XXVII. CHAP. the Continental Congress had been published and circulated extensively in England, by the exertions of Franklin 1775. and others. Their plain, unvarnished statements of facts, and their claim for the colonists to enjoy British as well as natural rights, had elicited sympathy. Mar. Chatham, though much enfeebled, hurried up to London to plead once more for American rights. He brought in a bill, which he hoped would remove the difficulties; but the House spurned every scheme of reconciliation short of absolute submission on the part of the colonists. Lord North, urged on by his colleagues in the ministry, whom he had not strength of will to resist, went further than ever. The Boston Port Bill had not accomplished its design; and now he introduced what was termed the New England Restraining Bill, which deprived the people of those colonies of the privilege of fishing on the banks of Newfoundland. He declared Massachusetts was in rebellion, and the other colonies, by their associations, were aiding and abetting her. Parliament pledged itself to aid the king in maintaining his authority. The next month came intelligence to England, that the Colonial Assemblies had not only approved the resolutions of the Continental Congress, but had determined to support them. To punish them for this audacity, Parliament passed a second Restraining Act, to apply to all the colonies except New York, Delaware, and North Carolina. The object of this mark of favor signally failed; these colonies could not be bribed to desert their sisters. General Gage had learned, by means of spies, that at Concord, eighteen miles from Boston, the patriots had collected ammunition and military stores. These he determined to destroy. His preparations were made with the greatest secrecy; but the Sons of Liberty were vigilant. Dr. Warren, one of the committee of safety, noticed the unusual stir; the collection of boats at certain points; XXVII. April 18. that the light infantry and grenadiers were taken off duty. CHAP He sent information of what he had seen and suspected to John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were at Lex- 1775. ington. It was rightly surmised that Concord was the object of the intended expedition. It was to leave Boston on the night of the eighteenth of April; on that day Gage issued orders forbidding any one to leave the town after dark. Again the vigilance of Warren had anticipated him. Before his order could go into effect, Paul Revere and William Dawes, two swift and trusty messengers, were on the way to the country, by different routes. A lantern held out from the steeple of the North Church— the concerted signal to the patriots in Charlestownwarned them that something unusual was going on. Messengers from that place hurried to rouse the country. About ten o'clock, under cover of the darkness, eight or nine hundred men, light infantry and grenadiers, embarked and crossed to Cambridge, and thence, with as little noise as possible, took up their line of march. To their surprise they heard in advance of them the tolling of bells, and the firing of alarm guns; evidently they were discovered. Lieutenant-colonel Smith sent back to Gage for reinforcements, and also ordered Major Pitcairn to press forward, and seize the two bridges at Concord. Pitcairn advanced rapidly and arrested every person he met or overtook, but a countryman, who evaded him, spurred on to Lexington, and gave the alarm. At dawn of day Pitcairn's division reached that place. Seventy or eighty minute-men, with some other persons, were on the green. They were uncertain as to the object of the British. It was thought they wished to arrest Hancock and Adams, both of whom had left the place. Pitcairn ordered his men to halt and load their muskets; then riding up he cried out,-"Disperse, you rebels." "Down with your arms, you villains, and disperse," was echoed by his officers. Confusion ensued; random shots were April 19. XXVII. CHAP. fired on both sides; then, by a volley from the British, seven men were killed and nine wounded. The Ameri1775. cans dispersed, and the British soldiers gave three cheers for their victory! By whom the first shot was fired is uncertain. Each party charged it upon the other. Be that as it may, here was commenced the eight years' war of the revolution. Presently Colonel Smith came up, and in half an hour the entire body moved on toward Concord, six miles distant. Information of the firing at Lexington had already reached that place. The minute-men were assembled on the green near the church. About seven o'clock the enemy appeared, in two divisions. The minute-men retreated across a bridge to the top of a neighboring hill. The British placed a strong guard at the bridge, and spent two hours in destroying what stores they could find, as the greater part had been concealed, and pillaging some private dwellings. Meantime the little company on the hill increased rapidly, and soon it numbered about four hundred and fifty. They advanced upon the guard, who fired upon them, and skirmishing commenced. As the British began to retreat they were followed by an irregular and galling fire from behind trees, and fences, and houses. In vain they sent flanking-parties to free themselves from their assailants, who were increasing every minute; the nimble yeomanry would retire before these parties, only to appear at a more favorable point. Colonel Smith was severely wounded, and many of his men killed. He had consumed more than two hours in retreating to Lexington; there, fortunately for him, Lord Percy, who insultingly had marched out of Boston to the tune of Yankee Doodle, met him with a thousand men and two field-pieces. The fainting and exhausted troops were received in a hollow square, where they rested, while the fresh soldiers kept the indomitable "rebels" at bay with their field-pieces. While the enemy were thus halting, General Heath THE HASTY RETREAT-VOLUNTEERS FLY TO ARMS. 317 XXVII. whom the Massachusetts Provincial Congress had ap- CHAP. pointed to command the minute-men, came upon the ground, and also Dr. Warren. They directed the Ameri- 1775. cans, whose attacks were now more in concert, but still irregular. The British set fire to dwellings in Lexington, then renewed their retreat, pillaging and burning as they went. The Americans, greatly exasperated, harassed them at every step. Lord Percy's condition became very critical. The country was roused; new assailants poured in from every side; every moment he was more and more encumbered by the number of the wounded, while his ammunition was nearly exhausted. Had he been delayed an hour longer, his retreat would have been cut off by a powerful force from Marblehead and Salem. "If the retreat," writes Washington, "had not been as precipitate as it was-and God knows it could not well have been more so the ministerial troops must have surrendered, or been totally cut off." In this affair, about eighty of the Americans were killed or wounded, and of the British nearly three hundred. Intelligence of this conflict spread rapidly through the country; couriers hastened from colony to colony. In New England, volunteers flew to arms, and in ten days an irregular army completely blockaded the British in Boston, by a line of encampments, that extended from Roxbury to beyond Charlestown-a distance of nine miles. The fire of other days glowed in the breasts of the old campaigners of the French war,-none were more ready than they. John Stark, whom we have seen leading his men in that war, waited not for invitation nor commission; in ten minutes after he heard the news he was on his way. Israel Putnam, another name associated with deeds of daring in French and Indian warfare, was laboring in his field when the courier passed along. He left the work, mounted a horse, roused his neighbors, and, without changing his clothes, hastened to Boston. Putnam was XXVII. CHAP, a native of Salem, Massachusetts, but for many years a resident of Connecticut. Though now almost sixty years 1775. of age, he was buoyant in spirits as a boy, impulsive and frank as he was fearless, and too generous to suspect others of guile. At this crisis, the Massachusetts Congress took energetic measures. A regiment of artillery was formed, the command of which was given to the aged Gridley, who, thirty years before, commanded the artillery at the taking of Louisburg. In the other colonies, the people were not inactive; they seized arms and ammunition wherever found, repudiated the royal authority, and each for itself called a Provincial Congress. He It was suggested to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to seize the two posts, Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, and thus secure the "key of Canada," as well as the cannon and other military stores there deposited. Benedict Arnold, who commanded a company in the camp before Boston, entered into the project with great ardor. Arnold was a man of impulsive temper, petulant, headstrong, and reckless of danger; he thirsted for an opportunity to distinguish himself. The Committee gave him the commission of colonel, with authority to raise men and accomplish the object. learned that others were engaged in the same enterprise, and without waiting to enlist men, he set out immediately for Vermont. There he met the redoubtable Ethan Allen-an original character-who from his very singularities exerted a great influence over his companions. When he harangued them, as he often did, "his style, though a singular compound of local barbarisms, and scriptural phrases, and oriental wildness, was highly animated and forcible." The territory now known as the State of Vermont, was claimed at this time by both New York and New Hampshire; but the inhabitants preferred to live |