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George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 7, 4th edition., Chapter 27: (search)
Smith, crossed in the boats of the transport ships from the foot of the common to Chap. XXVII.} 1775. April. East Cambridge. There they received a day's provisions, and near midnight, after wading through wet marshes, that are now covered by a stately town, they took the road through West Cambridge to Concord. They will miss their aim, said one of a party who observed their departure. What aim? asked Lord Percy, who overheard the remark. Why, the cannon at Concord, was the answer. Percy hastened to Gage, who instantly directed that no one should be suffered to leave the town. But Warren had already, at ten o'clock, despatched William Dawes through Roxbury to Lexington, and at the same time desired Paul Revere to set off by way of Charlestown. Revere stopped only to engage a friend to raise the concerted signals, and five minutes before the sentinels received the order to prevent it, two friends rowed him past the Somerset man of war across Charles river. All was still,
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 7, 4th edition., Chapter 28: (search)
hat they had made the junction, they could think only of their own safety. While the cannon kept the Americans at bay, Percy formed his detachment into a square, enclosing the fugitives, who lay down for rest on the ground, their tongues hanging ton. Its best troops, fully two-thirds of its whole number, and more than that proportion of its strength, were now with Percy. And yet delay was sure to prove ruinous. The British must fly speedily and fleetly, or be overwhelmed. Two wagons sennt prayer from their minister, did not halt even for rest till they reached Cambridge. Aware of his perilous position, Percy, after resting but half an hour, renewed the retreat. The light infantry marched in front, the grenadiers next, while th, they must have surrendered. But a little after sunset, the survivors escaped across Charlestown neck. The troops of Percy had marched thirty miles in ten hours; the party of Smith, in six hours, had retreated twenty miles; the guns of the ship
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 7, 4th edition., Chapter 29: (search)
gton had begun a fight with a detachment that outnumbered them as twelve to one. They did not make one gallant attempt during so long an action, wrote Smith, who was smarting under his wound, and escaped captivity only by the opportune arrival of Percy. Men are prone to fail in equity towards those whom their pride regards as their inferiors. The Americans, slowly provoked and long suffering, treated the prisoners with tenderness, and nursed the wounded as though they had been members of their own families. They even invited Gage to send out British surgeons for their relief. Yet Percy could degrade himself so far as to calumniate the countrymen who gave him chase, and officially lend himself to the falsehood, that the rebels scalped and cut of the ears of some of the wounded who fell into their Chap. XXIX.} April. hands. He should have respected the name which he bore; famed as it is in history and in song; and he should have respected the men before whom he fled. The fals
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 7, 4th edition., Chapter 30: (search)
to provide for their escape, remained in town to share the hardships of a siege, ill provided, and exposed to the insults of an exasperated enemy. Words cannot describe their sufferings. Connecticut still hoped for a cessation of hostilities, and for that purpose, Johnson, so long its agent abroad, esteemed by public men in England for his moderation and ability, repaired as one of its envoys to Boston; but Gage only replied by a narrative which added new falsehoods to those of Smith and Percy. By a temperate answer he might have confused New England; the effrontery of his assertions, made against the clearest evidence, shut out the hope of an agreement. No choice was left to the Massachusetts committee of safety but to drive out the British army, or perish in the attempt; even though every thing conspired to make the American forces incapable of decisive action. There was no unity in the camp. At Roxbury, John Thomas had command, and received encomiums for the good order wh
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 7, 4th edition., Chapter 36: (search)
precede the successful vindication of the liberties of America. Before the excursion to Concord he had avowed to his friends his full intention to devote his life and fortune to the cause; and he manifested his conviction of the imminence of danger by appearing at the debates in his uniform as an officer. He had read with indignation the taunts uttered in parliament on the courage of his countrymen; he now took a personal pride in the rising of New England, and the precipitate retreat of Percy, Chap. XXXVI} 1775. May. which he thought might convince Lord Sandwich that the Americans would fight for their liberties and property. Unhappy it is, said he, to reflect, that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's breast, and that the once happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched with blood, or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice? Washington never hesitated in his choice; but he was too modest to demand
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 7, 4th edition., Chapter 38: (search)
e, boats and barges, manned by oars, all plainly visible to Prescott and his men, bore over the unruffled sheet of water from Long Wharf to Moulton's Point in Charlestown, the fifth, the thirty-eighth, the forty-third, and the fifty-second regiments of infantry, with ten companies of grenadiers, ten of light infantry, and a proportion of field artillery, in all about two thousand men. They were commanded by Major General Howe, who was assisted by Brigadier General Pigot. It was noticed that Percy, pleading illness, let his regiment go without him. The British landed under cover of the shipping, on the outward side of the peninsula, near the Mystic, with a view to outflank the American party, surround them, and make prisoners of the whole detachment. The way along the banks of the river to Prescott's rear lay open; he had remaining with him but about seven or eight hundred men, worn with toil and watching and hunger; he knew not how many were coming against him; his flank was unpro