Loyal Address to Gage. Superiority of Howe. Fortifications in Boston. The "Old South" desecrated. Officers frightened. cipal inhabitants of Boston, and several who had taken refuge in the country, in all about seventy persons, addressed him in terms of loyal affection, amounting to panegyric. It was certainly unmerited; for his civil administration had been weak, and his military operations exceedingly inefficient. This was felt by all parties. His departure was popular with the army; and the provincials, remembering the spirit displayed by General Howe in the battle on Breed's Hill, anticipated a speedy collision. Howe was superior to Gage in every par ticular, and possessed more caution, which was generally found ed upon logical deductions from fact. Governed by that caution, he was quite as unwilling as Gage to attack the Americans. He remembered the disparity in numbers on the 17th of June, and the bravery of the provincials while fighting behind breast-works cast up in a single night. He properly argued that an army of the same sort of men, fifteen thousand strong, intrenched behind breast-works constructed by the labor of weeks, was more than a match for even his disciplined troops of like number, and prudently resolved to await expected re-enforcements from Ireland before he should attempt to procure that "elbow-room" which he coveted.' In the mean while, he strengthened his defenses, and prepared to put his troops into comfortable winter quarters. He built a strong fort on Bunker Hill, and employed six hundred men in making additional fortifications upon Boston Neck. In the neighborhood of the haymarket, at the south end of the city, many buildings were pulled down, and works erected in their places. Strong redoubts were raised upon the different eminences in Boston, and the old South meeting-house was stripped of its pews and converted into a riding-school for the disciplining of the cavalry. This last act took place on the 29th of October, and the desecration greatly shocked the feelings of the religious community. October 30, On the next day Howe issued three proclamations, which BRITISH FORT ON BUNKEr Hill. 1775. created much indignation, and drew forth retaliatory ernment that strict justice should be done them, the post was assigned to Howe. This was a tacit admission, on the part of ministers, that justice to the Americans formed no part of their scheme. It is said that both officers and soldiers regarded the Americans with a degree of superstitious fear, for many highly exaggerated tales of their power had been related. Dr. Thatcher says (Journal, p. 38) that. according to letters written by British officers from Boston, some of them, while walking on Beacon Hill in the evening, soon after the arrival of Gage, were frightened by noises in the air, which they took to be the whizzing of bullets. They left the hill with great precipitation, and reported that they were shot at with air-guns. The whizzing noise which so much alarmed these valiant officers was no other than the whizzing of bugs and beetles while flying in the air. Trumbull, in his M'Fingall, thus alludes to this ludicrous circumstance: "No more the British colonel runs 2 This was a well-built redoubt. The parapet was from six to fifteen feet broad; the ditch from fourteen to eighteen feet wide, and the banquet about four feet broad. The galleries and parapet before them were raised about twenty feet high, and the merlons at the six-gun battery in the center were about twelve feet high. a a, two temporary magazines; b b, barracks; c, guard-houses; d, magazine; e, advanced ditch; hh, bastions. 3 A Mr. Carter, quoted by Frothingham, writing on the 19th of October, says, "We are now erecting redoubts on the eminences on Boston Common; and a meeting-house, where sedition has been often preached, is clearing out to be made a riding-school for the light dragoons." Gordon says, In clearing every thing away, a beautiful carved pew, with silk furniture, formerly belonging to a deceased gentleman [Dea Harsh Measures, and Retaliation. Congress Committee at Head-quarters. Little Navy organized. Floating Batteries. measures from Washington. The first forbade all persons leaving the town without permission, under pain of military execution; the second prohibited persons who were permitted to go from carrying with them more than twenty-five dollars in cash, under pain of forfeiture one half of the amount to be paid to the informer; and the third ordered all the inhabitants within the town to associate themselves into military companies. Washington retaliated by ordering General Sullivan, who was about departing for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to seize all officers of government unfriendly to the patriots. Similar orders were sent to Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, and Deputy-governor Cooke, of Rhode Island. While Howe was thus engaged, Washington was not idle. A committee of Congress, consisting of Dr. Franklin, Thomas Lynch, and Benjamin Harrison (father of the late President Harrison), arrived at head-quarters on the 18th of October, to confer with the commander-in-chief respecting future operations. Deputy-governor Griswold and Judge Waln, of Connecticut; Deputy-governor Cooke, of Rhode Island; several members of the Massachusetts Council, and the President of the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire, were present at the conference, which lasted several days, and such a system of operations was matured as was satisfactory to General Washington. A plan was agreed upon for an entirely new organization of the army, which provided for the enlistment of twenty-six regiments of eight companies each, besides riflemen and artillery. Already measures had been adopted to organize a navy. As early as June, Rhode Island had fitted out two armed vessels to protect the waters of that colony; Connecticut, at about the same time, one or two armed vessels; and, on the 26th of June, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts resolved to provide six armed vessels. None of the latter had been got in readiness as late as the 12th of October, as appears by a letter from Washington to the President of the Continental Congress. 1775. Having received no instructions from Congress on the subject, Washington took the responsibility, under his general delegated powers, of making preparations to annoy the enemy by water. Agents were appointed to superintend the construction of vessels, and to furnish supplies. Captain Broughton, of Marblehead, received a naval commission from Washington, dated September 2d, 1775, the first of the kind issued by the Continental Congress through its authorized agent. Before the close of October, six vessels of small size' had been armed and manned, and sent to cruise within the capes of Massachusetts Bay. Two strong floating batteries were launched, armed, and manned in the Charles River; and, on the 26th of October, they opened a fire upon Boston that produced great alarm and damaged several houses. The six schooners commissioned by Wash AMERICAN FLOATING BATTERY.3 con Hubbard] in high estimation, was taken down and carried to Mr. John Armory's house, by the order of an officer, who applied the carved work to the erection of a hog-stye." 1 While Dr. Franklin was at head-quarters, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts paid him the remaining moneys due him for services as agent for the colony in England, amounting to nine thousand two hundred and seventy dollars. Five hundred dollars had been sent to him from London as a charitable donation for the relief of the Americans wounded in the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, and for the widows and orphans of those who were killed. This sum he paid over to the proper committee. 2 The names of five of these vessels were Hannah, Harrison, Lee, Washington, and Lynch. The six commanders were Broughton, Selman, Manly, Martindale, Coit, and Adams. 3 I am indebted to the kindness of Peter Force, Esq., of Washington city (editor of "The American Archives"), for this drawing of one of the American floating batteries used in the siege of Boston. It is copied from an English manuscript in his possession, and is now published for the first time. I have never met with a description of those batteries, and can judge of their construction only from the drawing. They ap pear to have been made of strong planks, pierced, near the water-line, for oars; along the sides, higher up. for light and musketry. A heavy gun was placed in each end, and upon the top were four swivels. The 576 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION. Vessels of War authorized by Congress. a October 13, 1775. ington, and the floating batteries, sailed under the pine-tree flag. The Continental Congress authorized two vessels to be fitted out and manned ;a afterward two others, one b October 30. of twenty and one of thirty-six guns, were ordered. On the 28th of November. a code of naval regulations was adopted. On the 1st of February following (1776), the navy, if so it might be properly called, was formed into a new establishment, being composed of four vessels-the Hancock, Captain Manly; the Warner, Captain Burke; the Lynch, Captain Ayres; and the Harrison, Captain Dyer. Captain Manly was the commodore of the little fleet. In November, the, Massachusetts Provincial Congress issued letters of marque and reprisal, and established courts of admiralty. Such was the embryo of the navy of the United States. A more detailed account of the organization of the navy and its operations during the Revolution, will occupy a chapter in another portion of this work. I have mentioned here only so much as related to operations connected with the siege of Boston. The term of enlistment of many of the troops was now drawing to a close, and Washing ton felt great apprehensions for the result. Nearly six months had elapsed since the battle of Bunker Hill, yet nothing had been done, decisively, to alter the relations in which the belligerents stood toward each other. The people began to murmur, and the general Congress fretted. New enlistments were accomplished tardily, and in December not more than five thousand recruits had joined the army. It became excessively weakened in numbers and spirit, and as the cold increased, want of comfortable clothing and fuel became an almost insupportable hardship. Many regiments were obliged to eat their provisions raw, for the want of wood to cook them. Fences, and the fruit and shade trees for more than a mile around the camp, were used for fuel. The various privations in the camp produced frequent desertions. The Connecticut troops demanded a bounty, and being refused, resolved to leave the camp in a body on the 6th of December. Measures were taken to prevent the movement, yet many went off and never returned. The commander-in-chief was filled with the greatest anxiety. Still, he hopefully worked on in preparation for action, either offensive or defensive. A strong detachment under Putnam broke ground at Cobble Hill (now M Lean Asylum); the works on Lechmere's Point were strengthened, and a call that was made upon the New England militia to supply the places of the troops that left the army in its hour of peril, was nobly responded to. At the close of the year most of the regiments were full; and about ten thousand minute men, chiefly in Massachusetts, were held in ready reserve to march when called upon. The camp was well supplied with provisions; order was generally observed, and in the course of a fortnight a wonderful change for the better was wrought. The ladies of several of the officers arrived in camp; and the Christmas holidays were spent at Cambridge quite agreeably, for hope gave joy to the occasion." ensign was the pine-tree flag, according to Colonel Reed, who, in a letter from Cambridge to Colonels Glover and Moylan, dated October 20th, 1775, said, "Please to fix some particular color for a flag, and a signal by which our vessels may know one another. What do you think of a flag with a white ground, a tree in the middle, the motto 'Appeal to Heaven ?' This is the flag of our floating batteries." 1 Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, iii., 516. The rations for the soldiers were as follows: corned beef and pork four days in the week, salt fish one day, and fresh beef two days. Each man had a pound and a half of beef, or eighteen ounces of pork a day; one quart of strong beer, or nine gallons of molasses, to one hundred men per week; six pounds of candles to one hundred men per week; six ounces of butter, or nine ounces of hogs' lard per week; three pints of beans or pease, per man, a week, or vegetables equivalent; one pound of flour per day, and hard bread to be dealt out one day in the week. 3 Mrs. Washington arrived on the 11th of December, accompanied by her son, John Parke Custis, and his wife. Some persons thought her in danger at Mount Vernon, as Lord Dunmore was making the most determined hostile movements against republicanism in Virginia. It was feared that he might attempt to seize the person of Lady Washington, to be held as a hostage. As the commander-in-chief could not leave the army, she was requested to pass the winter with him at Cambridge. The expenses incurred by the occasional visits of Mrs. Washington to the camp during the war were charged to the government. Washington was careful to call attention to this fact, and in the rendition of his accounts for settlement he refers to it, and expresses a hope that the charges will be considered right, inasmuch as he had not visited his home during his time of service, a privilege which he was allowed by the terms of his appointment. |