American Spring

by Walter R. Borneman

  4. “female connections,” James Warren to Mercy Warren, April 7, 1775, postscript, H. C. Lodge, et al., eds., Warren-Adams Letters, Being Chiefly a Correspondence among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1917) 45; Clarke, Opening of the War, iii.

  5. Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 16–17.

  6. Frederick Mackenzie, Diary of Frederick Mackenzie (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 1:24.

  7. Frank Warren Coburn, The Battle of April 19, 1775 in Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville and Charlestown Massachusetts (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Historical Society, 1922), 55.

  8. Elizabeth Baigent, “Pitcairn, John,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/53715, accessed February 17, 2012. Charles Cochrane was later beheaded by a cannonball while standing beside Cornwallis at Yorktown.

  9. Coburn, Battle of April 19, 1775, 58.

  10. Paul Revere, Deposition, fair copy, circa 1775, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/img-viewer.php?item_id=98&img_step=1&tpc=&pid=&mode=transcript&tpc=&pid=#page1, accessed March 12, 2012.

  11. Sanderson deposition, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 32.

  12. “I must do you,” Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 32; Paul Revere’s deposition, circa 1775.

  13. Clarke, Opening of the War, 3.

  14. “a great tall man,” Coburn, Battle of April 19, 1775, 60; Elizabeth S. Parker, “Captain John Parker,” Proceedings of Lexington Historical Society and Papers Relating to the History of the Town (Lexington: Historical Society, 1890), 1:42–47.

  15. “Robert Munroe,” Proceedings of Lexington Historical Society, 1:38–40.

  16. Clarke, Opening of the War, 4.

  17. W. Munroe deposition, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 34.

  18. W[illia]m H. Sumner, “Reminiscences by Gen. Wm. H. Sumner,” New England Historical and Genealogical Record 8 (1854), 187–88.

  19. Paul Revere’s deposition, circa 1775, and Paul Revere, Letter to Jeremy Belknap, circa 1798, p. 2, Massachusetts Historical Society, http://www.masshist.org/database/img-viewer.php?item_id=99&mode=small&img_step=2&tpc=&pid=#page2, accessed March 14, 2012; Clarke, Opening of the War, 4–5 ; Coburn, Battle of April 19, 1775, 62; “the art of military,” David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 181.

  20. Paul Revere’s deposition, circa 1775.

  21. JCC, 1:61–62 (October 11, 1774).

  22. “Stand your ground,” Coburn, Battle of April 19, 1775, 64.

  23. Coburn, Battle of April 19, 1775, 64.

  24. Sanderson deposition, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 32.

  25. Robbins deposition, April 24, 1775, AA4, 2:491.

  26. Parker deposition, April 25, 1775, AA4, 2:491.

  27. Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, 401n.

  28. Draper deposition, April 25, 1775, AA4, 2:495.

  29. Fessenden deposition, April 23, 1775, AA4, 2:496.

  Chapter 11 — On to Concord

  1. “saw, & heard,” Paul Revere, Letter to Jeremy Belknap, circa 1798, p. 6, Massachusetts Historical Society, http://www.masshist.org/database/img-viewer.php?item_id=99&mode=small&img_step=2&tpc=&pid=#page2, accessed March 14, 2012; “When one gun,” Paul Revere, deposition, fair copy, circa 1775, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/database/img-viewer.php?item_id=98&img_step=1&tpc=&pid=&mode=transcript&tpc=&pid=#page1, accessed March 12, 2012.

  2. Parker deposition, April 25, 1775, AA4, 2:491.

  3. Robbins deposition, April 24, 1775, AA4, 2:491.

  4. Smith deposition, April 25, 1775, AA4, 2:494.

  5. John Pitcairn, “Major John Pitcairn’s Report to General Gage, April 26, 1775,” Digital History, “Explorations of the Revolutionary War,” http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/revolution/account3_lexington.cfm, accessed January 9, 2013.

  6. Barker diary, April 19, 1775, Elizabeth Ellery Dana, ed., The British in Boston: Being the Diary of Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s Own Regiment from November 15, 1774 to May 31, 1776; with Notes (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1924), 32.

  7. William Sutherland and Richard Pope, Late News of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops on the Nineteenth of April, 1775 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College, 1927), 17.

  8. Sutherland, Late News, 17; see also the version in Allen French, General Gage’s Informers: New Material upon Lexington & Concord (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1932), 58–61.

  9. Tidd and Abbott deposition, April 25, 1775, AA4, 2:492.

  10. “meanwhile the second officer,” Fessenden deposition, April 23, 1775, AA4, 2:496; “The second of these,” Jonas Clarke, Opening of the War of the Revolution, 19th of April 1775, A Brief Narrative of the Principal Transactions of That Day (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Historical Society, 1901), 6.

  11. David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 402n.

  12. W. Munroe deposition, March 7, 1825, Elias Phinney, History of the Battle at Lexington, on the Morning of the 19th April, 1775 (Boston: Phelps and Farnham, 1825), 34.

  13. Edward Gould deposition, April 25, 1775, AA4, 2:501. It is interesting to consider the effects of both the differing political climate and the intervening span of years on memory, especially as reflected in the difference between those depositions taken within a week or so of the battle in 1775 and those set down in 1825. By then, the United States had not only won its independence during the American Revolution but also was heady over Andrew Jackson’s victory over these same British regulars at New Orleans at the close of the War of 1812.

  14. J. Munroe deposition, December 28, 1824, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 35.

  15. Richard Frothingham, Life and Times of Joseph Warren (Boston: Little, Brown, 1865), 459.

  16. “the smoke prevented” and “then loaded my gun,” J. Munroe, December 28, 1824, in Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 35–36 ; “the balls flew,” E. Munroe deposition, April 2, 1825, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 37.

  17. W. Munroe deposition, March 7, 1825, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 34.

  18. J. Munroe deposition, December 28, 1824, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 36.

  19. Clarke, Opening of the War, 8; British casualties at Frederick Mackenzie, Diary of Frederick Mackenzie (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 1:24.

  20. Sutherland, Late News, 18; “We then formed,” Barker diary, April 19, 1775, The British in Boston, 32.

  21. French, General Gage’s Informers, 60, 62.

  22. Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, 24–25.

  23. Clarke, Opening of the War, 9.

  24. Lemuel Shattuck, A History of the Town of Concord (Boston: Russell, Ordiorne and Company, 1935), 103–4.

  25. Amelia Forbes Emerson, ed., Diaries and Letters of William Emerson, 1743–1776 (Boston: Thomas Todd, 1972), 71–72.

  26. Amos Barrett, “Concord and Lexington Battle,” in Henry True, Journal and Letters of Rev. Henry True, of Hampstead, New Hampshire: Also an Account of the Battle of Concord by Captain Amos Barrett, a Minute Man and Participant (Marion, Ohio, 1900), 31.

  27. Emerson, Diaries and Letters, 72.

  28. French, General Gage’s Informers, 104–5 n. The light infantry company of the Twenty-Third was also reported by Captain Laurie to have belatedly come on the scene and followed Parsons. For company displacements, see also Barker diary, April 19, 1775, The British in Boston, 33. For company strength, see Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, 314.

  29. Henry De Berniere, “Narrative of Occurrences, 1775,” Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd ser., 4 (1816), 216; Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, 208.

  30. J. H. Temple, History of Framingham, Massachusetts (Framingham, Mass.: Town of Framingham, 1887), 276.

  Chapter 12 — By the Rude Bridge

  1. Jeremy Lister, Concord Fight, Being So Much of the Narrative of Ensign Jeremy Lister of the 10th Regiment of F
oot as Pertains to His Services on the 19th of April, 1775, and to His Experiences in Boston during the Early Months of the Siege (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931), 25.

  2. “exceedingly vexed” and “to give me 2 men,” William Sutherland and Richard Pope, Late News of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops on the Nineteenth of April, 1775 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College, 1927), 19; “still approached” and “Luckily for us,” Lister, Concord Fight, 26.

  3. Sutherland, Late News, 20.

  4. Sutherland, Late News, 20.

  5. David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 209.

  6. Deposition of Amos Baker, April 22, 1850, in Josiah Adams, Letter to Lemuel Shattuck, Esq. of Boston (Boston: Damrell & Moore, 1850), 21.

  7. Lemuel Shattuck, A History of the Town of Concord (Boston: Russell, Ordiorne and Company, 1935), 107–8.

  8. Shattuck, History of Concord, 108–9.

  9. Shattuck, History of Concord, 107.

  10. Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1849), 369–70. A year later, Mrs. Moulton petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for compensation for her services, citing her old age and poverty, and was awarded three pounds, then equal in purchasing power to about $450 in 2010.

  11. Shattuck, History of Concord, 111. The additional words “stand here” were quoted by Amos Baker in his deposition of April 22, 1850, in Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 21.

  12. D. Michael Ryan, “White Cockade: A Jacobite Air at the North Bridge?” https://www2.bc.edu/~hafner/Imm/music-articles/white_cockade_ryan.html, accessed March 22, 2012.

  13. Hannah Leighton deposition, August 14, 1835, Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 19.

  14. See differing versions in Shattuck, History of Concord, and the Acton response praising Captain Davis in Adams, Letter to Shattuck.

  15. Allen French, General Gage’s Informers: New Material upon Lexington & Concord (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1932), 80.

  16. Sutherland, Late News, 20–21 : French, General Gage’s Informers, 80.

  17. Amos Barrett, “Concord and Lexington Battle,” in Henry True, Journal and Letters of Rev. Henry True, of Hampstead, New Hampshire: Also an Account of the Battle of Concord by Captain Amos Barrett, a Minute Man and Participant (Marion, Ohio, 1900), 33.

  18. “to march to,” James Barrett deposition, April 23, 1775, AA4, 2:499; “quickened our pace,” Thomas Thorp deposition, July 10, 1835, Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 15.

  19. “a ball strike,” Thorp deposition, Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 15; “saw where,” Thaddeus Blood, “Statement on Battle of April 19,” www.nps.gov/mima/forteachers/upload/Thaddeus%20Blood.pdf, accessed June 27, 2012.

  20. For further analysis of this, see Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, 406n41.

  21. French, General Gage’s Informers, 97.

  22. Sutherland, Late News, 21.

  23. Thorp deposition, Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 15.

  24. Solomon Smith deposition, July 10, 1835, Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 17; “had worried him,” Charles Hadley deposition, December 1, 1835, Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 18.

  25. Shattuck, History of Concord, 109.

  26. French, General Gage’s Informers, 80.

  27. Amos Barrett, “Concord and Lexington Battle,” Journal and Letters of Rev. Henry True, 33.

  28. Amos Barrett, “Concord and Lexington Battle,” Journal and Letters of Rev. Henry True, 33.

  29. Hannah Leighton deposition, Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 19.

  30. Smith deposition, Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 17; Thaddeus Blood, “Statement.”

  31. Henry De Berniere, “Narrative of Occurrences, 1775,” Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd ser., 4 (1816), 216.

  32. Smith deposition, Adams, Letter to Shattuck, 17.

  33. Amelia Forbes Emerson, ed., Diaries and Letters of William Emerson, 1743–1776 (Boston: Thomas Todd, 1972), 72.

  34. George Otto Trevelyan, The American Revolution, Part I, 1766–1776 (New York: Longmans, Green, 1899), 306–7.

  Chapter 13 — Retreat, If We Can

  1. The Detail and Conduct of the American War under Generals Gage, Howe, Burgoyne, and Vice Admiral Lord Howe (London: Richardson and Urquhart, 1780), 10.

  2. Percy to Gage, April 20, 1775, Charles Knowles Bolton, ed., Letters of Hugh Earl Percy from Boston and New York 1774–1776 (Boston: Charles E. Goodspeed, 1902), 50; march order in Frederick Mackenzie, Diary of Frederick Mackenzie (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 1:19.

  3. coal and “not less than,” Dartmouth to Gage, January 28, 1775 (two letters), Clarence Edwin Carter, ed., The Correspondence of General Thomas Gage with the Secretaries of State, and with the War Office and the Treasury, 1763–1775 (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1969), 2:183–84 ; Gage to Dartmouth, April 19, 1775, Correspondence of Gage, 1:395; Wright to Gage, June 27, 1775, AA4, 1:1109–10.

  4. Richard Frothingham, Life and Times of Joseph Warren (Boston: Little, Brown, 1865), 456–57.

  5. There is a report that a messenger arrived in Boston from the country about eight o’clock. John Andrews wrote his brother-in-law: “The first advice we had was about eight o’clock in the morning, when it was reported that the troops had fir’d upon and killed five men in Lexington—previous to which an officer came express to his Excellency Governor Gage…” Andrews to Barrell, April 19, 1775, in “Letters of John Andrews, Esq. of Boston, 1772–1776,” Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings 8 (1864–65), 404.

  6. Frothingham, Life of Warren, 457.

  7. Frothingham, Life of Warren, 457.

  8. Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1849), 73.

  9. Barker diary, April 19, 1775, Elizabeth Ellery Dana, ed., The British in Boston: Being the Diary of Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s Own Regiment from November 15, 1774 to May 31, 1776; with Notes (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1924), 35.

  10. Allen French, The Day of Concord and Lexington: The Nineteenth of April, 1775 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1925), 57–58.

  11. French, Day of Concord and Lexington, 220–21.

  12. William Sutherland and Richard Pope, Late News of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops on the Nineteenth of April, 1775 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College, 1927), 22.

  13. Ellen Chase, The Beginnings of the American Revolution (New York: Baker and Taylor, 1910), 3:64.

  14. J. H. Temple, History of Framingham, Massachusetts (Framingham, Mass.: Town of Framingham, 1887), 275, 278. Peter Salem was not alone in his service. A recent detailed study suggests that at least twenty-one men of color from twelve different companies representing eleven different towns took part in the fight along Battle Road. See George Quintal Jr., Patriots of Color—‘A Peculiar Beauty and Merit’: African Americans and Native Americans at Battle Road & Bunker Hill (Division of Cultural Resources, Boston National Historical Park, 2004), 21–36.

  15. Temple, History of Framingham, 275.

  16. David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 224.

  17. Frothingham, Siege of Boston, 73.

  18. John R. Galvin, The Minute Men: The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution (Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1996), 178–85.

  19. Henry De Berniere, “Narrative of Occurrences, 1775,” Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd ser., 4 (1816), 217.

  20. Barker diary, April 19, 1775, The British in Boston, 37.

  21. De Berniere, “Narrative of Occurrences,” 217.

  Chapter 14 — Percy to the Rescue

  1. Draft of Percy’s report to Gage, April 20, 1775, Charles Knowles Bolton, ed., Letters of Hugh Earl Percy from Boston and New York, 1774–1776 (Boston: Charles E. Goodspeed, 1902), 51.

  2
. Draft of Percy’s report to Gage, April 20, 1775, Letters of Percy, 51.

  3. Percy to Gage, April 20, 1775, Letters of Percy, 50.

  4. Percy to Gage, April 20, 1775, Letters of Percy, 50.

  5. Percy to Northumberland, April 20, 1775, Letters of Percy, 54.

  6. John R. Galvin, The Minute Men: The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution (Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 1996), 199.

  7. Percy to Gage, April 20, 1775, Letters of Percy, 50.

  8. William Heath, Memoirs of Major-General William Heath (New York: William Abbatt, 1901), 1–3.

  9. Heath, Memoirs, 5, 7.

  10. Galvin, The Minute Men, 212–17.

  11. Barker diary, April 19, 1775, Elizabeth Ellery Dana, ed., The British in Boston: Being the Diary of Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s Own Regiment from November 15, 1774 to May 31, 1776; with Notes (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1924), 36.

  12. Frank Warren Coburn, The Battle of April 19, 1775 in Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville and Charlestown Massachusetts (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Historical Society, 1922), 137–38.

  13. Coburn, Battle of April 19, 1775, 139–40.

  14. “incessant fire,” Percy to Harvey, April 20, 1775, Letters of Percy, 52; Coburn, Battle of April 19, 1775, 141–42.

  15. Depositions of Benjamin Cooper and Rachel Cooper, May 10, 1775, Journals of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775, and of the Committee of Safety, with an Appendix (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1838), 678. Cooper’s Tavern was located at the intersection of present-day Massachusetts Avenue and Medford Street.

  16. Barker diary, April 25, 1775, The British in Boston, 39.

  17. Frederick Mackenzie, Diary of Frederick Mackenzie (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 22, entry dated April 19, 1775.

  18. Galvin, The Minute Men, 222–23.

  19. Coburn, Battle of April 19, 1775, 116.

  20. David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 259–60, 414n.