3) The story Will read in the Salem Gazette actually appeared, but in April on the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, not in March. The sermon of Reverend Jonas Clark was also preached on April 19, 1776, to commemorate the anniversary of the battles, and not earlier. Clark’s sermon was printed and widely distributed, as the Whigs wished to whip up patriotic fervor. The “Coffin Broadside,” with its two rows of twenty coffins each, and the names of those who had been killed by the British at Concord, was also reissued and widely distributed by the Whigs.
The Whigs were also expert at getting their version of the Battles of Lexington and Concord to members of Parliament and the British public. A letter from Dr. Joseph Warren, “To the Inhabitants of Great Britain,” dated April 26, 1775 (one week after the battles), was hurried across the Atlantic and arrived before the official dispatches from General Gage. Warren, who was President of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, described some of the atrocities as follows:
“To give the particular account of the ravages of the troops [the British Regulars], as they retreated from Concord to Charlestown, would be very difficult.. . Let it suffice to say, that a great number of the houses on the road were plundered, and rendered unfit for use; several were burnt; women in childbed were driven, by the soldiery, naked into the streets; old men peaceably in their houses were shot dead; and such scenes exhibited as would disgrace the annals of the most uncivilized nations.”
The women in childbed theme was repeated by the Reverend Jonas Clarke in his famous sermon on the anniversary of the Battles. His account, as referred to in the broadsheet Will read, is as follows:
“Add to all this; the unarmed, the aged and infirm, who were unable to flee, are inhumanely stabbed and murdered, in their habitations! Yea, even women in child-bed, with their helpless babes in their arms, do not escape the horrid alternative, of being either cruelly murdered in their beds, burnt in their habitations, or turned into the streets to perish with cold. . .” (Boston1775.blogspot.com, April 16, 2009). Chapter 9 - The Taking of Dorchester Heights
1) General Washington planned for the battle for Dorchester Heights to take place on March fifth, the sixth anniversary of the Boston Massacre. He reasoned that the memory of that event would inspire the New Englanders to fight more bravely. Washington visited the Heights sometime on the fifth, fully anticipating a British assault later that day. According to an eyewitness account, General Washington told the troops, “Remember it is the fifth of March, and avenge the death of your brethren.” (McCullough, 1776, p. 95).
Chapter 10 - A Providential Storm 1) General Howe did make preparations for an attack on March 5th but the storm that arose prevented his troops from disembarking. Several days later, he called off the operation and prepared to evacuate Boston. That such evacuation did not take place until March 17th was due to the lack of favorable winds and not a ruse on Howe’s part.
Chapter11 - Screams in the Night 1) At one point during the siege, with cannon balls scarce, Washington issued an order offering a small cash reward to be paid for those that were retrieved. Many of the brash and brave young soldiers “contended” for cannon balls by running out and placing a foot in front of a slowly rolling ball, some from eighteen-pounders, resulting in crushed feet. Washington rescinded the order to avoid further injury, although soldiers still retrieved cannon balls when they were stationary.
2) I have relied heavily on the historical blog Boston 1775 (Boston1775.blogspot.com) and several articles and reprints of diaries of Bostonians for accounts of the British pillaging, destruction and debauchery in Boston prior to March 17th.
When the British finally did get their favorable winds and departed, they did so in 120 ships in a convoy that stretched nine miles out to sea. Although they threw some of their cannons in the harbor, they left behind thirty cannons which Massachusetts gunsmiths were able to restore. They scuttled ships in the harbor but left usable stocks in warehouses on the wharfs of bushels of wheat, beans and tons of hay, 3,000 blankets and 35,000 wooden planks as well as coal, essential for heating homes and barracks in the remaining days of winter. According to McCullough, the ships carried 11,000 people, 8,900 troops, approximately 1,100 Loyalists, almost 670 women and over 550 children. (McCullough, 1776, p. 105).
3) Crean Brush was a notorious New York Tory. He, together with a Loyalist militia, carried out Howe’s Orders to collect linen and other materials which could be of use to the Continental Army when they entered Boston. He did so by smashing and looting homes and businesses and collecting all manner of valuables for his own personal gain. Ironically he, along with his booty, was captured by American privateers harassing the retreating British fleet.
4) The song, “Some say they sailed for Halifax,” and others were composed after General Howe called off the attack on Dorchester Heights around March 6th but before the British evacuated Boston on March 17th. The quoted verses combine the exhilaration of driving the British out of Boston with the realistic fear of being on the receiving end of their artillery.
Chapter 12 - The Search for Johan 1) Washington did not enter Boston with the first American troops on March 17th, which was a Sunday. Instead, he spent the Sabbath with Knox’s unit in Cambridge. The Chaplain of the Artillery Regiment chose for his text Exodus 14:25: “And they took off their chariot wheels, that they drove them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians.’” McCullough, 1776, pp. 105-106.
As per Washington’s instructions, only those troops who had been inoculated against smallpox were ordered into Boston. On March 17th, led by General Artemus Ward, they marched across the Boston Neck, while soldiers under General Israel Putnam crossed the Bay from the Cambridge side by boats manned by Marblehead Mariners.
It may seem surprising that such an order was necessary, but Washington’s Order of the Day for March 18, 1776, promised the severest punishment of American troops for any pillaging or looting of Boston. “The inhabitants of that distressed town have already suffered too heavily from the iron hand of oppression. Their countrymen surely will not be so base enough to add to their misfortunes.”
2) Knox did ride with Washington when the Commander-inChief entered the city by crossing the Boston Neck on Monday, March 18th. Knox’s artillery had done some damage to church steeples. One Boston clergy man, was reputed to have punned, as Knox rode by, “I never saw a (Kn) ox fatter in my life.” (Callahan, Henry Knox: General Washington’s General, p. 59).
3) Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles, a leading Massachusetts Tory, had fought in the French and Indian War. He was the Commander of three companies of Loyalists, known as the Loyal American Associators. He left Boston with General Howe’s entourage and served with the British forces during the invasion of New York. In compensation for the land he lost in Massachusetts, he was given 10,000 acres in Wilmot, Nova Scotia.
His daughter, Bathsheba Ruggles, was not as fortunate. She remained behind in Boston with her husband Joshua Spooner. She had an affair with a young Continental soldier, hired assassins who successfully murdered her husband and was tried and convicted of his murder. In 1778, she was the first woman hung in America by a legal authority other than a British court. She probably was five months pregnant at the time, which should have stayed her execution but did not.
4) Following the taking of Dorchester Heights, while Washington waited for the British to leave Boston, he issued the following General Order on March 11, 1776, from his Cambridge Headquarters, calling for the establishment of a Headquarters Guard: The General being desirous of selecting a particular number of men, as a Guard for himself, and baggage, The Colonel, or commanding Officer, of each of the established Regiments, (the Artillery and Riffle-men excepted) will furnish him with four, that the number wanted may be chosen out of them. His Excellency depends upon the Colonels for good Men, such as they can recommend for their sobriety, honesty and good behaviour; he wished them to be from five feet, eigh
t Inches high, to five feet, ten Inches; handsomely and well made, and as there is nothing in his eyes more desireable, than cleanliness in a Soldier, he desires that particular attention be made, in the choice of such men, as are neat, and spruce. They are all to be at Head Quarters to morrow precisely at twelve, at noon, when the Number wanted will be fixed upon. The General neither wants men with uniforms, or arms, nor does he desire any man to be sent to him, that is not perfectly willing, and desirous, of being this guard. . .
In the novel I have dated the Order later than when it was actually issued.
Chapter 13 - The New Private 1) The Liberty Tree in Boston was an American Elm. It stood near Essex and Orange Streets near Hanover Square. It was chopped down by the British, both as a gesture of contempt for the Patriot’s cause, and probably for firewood. Once news of this spread through the colonies, Liberty Tree flags were designed and flown in many towns and carried by militia units arriving in Cambridge. Most of these flags depicted spruce or pine trees and not an elm.
2) Dr. Amos Fairweather is a fictitious character. I have depicted his home as that of a wealthy doctor, a Tory who for his personal safety was compelled to leave with his British protectors.
Not all loyalists fled Boston. Henry Lloyd, a prosperous merchant and prominent loyalist (he imported tea for the British) left for Halifax with the British when they evacuated the city. However, his younger brother, James, also a loyalist, remained behind and was treated decently because he was a physician and apparently was also well liked. (See, Boston1775blogspot.com, 19 July 2013.)
The doctor who actually treated Henry Knox’s injury to his hand when the fowling piece exploded was a surgeon with the British Army then occupying Boston.
3) Shortly after arriving in Boston, Knox wrote John Hancock to assure the wealthy Boston patriot, who was in Philadelphia at the Continental Congress, that his home and possessions were untouched. George Washington also wrote Hancock on March 19,1776, from his Cambridge Headquarters. His letter was more of a report on the goods and materials left behind by the British. It gave Hancock the estimate by the Quarter Master General that the value was 25,000 to 30,000 pounds sterling.
Author’s Note and Acknowledgements
Willem Stoner is modeled on John Becker who was born in Schoharie, New York. As a twelve-year-old boy he accompanied his father, serving as a teamster pulling the cannons from Fort Ticonderoga through the Berkshires in the winter of 1775-1776. They went as far as Springfield, Massachusetts, before returning to Albany.
When he was in his sixties, Becker wrote The Sexagenary or Reminiscences of the American Revolution. It was originally published in Albany in 1833 and dedicated to Major General Philip Schuyler. I was fortunate to find a copy printed in 1866.
Becker describes his journey with Colonel Knox and his subsequent encounters and observations of the Revolutionary War in upstate New York. He never joined the Continental Army and did not participate in any military engagements. He was too young. But he was old enough to manage teams of horses hauling cannons over the most difficult part of the trek to Cambridge.
Today, I doubt whether any modern reader would believe a twelve-year-old capable of enduring such hardships and bearing such responsibilities. So I have made Will fifteen, a teenager struggling to get out from under his fictitious father’s heavy hand and inspired by those he meets to join the Continental Army in the late spring of 1776. Will’s story continues as a private in General Knox’s artillery regiment. General Knox was with Washington in every major battle from New York to Yorktown. Will Stoner will be there too, serving until the end of the War. I hope the subsequent books in the series provide both compelling and interesting historical reading.
I could not have written this novel without the encouragement and assistance of numerous friends, who read the manuscript in various iterations and made many helpful suggestions. They know who they are. I treasure their friendship.
Special thanks to Nickola Beatty Lagoudakis who pointed me to source material on the role of free African Americans, Indians and other persons of color in the Revolution.
I am also indebted to Priscilla Drucker who provided editorial assistance and whose keen eye and patient attention to detail eliminated errors in style and punctuation I had missed despite many readings. Any remaining mistakes are my sole responsibility.
Finally, I am the beneficiary of my son’s uncompromisingly honest and incisive criticism as well as his artistic abilities and production skills. My beloved wife has given me consistent encouragement, support and willingly and most importantly, the time and space to write. My gratitude to her is exceeded only by my love.
Martin R. Ganzglass Washington, D.C. December 2013
Bibliography The following are books, blogs or websites, I have read for historical background. I found The Sexagenarian in North Callahan’s bibliography for Henry Knox, General Washington’s General. I hope one or two of my sources similarly pique the reader’s curiosity. Since it is easy enough to search a book online by author and title, I have omitted the customary reference to publisher and date of publication.
Allen, Thomas B.,
Tories: Fighting for the King in America’s First Civil War Anderson, Fred,
The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War
Breen, T.H.,
American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People Becker, John,
The Sexagenarian or Reminiscences of the American Revolution Billias, George Athan,
General John Glover and His Marblehead Mariners
(boston1775.blogspot.com)
Brooks, Noah,
Henry Knox, A Soldier of the Revolution
328 Cannons for the Cause Callahan, North,
Henry Knox: General Washington’s General
Crocker, Thomas E.,
Braddock’s March: How the Man Sent to Seize a Continent Changed American History
Drake, Francis S.,
Life and correspondence of Henry Knox: Major-General in the American Revolutionary Army
Dwyer, William M.,
The Day is Ours: An Inside View of the Battles of Trenton and Princeton Fielding, Henry,
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Fitzpatrick, John Clement,
George Washington Himself: a Commonsense Biography Written from His Manuscripts
Grundset, Eric G., Editor,
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution: Forgotten Patriots—African American and American Indian Patriots of The Revolutionary War, a Guide to Service, Sources and Studies Hackett-Fischer, David,
Paul Revere’s Ride
Hackett-Fischer, David,
Washington’s Crossing
Hibbert, Christopher,
Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution Through British Eyes Lengel, Edward G.,
This Glorious Struggle: George Washington’s Revolutionary War Letters McCullough, David,
1776
Martin, Joseph Plumb,
Private Yankee Doodle: Being a Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier
Massachusetts Historical Society,
Siege of Boston, Eyewitness Accounts from the Collections
Prescott, Frederick Clarke, and J.H. Nelson,
Prose and Poetry of the Revolution
Bibliography 329 Puls, Mark,
Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution Rose, Alexander,
American Rifle: A Biography
Sloane, Eric,
Sketches of America Past
Sloane, Eric,
Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake-1805
The thrilling saga of our War for Independence continues with . . .
Tories and Patriots
The hastily constructed gallows was a simple inverted L. The rough hewn, brown weathered upright beam appeared to have been torn out of a stable stall. A thick, dirty rope noose hung from the narrow and newly-planed tail. I
t loomed ominously on a platform, the freshly made planks interspersed with worn grey ones, expropriated from nearby abandoned sheds. The entire structure stood five feet off the ground providing the people assembled at The Bowery, a clear view of the hanging. Five regiments of regular troops of the Continental Army were lined up in front of the scaffold. Militias held back the vast crowds on the other three sides of the execution grounds.
Will Stoner waited in the third file of the four hundred soldiers of the Massachusetts Continental Artillery Regiment, their backs to the New Yorkers massing behind them. Sweat dripped down Will’s shirt underneath his dark blue wool coat. They had been standing in the warm June sun since nine that morning, having marched smartly to The Bowery from their red brick barracks on lower Broadway. Sergeant Merriam marked the end of their line. The tall thin figure of Corporal Isaiah Chandler was to Will’s immediate left. Will took comfort from the older man’s presence, recalling how he had nursed him back to health in Lieutenant Hadley’s home in Boston. That had been only three months ago, he thought. Three months since his beating by a thuggish mob of patriots who thought he was a Tory spy, and his rescue by Hadley with the aid of Will’s friends in the Marblehead Mariners.
Their Artillery Regiment, in the center of the line of troops in front of the scaffold, were part of General John Fellows’ Brigade. General Washington himself had ordered the entire Brigade to attend the hanging of Sergeant Thomas Hickey, a member of his own headquarters troops, the General’s Life Guards. Will was not sure whether the Brigade was there to witness the hanging or to prevent armed New York City loyalists from rescuing the convicted traitor. He held his loaded musket tightly across his chest. He wished he had been issued a pike or at least a bayonet. In these close quarters, he didn’t think his musket would be of much use.
Cannons for the Cause Page 33
