied war. CHKOiaCLE or THE SIEGE. 133 and is carrying on hostilities against his Majesty's peaceable and loyal sub- jects of that colony: that in order to conform as near as may be to the spii'it and substance of the Charter, it be recommended to the Provincial Congress to write Letters to the Inhabitants of the Several Places which are entitled to representation in Assembly, requesting them to choose such representatives ; and that the Assembly when chosen should elect Counsellors, which Assem- bly and Council should exercise the Powers of Government, until a Governor of his Majesty's Appointment will consent to govern the Colony according to its Charter. " A true copy from the Minutes. " Bv order of the Consrress, CHARLES THOISIPSON, Sec'ry. "JOHN HANCOCK, President:' A cop3' of this resolve was sent to the Selectmen of each of the towns of the province to direct the choice of Representatives for a Provincial Congress to be convened at Watertown on Jul}- 19. The exiled citizens of Boston were summoned, by their Town Clerk, to meet at Concord on Jul}- 18, to choose their representatives. What is said in the preceding Address concerning the peculiar characteristics of the official papers, circulars, appeals and other docu- ments to be classified under the general term of " State papers," as all relating to public interests, and passing between representative or administrative bodies, might be richly illustrated if there were space for it here. The reader of a mass of those papers will be led to wonder where and how the writers of them attained their skill, felicity, acute- ness, and extraordinarj- sagacitj' and discretion in the composition of them. We can account for the striking abilit}- manifested b}- John Adams, for instance, in this direction, partly by native genius and intellectual force, and partly bj' his diligent study of every work on law and government on which be could laj- bis hands. But the astonishing fertility, acuteness and discrimination of his kinsman, Samuel Adams, baffle anj- easy explanation. Yet it is not only in those papers which emanated from the most conspicuous patriots and leaders that we trace the remarkable characteristics more or less common and im- pressive in all of them. The publication of a large number of the local histories of the older towns of Massachusetts has set before anv one 134 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. interested to pursue the inquiry a voluminous mass of reports, instruc- tions, arguments and counsels relating to the revolutionarj' epoch, ■written bj- individuals or committees, as we maj- almost saj-, simpl\' b}- the light of nature, but exhibiting qualities of real, political, statesmanlike ability. The transcendent influence which DeTocqueville so discern- ingly assigned to New England town-meetings in inspiriting, guiding and leading to a successful issue our great revolutionary struggle, will find full confirmation in portions of the contents of these town histories. It was hardly strange that, at the time, the British ministry and Parlia- ment should have been so mystified and perplexed bj'the real nature and phenomena of a Boston or a New England town-meeting. They were in- digenous products, self-evolved methods, developments from the soil, habits and circumstances of the New England people. Very ingenious, but hardly successful, eflTorts have been made, by archreological and anti- quarian essayists, to trace similar and parallel institutions in the democ- racies of ancient Greece, and in the raunicipalilies of some portions of the European continent. But they ^^'ere substantially original and unique here. ¥.\ea in the other colonies of the continent, as in the Jerseys, Maryland, Virginia -and the Carolinas, counties, and what were called, as now, in Louisiana, " parishes," which involved a different municipal administration, were found to be an embarrassment in perfecting measures that were easily disposed in the New England towns. The reader must exercise his own ingenuity in his moralizing or spec- ulating upon the contents of our State papers, in that one marked characteristic of them, — their avowals of a true loyalty to the King of Great Britain in spite of a defiance of all his measures, and a resistance of all his agents. Those papers approximate as nearly as was ever yet realized to a fountain which sent forth at the same place " both sweet ■waters and bitter." Gen. Burgoyne, who seems to have occupied some of his literary leisui'e here in reading such papers, wrote of them to Lord North : " It is more than probable the rebels will be as much averse to trust their cause to fair discussion as to the fair- field. Distant skirmish, ambush, entrenchment, concealment, are what tliey depend upon in debate as in arms." Had it been practicable for oue or more members of the British min- istry, at the time, to have been present at a town-meeting, somewhere in CHEONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 135 the interior of tlie province, in whicli tlie ana}- and costumes of the citizens did not give token of mucli dependence upon broadcloth or the tailor's skill, he would probably have found equal amusement and instruction iti studying the scene. Men, roughened and hardened b3' toil and exposure, would have shown him original specimens of the native training, in rug- gedness of independence in ideas, in natural vigor of mind, and in the power of expression and composition, using certain liberties of their own in grammar, pronunciation and spelling. And if an}' one should think it worth his while to digest all the voluminous patriotic papers of those daj's to have their pith and marrow of meaning before him, he would find that the revolt, of the New England colonies especially, proceeded upon three well-understood positions, as facts : — First. That these colonies were not planted bv the enterprise, or under the patronage of, the crown of England, nor favored and fostered bj- foreign sympathy or aid in their early straits ; but were ventures of a stern and earnest company of self-exiled men and women, at their own private charges and risk, and that they became what thej' grew to be, because they were not nurslings of court and Parliament. Second. That these colonies first drew the intere'st and suspicion of the mother-country, not from anj' regard to their own welfare, but that they might be selfishly turned to her account and aggrandizement, so that her interference with them was oppressive and tyrannical. Third. That the royal and parliamentary sway over the people of these colonics involved the radical iniquity of holding them by more rigid terms than were imposed upon their own islanders to the obligations of Englishmen, while denied the full rights of Euglishmen. HARVARD COLLEGE AND CAMBRIDGE. It is an interesting fact that the College, planted in the wilderness by the first company of English colonists in the Bay of Massachusetts, should have been the scene and the centre of the earliest warlike opera- tions for the defence of the colony. From her plain halls, and from the care and training of such instructors as the resources of tlie time and place could furnish, had gone forth some of the foremost of the local patriots, and the jealous}- of the spirit which was rising in the land had 136 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. prompted an inquisitorial investigation into the political views of her guardians and administrators. The first recognition of the College in the crisis which had now opened around it was in a petition, b}' the afterwards eminent engineer, then Major, Loammi Baldwin, addressed to the Provincial Congress, June 6, 1775, representing "that General Ward had approved of a proposal for taking survej's of the ground between the camp of the Massachusetts army and the posts of the British troops, and requested the loan of mathematical instruments from the appai'atus of Harvard College, to be used in the execution of this service." The Congress ordered thereupon, tliat the Rev. President Langdon be requested to loan such instruments for the public service. Two dajs before the battle in Charlestown, on the report of a com- mittee to whom the business had been referred, the following careful provision was made b}' the Congress: "Whereas, it is expedient that those apartments in Harvard Hall, under the immediate charge of the Professor of Philosophj' and Librarian of Harvard College, be evacuated, Resolved, That the librarv, apparatus, and other valuables of Harvard College, be removed as soon as may be to the Town of Andover," — a committee being designated " to consult with the Rev. President, the Hon. Mr. Winthrop [Professor], and the Librarian, or such of them as may be conveniently obtained, and with them to engage some suitable person or persons in said town, to transport, receive, and take the charge of the above-mentioned effects," — great care being taken in the pack- ing, removing, and safe transfer of the articles, the charges to be borne bj' the public. It appears, \>y a resolve on June 23, that there was a delay in carrying out this arrangement. The future Count Rumford, then Benjamin Thompson, at the age of twentj'-two, showed his interest in science by volunteering his aid in the removal of the College property. A quantity of the province arms was soon deposited in the librarj- hall. The Committee of Safety had voted, Maj' 1, "That the quartermaster- general be directed to clear that chamber in Stoughton College, occupied by S. Parsons, Jr., for a printing office for Messrs. Halls." Samuel and Ebenezcr Hall, who had been printing the "Essex Gazette" in Salem, had been induced to remove their press to Cambridge, and from their office in Stoughton Hall, they issued, on the 10th of August, the first num- CHEONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 137 ber of the " New Euglaud Chronicle, or the Weekly Gazette." Tiie other halls of the College were soou surrendered for barracks and ollices. With all the cares pressing upon the self-constituted civil authorities of the time, the}^ did not fail to recognize the qlaiins of such of the ejected students as were that summer entitled to their academic degrees ; so thej- provided for calling together as many of the overseers as could be reached, to bestow them. Some of the finest and noblest private mansions in the province, with broad acres around them, were in Cambridge, and belonged to those whose sympathies were with the royal part}'. Happily most of these mansions still stand to-daj', some of them enriched alike by memories of patriotism and by the literary fame and honors of their later occupants. For the crisis they served for military uses. Washington, on coming to Cambridge, found a temporary' home in the dwelling then appropriated to the President of the College, which is still in good preservation. The owner of the grandest of the Cambridge mansions, Major John Vassal, being a tor^-, had sought the protection of the British General, in Boston. His house had been for a short time occupied by Col. Glover, and also had been appropriated to the Com- mittee of Safety. On the journal of that committee for July 8, 1775, we read the following : — " Whereas, it is necessai-y that the house of Mr. John "Vassal, ordered by Congress for the residence of His Excellency General Washington, should be immediately put in such condition as may make it convenient for that purpose, therefore, Resolved, that Mr. Timothy Austin be, and hereby is, empowered and authorized, to put said house in proper order for the purposes above men- tioned, and that he procure such assistance and furniture as may be necessary to put said house in proper condition for the reception of His Excellency and his attendants." In his confidential letters to Joseph Reed, Washington communicates his purposes and methods of a generous and impartial hospitalit}' in that mansion, and also some of his embarrassments and discomfitures in the matter. The journals and letters of many distinguished men and women, which are extant, record that their writers shared those hosj)!- 18 138 CHRONICLE or THE SIEGE. talities, with tlioir impressions of the courtcsj- and dignity of the host and hostess. It was a pleasant coincidence tliat Mr. Sparks, the biographer of Washington, and the editor of his voluminous papers, should iiave done much of his work of almost idolatrous love for the chief, in the house and room where so manj' of those papers were written. THE TKOVINCIAL FOKTiriCATIONS. Some slight intrenchnients of the nature of fortified lines, incident to the first steps towards the formation of a camp, had been made by the provincials when they first rallied at Cambridge. Upon the retreat from the redoubt on Breed's Hill, and from the rail fence, on June 17th, Gen. Putnam had in vain attempted to have a stand made on the higher summit of Bunker's Hill. But this point, seemingly of necessit3-, was yielded to the cnem3-. Gen. Howe continued upon the ground, which was immediately secured by strong works, commanding the Neck and the direction of the provincial camp. Onlj- thirty or fort}- jears ago these works, now wholly obliterated, were easily to be traced, and looked formidable in their softened outlines. Howe continued in com- mand of the British detachment in Charlestown, till he succeeded Gage as commander-in-chief, on the recall of tiie latter in the following October, when Gen. Clinton was sent to Charlestown. Putnam, with a corps of volunteers, on the night following the battle, working with heroic diligence, threw up intrenchments upon the high and beautiful rounded summit known with equal appropriateness by the two names of Prospect Hill and Mount Pisgah. There were two crests to the summit, one of them since known as Spring Hill, both of which, before the end of the month, were so strengthened as to be regarded tenable against an attack, while held bj' nearlj- four thousand men. The forces at Cambridge and Charlestown were in full view from this hill. Within the last ten years the spade and the pickaxe have been levelling it for the uses of thrift and health, principally to fill the basin of Miller's river, in East Cambridge. Here, too, mitil quite recent years, fosse and rampart had left their traces, and the site was a favor- able one for recalling the scenes of the past. V . ■^'-> ^'^vs:i *i77irr jMfta 4t^- .,r^^ i^> iy^,i CHROXICLE OF THE SIEGE. 139 In making so instantaneous a stand on this Hill, which continued to be one of the strongest points during the whole siege, and which was regarded at first as in venturesome proximity to the enemj- in Charles- town, Putnam left two smaller hills between him and Bunker's Hill, to await the disposition of subsequent events. These were Ploughed Hill, so called because it was the only one of the neighboring summits which at that time had been cultivated, which has since been known as Mount Benedict, the site of a Roman Catholic convent-school, and which also is now being rapidl.y levelled ; and Cobble Hill, now covered bj- the Appleton wards and the grounds of the McLean Asylum. These two hills came in due season, when Washington had mastered his resources, to form part of his fortifications, and were intrenched and held in open defiance of the attempts made by the enemy to withstand their occu- panc}' by a brisk bombardment by land and water. It seems to have been a matter of unexplained wonder, at the time, that the British should not have anticipated the provincials in taking possession of some of these summits, or at least have been ready to thwart every attempt at their fortification by their foe. But after Prospect Hill had been seized and strengthened it would have been exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for the British to have taken and held either Ploughed or Cobble Hill. Besides, if they had held both of them, what more or next could thej- have done? It required their utmost efforts to hold their ground on their two peninsulas, aided 113- their gun-boats. Thej- had early found that the cost of taking a hill from the provincials was very heavy, and as such hills were lavishly scattered upon the coast and clustered in the interior, they seem to have concluded that the provin- cials were likelj' alwa3's to have the larger share of them. The lines between the opposing forces, within their respective intrench- raents, approximated so closely that the sentries exchanged news, banter and compliments, and deserters found an easy transit. Among the humors of the situation the provincials availed themselves of the oppor- tunitj- to send, on the wings of a favoring breeze, or bj- messengers with flags, large numbers of a satirical print,— of which a fac-simile is given on an adjoining leaf, — containing an address of remonstrance to the British soldiers, and a contrast of the bills of fare, the wages, and the looked-for rewards of the respective combatants on Bunker's and Pros- 140 CHKONICLE OP THE SIEGE. pect Hills. A small mill, a few houses, sheds, barns, and trees between the lines formed prizes contested in the later stages of the struggle. On the same night following the battle at Charlestown a few New Hampshire troops cccxipied, and began to fortify, the lofty and swelling summit of Winter Hill, standing behind Prospect Hill, and midway between Cambridge and Mcdford. Under General P^olsom the works here were so extended and formidable by the close of the month, that the hill, next to that in Eoxbury to be soon referred to, became the most secure of all the provincial defences. A skirting of breastworks ran from the marsh lands near Charlestown Neck, all the way to the banks of Charles river in Cambridge, with several redoubts, half-moons, and more substantial earth-works on the elevated spots and exposed points along the course. The most critical point to be secured and defended was that which should guard the only outlet from Boston b^- land, at Eoxbury Neck. Here, too, the natural features of the region favored the plans of the provincials. Before the stand-pipe of the Cochituate Water Works was erected at the Highlands, in Eoxbury, a stroller over the precipitous and rocky declivities of ihat eminence would have regarded it as a natural fortification, independent!}- of the remains of the works still visible upon it. These works were constructed under the superintendence of Generals Thomas and Knox, and were very strong, and shot could be thrown from them into Boston. Breastworks and intrenchments on the low lands on both sides, across the roads, on Sewall's point, on the Meeting-house hill, and on the road to Dorchester, had been begun, and more or less advanced before the arrival of Washington. A redoubt had been begun on the Ten Hills Farm, to command access through the Mystic river. ■ Colonel Gridlej- and his son, with such scientific and practical assistance as thej' could summon to aid them, gave their labor, as engineers, to these works, though with slender help from proper implements. Shot and shell were occasionally thrown from Boston while these works were in progress, but more than an offset to the mischief effected by them was made bj- some of the Indians and riflemen on the provincial side, who picked off the British sentries. Skirmishes at Boston Neck, shells thrown with some damage into Roxburj", and collisions between parties at the lines, seemed from the first to indicate the relations which were to 1 3- 5 B ? 3 2 S Pn ^ QTQ " 3 s s > Cd _ 3i „ <riCLE OF THE SIEGE. 167 jamin Edes, the sturdy Whig printer of the " Boston Gazette," had, with marvellous prowess, on the first shutting up of Boston, contrived to evade the sentinels, and not onl_y to get out of the town himself, but to carry with him an old press, and some founts of type. He continued his paper at Watertown. Margaret, the w-idow of Eichard Draper, con- tinued his paper, the "Boston News Letter," in her own name, and in the British interest, during the Siege, and her press was well patronized. PROCLAMATIONS BY GEN. G.AGE. In another of these papers. Gen. Gage offers a reward of ten guineas for the apprehension of the person who had stolen tlie Province Seal. The following call for ascertaining the number of people in the town maj' have been prompted bj' a desire to give information in England : — "BY THE GOVERNOR. A PROCLAMATION. " The Circumstances of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, being such as makes it necessary I should know the Number of Persons that still remain therein : I have thought fit to issue this proclamation, requiring a Return of the Names of every Inhabitant in said Town (the Army and Navy excepted) and their Places of Abode, unto the Town Major, at his Office in Long Lane, on or before Thursday next, the Fifth day of this Instant, distinguishing the Males from the Females with their respective Ages. ' ' And, I do hereby further require of every Person that may hereafter come into the Town oi Boston, immediately after their Arrival, to enter their Names at the ofSce aforesaid. " Given at Boston the Second Daj- of October, 1775, &c., &c. "THOMAS GAGE. " By His Excellency's Command, "THOMAS FLUCItER, Becr'y. " GOD Save the KING." The number of inhabitants other than soldiers was estimated at C,o73, and of the soldiers, with their women and children, at 13,600. The 168 CHROI^ICLE OF THE SIEGE. people were required to be in their liouses at nine o'clocls, anil tlie streets, which were darlc and dangerous, were patrolled. A vote had been passed at a town-meeting in 1773, to purchase, in London, three hundred street lamps. But they were on board one of the tea-ships that went ashore on Cape Cod, in December of that j-ear. BURGOYNE'S THEATRICALS IN BOSTON. General Burgojne had nearly two months longer stay in the town after Gage had gone, to mature freely his own opinions in a closer in- timacj' with his colleague. Gen. Howe, then in the chief command, while Clinton went over to Charlestown. In the irksome confinement and routine of garrison life, wherever officers can find female associates and friends, there is alwaj-s one resource, however forced and tame it ma}' be, which will be sought as a relief from despondencj^ and inanitj'. Such of the sex in Boston as indulged torj' proclivities, and such were not lacking, with attractions of grace and culture, responded to the efl'orts of the officers to provide assemblies and dances. Tliese were held in Concert Hall, which has so recently disappeared from the southed}' corner of Court and Hanover streets. There were other women in Boston, who would take no part in such gayeties. In a confidential letter which Burgoyne wrote, Aug. 20th, to Attorney-General Thurlow, he refers with some complacency to the literary labors which had occupied his constrained leisure, as he had been " called upon to draw a pen instead of a sword." " If the procla- mation for the exercise of martial law, the correspondence with Lee, or the answer to Washington upon the subject of rebel prisoners, fall into your hands, I request you to consider those productions with all the allowances your candor can suggest." But the writer is silent as to his kindly intended efforts, as a man of pleasing social qualities, to con- tribute to the amusement of the melancholy circle in Boston. A series of theatrical exhibitions was given under his direction, in Faneuil Hall, in the autumn. On the adjoining page is a fac-simile of the announce- ment of the tragedy of " Zara," which was acted several times. Bur- goyne wrote the Prologue and the Epilogue, the former of which was spoken by Lord Rawdon, and the latter by a young lady, ten years old. On SATURDAY next Will be PERFORM'D By a Society of L A D I E S and GENTLEMEN, At FANEUIL-H ALL, The TRAGEDY of Z A R A : The Expences of the Houfe being paid, the Overplus will be apply'd to the Benefit of the Widows and Children of the Soldiers. No Money will be taken at the Door, but Tickets will be deli- vered To-day and To-morrow, between the Hours of Eight and Two, at Dodlor Morris's in School-ftreet. PIT One Dollar, GALLERY Quarter of a Dollar. The Doors to be open at FIVE, and begin precifely at S I X o'clock. •.•TICKETS for Friday will be taken. Vivant Rex et Regina. CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 169 In these compositions the writer good-humoredly ridicules the prudery and Puritan severitj- of the Bostonians, but urges the English troops to " Unite the wjirrior's with the patriot'3 care, And whilst yoti burn to conquer, wish to spare." While the young lady's concluding moral points to the naughtiness of rebellion, and lays it down that, — " Duty in female breasts should give the law, And make e'en love obedient to Papa." A reference to this performance is found in a letter addressed by- Thomas Stanley — second son of Lord Derby — to Hug! i Elliot, after Stanley's return to Boston, where he had served on Bui-goyne's staff. [Memoir of the Right Hon. Hugh Elliot, by the Countess of Minto, p. 92.] "We acted the tragedy of Zara two nights before I left Boston, for the benefit of the widows and children. The prologue was spoken by Lord Rawdon, a very fine fellow and good soldier. I wish you knew him. We took above £100 at the door. I hear a great many people blams us for acting, and think we might have found something better to do ; but General Howe follows the example of the King of Prussia, who, when Prince Ferdi- nand wrote him a long letter, mentioning all the difficulties and distresses of the army, sent back the following concise answer : ' De la gaiete, encore de la gaiete, et toujours de la gaiete.' The female parts were filled by young ladies, though some of the Boston ladies were so prudish as to say this was improper." Later, in the enjoyment of these theatricals, the spectators and the actors experienced a somewhat rude shock. On the evening of Jan. 8th, 177G, a farce, called " Tlie Blockade of Boston," was upon the stage in Faneuil Hall. One of the actors, representing a travesty of Gen. Washington, had come in in grotesque array, with wig and rusty sword, with a squire, in similar array, carrying a rusty gun. At this moment a sergeant rushed in shouting, "The Yankees are attacking our works on Bunker's Hill." For a moment this was taken to be a part of the play. But, on the next, Gen. Howe, who was present, gave the order, "Officers, to your alarm posts!" There was an instant 170 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. crowding and rush to the door, with a fainting and slirieking of tlie ■women. The alarm was caused by the enterprise of Major Knowlton, near Charlestown Neck, where he had burned some houses used by the British, causing a bright conflagration, had killed one man, and brought oti' five prisoners. GENERAL HOWE IN COMMAND IN BOSTON. The new commander of the besieged town showed a desire to do anj'thing within his power and resources to put his army into the best condition possible, and to be prepared for a campaign, or any emer- gency. But his embarrassments and disabilities proved to be the same as Gage had encountered. During the summer and autumn there was prevailing sickness in the town ; the hospitals and manj^ private dwell- ings were filled with sufferers, poorly ministered to ; and the inhabitants were in a constant state of distress and alarm. The following procla- mations, issued by the General, exhibit the directions in which his zeal manifested itself. In a third publication, of the same dale, he forbade any one, who had permission to leave the town, to take away with him more than five pounds sterling. "A PROCLAMATION. By His Excolleney, the Hon. Wm. Howe, Major General, and Commander-in-Chief, &c. " Whe7-eas, it is become the indisjionsable Duty of every loyal and faithful Citizen, to contribute all in liis Power for the Preserv.ation of Order and good Government within the Town of Boston : " I do hereby recommend, that the Inliabitants do immediately associate themselves, to be formed into Companies under proper OlBcers, selected by me, from among the Associators, to be solely employed within the Precincts of the Town, and for the Purposes above mentioned. "That this Association be opened in the Council Chamber, under the Direction of the Honorable Peter Oliver, Foster Hutchinson, and William Brown, Esquires : on Monday the; thirtieth Day of October, 1775, and CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 171 continui'd for four Days following, that no One may pleail Ignoi-ance of the same. " Out of the Number of Persons voluntarily entering into this Association, all such as are able to discharge the Duty required of them, shall be properly Armed, and an Allowance of Fuel and Provisions be made to those requiring the same, equal to what is issued to His Majesty's Troops within tlie Garrison. " Given at Head Quarters in Boston, this Twenty-eighth Day of October, 1775. "W. HOAVE. " Bv His Excellencv"s Command, "ROBERT MACKENZIE." "A PROCLAMATION, by His Excellency The Honorable Wiixiam Howe, Major General and Commander in Chief of all His Majesty's Forces within the Colonies laying on the Atlantic Ocean, from Nova Scotia to West Florida inclusive, &c., &c., &c. " Whereas, several of the Inhabitants of this Town have lately absconded to join, it is apprehended. His Majest}''s Enemies, assembled in open Rebellion : " I Do, by Virtue of the Power and Authority in me vested by His Majesty, forbid any Person or Persons whatever, not belonging to the Navy, to pass from hence by Water or otherwise from the Date hereof, without my Order or Permission given in Writing. " Any Person or Persons detected in the Attempt, or who may be retaken, upon sufficient Proof thereof, shall be liable to Military Execution ; and those who escape shall be treated as Traitors, by Seizure of their Goods and Effects. "All Masters of Transports or other Vessels sailing from hence, unless under the immediate Order of Samuel Graves, Esq., Vice Admiral of the White, &e., &p., &o., or Officer commanding His Majesty's Ships of War on this Service for the Time being, are hereby strictly forbidden to receive any Person or Persons on Board without my Order or Permission in Writing. Any Master or others detected in Disobeying this Proclamation shall be liable to such Fine and Imprisonment as may be adjudged. " Given at Head Quarters ia Boston, this Twenty-eighth Day of October, 1775." 172 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. At the end of November, while the small-pox was raging in the town, Howe sent out, to Point Shirlej- and Chelsea, hundreds of the destitute inhabitants, with nothing but a scanty allowance of furniture and clotii- ing. He had given orders for the destruction of one of the meeting- houses of the town, and a large number of houses and barns, for fuel; and, as advantage was taken of this order l)y the soldiers for private devastation, he issued a warning against such wanton mischief. The Provost was commissioned to go his rounds, attended by executioners, and at once to hang detected offenders. It was under the stress of such circumstances that the following was issued : — "A PROCLAMATION, by His Excellency the Hon. Wii. Howe, Major Gen'l and Commander in Chief, &c. " WiiEiiEAS, the present and approaching Distresses of many of the Inhab- itants in the Town of Boston, from the Scarcity and high Prices of Provisions, Fuel, and other necessary Articles of Life, can only be avoided by permitting them to go where they may hope to procure easier Means of Subsistence : " Notice is herebj^ given, that all those suffering under the above-mentioned Circumstances, who chuse to depart the Town, may give in their Names, Abode, Number and Names of those in Family, Eflccts, &c., that Passes may be made out, conformable to Regulations already established. " Given at Head Quarters in Boston, this sixth Day of November, 1775. "W. HOWE. " By His Excellency's Command, "ROBERT MACKENZIE." So the drear}- winter passed with the besieged forces. They felt in- creasingly all the humiliations of their condition, and were waiting for the spring, for reinforcements, and for decisive orders, to meet the con- tingencies of the future. The result of the bold and effective measures of the provincial arm}- in the occupation of the heights of Dorchester, as given in the preceding address, may be accompanied here by some incidental details. CHROKICLE OF THE SIEGE. 173 THE CONTRACT FOR THE EVACUATION AND SAFETY OF BOSTON. The understandiDg ami the implied covenant between the belligerents, which saved Boston from being bombarded or burned, while securing its evacuation bj' the British forces, were at the time, well undei-Stood on this side of the water. The measures to effect the desired object were conducted by the selectmen of the town, at the instigation of the remnant of the patriotic inhabitants and owners and guardians of the propertj- in it. Their apprehensions of calamity attached equally to the probable course which might be adopted by either party ; the patriots might destroy the town for the sake of driving out the enemy, or the enemy might burn the town in revenge for being compelled to leave it. "Washington and the British commander could hold no direct official correspondence on the subject, for the latter, holding to his resolve not to recognize any title or rank that was not derived from the king, would not address Washington according to the terms which Congress had enjoined as the requisite condition for such official correspondence. A vain attempt ■was afterwards made b}' a British officer to reconcile the American com- mander to being addressed " George Washington, &c., &c., &c.," on the plea 'that those et ceterm would include everythinci . Washington re- plied that they might also Include auything. Captain Irvine, with six other persons, luul escaped from Boston on the night of March 8th, and reported the active work in progress for embarking the British forces. A flag came out of Boston the same evening, bearing the following paper, without any address, though in- tended for Washington, and signed bj' four of the selectmen, dated, Boston, 8 March, 177.5 : — "As His Excellency General Howe is determined to leave the town with the troops under his command, a number of the respectable inhabitants, being very anxious for its preservation and safety, have applied to General Kobertson for this purpo-e, who, at their request, has communicated the same to His Excellency General Howe, who has assured him that he has no intention of destroying the town, unless the troops under his command ai"e molested during their embarkation, or at their departure, by the armed force without ; which declaration he gave General Robertson leave to communicate to the inhabitants. If such an opposition should take place, we have the 174 CHRONICLE or THE SFEGE. greatest reason to expect the town will be exposed to entire destruction. Our fears are quieted with regard to General Howe's intentions. We beg we may have some assurance that so dreadful a calamity may not be brought on by any measures without. As a testimony of the truth of the above, we have signed our names to this paper, carried out by Messrs. Thomas and Jonathan Amory, and Peter Johonnot, who have at the earnest entreaties of the inhab- itants, through the Lieutenant-Governor, solicited a flag of truce for this purpose. " John Scollay, Thomas Marshall, Timothy Newell, Samuel Austin." This paper was taken to the Roxbury lines by IMajor Bassett, of the Tenth Regiment, and given to Colonel Learned, wlio carried it to liead- rjiiarters. On ]ii.s return he wrote the following reply to the bearers of it : — "Roxbury, 9 March, 1776. "Gentlemen, — Agreeably to a promise made to you at the lines yester- day, I waited upon His Excellency General AVashington, and presented to him the paper handed to me by you from the Selectmen of Boston. The answer I received from hiin was to this effect : That as it was an unauthenti- cated paper, without an address, and not obligatory upon General Howe, he would take no notice of it. I am, with esteem and respect, Gentlemen, " Your most obedient servant, "EBEXEZER LEARNED. " To Messrs. Amoky and John.vot." The answer of Washington was in conformity with the advice of such general officers as he could immediately summon, who agreed with hiin that, as the paper lacked the guarantj- of General Howe, he could not be held by it to any terms of obligation. None the less, however, was Washington willing lo act in conformity with the arrangement, though he watched the enemy most rigidly during the embarkation, ready to avenge any wanton mischief on their part. The last token of Howe's presence in the town is in the following : — "By His Excellency William Howe, Major General, &c., &c , &c. "As Linnen and Woolen Goods are Articles much wanted by the Rebels, and would aid and assist them in their Rebellion, the Commander-in-Chief expects that all good Subjects will use their utmost Endeavors to have all CHEOXICLE OF THE SIEGE. 175 such articles conveyed from this Place. Anv who have not Opportunity to conve}' their Goods under their own Care, may deliver them on Board the Minerva, at Hubbard's Wharf, to Crean Brush, Esq., mark'd with their Names, who will give a Certificate of the Delivery, and will oblige himself to return them to the Owners, all unavoidable Accidents excepted. " If, after this Notice, any Person secretes or keeps in his Possession such Articles, he will be ti'eated as a Favourer of Rebel . "Boston, March 10th, 177G." Here again we have recognized the oflicial agency of Mr. Brush, whose career has been briefly sketched above. THE LEAVE-TAKIXG AND EMBAKKATIOX. The following extracts from British sources give us authentic in- formation concerning the last daj's of the occupanej' of Boston by the royal army. Almon's "Remembrancer" (Vol. III., pp. 106, 107) pub- lished a letter " from an officer of distinction at Boston to a person in Loudon," under dates from March 3d to 10th. "March 3(1. — For tliese last six weeks, or near two months, we have been better amused than could possibly be expected in our situation. We had a theatre, we had balls, and there is actually a subscription set on foot for a masquerade. England seems to have forgot us, and we have endeavored to forget ourselves ; but we were roused to a sense of our present situation last night, in a manner unpleasant enough. The rebels have been, for some time past, erecting a bomb batterj-, and last night began to play upon us. [From Lechmere's Point.] Two shots fell not far from me. One fell upon Colonel Monckton's house, and broke all the windows, but luckily did not burst till it had crossed the street. Many houses were damaged, but no lives lost. We expect some carcasses to-night, if the fear of destroying their own property does not prevent it. What makes this matter more provoking is, that their barracks are so scattered, and at such a distance, that we can't disturb them, although from a battery near the water side they can reach us easily. " March 4th. — If something is not speedily done his Britannic Majesty's American dominions will probably be confined within a very narrow compass. The rebel army is not brave, I believe, but it is agreed on all hands that their artillery oflicers are at least equal to our own. In the number of shells that thej' flung last night not above three failed. This morning we flung four, and three of them burst in the air. 176 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. " March blh. — This is, I believe, likely to prove as important a day to the British empire as any in our annals. We underwent last night a very severe cannonade, which damaged a number of houses, and killed some men. This morning, at daybreak, we discovered two redoubts on the hills on Dor- chester Point, and two smaller works on their flanks. They were all raised during the night, with an expedition equal to that of the genii belonging to Aladdin's wonderful lamp. From these hills they commanded the whole town, so that we must drive them from their post, or desi-rt tlie place. The former is determined upon, and five regiments are already embarked. A body of light infantry, under the command of Major Musgrave, an excellent officer, and a body of grenadiers, are to embark to-night at seven. I think it is likely to be so for a general affair, tliat we shall take our share in it. Adieu, balls, masquerades, &c., for this may be looked upon as the opening of ihe campaign. " It is worth while to remarlv with wliat judgment tlie loaders of the rebels take advantage of the prejudices, and work upon the passions of the mob. This 6th of March is the anniversary of what tliey call the Bloody Massacre, when, in (I think) 17C9, the king's troops fired on the people in the streets of Boston. If ever they dare stand us, it will be to-day; but I hope to-morrow to be able to give you an account of their defeat. " March Qth. — A wind more violent than anytliing I ever heard prevented our last night's purposed expedition, and so saved the lives of thousands. To-day they have made themselves too strong to make a dislodgment possi- ble. We are under their fire whenever they choose to begin ; so that we are now evacuating the town with the utmost expedition, and are leaving behind us half our worldly goods. Adieu ! I hope to embark in a few hours. "March 7th. — When the transports came to be examined they were void of both provisions and forage. If any are got on board to-day it will be as much as can be done. Never were troops in so disgraceful a situation, and that not in' the least our own fault, or owing to any want of slcill or discretion in our commanders, but entirely owing to Great Britain being fast asleep. I pity General Howe from my soul. " March 9th. — Trampnrt, I have slept one night on board ; the troops are embarking as fast as possible. I mistook when I imagined the works already made could destroy the town ; but the rebels possess a hill so situated, that if they pleased to erect a battery it would entirely consume us. They as yet have not proceeded to make a work, nor do they attempt to molest us in our embarkation. It appears as if there were at least a tacit agreement between AVashington and General Howe. •'■March lOlh. — To-day the horse transports are ordered to pull down to CHEOXICLE OF THE SIEGE. 177 Castle William, a fort about three miles from the town in our possession ; it commands the harbor, and the troops now here will embark the last. The retreat from the town is to be covered by a large body of grenadiers, and light infantry, and the 5th and the 10th Regiments. The Fowey, a man of war of twenty-eight guns, covers the retreat by water. A packet is to sail, I hear, as soon as the army is clear of the town ; so probably I shall not have it in my power to inform you whether we are attacked in our retreat or not. " Nantasket Road, March 17th. — Our retreat was made this morning between the hours of two and eight. Our troops did not receive the smallest molestation, though the rebels were all night at work on the near hill, and we kept a constant fire upon them, from a battery of four twenty-four pounders. They did not return a single shot. It was lucky for the inhabitants now left in Boston they did not. For I am informed everything was prepared to set the town in a blaze had they fired one cannon. The dragoons are under orders to sail to-mon'ow for Halifax, a cursed, cold, wintry place even yet. Noth- ing to eat, less to drink. Bad times, my dear friend. The displeasure I feel fi-om the very small share I have in our present insignificancy is so great that I don't know the thing so desperate I would not undertake in order to change our situation." From t Ik; "Remembrancer," III., 108. "A passenger from Boston gives the following account" : — "On tlie second of March the provincials began to bombard the town from a place called Phipps' Farm, and on the third they opened a 24-pound battery on Dorchester Neck, which annoyed the army exceedingly. On the fifth. Gen. Howe embarked six regiments to attack this battery, but a strong easterly wind preventing the men-of-war ft-om covering or supporting them, it was thought advisable to desist. The next day he renewed the attempt, but found the work so strong that he returned without effecting any- thing. In the mean time, the provincials had thrown near a hundred bombs into the town, and fired with considerable execution from their battery. Gen. Howe, therefore, got some of the selectmen to go out to Gen. Washington to inform him that, if firing continued, he must set fire to the town to cover his reti'eat. Two of the selectmen returned, and having communed with Gcji. Howe, went back, and the firing immediately ceased. " Gen. Howe then began his embarkation. The refugee inhabitants went first, not being suflered to carry anj"thing but necessaries. The mortars and heavy artillery could not be embarked; these, therefore, they endeavored to burst, by charging them full with powder, and tiring it off. But this did 23 178 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. not answer their wishes. They attempted also to destroy all the small arms belonging to the town. While this work was going on, a deserter from the provincial camp informed Gen. Howe, on the tenth, that Gen. Washington was preparing for a general storm. Upon this intelligence, the General and all the troops immediately embarked, leaving the artillei-y, stoi'es, etc., damaged only, as the hurry and confusion would permit. " It now appeared, by the movements of the provincial army, that they were taking stations upon Hogg and Noddle's Islands, and preparing to attack Castle William. If they had succeeded in this, they would have had the com- mand of Boston harbor, and destroyed the fleet. Gt-n. Howe, therefore, dis- mantled and blew up Castle William, and then fell down with the whole fleet into Nantasket road, which is an open and exposed station. The transports were mostly small schooners, under the protection of three men-of-war. March is the most tempestuous month of the year upon the American coast, so that without a miracle this wretched fleet must be dispersed and lost. It is impossible that more events could concur to render their distress com- plete, and their ruin almost inevitable. The terms of agreement between the two Generals were secret; but it is supposed that nothing was to have been destroyed, and that this breach of it determined the iJrovincials to enter the town sooner than was intended." " Cambridge, March 27. — Among other commodities belonging to the late garrison at Boston, we have got their orderly-book, by which it appears that Gen. Howe had 7,575 eS'ective men, exclusive of the stafl", so that with the marines and sailors he might be considered as 10,000 strong." From an officer of a ship-of-war, Boston harbor, March 23 : — " The bay swarms with American privateers, but we hope to protect tlie transports, which are daily expected from the AVest Indies, and to send them safe to Halifax." "Extract of a letter from Boston. Hi.s Majesty's ship Chatham, March 24, 1776." (Almon,III., 107) : — " The retreat of the troops from this garrison cannot fail to be differently represented in England, for which reason I have found time, from our great hurry, to give you some account of it. In the first place, the General not receiving any letters or despatches from government since the middle of October, could not tail of making everybody very uneasy. It looked as if we were left destitute, to get out of a bad scrape as we liked best. Our pro- visions falling short, added to our discontents The fleet afforded us no CHKOXICLE or THE SIEGE. 179 relief. Little indeed was in their power; their own ill equipment was enough to make them as dissatisfied as ourselves. The provincials, who knew exactly the state of our garrison, harassed us from their batteries, with an intention of making our people more dissatisfied in hopes of desertions. Finding no probability of supply, and dreading the consequences of further delay, it was thought prudent to retire to the ships, and to save what we could. Our not being burthened with provisions, permitted us to save some stores and ammu- nition, the light field-pieces, and such things as are most convenient of carriage. The rest. I am sorry to say, we were obliged to leave behind. Such of the guns as by dismantling we could throw into the sea, was done so ; the carriages were disabled, and every precaution taken that our circum- stances would permit, for our retreat was by agreement. The jjeople of the town who were friends to government, took care of nothing but their merchandise, and found means to employ the men belonging to the transports in embarking their goods, by which means several of the vessels were entirely filled with private property instead of the king's stores. By some unavoidable accident, the medicines, surgeons' chests, instruments and neces- saries were left in the hospital. The confusion, unavoidable on such a disaster, will make you conceive how much must be forgot where every man had a private concern. The necessary care and distress of the women, children, sick and wounded, required every assistance that could be given. It was not like breaking up a camp, where every man knows his duty ; it was like departing your country, with your wives, your servants, your household furniture, and all your incumbrances. The ofiicers, who felt the disgrace of their retreat, did their utmost to keep up appearances. Tlie men, who thought they were changing for the better, strove to take the advantage of the present times, and were kept from plunder and drink with difficulty. In bad plight we go to Halifii.x. What supply we are to expect there I do not know ; our expectations are not very sanguine. The neglect shown us bears hard on us all; the soldiers think themselves betrayed; the officers all blame the Admiralty, and your friend Lord S is universally execrated ; the sea-officers complained they were hurried out of England in a most shameful condition, not half manned, and ill-provided. Fleet and army complain of each other, and both of the people at home. If we fare as ill at Halil'ax as we have done here lately, I fear we shall have great desertion, as the opjjor- tunity will be more convenient." 180 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. BOSTON HARBOR REOPENED. The Renown, man-of-war, was stationed at Nantasket to guard the harbor and to warn ofT transports, and was a great annoj'ance in pre- venting wood and himber coasters and other vessels from snpphing Boston with necessaries. It was resolved that this troublesome object should be got rid of. On the morning of June 13th drafts from the troops in and near the town, a detachment from Col. Crafts' train of artillerj-, with some militia from the neighborhood, amounting in all to about six hundred, under command of Gen. Lincoln, went to Point Alderton, Petticks, and other neighboring islands. Thej- vigorously bombarded and cannonaded the enem}-, one of the shot piercing the Commodore's ship. The attack was so sudden and unlocked for that it caused the enemy great confusion. Without making anj- resistance the Eenown slipped or cut her cables, and put to sea after sending men in boats to destroy the light-house. She was followed by twelve sail of other British ships, eight of which were reported to be transports with Highland recruits. The Port of Boston was thus opened just two years after it was closed b}' parliamentarj- edict. As soon as this event occurred the first fruits of the prowess of the provincials were realized. A continental schooner chased into the harbor two transports, which, with the help of forts on the islands, were captured and brought to Boston. The transports contained two hundred and twenty Highland- ers, with their Colonel, Archibald Campbell, and Major Menzies. The Major was killed in the action, and was' buried with military honors from Trinity' Church. The Colonel, who attended as chief mourner, was sent as a prisoner to reside at Reading and Concord. REPORT OF THE EVACUATION IN ENGLAND. The announcement in England of the evacuation of Boston was received with amazement and consternation, and witli the sharpest censures on the management of the war, mingled with taunts and sar- casms. Boston had engaged the hopes and fears of the ministry, and the people of England. It had been described as the metropolis of America, and the head-quarters of rebellion. As such it had been CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 181 chosen as the centre for the operation of all parliamentarj- eilicts, and of all military movements. More than a million sterling bad been spent to secure its hostile occupancj". Great Britain had been drained of men and food to hold it, and 60,000 tons of transports had been freighted to keep it. Now the "London Gazette," of May 3, makes the following placid annonncemont : — " General Howe having taken a resolution on the 7th of March to remove from Boston to Halifax, with the troops under his command, and such of the inhabitants, with their effects, as were desirous to continue under the pro- tection of his Majesty's forces, the embarkation was effected on the 17th of that month, with the greatest order and regularity, and without the least interruption from the rebels," &c. Of course the other side of the story did not fail of being told with some embellishments. It was said that Gen. Howe went to the select- men and informed them, — " That he saw Mr. Washington was determined to have the town, that the town was of no consequence to the king's service, and that he would abandon it if Mr. AVashingtou would not disturb his embarkation. He thought it a pity so fine a town sliould be burnt, and added the distress such desijeration must occasion to the inhabitants ; he showed them the combustibles he had laid, for setting it on fire in an instant, in every part, &c." In consequence, it was added, the selectmen brought about the truce, though it was not understood whether anj- arrangement was made about the king's stores, etc. Parliament being in session the Duke of Manchester, in the House of Lords, on May 10th, called for the despatches from America, which the ministry declined to produce on the plea tliat thej' concerned future operations. The duke indignantly presented the disgrace visited upon the British army and fleet, and the attempt to cast the veil of silence over the humiliating result. He added that private intelligence brought the trustworth}- information that " General Howe quitted not Boston of his own free will ; but that a superior enem3-, by repeated efforts, by extraordinary works, by the fire of their batteries, rendered the place untenable." 182 CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. The Earl of Suffolk, in defence of the ministry, replied : — " The noble Duke says there must have been a convention between General Howe and the rebel commander, which I do assure His Grace was by no means the case; no convention, stipidation, concession, or compromise whatever, having been made. The General thought proper to shift his position (! ! ) in order, in the first place to protect Halifax, and after that object was secured, to penetrate, by that way, (! ! ) into the interior country, &c." The Marquis of Rockingham told what he had heard from " a private chanuel," which was in exact conformity with the truth : — " No formal convention, or cajiitulation, was signed, which I understood was avoided by the Generals on both sides for jsarticular reasons : but there was ever}- substantial requisite of a treaty or comijromise." Lord Shelburue and others, in opposition, confirmed this statement, bnt the minister persisted that lie had no knowledge or belief of such a matter. DIARIES AND LETTERS IN BOSTON DURING THE SIEGE. The following interesting details are from the pen of Dr. James Thacher, in his "Military Journal of the War," through which he was a Surgeon in the American Army. He was at the. time just come of age, and appointed Surgeon's mate under Dr. David Townsend, in Col. Whitcomb's Regiment on Prospect Hill. He lived to be ninety years old : — "Immediately after the enemy sailed from Boston harbor. Gen. Washing- ton ordered the major part of his army to march to New York, to secure the city against the apprehended invasion of Gen. Howe. It was not till Wednes- day, the 20th, that our troops were permitted to enter the town, when our regiment, with two or three others, were ordered to march in and take up our quarters, which were provided for us in comfortable houses. While marching through the streets, the inhabitants appeared at their doors and windows ; though they manifested a lively joy on being liberated from a long imprison- ment, they were not altogether free from a melancholy gloom which ten tedious months' seige has spread over their countenances. The streets and buildings present a scene which reflects disgrace on their late occupants, exhibiting a deplorable desolation and wretchedness. CHRONICLE OF THE SIEGE. 183 "Boston, March 2-2d. — A concourse of people from the countrj' are ci-owd- ing into the town, full of friendly solicitude ; and it is truly interesting to witness the tender interviews and fond embraces of those who have been long separated under circumstances so peculiarly distressing. But it is particularly unfortunate on this occasion, that the small-pox is lurking in various parts of the town, which deters many from enjoying an interview with their friends. The parents and sister of my friend, Dr. Townsend, have continued in town during the siege. Being introduced to the fiimily by the Doctor, I received a kind and polite invitation to take up my abode with them, where I am enjoying the kindest attentions and civilities. I accompanied several gentlemen to view the British fortifications on Roxbui-y Neck, where I observed a prodi- gious number of little military engines called caltrops or crow feet, scattered over the ground in the vicinity of the works, to impede the march of our troops in case of an attack. The implement consists of an iron ball armed with four sharp points, about one inch in length, so formed that which way soever it may foil, one point lies upward to pierce the feet of horses or men, and are admirably well calculated to obstruct the march of an enemy. " 23d. — I went to view the Old South Church, a spacious brick building near the centre of the town. It has been for more than a century [including the preceding structure on the same site] consecrated to the service of religion, and many eminent divines have, in its pulpit, labored in teaching the ways of righteousness and truth. But during the late siege the inside of it was en- tirely destroyed by the British, and the sacred building occupied as a riding- school for Burgoyne's regiment of dragoons. The pulpit and pews were removed, the floor covered with earth, and used for the purpose of training and exercising their horses. A beautiful pew, ornamented with carved work and silk furniture, was demolished ; and by order of an officer, the carved work, it is said, was used as a fence for a hogstj-. The North Church, a very valuable building, was entirely demolished and consumed for fuel. Thus are our houses, devoted to religious worship, profaned and destroyed by the sub- jects of His Royal Majesty. " His Excellency, the commander in-chief, has been received by the inhabi- tants with every mark of respect and gratitude, and a public dinner has been provided for him. He requested the Kev. Dr. Eliot, at the renewal of his customary Thursday Lecture, to preach a thanksgiving sermon, adapted to the joyful occasion. Accordingly, on the 28th, this pious divine preached an ap- propriate discourse from Isaiah xxxiii. 20 : " Look upon Zion, the city of our Solemnities, etc.," in presence of His Excellency and a respectable audience. " 29//t. — One of our soldiers found a human .skek-tuu iu complete prep- 184: CHEONICLE or THE SIEGE. aration, left by a British surgeon, which I have received as an acceptable present." The 3"0ung surgeon records his attendance on April 8th, in the King's Chapel, on " the funeral solemnities over the remains of that patriot and hero, Major Gen. Joseph Warren." Though it was contrary to general orders, as he was surrounded by disease, he had recourse b}^ advice of bis friends to inoculation, by Dr. John Thomas, and passed through the process "without suffering a day's confinement. " July 'del. — Orders ai-e given to inoculate for the small-pox, all the soldiers and inhabitants in town, as a genei'al infection of this terrible disease is apprehended. Dr. Townsend and myself are now constantly engaged in this business." DIARY OF EZEKIEL PRICE. A very interesting diary covering the period and events of the Siege of Boston, printed at length in Proceedings of Mass. Historical Society Nov., 1863, is that of Ezekiel Price, Esq. He was Clerk of the Courts of Common Pleas and Sessions for Suffolk, and for many 3-ears Chairman of the Selectmen of Boston. He left the town with his family before the last of May, 1776, and went to reside during the troubles with Colonel Dotj- at Stoughton. lie was intent to hear, and he made a daily record of the news and rumors of eacii daj-, stopping travellers as they passed his isolated abode, and constant!}* riding to the outskirts of Boston to inform himself of all that transpired. So he reproduces for the reader all the excitements and alarms of the time, tells us of those who, one by one, got out of the town, and of their reports of the state of things, and spends long evenings in discussing affairs with wayfarers and transient guests lodged under the same roof with him, as, for instance : — " July 19, 1775. — One Carpenter, who last evening swam from Boston to Dorchester, says that it was very sickly in Boston, and that provisions were very scarce and the people in great distress." He heard, on July 28, that Carpenter, who was a barber, swam back to Boston again, and was caught and hanged on Copp's Hill. [He was sentenced, but respited, and afterwards pardoned.] CHKOKECLE OF THE SIEGE. 185 " Sunday, March 17. — At noon, Mr. Edmund Quincy brought us the most interesting, most important, and most comforting news we have heard since I left Boston, which was no less than that the Regulars and the mercenary troops, employed by the wicked, diabolical British ministry, had been obliged to fly out of Boston this day, but not before they had plundered the town, and committed thefts and depredations in every part of it, and con- veyed their stolen goods on board the ships, and then departed out of the harbor. Thus the Royal British Army is now become Royal Thieves. ^^ Monday, March 18. — After obtaining a pass from Generil Ward, went through Roxbui-y, over Boston Neck ; passed the enemy's lines there and at Boston Fortification, and rode through the main streets of my dear native town. There visited ray sister, who had been forced from my house ; saw a number of my Boston friends, and the friends of our country, who had been shut up near eleven months past in that town by the cruel liand of arbitrary power , and who, by means of the hard and savage treatment of the British soldiery, and the want, not only of the comforts, but many of the necessaries of life, we re become thin, and their flesh wasted, but yet in good spirits, and rejoicing at meeting their fellow-townsmen; while the tories about the town to thair thin visages added looks of guilt, and a conviction of their base ingratitude to their country and fellow-townsmen. As I passed through the town it gave me much pain of mind to see the havoc, waste and destruction of the houses, fences and trees in the town, occasioned by those sons of Belial, who have near a year past had the possession of it. But, save a few wretches who tarried behind to take the punishment due to their wicked deeds, the- inhabitants who are now taking their residence in the town, seemed all of one heart and one mind, zealous in the support of our rights and liberties, and, if possible, more determined than ever to resist the force and power of all those who dare attempt to invade them. Accordingly every method is taking in the town to fortify and strengthen it against our enemies, and pre- vent their ever being able to land again in that town. The thefts and rob- beries of the royal thieves are very great, and many worthy inhabitants will be ruined by it. I returned home [to Stoughton] in the evening. "March 21. — Last evening the enemy burnt all the buildings on Castle Island. Snow-storm last night. "March 22. — Went to Boston. Visited my sister. Found that a con- siderable part of my furniture was broke, and some of it lost; however am thankful so much of it still remains. The fleet continues in Nantasket Road. The town appears in many places but little better than a heap of ruins. Great numbers of the houses are wholly down ; a great number of others are almost destroyed, the insides of them being cut and broke in pieces, and of 2i 186 CHEOKICLE OF THE SIEGE. many of them nothing more left than the outside shell. Returned home in the evening [to Stoughton] . "Friday, March 2^. — Set out early in the morning and went to Boston, ■where a town-meeting was held for the choice of town officers. The scattered inhabitants collected together, met at the Old Brick Meeting-house [First Church, on the site of Joy's Buildings] , and proceeded in the choice of the officers of the town, usually chosen at their annual March meeting. And it was really a very pleasant sight, after near eleven months' absence, to see so many of my worthy fellow-citizens meet together in that now ravaged, plundered town ; but the spot even yet agreeable. Some person had broke into Mrs. Draper's house and robbed me of great part of my china. Returned to my Stoughton home in the evening. " One Wall, who assisted the Regulars, and was engaged with them in the battle at Bunker's Hill, is taken up in Boston, and committed to jail there. A list of the tories remaining in Boston, with their several characters and behavior during their residence with the Regulars in Boston, is sent to the General Court : and a committee is appointed thereon. " Saturday, April 6. — In the afternoon, Ed. Quincy stopped here. He came from Boston, and says that Capt. Manly was in Boston, and told there he had taken out of the fleet a brig laden with tories and tory goods, and other effects which they plundered in Boston. Among the tories is Bill Jackson. It is said this was their richest vessel in the fleet: had eighteen thousand pounds sterling in cash on board, besides an exceeding valuable cargo of European merchandize. Besides 'Bill Jackson,' 'Crane Brush' was taken in this vessel. " Friday, April 19. — Went to Boston, remained all day, and lodged there with Capt. Jonathan Davis. The evening I spent in company with five or six of my old friends and acquaintance. The town yet looks melancholy : but few of the inhabitants being removed back into it, occasioned by its not being sufficiently fortified and garrisoned against any further attempt of the enemy, to which it now lies much exposed. The shops in general remain shut up. This day is the anniversary of the famous battle of Lexington. " April 20. — Remained in Boston. Several of the active tories have been examined by the Court of Inquiry, and committed to jail for trial. Dr. Whitworth and Son were yesterday on their examination, and afterwards ordered to give bail. It is said the justices have evidence of the doctor's not having acted the part of an honest surgeon, in his i)ractlce on tlie late unfor- tunate Colonel Parker : and that his limb was unnecessarily taken off, and a cruel neglect of attendance on him, by which means he lost his lil'e." [Parker of Chelmsford was taken prisoner at Bunker's Hill, and died in Boston jail.] CimO>fICLE OF THE SIECrE. 187 Mr. Price took a house in Dorchester till he should think it safe to make his home in Boston, where he went daily to examine papers in the Custom-house, Treasurer Gray's office, and the Province House. Man3- other citizens, like himself, considered Boston still in danger. LETTERS TO GARDINER GREENE. In Proceedings of Mass. Historical Society for June, 1873, are three very lively letters relating to the siege and evacuation, addressed to Gardiner Greene. As a merchant, at the age of twenty-one, he had left here for Demarara in Sept., 1774. He visited Boston in 1788, when he married here a second wife, and in 1800 was married, a third time, to tlie daughter of the painter Cople3\ He then came to this his native place, being one of the most eminent and prospered merchants here till his death in 1832. The writer of the first of these letters, his friend, D. Greene, dating Boston, May 6, 1775, congratulates him that he is out of "this un- happy countr}-, in its present situation inferior to anj- countrj' on earth." He gives a vivid account of the affair at Concord, of the rising of the countr}- people, and of the stopping next day of all free com- munication witli the town, and of the difliculties attending the arrange- ment with Gage for the exit of the inhabitants. His sympathies appear to have been with the roj'alist part}'. He mentions man}- prominent persons and families in the town, as thej' were alarmed at the state of things, some concluding to staj', others likely to be scattered in various directions, wliile he, with a few friends, was going to London. The second letter is from Joseph Greene, the brother of Gardiner, and is of similar tenor. The third letter is from his friend, John Perkins, and is dated Halifax, Aug. 2, 177G. The writer, in explaining to his correspondent how he came to be where he was, informs him that Hovve, with the British army, the tories, etc., had left Boston, and " come down to this hole, the dregs of the earth." " 'When we came from Boston all your friends were well. They all stayed, as well as our family. By all accounts they fore tolerably well. Almost every one who came from Boston to this place have gone away again ; some 188 CHEOXICLE OF THE SIEGE. for England, some for head-quarters, and the remainder will go as soon as they can learn where the army is gone to, and whether they have made their landing good, for this is without exception the most desi^icable place ever I knew. The price of living here is exceeding high, and the people in gen- eral, a poor, mean, low-lived set of beings; and were it not that I have some expectations, wouldn't tarry here a day longer after my accounts are settled. " It is certainly a happy thing to live under so mild a government as the present English government; but I'm sure if more authority had been made use (if a few years past, much expense might have been saved : but I blame no one, for the Devil himself couldn't think to see the present imhappy war increase to so great a height In so short a time. "Your old friend, Jack Coifin, arrived here a few days past from London, bourd to head-quarters ; yoiu- Uncle Chandler sailed a few days past for Lon- don, together w-ith John Powell and his family, our old friend, Frank Johon- not, John Ei ving and family, Mr. Lechmere and family, the commissioners, &c., &c. ; in short, one-half of Boston is now in England, and they tell me that the Bostouians are so thick about the streets of London that it is im- agined selectmen, waixlens, &c., will be chosen there, according to the old Bostonian method." Any reader who is curious to inform himself about the fortunes of the exiles who found their way to London, will find them related with force and pathos in the Journal and Letters of Judge Curwen, as edited bj' Mr. George A. Ward. The homeless wanderers lived for the most part on slender pensions from the government, and haunted places of resort to learn the news and rumors of their dismal daj's. DR. .\NDKEW ELIOT. Dr. Andrew Eliot, settled over the Xew North Church in Boston in 1742, remained in Boston during the siege. Some very interesting letters from him to his son Samuel, at Waltham, with his family, are preserved. Samuel left Boston August 2d. The doctor's family left earlj^in the siege. His wife went to Fairfield, Ct., May 3d. lie did not see her for eleven months, and found great difficulty in communicating with her at rare intervals, and sending her money and apparel. "When flags passed between the armies those who could make strong Interest could exchange open letters. CHEOXICLE OF THE SIEGE. 189 The doctor had no idea of what Avas before him when he tarried in the town. Seeing winter before him, he, in September, tried ver}- earnestly to get a pass, but it was refused. He one6 made preparation for the winter, but, thinl in their Barracks, except some who were about, plundering. The wind high at N. W. The Inhabitants greatly distressed thro' fear the Town would be set on fire bj' the Soldiers. IS"" Wednesday. The Inhabitants in the utmost distress, thro' fear of the Town being destroyed by the Soldiers, a party of New York Carpenters with axes going thro' the town, breaking open houses &c. Soldiers and sailors plundering of houses, shops, warehouses — Sugar and salt &c. thrown into the River, which was greatly covered with hogsheads, barrels of flour, house furniture, carts, trucks &c. &c. — One Person suffered /ok»- thousand pounds sterling, by his shipping being cut to pieces &c. — Another fiee thousand pounds sterling, in salt wantonly thrown into the River. U"" March. Thursday. 'I'he same as above except somewhat restrained by the General. 15"' Friday. The General sent to the Selectmen and desired their innnediate attendance, which we did accordingly. It was lo acquaint us that as he was about retieating from the Town, his advice was for all the Inhabitants to keep in their CHEONICLE or THE SIEGE. 197 houses and tho' his orders were to injure no person, he could not be answerable for any irregularities of his troops. That the Fowey man of war would continue in the harbour till the iieet sailed, loaded with carcases and combustibles, that in case the King's troops met with any obstruction in their retreat he should set fire to the Town, which he wished to avoid — That he thought it his duty to destroy much of the prop- erty in the town to prevent it being useful to the support of the Rebel army. The General further said to us, that who ever had suffered in this respect (who were not Rebels) it was probable upon application to Government, they would be considered — That Letters had passed between him and Mr Washington. That he had wrote to him in the style of Mr Washington. That however insignificant the character of his Excellency, which to him was very trifling — it ought not to be given to any but by the authority of the King. He observed the direction of our Letters to him was — To his excellency General Washington, which he did not approve and whatever Intelli- gence had been given to the Rebels, tho' in his letters to him, he did not charge him with being a Rebel. He further said he had nothing against the Select-men, which if he had he should certainly have taken notice of it — The General told us the Troops would embark this day and was told by General Robertson it would be by three o'clock. The Regiments all mustered, some of them inarched down the wharf. Guards and Chevaux De Freze, were placed in the main streets and wharves in order to secure the retreat of Out Centinels. Several of the principle streets through which they were to pass were filled with Hhds' filled with Horse-dung, large limbs of trees from the Mall to prevent a pursuit of the Continental Army. They manifestly appeared to be fearful of an attack. The wind proved unfavorable, prevented their embarking. They returned to their quarters. Soon after several houses were on fire. The night passed tolerably quiet. IG* Saturday. Rain. Great distress plundering &c. l""" Lord's day. This morning at 3 o'clock, the troops began to move — Guards Chevaux de freze. Crow feet strewed in the streets to prevent being pursued. They all embarked at about 9 oclock and the whole fleet came to sail. Every vessel which they did not carry off, they rendered unfit for use. Not even a boat left to cross the River. — Thus was this unhappy distressed town (thro' a manifest interpo- sition of divine providence) relieved from a set of men whose unparalled wicked- ness, profanity, debauchery and cruelty is inexpressible, enduring a siege from the ig"" April 1775 to the 17"' March 1776. Immediately upon the fleet's sailing the Select Men set off, through the lines, to Roxbury to acquaint General Washington of the evacuation of the town. After sending a message Major Ward aid to General Ward, came to us at the lines and soon after the General himself, who received us in the most polite and affectionate manner, and permitted us to pass to Watertowu to acquaint the Council of this happy event. The General immediately ordered a de- tachment of 2,000 troops to take possession of the town under the command of General Putnam who the next day began their works in fortifying Eorthill &c., for the better security of the Town. A number of loaded Shells with trains of Powder covered with straw, were found in houses left by the Regulars near the fortifycation. 198 CHKONICLE OF THE SIEGE, THE BOSTON MINISTERS DURING THE SIEGE. Dr. Charles Cbaunce}-, of the First Church, or the Old Brick, being vevy obnoxious to the royalists, left Boston at the beginning of" the siege, and returned when it closed. On the records of the society the onlj^ recognition of the troubles of the time is Atund in this entry, under date of August 13, 177G : — " At a Meeting of the Cliurch and Congregation : " Voted : That all the Leaden Weights of the Windows of tliis Church be delivered to the Commissary of this CoUony, upon condition Iron Weights be placed in their Btead, and the difference paid in Cash." Dr. John Lathrop, of the Old North Church, which was destro3'ed for fuel, left the town. On his return, his Society united in 1779 witli Dr. Ebenezer Pemberton's, afterwards making the 2d Church. John Hunt and John Bacon were associate pastors of the Old South. Mr. Bacon, from some causes of dissatisfaction, was dismissed Feb. 8, 1775. He went to Stockbridge, and entered political life. Mr. Hunt happened to be absent on a visit in Brookliue when the gates were shut on Boston Neck. "When he applied to be admitted, he was refused because he would not agree to remain. He went to Northampton, where he died of consumption Dec. 30, 1775. The parsonage of the Society, adjoining the Meeting-house, which was built by Gov. Winthrop for his residence, was burned by the British for fuel, as were also some fine button-wood trees which surrounded it. To the same use was put all the interior work of the Meeting-liouse, except the sounding-board and the east galleries. A richl}*- wrought, canopied and damask-furnished pew, de- signed for high magistrates, and rivalling tiiat in King's Chapel, was taken to John Amory's house and used as a hog-sty. The edifice was so outraged and defaced that it was several j-cars before the remnant of its impoverished congregation was able to restore it to its designed purpose. From Nov. 9, 1777, to Feb. 23, 1783, — except an interval of five months between 1781-2, when thej' occupied the Representatives room in tlie Old State House, — the congregation worsliipped in King's Cliapel, where their next pastor. Dr. Eckley, was ordained Oct. 27, 1779. Tiic Old South, after being repaired, was redudicatud JMarch 2, 1783. CHEOXICLE or THE SIEGE. 199 The pulpit recent!}' standing in it was substituted in 1808 for the one built at the restoration of the edifice. The Rev. Joseph Howe, pastor of the New South Church, died at Hartford, Aug 25, 1775. Dr. Cooper, of Brattle-street Church, having taken so prominent a part as a patriot as to have been menaced b}' a British officer, left Boston with his wife, April 16, 1775, leaving his child, librarj-, furniture and plate, intending soon to return to the town, after riding about the country for his health. He made his home at Weston, and returned to Boston after the Evacuation. The fate of his Meeting-house is referred to in Deacon Newell's diar}'. The ministers of the two Baptist Societies, with ver}' similar names, were Rev. S. Stillman and Rev. I. Skillraan. The latter remained in the town. Dr. Mather Bj-les, of HoUis street, with tory proclivities, remained, but was inactive. His congregation on their return soon superseded him. Mather Byles, Jr., Rector of Christ Church, closed his miuistrj- the da}' before the battle of Lexington. Mr. Troutbeck, of King's Chapel, went off in Nov., 1775, and Dr. Caner, the rector, left on the Evacuation, as did also William Walter, the rector of Trinity Church. The associate of Mr. Walter (Mr. Sam- uel Parker), in a funeral sermon which he preached upon Dr. Andrew Eliot, said, that "Thinking as an Episcopal clerg3'man he would be obnoxious to the returning inhabitants, he was packing his effects pre- parator}' to going off with the arm}-, when Dr. Eliot came to him advis- ing him to remain, as, being a young man, and discreet, he had not made himself offensive." He took the advice and remained.