1775] BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 139 CHAPTER XVIII. BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. Lexington and Concord.-In the War of the Revolution, the first blood was shed at Lexington. This town was ten miles north-west of Boston, on the road to Concord, where the patriots had collected cannon and stores. To destroy these, as well as to capture Samuel Adams and Hancock, who were regarded as the arch-rebels, Gage secretly made ready a detachment of 800 men; and an hour before midnight, April 18, 1775, they crossed to Lechmere's Point (see Map, p. 148) and commenced their march. But Boston's Sons of Liberty had hung a lantern in the steeple of the North Church-the preconcerted signal-to inform their friends in Charlestown that the soldiers were astir. Bells sounded the alarm, and messengers galloped through the country to arouse the minute-men, pledged to assemble at a moment's notice with firelock, powder-horn, and bullet-pouch. When the British reached Lexington at daybreak (April 19th), they found about sixty provincials drawn up on the common. Disregarding an order to lay down their arms, the minute-men received the fire of the British, returned a few shots, and then dispersed, eight men having been killed and more wounded. The regulars pushed on to Concord, took possession of the village, and destroyed such stores as they could find, the greater part having been already removed by the patriots. The American militia, who on the approach of the enemy had fallen back, wrought up beyond endurance on beholding the flames of their burning property, advanced to a bridge leading to the town. A British guard posted there saluted them with a volley, but broke and fled when the Americans returned their fire. "Now," said one of the min ute-men to his comrades, "the war has begun, and no one knows when it will end." 66 The Retreat. His work finished, the British leader, not liking the signs around him, gave the signal for retreat. It was a retreat traced in blood. The yeomen of the neighboring towns were pouring in by twos and threes; it seemed to the "Takenemy as if they rained down from the clouds." ing post behind trees and walls, on both sides of the road they knew the British must follow, under no military orders but acting each for himself, they poured in a destructive fire on the regulars, driving them like sheep all the way to Lexington. Here, their ranks thinned, their ammunition almost exhausted, themselves worn out, they were saved from surrender only by meeting a re-enforcement from Boston under Lord Percy. Still was the pursuit kept up with a galling fire from the American sharp-shooters, till the red-coats, ready to drop, found safety at Charlestown under the guns of their shipping. The British major, at a tavern in Concord, had boastfully remarked, as he stirred a glass of brandy with his finger, “I mean to stir the Yankee blood before night, as I stir this." He had indeed stirred it to its depths. Connecticut and Rhode Island promptly sent aid to their sister-colony. The men of New Hampshire, under the veteran Stark, hastened across the Merrimac. Putnam, true as steel, left the stonewall that he was building, and without waiting to change his check shirt spurred his horse to the camp at Cambridge. Within a week, Gage found himself closely beleaguered in Boston. First Declaration of Independence. - South as well as North was fired by the tidings that Massachusetts had measured swords with England, and had not come off second best. At Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, N. C., representatives of the people went so far as formally to renounce their allegiance to the crown, and make provision for their own 1775] CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA. 141 government (May 31, 1775). This was the first declaration of independence, for the men of the North were simply fighting for their rights as subjects of Great Britain. In July, the demonstrations in North Carolina were such that the governor deemed it prudent to take refuge on a man-of-war; an example which the governor of South Carolina and the garrison of Charleston followed two months later. Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, had before this seized the powder in the magazine at Williamsburg; whereupon the exasperated people, under the leadership of Patrick Henry, compelled him to pay for it, and shortly afterward drove him too on board of an armed vessel. Capture of Ticonderoga.- Early in the spring, the authorities of Connecticut had resolved to strike a blow on their own account. Knowing how useful the artillery and stores of Ticonderoga and Crown Point (see Map, p. 116) would be to the provincial army, they furnished means to fit out an expedition against these places, giving its command to Ethan Allen. Allen had emigrated from Connecticut to what is now southern Vermont, and had there become a leader of "the Green Mountain Boys." This was an organization of settlers, who, having received grants of their lands from the governor of New Hampshire, had refused to pay for them a second time to New York officials, and had resisted the attempts of New York to extend her jurisdiction over them. Eighty-three of these hardy pioneers landed under the walls of Ticonderoga, at daybreak on the 10th of May, 1775. Surprising the sentinel, they entered the works at his heels; and when the commander appeared in his night-clothes at the door of his room, to see what the matter was, Allen with uplifted sword demanded the surrender of the place "in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.' Resistance was useless; in a moment this fortress, which had seemed almost impregnable, was in the hands of the Americans. Two days afterward, Crown Point was taken. Benedict Arnold, then a true and dashing soldier though afterward the traitor of the Revolution, was equally successful at Skenesborough, and, embarking a small force on a captured vessel, surprised also a post at the foot of the lake. Many of the two hundred cannon captured in these successful expeditions afterward thundered on the British from the heights around Boston. Second Continental Congress.-The Continental Congress, in whose name Ethan Allen had summoned Ticonderoga to surrender, commenced its second session at Philadelphia on the very day that post was taken, and with short intervals of adjournment continued sitting throughout the Revolution. We shall find this body taking the whole responsibility of the war, providing ways and means, raising armies, appointing officers, and negotiating with foreign powers. The second Congress numbered Washington and Franklin, the Adamses, Henry, Lee, and Jefferson, among its members; John Hancock was made president. Some hope of reconciliation with the mother-country was still entertained, and a final petition to the crown was drawn up; at the same time vigorous preparations were made for war. Three millions of dollars were issued in bills of credit. The forces in front of Boston were adopted as the Continental army, and on the 15th of June Washington was unanimously elected its commander-in-chief. He accepted the command, while expressing doubt as to his fitness for it, but declined the pay which Congress had attached to the position. Gage re-enforced. Before summer Gage's army was swelled to more than 10,000 men, by the arrival of re-enforcements under Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne. "What!" exclaimed the last-named officer, as he sailed up the harbor and saw the "rebel" encampment; "ten thousand peasants keep five thousand king's troops shut up! Let us get in, and we'll soon find elbow-room.” 1775] FORTIFYING BREED'S HILL. 143 Feeling himself strong enough to proceed to extremities, Gage now proclaimed martial law, but offered pardon to such as would lay down their arms, except Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whom he threatened with condign punishment. His proclamation had little effect, and he was about extending his line by fortifying the heights of Charlestown, when the patriots, learning his intention, anticipated him. Bunker Hill.-On the evening of June 16th, a thousand Americans under Colonel Prescott silently marched from Cambridge, over Charlestown Neck, with instructions to throw up intrenchments on Bunker Hill.* Breed's Hill, THROWING UP INTRENCHMENTS ON BREED'S HILL. however, was selected in stead, either by mistake or because it was better suited for their purpose. They got to work with their picks and spades by midnight, and at dawn the British were thunderstruck to see the hill, which commanded Charlestown and Boston, crowned with earth-works six feet *For the localities mentioned in this connection, see Map, p. 148. |