Desertions from the Royal Army became frequent and were due to a variety of causes. In the first place, the daily sixpence which was the pay of a common soldier, was insufficient for his subsistence (because of the heavy stoppages made from it for clothing and other matters, under the title of ‘Off-reckonings’) even in England. In America, where prices were one-third higher for all European articles, a soldier was never out of debt, unless he happened to be a model of sobriety and thrift. Troops garrisoned in America were always being tempted with offers of employment at high wages by prosperous farmers of the back districts; and with such offers now went an undertaking from the Committee of Correspondence of the township concerned that no sergeant’s party of his regiment would be suffered to arrest him as a deserter. If intending deserters could bring their muskets and side-arms with them, so much the better: the sum of twenty dollars apiece was offered by the rebels for Tower muskets in good repair.
Now a new and disgraceful employment was offered to the necessitous soldier: he could count upon fifty pounds sterling in gold money if he consented to become a drillmaster and teach the American volunteers their platoon-exercise for use against his King and his comrades. Many soldiers consented, especially those with particular grievances against some officer or sergeant; smothering their sense of guilt under a professed concern for the cause of Liberty. Others remarked that they had volunteered as soldiers to fight for King George, and that, though surrounded and insulted by hordes of his enemies, they were not permitted to use the arms that had been entrusted to them for this very purpose. If the pride of England had thus decayed, they declared, there was no temptation to remain loyal soldiers, to sweat, shiver, pull off the hat, run into debt, grow decrepit in a thankless service, and every now and then (for some slight dereliction of duty) be tied up to the halberts and helped to two score of lashes laid on by a lusty drummer. They might just as well pass over to the Americans, who for all their uncouthness were men who stood up for their rights, who contrived to eat and drink heartily, to go well clothed and well shod, and were hospitable to new-comers.
The troops were encamped on Boston Common, just outside the town, and, the desertions growing more frequent, in spite of the death penalty being ordained for the crime, General Gage was one day heard to remark to his staff: ‘We are bleeding to death by damned driblets, gentlemen, and I am resolved to stop the flow with a tight bandage.’ Whereupon he gave orders for the fortification of Boston Neck, which separated the town from the country behind, and placed his most trustworthy men on guard there to see that no one went out or came in who had no right to do so. But the revolutionary leaders represented this protective bandage rather as a noose tied around the neck of Boston to throttle her. The country people and Bostonians were exceedingly impudent to our sentries as they passed and repassed the lines with their carts. One carter was stopped going out of town with some nineteen thousand ball cartridges, which were taken from him. He had the effrontery to approach Headquarters with a demand for their redelivery, saying that they were for his own use in hunting! The request was of course refused, but, says he: ‘Foh, then, it don’t matter, I reckon. That was only the last parcel of a very great quantity I have carried out in this cart at different times; and all for my own use in hunting.’
Next, the inhabitants of Newport, in Rhode Island, dismounted forty cannon, which were provided for the protection of the harbour, and carried them off for the use of the revolutionary forces; and the New Hampshire men seized a great quantity of Government stores in the fort of Piscataqua, albeit without bloodshed. Evidently war had grown imminent, and was indeed confidently announced in September 1774, many months before it actually broke out. Then Colonel Israel Putnam of Connecticut, that old hunter of bears and Indians, wrote by express to New York, during the first session of the Continental Congress, that the King’s troops and ships had that instant begun an indiscriminate massacre of the wretched people of Boston. He called for aid from every direction. The report caused despair and rage in Philadelphia, to which city it was instantly transmitted, and remained uncontradicted for three days. Colonel Putnam, who was an honest man, was, it is thought, imposed upon by some agent of the political Mr Samuel Adams, who wished by this false news to force the Congress, by no means unanimous, to declare itself as resolutely as in the event it did. Here I may observe that the most dislikeable man in America, to the English, was this same Sam Adams, with his agued hands and twitching face, his tongue (as was said) alternately dripping honey and venom, his unkempt person, his restless eyes, and ever-empty pockets. He had not long before avoided prison, when charged with defalcation as tax collector, by the interposition of his partisans in office.
General Gage wrote to the Government about this time: ‘If force is to be used at length, it must be a considerable one. To begin with small numbers will only encourage resistance and not terrify.’ Since it was estimated that the Americans could raise a force of one hundred and fifty thousand men with knowledge of firelocks, he asked for fifteen thousand men to be stationed at Boston, ten thousand at New York, and seven thousand more to protect Canada against invasion by the Americans.
He had taken what precautions he could against a rising; removing the powder and arms from magazines in the vicinity and storing them all in Castle William. He had also, by the bye, deprived that arch-smuggler, Colonel ‘King’ Hancock (afterwards President of the Congress) of his commission as Commander of the Massachusetts Company of Cadets. These cadets were gentlemen who used to attend the Governor, but since many of them now feared what the mob might do to themselves and their property should they continue in this service, the company was disbanded. They returned to the General the Standard that he had presented to them on succeeding Mr Hutchinson as Governor. Mr Oliver the Lieutenant-Governor and almost all of the new councillors appointed by a royal mandamus had by now been obliged to resign by threats against their lives.
There were some disturbances of a lesser sort in the town. Mr Samuel Adams, in the presence of a number of British officers, during a town-meeting on March 5th in the Old South Meeting House, moved that the thanks of the town should be presented to Dr Warren, who had just spoken, for his elegant and spirited oration, and that another should be delivered on March 5th next to commemorate the Bloody Massacre of five years previous. Several officers began to hiss, others cried, ‘O fie, fie!’ and an officer dressed in gold lace regimentals with blue facings, whose name or regiment I cannot learn, advanced to Mr Adams and Colonel Hancock, who was also present, and addressed them in severe terms. He told them that the Army resented the phrase Bloody Massacre, Captain Preston having been fairly tried and honourably acquitted by a Boston court of the charge of murder. The Americans making some reply, the renewed cries of ‘Fie! Fie!’ were misheard as an alarm of ‘Fire, Fire!’ and the whole place was thrown into a bustle. Women shrieked, men swore, and many persons leaped headlong out into the street from the lower windows. The drums of the Forty-third Regiment, which happened to be passing, increased the confusion: Mr Adams, Colonel Hancock, and others present evidently feared that they were about to be apprehended by an officer with a warrant. The meeting was nearly cleared in two minutes, but no lives lost or violence used.
Two days later a man was caught who had attempted to buy from a soldier of The Forty-seventh the lock of his musket. Men of this regiment stripped, tarred and feathered the American and, seating him on a truck, in that manner paraded him through the town for the best part of the afternoon. The officers of The Forty-seventh lent no hand to this excess (which the Americans imputed to them) but turned a blind eye. The affair was much disapproved of by General Gage.
While I was in Dublin, about April of the year 1775, my father showed me the following two letters, copies of which he had been permitted to take by his friend and patron Dean Evelyn of Trim in Meath, whose son, the author, was serving in Boston as a captain in The Fourth, or King’s Own Regiment. It expressed so clearly the resentful sentiments of the British forces in Amer
ica at that time that I take leave to reproduce them here in extenso, but omitting personal particulars interesting only to the family.
To the Rev. Doctor Evelyn [his father], Trim, Ireland
BOSTON CAMP, October 31st 1774
MY DEAR SIR,
It happens so seldom that we have the opportunity of a King’s ship going from hence, that we are glad to lay hold of every one that offers to let our friends hear from us; they must be a good deal alarmed for us indeed, if ever they see the bold and desperate resolves of every village in New England, and must conclude that two or three thousand poor fellows of us must have long since been devoured by men of their mighty stomachs; but here we still are in our peaceful camp, and in the same situation as when I last wrote to you; nothing of any consequence has happened, but great preparations for hostilities making on both sides. We, on our part, have fortified the only entrance to the town by land, and thrown up a very extensive work in front of it. We have got General Haldimand, with the 47th Regiment and part of the 18th, from New York, with more artillery and military stores; two other Regiments, the 10th and 52nd, are coming in from Quebec, part of them already in the harbour; and we have a man-of-war, and two companies of the 65th from Newfoundland.
The good people of these provinces are getting ready as fast as they can; they are all provided with arms and ammunition, and every man who is able to use them is obliged to repair at stated times to the place of exercise in order to train; in short, the frenzy with which the people are seized is now got to such a pitch, that it can go but little farther, and they must either soon, very soon break out into civil war or take that turn which the people of England did at the time of the Restoration, and wreak their vengeance on those who have seduced and misled them. I believe never was so much mercy extended to any nation on the face of the earth: they are now in an absolute, open, avowed state of rebellion, and have committed every act of treason which can be devised, but that of openly attacking the troops, which they publicly declare their resolution of doing as soon as they are prepared, and the season will allow them, and they feel bold.
The people of England, in the time of Charles the First, behaved with decency and moderation compared with these. The ‘North Briton’, ‘Whisperer’, ‘Parliamentary Spy’, ‘Junius’, etc., are dutiful and respectful addresses compared to the publications here; never before did I see treason and rebellion naked and undisguised; it is the only occasion upon which they lay aside hypocrisy. We expected to have been in barracks by this time, but the sons of liberty have done every thing in their power to prevent our accommodation. As it was found difficult to furnish quarters for so many men, it was resolved (to avoid extremities) to build barracks on the Common, where we are encamped; for some regiments timber was provided, and the frames pretty well advanced, when they thought proper to issue their orders to the carpenters to desist from working for the troops, upon pain of their displeasure. And one man who paid no attention to their order, was waylaid, seized by the mob, and carried off, and narrowly escaped hanging. However, the Government have procured distilleries and vacant warehouses sufficient to hold all the regiments, and our own artificers, with those of the men-of-war, and about 150 from New York and Halifax, are now at work upon them, and we hope to get into them in ten days or a fortnight. They have also forbid all merchants from furnishing their enemies with blankets, tools, or materials of any kind, and have endeavoured to hinder our getting bricks to build chimneys in our barracks, and threatened to prohibit all provisions being brought to market; but the force of English gold no Yankey can withstand, were it offered to purchase his salvation. I can give you no description of the ‘holy men of Massachusetts’, by which you can form a just idea of what they are. There are no instances in history to compare them by; the Jews at the time of the siege of Jerusalem seem to come near them, but are injured and disgraced by the comparison.
I beg my best love to all my friends; I should be glad to hear something of them when you have a spare half-hour.
I am, dear Sir,
Your ever affectionate,
W. G. EVELYN
To the Reverend Doctor Evelyn [his father], Trim, Ireland
BOSTON, February 18th 1775
MY DEAR SIR,
About the 10th of this month, I received your letter (the only one I have got from you) dated the 2nd of November, though it was not opened, as mine to you had been, yet it did not fall short of it in expense, as every letter we receive by the New York Packet costs us threepence for every pennyweight; for which reason I wish our friends would endeavour to write to us by vessels bound to Salem or Marble Head, or try to have their letters sent in General Gage’s bag, as Mr Butler sends his to his son, and saves him by that means fifteen or twenty shillings a-month. If you would be kind enough to enclose any letter for me to him, I am sure he would be so obliging as to send it to the Secretary of State’s office in England, and I should receive it with the General’s despatches.
That lies innumerable should be circulated in your papers with regard to what is passing here is no way strange, when in this very town, where we are upon the spot, the most false, impudent, and incredible relations are every day published concerning us; but the fact is, the authors know them to be false, and that not a person in this town (of about twenty thousand inhabitants) believes a word of them; but they are calculated for the poor deluded wretches in the country, who are all politicians, and swallow everything they see in those seditious papers (and none other are they allowed to read) with a credulity not equalled even in old England; and by this means is the spirit of faction kept alive, and the schemes of a few enterprising, ambitious demagogues made to pass upon the people for their own act and deed. I said of a few; a great many doubtless appear to be concerned in carrying on the business; but would you believe it, that this immense continent from New England to Georgia is moved and directed by one man!1 a man of ordinary birth and desperate fortune, who by his abilities and talent for factious intrigue, has made himself of some consequence, whose political existence depends upon the continuance of the present dispute, and who must sink into insignificancy and beggary the moment it ceases.
People in general are inclined to attribute the ferment that at present subsists in this country to a settled plan and system formed and prosecuted for some years past by a few ambitious, enterprising spirits; but in my opinion the true causes of it are to be found in the nature of mankind; and I think that it proceeds from a new nation, feeling itself wealthy, populous, and strong; and that they being impatient of restraint, are struggling to throw off that dependency which is so irksome to them. The other seems to me to be only the consequence; such a time being most apt for men of abilities, but desperate fortunes, to et themselves forward to practise upon the passions of the people, foment that spirit of opposition to all law and government, and to urge them on to sedition, treason, and rebellion, in hopes of profiting by the general distraction.
This is the case of our great patriot and leader, Sam Adams. Hancock, and those others whose names you hear, are but his mere tools; though many of them are men of no mean abilities. Hancock is a poor contemptible fool, led about by Adams, and has spent a fortune of thirty thousand pounds upon that infamous crew; has sacrificed all he was worth in the world to the vanity of being admitted among them, and is now nearly reduced to a state of beggary. The steps by which the sons of liberty have proceeded, and the strides with which they are now hasting to rebellion and civil war, are set forth in a very masterly manner by a writer (on our side), under the signature of Massachusettensis; which papers, as far as they have been hitherto published, I have enclosed to Mr Butler at the Castle, directed for you; they will give you a better idea of the nature of this important contest than any on the other side, which are composed of sedition, treason, misrepresentation, and falsehood, framed by villains of the first water, and greedily swallowed with the credulity of ignorance, and the malignant zeal of inveterate fanatics.
It is but very lately that a To
ry writer dare appear, or that a Printer could be prevailed on to publish any thing on the side of Government; and nothing now protects them, but the presence of the troops in Boston. Those who have remained in the country, whose circumstances and situation would not admit of their leaving their families, are hourly in danger. Some are prisoners in their own houses; a mob constantly mounting guard about them, lest they should escape; and others have been treated with the utmost barbarity. Words cannot give you an idea of the nature of the lower class of people in this province: they are utterly devoid of every sentiment of truth or common honesty: they are proscribed throughout the whole Continent, and possess no other human qualities but such as are the shame and reproach of humanity.
As the event of this very important question depends upon the determination of the people of Great Britain, and as they have such unhappy divisions, and so many dangerous enemies to their country among themselves, it is impossible to form any conjecture about it. We who know our own powers, and the helpless situation of the people, consider it as the most fortunate opportunity for Great Britain to establish her superiority over this country; even to reduce it to that state of subjection, which the right of conquest may now give her the fairest title to; at least, to keep it in that state of dependency which they are now avowedly attempting to free themselves from, and which, had they waited for another century, they would probably achieve. Though the point at present in view is, to be independent of Great Britain, and to set up for themselves, yet I do not believe the most sanguine of them have any expectation of accomplishing it at this time; but they hope to make some approaches, and to gain something towards it. In this struggle their great dependence is upon the tenderness and clemency of the English, who they imagine will consider them under infatuation, and will give up some points to them out of humanity, rather than push matters to extremity; and indeed, they may with reason think so, for under no other Government on the face of the earth would they have been suffered to perpetrate so many horrid villainies, as they have done, without being declared in a state of rebellion, and having fire and sword let loose among them. From the accounts given by the faction, people would imagine that the colonies were unanimous to a man in their opposition to Government, but the contrary is the fact; there is a very large party in our favour, and thousands inclined to our side, who dare not openly declare themselves, from an apprehension that Government may leave them in the lurch; this you may depend upon as a certain truth, that those gentlemen who have declared on our side are men of the best property in this country, and those who before these troubles were in the highest esteem, and most respected among the common people.