Old Boston Days & Ways. Mary Caroline Crawford
all the houses were shut up & there was not the appearance of a single inhabitant, I could get no intelligence concerning them till I had passed Menotomy, where I was informed that the Rebels had attacked His Majesty's Troops, who were retiring, overpowered by numbers, greatly exhausted & fatigued, & having expended almost all their ammunition.
And about 2 o'clok I met them retiring through the Town of Lexington.
"I immediately ordered the 2 Field-pieces to fire at the Rebels, and drew up the Brigade on a height. The shot from the cannon had the desired effect, & stopped the Rebels for a little time, who immediately dispersed, & endeavoured to surround us, being very numerous.
As it began now to grow pretty late, & we had 15 miles to retire, & only our 36 rounds I ordered the Grenadiers and Lgt Infy to move on first, & covered them with my Brigade, sending out very strong flanking parties, wh were absolutely necessary, as there was not a stone-wall, or house, — though before in appearance evacuated, — from whence the Rebels did not fire upon us.
"As soon as they saw us begin to retire, they pressed very much upon our rear guard, which for that reason I relieved every now & then.
In this manner we retired for 15 miles under an incessant fire all round us, till we arrived at Charlestown, between 7 & 8 in the even, very much fatigued with a march of above 30 miles, & having expended almost all our ammunition.
"We had the misfortune of losing a good many men in the retreat, tho' nothing like the number wh, from many circumstances, I have reason to believe were killed of the Rebels.
"His Majesty's Troops during the whole of the affair behaved with their usual intrepidity & spirit. . . ."
Unofficially, in a letter to the military friend who was one of his regular correspondents in England, Percy wrote that of his men sixty-five were killed, one hundred and fifty-seven wounded, and twenty-one missing. Of the officers, one was killed, fifteen were wounded and two were taken prisoners. "During the whole affair," he then went on, "the Rebels attacked us in a very scattered irregular manner, but with perseverance & resolution. . . . Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob, will find himself much mistaken. They have men amongst them who know very well what they are about, having been employed as Rangers agnst the Indians & Canadians, & this country being much covd with wood, and hilly, is very advantageous for their method of fighting.
"Nor are several of their men void of a spirit of enthusiasm, as we experienced yesterday, for many of them concealed themselves in houses, & advanced within 10 yds to fire at me & other officers, tho' they were morally certain of being put to death themselves in an instant.
You may depend upon it, that as the Rebels have now had time to prepare, they are determined to go thro' with it, nor will the insurrection here turn out so despicable as it is perhaps imagined at home. For my part, I never believed, I confess, that they wd have attacked the King's troops, or have had the perseverance I found in them yesterday. I myself fortunately escaped very well, having only had a horse shot. ..."
Lord Dartmouth, secretary of state for the Colonial department, was highly pleased with Percy's gallant conduct on this occasion. To the Earl's father, the Duke of Northumberland, he wrote: "Lord Dartmouth presents his compts to the Duke of Northd & has the honor to send His Grace two extracts from private letters from Boston, wh have been communicated to him. . . . 'Ld Percy has acquired great honor, he was in every place of danger, cool, deliberate, & wise in all his orders.' . . .
'Ld Percy commanded and behaved with distinguished honor, & tho' he was continually in a shower of bullets, & an object that was much aimed at on horseback, came off unhurt.' Blackheath, 11 June, 1775."
As a reward for his gallantry, Percy was made "a Major-General in America," the commission being signed " at our Court at St. James, 22nd June, 1775." He led his men with spirit at the attack upon Fort Washington, in November, 1776, but, from an inability to agree with Howe, he took steps, in 1777, to obtain a recall. Two years later, he was divorced from his first wife, Lord Bute's daughter, and the same year he married again, — happily this time, and lived to a ripe old age. He seems in many ways the ablest soldier as well as the most gracious personality, of all the officers of the king who were stationed at Boston.
CHAPTER V. THE SPRIGHTLY CHRONICLES OF JOHN ANDREWS
AT the very time when Earl Percy was entertaining Boston Tories in his house at the northerly corner of Winter and Tremont streets a man who was later to occupy that house was writing from his home on School Street a series of letters in which may be found the most racy description available of the Boston of just that period. John Andrews — for that was this man's name — was a prosperous merchant with a good deal at stake, and he was by no means hot for war when he began, in 1772, to send to his brother-in-law in Philadelphia his impressions of the trend of things.
But, as the years went on and the insolent encroachments of England increased he, as an honest man, came to range himself squarely on the side of the patriots. Yet he never gives a warped or one-sided view of the situation, and his narrative is relieved by many a touch of humor. In its way and for the limited period with which it deals, these letters are almost as enlightening as is Sewall's Diary concerning his time. I therefore give them here at some length.
Andrews believed in civic progress; with undisguised delight he writes: " March 15, 1773, our very respectable Town meeting have voted to have 300 lamps properly to light this town — a thing I have long wished for." The next day he adds to his journal letter: "I suppose you must have seen reprinted in your papers the messages passing to and from our Governor and house of Representatives respecting the most important matter of right of parliament to tax America, which have been very lengthy on both sides, frequently filling up near a whole paper. We have had an innovation here never known before — a Drum or Rout given by the Admiral past Saturday evening, which did not break up till 2 or 3 o'clock on Sunday morning, their chief amusement being playing cards."
How Sewall would have quoted Scripture after recording that! But John Andrews, characteristically, presents his gossip without comment, and runs it in, with no attempt at easy transition, hard on the heels of his politics.
The sensation aroused by the discharge upon Boston of the Hutchinson letters is very interesting as reflected in this contemporary letter: "June 4, 1773, The minds of people are greatly agitated on account of some original letters that have been sent from London to the General Court that were wrote some three or four years since by the Governor and Lieutenant Governor and Auchmuty &C., very much to the prejudice of the province, and recommending or rather urging ye necessity of all ye measures which have been lately taken with us: also pointing out the absolute necessity of taking off five or six of the leaders in the opposition, such as Otis, Adams &C enumerating their several names; without which, they say, it is impracticable to accomplish their plans. The Lieutenant Governor strongly recommends in one of his letters his son Daniel as Secretary for y" province. Thus much has transpired respecting them as they are enjoined not to be published."
Poor Hutchinson! These were private letters which he had written to friends in England, and which, having by some means fallen into the hands of Benjamin Franklin, — then agent of Massachusetts in London, — were sent by him to Hancock. The latter was quick to see in the letters a chance to fan to fever heat the smoldering resentment towards the Governor, and had given all possible publicity to the unfortunate remarks therein. The letters were printed in Boston June 16, 1773, and as a result of what the Americans insisted on reading into them a formal petition was sent to the king for the removal of their odious writer.
The militia had now come to the point of training regularly on the Common, and as Andrews sat writing his letter his eyes were "almost every moment taken off with the agreeable sight of our militia companies marching past. . . . Were you to see them you'd scarcely believe your eyes, they are so strangely metamorphos'd. From making the most despicable appearance they now vie with the best troops in his majesties service, being dressed all in blue uniforms, with drums and fifes to each company dressed in white uniforms trimmed in the most elegant