Footnote 39:The English lacked suitable guides, and became bewildered in the dense forest that covered the land. Lord Howe was second in command, and led the van, preceded by Major Putnam and a scout of one hundred men, to reconnoitre. The French set fire to their own outpost, and retreated. Howe and Putnam dashed on through the woods, and in a few minutes fell in with the French advanced guard, who were also bewildered, and were trying to find their way to the fort. A smart skirmish ensued, and, at the first fire, Lord Howe, another officer, and several privates, were killed. The French were repulsed, with a loss of about three hundred killed, and one hundred and forty made prisoners. The English battalions were so much broken, confused, and fatigued, that Abercrombie ordered them back to the landing-place, where they bivouacked for the night.(Back)
Footnote 40:This was Abercrombie's fatal mistake. He sent an engineer to reconnoitre the fort and outworks. The engineer reported the latter to be so weak, in an unfinished state, as to be easily carried, without artillery, by the force of English bayonets. The difficulties in the way of heavy cannons, in that dense forest, were very formidable; and Abercrombie was willing to rely upon sword and bayonet, on the strength of his engineer's report. That functionary was mistaken; and when the English approached the French lines, they found an embankment of earth and stones, eight feet in height, strongly guarded byabatis, or felled trees, with their tops outward. The English made a furious attack, cut pathways through these prostrate trees, and mounted the parapet. They were instantly slain, and thus scores of Britons were sacrificed, by discharges of heavy cannons. When two thousand men had fallen, Abercrombie sounded a retreat, and the whole British army made its way to the landing-place at the foot of Lake George, with a loss of twenty-five hundred muskets. They went up the lake to Fort William Henry, and the wounded were sent to Fort Edward and to Albany. At his own solicitation, Colonel Bradstreet was sent to attack the French fort Frontenac, where Kingston now stands, at the foot of Lake Ontario; and General Stanwix proceeded to erect a fort toward the head-waters of the Mohawk, where the village of Rome now flourishes.(Back)
Footnote 41:The head of the lake was especially designated as "Lake George." There was the dilapidated fort William Henry, built by Sir William Johnson, in the autumn of 1755; and, about half a mile southeast from it, Fort George was afterward erected. The ruins of its citadel may yet (1854) be seen.(Back)
Footnote 42:Pomeroy.(Back)
Footnote 43:Flogging was facetiously termed "putting on a new shirt." Seventy lashes was a pretty severe punishment.(Back)
Footnote 44:This was the outlet of three little lakes, situated about half way between the head of Lake George and the bend of the Hudson at Sandy Hill. They are the head-waters of Clear river, the west branch of Wood creek, which empties into Lake Champlain at Whitehall.(Back)
Footnote 45:This was Diamond island, lying directly in front of Dunham's bay, and not far from the village of Caldwell. It was so called because of the number and beauty of quartz-crystals found upon it. Burgoyne made it a depôt of military stores when on his way from Canada, by the way of Lake Champlain, in 1777. It was the scene of a sharp conflict between the little garrison and a party of Americans under Colonel Brown, on the 25th of September, 1777, while Gates and Burgoyne were confronted at Saratoga. Brown was repulsed.(Back)
Footnote 46:Partridge's.(Back)
Footnote 47:They were volunteers.(Back)
Footnote 48:M'Mahon?(Back)
Footnote 49:This locality can not be identified.(Back)
Footnote 50:Rogers, in his Journal, speaks of this occurrence. He says it was on the 27th, and that one hundred and sixteen men were killed, of whom sixteen were rangers.(Back)
Footnote 51:He went out with seven hundred men, to intercept the marauding party, but they escaped.(Back)
Footnote 52:Ingersoll.(Back)
Footnote 53:Rogers says that, on his return from his attempt to intercept the marauding party, he was met by an express, with orders to march toward the head of Lake Champlain, at South and East bays, to prevent the French marching upon Fort Edward. There he was joined by Major Putnam and Captain Dalyell or D'Ell.(Back)
Footnote 54:Packet.(Back)
Footnote 55:A severe engagement took place on Clear river, the west branch of Wood creek, about a mile northwest from Fort Anne village (then the site of a picketed blockhouse, called Fort Anne), between a party of rangers and provincials under Rogers, Putnam, and Captain Dalyell, or D'Ell, and about an equal number of French and Indians under Molang, a famous partisan leader. The English troops were marching when attacked: Putnam was in front, with the provincials; Rogers was in the rear, with his rangers; and D'Ell in the centre, with the regulars. Molang attacked them in front, and a powerful Indian rushed forward and made Putnam a prisoner. The provincials were thrown into great confusion, but were rallied by Lieutenant Durkee, who was one of the victims of the Wyoming massacre twenty years afterward. D'Ell, with Gage's light infantry, behaved very gallantly, and the rangers finally put the enemy to flight. The latter lost about two hundred men. Colonel Prevost, then in command at Fort Edward, sent out three hundred men, with refreshments for the party, and all arrived at Fort Edward on the 9th. This was the relief-party mentioned in the text, under date of the 8th.(Back)
Footnote 56:This is an island in the Hudson, opposite Fort Edward, and known as Rogers's island.(Back)
Footnote 57:Sutler's.(Back)
Footnote 58:Fitch.(Back)
Footnote 59:Ticonderoga.(Back)
Footnote 60:The Indian who seized Putnam tied him to a tree, and for a time he was exposed to the cross-fire of the combatants. His garments were riddled by bullets, but, strange to say, not one touched his person. He was carried away in the retreat, his wrists tightly bound with cords. The Indians rejoiced over the capture of their great enemy, and he was doomed to the torture. In the deep forest he was stripped naked, bound to a sapling, wood was piled high around him, the death-songs of the savages were chanted, and the torch was applied. Just then a heavy shower of rain almost extinguished the flames. They were again bursting forth with fiercer intensity, when a French officer, informed of what was going on, darted through the crowd of yelling savages, and released the prisoner. He was delivered to Montcalm at Ticonderoga, then sent to Montreal, and, after being treated kindly, was exchanged for a prisoner taken by Colonel Bradstreet at Frontenac.(Back)
Footnote 61:Picket.(Back)
Footnote 62:Fort Misery was a breastwork at the mouth of Moses's kill, or creek, a short distance from Fort Miller, on the east side of the Hudson.(Back)
Footnote 63:At Fort George, at the head of Lake George.(Back)
Footnote 64:Volleys.(Back)
Footnote 65:It was the king's birthday. The firing of twenty-one heavy guns formed a royal salute.(Back)
Footnote 66:Bridge.(Back)
Footnote 67:Fort Musquito was a breastwork cast up at the mouth of Snooks' creek.(Back)
Footnote 68:This was a nickname for the regular troops, who were dressed in scarlet uniforms.(Back)
Footnote 69:Wrestled.(Back)
Footnote 70:Fort Anne was erected in 1757, a year before the occurrences here narrated took place. It was a strong blockhouse of logs, with portholes for cannon and loopholes for musketry, and surrounded by a picket of pine-saplings. When the writer visited the spot in 1848, he dug up the part of one of the pickets yet remaining in the earth, and, on splitting it, it emitted the pleasant odor of a fresh pine-log, though ninety years had elapsed since it was placed there. This fort was near the bank of Wood creek, about eleven miles from the head of Lake Champlain, at the village of Whitehall. It was in the line of Burgoyne's march toward the Hudson, in 1777; and near it quite a severe skirmish took place between Colonel Long, of Schuyler's army, and a British detachment under Colonel Hill, on the 8th of July, the day after Ticonderoga was abandoned to the enemy. Victory was almost within the grasp of Colonel Long, when his ammunition failed, and he was compelled to retreat.(Back)
Footnote 71:Canoe.(Back)
Footnote 72:Fort Misery.(Back)
Footnote 73:The Indian name of the site of Fort Frontenac (where Kingston, Upper Canada, now stands), taken by Colonel Bradstreet, was Cataraqua. That was also the Indian name for Lake Ontario.(Back)
Footnote 74:Fascines—bundles of sticks, mixed with earth, and used for filling ditches in the construction of forts.(Back)
Footnote 75:Pomeroy.(Back)
Footnote 76:Militia.(Back)
Footnote 77:Pomeroy.(Back)
Footnote 78:The channel between Rogers's island, on which the great blockhouse was built, and Fort Edward, does not exceed two hundred feet in width.(Back)
Footnote 79:Christening.(Back)
Footnote 80:General Amherst.(Back)
Footnote 81:Amherst.(Back)
Footnote 82:Pomeroy.(Back)
Footnote 83:Halifax, Nova Scotia.(Back)
Footnote 84:Tomahawk.(Back)
Footnote 85:Scalped.(Back)
Footnote 86:British regular.(Back)
Footnote 87:A mixture of beer and rum, warmed by thrusting a hot iron into it.(Back)
Footnote 88:Hinman's.(Back)
Footnote 89:Prebles.(Back)
Footnote 90:Waiter.(Back)
Footnote 91:Sutler.(Back)
Footnote 92:The "third fall," as it was called, in the Hudson, at Sandy Hill.(Back)
Footnote 93:Reveillé.(Back)
Footnote 94:Provost.(Back)
Footnote 95:Hogeboom's.(Back)
Footnote 96:See note, page13.(Back)
Footnote 97:Coventry.(Back)
Footnote 98:In Norfolk county, Massachusetts, thirty-two miles southwest from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 99:Seeintroductory remarks. The skirmishes at Lexington and Concord occurred early in the morning of this day.(Back)
Footnote 100:Seeintroductory remarks.(Back)
Footnote 101:Twenty-one miles from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 102:Thirteen miles from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 103:Colonel John Greaton. He was a bold officer, and commanded a corps which performed a sort of ranger service. At this time he was only a major. In June following he carried off about eight hundred sheep and lambs, and some cattle, from Deer island. About that time he was promoted to the rank of colonel. In the middle of July, he led one hundred and thirty-six men, in whaleboats, to destroy forage and other property on Long island, in Boston harbor; and at one time he captured a barge belonging to a British man-of-war. In April, 1776, he accompanied General Thompson to Canada. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier in the continental army, in January, 1783.(Back)
Footnote 104:Jamaica Plain, six miles from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 105:The isthmus that connected the peninsula of Boston with the main, at Roxbury.(Back)
Footnote 106:The British soldiers were all called regulars. This word denotes soldiers belonging to the regular army, as distinguished from militia.(Back)
Footnote 107:Twelve miles southeast from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 108:One mile from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 109:Three miles northwest from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 110:Thirty-one miles southeast from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 111:Tories were those who adhered to the British. It is a name derived from the vocabulary of English politics in the time of Charles II. Atory, then, was an adherent of the crown; awhigwas an opposer of the government. The word was first used in America about 1770.(Back)
Footnote 112:Twenty-one miles southwest from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 113:Rev. Amos Adams, a minister at Roxbury. He was a graduate of Harvard college. He died of dysentery, which prevailed in the camp, at Dorchester, on the 5th of October, 1775, in the forty-eighth year of his age.(Back)
Footnote 114:On Sunday morning, the 21st of May, the British commander sent two sloops and an armed schooner to take off a quantity of hay from Grape island. They were opposed by the people who gathered on the point nearest the island. These finally got two vessels afloat, went to the island, drove the British off, burnt eighty tons of hay, and brought off many cattle. There was some severe fighting during the affair. Mrs. John Adams, writing to her husband, said: "You inquire who were at the engagement at Grape island. I may say with truth, all of Weymouth, Braintree, and Hingham, who were able to bear arms.... Both your brothers were there; your younger brother with his company, who gained honor by their good order that day. He was one of the first to venture on board a schooner, to land upon the island." Mr. Adams was then in the Continental Congress, at Philadelphia.(Back)
Footnote 115:On Saturday, May 27th, a detachment of Americans was sent to drive all the live stock from Hog and Noddle's islands, near Boston. They were observed by the British, who despatched a sloop, a schooner, and forty marines, to oppose them. They were fired on from the vessels, and quite severe skirmishing continued through the night. The Americans sent for reinforcements, and, at about nine o'clock at night, some three hundred men and two pieces of cannon arrived, commanded by General Putnam in person, and accompanied by Dr. Warren as a volunteer. They compelled the British to abandon their sloop, and the Americans took possession of it. The British lost twenty killed and fifty wounded. The Americans had none killed, and only four wounded. They captured twelve swivels and four four-pound cannon, besides clothing and money.(Back)
Footnote 116:Noddle's.(Back)
Footnote 117:Probably the house of Joshua Loring, jr., near Roxbury, who was a violent loyalist. General Gage made him sole auctioneer in Boston. He was afterward commissary of prisoners in New York. His wife is referred to in Hopkinson's poem, "The Battle of the Kegs."(Back)
Footnote 118:Colonel John Robinson, who was second in command in the skirmish at Concord on the 19th of April. He commanded the detachment that guarded Boston neck, for some time. Speaking of that duty, Gordon remarks: "The colonel was obliged, therefore, for the time mentioned, to patrol the guards every night, which gave him a round of nine miles to traverse."(Back)
Footnote 119:Harlots.(Back)
Footnote 120:General Thomas, who had command of the right wing, extending from Roxbury to Dorchester. General Artemas Ward was the commander-in-chief until the arrival of Washington, early in July.(Back)
Footnote 121:Fascines. See note on page35.(Back)
Footnote 122:This is a mistake. It was Breed's hill, nearer Charlestown and Boston than Bunker's hill. Colonel William Prescott, and not General Putnam, was entrenched there, and was in command during the engagement. He had been sent with a company, the night before, about a thousand strong, to throw up a redoubt on Bunker's hill. He made a mistake, and performed the work on Breed's hill. The British had no suspicion of the work that went on during that sultry June night, and were greatly alarmed when they saw a formidable breastwork overlooking their shipping in the harbor, and menacing the city. During the engagement, General Putnam was on Bunker's hill, urging on reinforcements for Prescott. Dr. Warren, just appointed major-general, joined Prescott as a volunteer during the battle, and was mortally wounded just as the conflict ended. It must be remembered that the writer of this Journal was in General Thomas's division, which did not participate in the battle of the 17th of June.(Back)
Footnote 123:Prospect hill. The Americans retreated from Breed's and Bunker's hills to Winter and Prospect hills, and Cambridge. The remains of the American entrenchments on Prospect hill were demolished in 1817.(Back)
Footnote 124:Colonel James Reed, of New Hampshire. He was active in the battle of the 17th. He was a brave officer, and was at the head of a regiment at Ticonderoga the following year.(Back)
Footnote 125:The Americans were alarmed on the 24th by indications that the whole British army in Boston was about to force its way across Boston neck. At noon they commenced throwing bombshells into Roxbury, but the alert soldiers prevented damage from them, and saved the town. Colonel Miller, of Rhode Island, said in a letter—"Such was the courage of our men, that they would go and take up a burning carcass or bomb, and take out the fuse!"(Back)
Footnote 126:The house and barns of Thomas Brown were on the neck, about a mile from Roxbury meeting-house, and were occupied by the British advanced guard. Two Americans tried to set fire to the barn on the 24th, and were killed.(Back)
Footnote 127:The British again hurled some shells into Roxbury on Sunday, the 2d of July, but the extent of the damage was setting fire to one house, which was consumed.(Back)
Footnote 128:George Washington was chosen commander-in-chief of the continental armies on the 15th of June, 1775. He set out for the headquarters of the army at Cambridge on the 21st, reached there on the 2d of July, and took formal command of the army on the morning of the 3d.(Back)
Footnote 129:A party of volunteers, under Majors Tupper and Crane, attacked the British advanced guards, drove them in, and set fire to Brown's house. They took several muskets, and retreated without loss.(Back)
Footnote 130:It is impossible to identify this place. A letter, dated on the 12th, says, "We have just got, over land from Cape Cod, a large fleet of whaleboats," &c., &c. The place alluded to in the text was probably near Boston.(Back)
Footnote 131:This party went from Roxbury camp. The report says that they brought from Long island "fifteen prisoners, two hundred sheep, nineteen cattle, thirteen horses, and three hogs." The prisoners were taken to Concord.(Back)
Footnote 132:The party under Colonel Greaton, mentioned in a preceding note.(Back)
Footnote 133:Twenty miles south from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 134:A strong party of Americans took possession of an advanced post in Roxbury, upon which the British kept up an incessant fire.(Back)
Footnote 135:Upton is thirty-five miles southwest from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 136:The 20th was observed throughout the camps as a day of fasting and prayer. Before daylight that morning, a party from Heath's regiment landed on Nantasket point, set fire to the lighthouse, and brought away a thousand bushels of barley and a quantity of hay.(Back)
Footnote 137:This was a very strong quadrangular work, on the highest eminence in Roxbury. It had four bastions, and in every respect was a regular work. It is now well preserved, the embankments being from six to fifteen feet in height from without.(Back)
Footnote 138:On that day the British, five hundred strong, marched over the neck, and built a slight breastwork to cover their guard. The American camp was in alarm all the day, and that night the troops lay on their arms. The tories in Boston were also alarmed, for they dreaded an invasion of the city by their exasperated countrymen.(Back)
Footnote 139:Marines.(Back)
Footnote 140:The British commenced rebuilding the lighthouse on Nantasket point. Major Tupper, with three hundred men, attacked the working-party, killed ten or twelve men, and took the rest prisoners. He then demolished the works, but, before he could leave, some armed boats came to oppose him. In the skirmishing that ensued, fifty-three of the British were killed or captured. Tupper lost one man killed, and two wounded.(Back)
Footnote 141:A party of British troops sallied out toward Roxbury, drove in the American pickets, and burned the tavern which was situated upon the portion of the neck nearest Roxbury.(Back)
Footnote 142:When the British built their breastwork on the neck, the Sunday previous, they had a floating battery brought into Charles river, and moored it within three hundred yards of Sewall's point.(Back)
Footnote 143:The Brookline fort was on Sewall's point, between Roxbury and Cambridge. It commanded the entrance to Charles river.(Back)
Footnote 144:The village and church of Dorchester was four miles from Boston. The heights of Dorchester are in what is now called South Boston.(Back)
Footnote 145:Joseph Willard, D.D., who was made president of Harvard college in December, 1781. He died in New Bedford, in 1804, at the age of sixty-four years.(Back)
Footnote 146:A nickname given to the British regulars, on account of their red suits. They were so called in England, as early as the time of Queen Anne.(Back)
Footnote 147:The large park, known as Boston Common, extended down to the water's edge, before the flats were filled in.(Back)
Footnote 148:About nine o'clock on Sunday morning, the 27th, the British opened a heavy cannonade from Bunker's hill (where they had built a strong redoubt), and from a ship and floating battery in Mystic river. The firing was directed upon the American works on Winter, Prospect, and Ploughed hills. They continued to bombard these works daily until the 10th of September.(Back)
Footnote 149:There was a famous tree in Boston, under which the patriots had often held meetings since the time of the stamp-act excitement. On that account it was called "Liberty-Tree." It was a noble elm, and stood at the corner of the present Washington and Essex streets. On the 31st of August, 1775, the British cut it down, with no apparent motive but the indulgence of petty spite. An eye-witness of the event says: "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 tory soldier was killed by its fall. A poet of the day wrote:—"A tory soldier, on its topmost limb—The Genius of the Shade looked stern at him,And marked him out that same hour to dineWhere unsnuffed lamps burn low at Pluto's shrine.Then tripped his feet from off their cautious stand:Pale turned the wretch—he spread each helpless hand,But spread in vain—with headlong force he fell,Nor stopped descending till he stopped in hell!"(Back)
Footnote 149:There was a famous tree in Boston, under which the patriots had often held meetings since the time of the stamp-act excitement. On that account it was called "Liberty-Tree." It was a noble elm, and stood at the corner of the present Washington and Essex streets. On the 31st of August, 1775, the British cut it down, with no apparent motive but the indulgence of petty spite. An eye-witness of the event says: "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 tory soldier was killed by its fall. A poet of the day wrote:—
"A tory soldier, on its topmost limb—The Genius of the Shade looked stern at him,And marked him out that same hour to dineWhere unsnuffed lamps burn low at Pluto's shrine.Then tripped his feet from off their cautious stand:Pale turned the wretch—he spread each helpless hand,But spread in vain—with headlong force he fell,Nor stopped descending till he stopped in hell!"(Back)
Footnote 150:Colonel Jedediah Huntington, of Norwich, Connecticut. The British now seemed determined to make a general assault upon the besiegers, and a heavy cannonade was opened simultaneously upon the Americans at Roxbury and in the vicinity of Cambridge.(Back)
Footnote 151:They threw up a slight breastwork a little in advance of their lines on the neck, and not far from the George tavern.(Back)
Footnote 152:Lamb's dam was between Roxbury and Dorchester. There the Americans completed a strong work on the 10th of September, and mounted four eighteen-pounders.(Back)
Footnote 153:Skirmish.(Back)
Footnote 154:We can not explain this local allusion.(Back)
Footnote 155:The breastworks in the thicket were the Roxbury lines of fortifications in advance of the fort.(Back)
Footnote 156:Mystic.(Back)
Footnote 157:The road leading from Roxbury across the neck into Boston.(Back)
Footnote 158:Captain Pond was from New Hampshire, and was an officer in Colonel Stark's regiment.(Back)
Footnote 159:From the vessels known as men-of-war.(Back)
Footnote 160:Coronation. George III. and his wife Charlotte were crowned on the 22d of September, 1761. It was always a holyday next to that of the king's birthday.(Back)
Footnote 161:Frothingham says: "On the 23d, the British discharged one hundred and eight cannon and mortars on the works at Roxbury without doing any damage."(Back)
Footnote 162:This expedition was under Major Tupper. They burnt a fine pleasure-boat just ready to be launched, belonging to some British officers.(Back)
Footnote 163:Of the Rhode Island "Army of Observation," under General Greene.(Back)
Footnote 164:This was a sloop-of-war, carrying twenty guns.(Back)
Footnote 165:He probably refers to the prisoners taken in the armed schoonerMargaretta, at Machias, Maine, in the month of May, by some Americans under Jeremiah O'Brien; or they may have been of the crew of two small cruisers afterward captured by O'Brien. They were taken to Watertown, where the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts was in session.(Back)
Footnote 166:The writer of this Journal.(Back)
Footnote 167:These riflemen were from Maryland. The company had been raised by order of Congress, and placed in command of Captain Michael Cresap, who, without a shadow of justice, was made to figure unfavorably in the celebrated speech attributed to Logan, the Mingo chief. Proof is abundant that the stain put upon the character of Cresap, by the speech of Logan from the pen of Jefferson, was unmerited. Captain Cresap was taken sick, and, at about the time here indicated, he started for home, but died at New York, on the 18th of October, 1775, at the age of thirty-three years. His remains yet lie buried in Trinity churchyard, a few feet from Broadway.(Back)
Footnote 168:Shooting at a mark, for liquor.(Back)
Footnote 169:Communications are thus had between belligerent armies. By common consent, as a rule of war, a person approaching one army from another, with a white flag, is respected as a neutral; and to "fire upon a flag," as the phrase is when the bearer is fired upon, is considered a great breach of faith and honor.(Back)
Footnote 170:The wives of officers often visited permanent camps, and formed pleasant social parties. Mrs. Washington visited her husband at Cambridge, while he remained there. She also spent a portion of the winter with him at Valley Forge, and likewise at Morristown.(Back)
Footnote 171:Newton, seven miles north from Boston.(Back)
Footnote 172:When Major Tupper destroyed the lighthouse on Nantasket point, he carried away all the furniture and the great lamp by which it was lighted.(Back)
Footnote 173:The creek referred to is Stony brook, northward from Roxbury fort.(Back)
Footnote 174:As early as July, 1775, Dr. Franklin had suggested the propriety of a political confederation of all the colonies, and the establishment of governmental relations with foreign powers, especially with France, which, it was well known, hated England. In November of that year, Benjamin Harrison, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Johnson, John Dickenson, and John Jay, were appointed a committee to open and carry on correspondence with foreign governments; and in March following, Silas Deane was appointed a special agent of Congress to the court of France. Rumors of such intentions appear to have reached the army, according to our Journalist, as early as the 24th of October, 1775.(Back)
Footnote 175:A very natural consequence.(Back)
Footnote 176:During the whole of October, affairs were very quiet, and no skirmish of importance occurred. The "Essex Gazette" of the 19th said, "Scarcely a gun has been fired for a fortnight." On the 4th, a small fleet, under Captain Mowatt, sailed from Boston harbor, and destroyed Falmouth (now Portland), Maine. On the 15th, a committee from Congress arrived, to consult with Washington concerning the future, and a reorganization of the army.(Back)
Footnote 177:On this day there was quite a severe skirmish occurred at Lechmere's point, now Cambridgeport.(Back)
Footnote 178:That is, a written permission from his commanding officer, to leave for a specified time.(Back)
Footnote 179:At that time leather breeches were much in vogue, because they were durable. The more costly ones of buckskin were worn only by officers.(Back)
Footnote 180:Late in October a new organization of the army took place, and enlistments for a certain term were commenced. Hitherto there had been great confusion in the matter. The army had gathered around Boston from sudden impulse, and it was continually changing. The excitement which had brought them together had in a measure subsided, and enlistments went on slowly. After a month's exertions, only five thousand names were enrolled; and Washington, lamenting the dearth of public spirit, almost despaired. Alluding to the selfishness exhibited in camp, he says: "Such stock-jobbing and fertility in all low arts, to obtain advantages of one kind and another, I never saw before, and pray God I may never witness again."(Back)
Footnote 181:Generalissimo.(Back)
Footnote 182:On the previous day, General Putnam, with a strong detachment, broke ground at Cobble hill, where the M'Lean Asylum now stands. The object was to erect batteries for the purpose of cannonading Boston. It was expected the British troops would sally out of the city and attack them, and that expectation caused Washington to issue the order forallthe troops to be ready for action at a moment's warning.(Back)
Footnote 183:Frothingham says, "Two British sentinels came off in the night to the detachment" of General Putnam.(Back)
Footnote 184:This remark refers to several blots of ink which disfigure the page of his Journal on which he was writing.(Back)