I have nothing Remarkebel to rite Except that geaneral Washington & Leas got into Cambridge yesterday and to Day thay are to take a vew of ye Army & that will be atended with a grate deal of grandor there is at this time one & twenty Drummers & as many feffors a Beting and Playing Round the Prayde.
No, that’s not a foreign language. It’s just a beautiful example of why spellcheck and grammar check were invented. Here’s how it would be with correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation:
I have nothing remarkable to write except that Generals Washington and Lee got into Cambridge yesterday, and today they are to take a view of the army, and that will be attended with a great deal of grandeur; there are at this time one-and-twenty drummers and as many fifers a-beating and playing round the parade.
This was a letter from Massachusetts Lieutenant Joseph Hodgkins to his wife, Sarah. Besides being interesting from a historical standpoint, their letters are all kinds of fun to read; sometimes a word is spelled so strangely that it takes a minute to figure out what it is.
Hodgkins was at the American army camp around Boston, and he was writing about how General George Washington, the newly-appointed commander-in-chief, was taking command of the American forces. Washington arrived at Cambridge, which was the army’s headquarters, on Sunday, July 2, along with Charles Lee, who had been appointed a major-general. The next day they “reviewed” the army; that is, the army marched around the parade ground, and the generals observed them. (Maybe that’s not the most accurate description of it, but it’ll do.) Washington and Lee had been welcomed and honored all along their way from Philadelphia to Cambridge, but now they were up against their real work. And neither one of them realized how hard it would turn out to be.
Here’s an artistic rendition of General Washington “reviewing” the colonial troops at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 3, 1775. Although it’s not historically accurate in some things — such as the stars-and-stripes flag, which hadn’t been designed yet — it gives an idea of what a “review” might have been like. The smoke in the background is from a salute being fired.
Source
This Glorious Cause: The Adventures of Two Company Officers in Washington’s Army, p. 171.
The Americans threw occasional nervous glances toward Boston and the harbor as they feverishly dug into the earth at the top of the hill. They had to finish their fort before daybreak, or they would be sitting ducks to the nearby British forces. Hopefully the British wouldn’t notice them until then. It was the night of June 16, 1775, and the Americans were busy on Breed’s Hill on the Charlestown peninsula.
The British commander-in-chief, General Thomas Gage, had planned to put his own forces on the Charlestown hills first, to keep the rebels from getting close enough to actually fire their artillery at the British in Boston. The hills on the Charlestown and Dorchester peninsulas had natural strategic advantage; whichever side controlled them could hope to control the outcome of the siege.
But the Americans got wind of General Gage’s plans and beat him to the punch. On Friday night, June 16, about 1,000 American troops quietly marched onto the Charlestown peninsula and began digging in. For some reason, rather than following the original plan to fortify Bunker Hill, they chose to move farther down the peninsula to Breed’s Hill, which was closer to Boston. They worked as quickly as possible, hoping to finish their fortifications before the British noticed.
Although the British did in fact notice that something was happening near Charlestown, they apparently didn’t realize the extent of what was going on, and they did nothing about it during the night. When daylight came, the Americans had made a decent earthen fort on top of the hill. British warships in the harbor saw the fort and began firing at it, but did little damage; it was too strong, as well as being too high up for the ships’ guns to get good shots at it.
This 1783 illustration of the battle of Bunker Hill shows the British bombarding the American fortifications, and British troops crossing from Boston to attack Breed’s Hill. In the background, Charlestown is in flames.
The British generals debated the best way attack the rebel fortifications. In the early afternoon, Generals William Howe and Robert Pigot crossed the water to the Charlestown peninsula with about 2,000 redcoats. By this time, the Americans had been able to strengthen their fortifications considerably, but they were tired, hungry, thirsty, and badly in need of reinforcements. Some of the inexperienced American troops, frightened by the artillery barrage from the ships, had run away.
Finally the British began their attack. Twice they advanced to within a short distance of the American fortifications and were sent staggering back by volleys of American musket fire. By then the American commander, Colonel William Prescott, was in a desperate situation: the American troops were nearly out of ammunition. As the British, bolstered by 500 reinforcements under General Henry Clinton, began their third advance, Prescott ordered his men to hold their fire in order to conserve ammunition (legend has it that he said, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!”).
The British were only about 20 yards away when Prescott finally ordered his men to fire their last major volley. He recalled the scene that followed in a letter to John Adams:
Our Amunition being nearly exausted [we] could keep up only a scattering Fire. The Enemy being numerous surrounded our little Fort began to mount our Lines and enter the Fort with their Bayonets. We was obliged to retreat through them while they kept up as hot a fire as it was possible for them to make. We having very few Bayonets could make no resistance.
The Americans made a fighting retreat off the peninsula, with musket balls and cannon shot flying all around them “like Hailstones.” They had suffered about 400 casualties: 100 killed, and 300 wounded or captured. Among the dead was the beloved revolutionary leader Dr. Joseph Warren. In addition, Charlestown had been destroyed; the British had set it on fire by artillery bombardment in order to drive out rebel snipers.
But the British had purchased their victory at an unacceptably high cost: over 1,000 dead and wounded. One American called them “victorious losers. A few more such victories, and they are undone.” Wrote General Gage, “The number of killed and wounded is greater than our forces can afford to lose.” The bloody battle of Bunker Hill (as it was misnamed at the time, and has been called ever since) showed the British that “the rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be.”
After the battle, things began to quiet down again. For a while, everyone was more nervous than usual, but eventually they settled back into the routine of camp life. The British fortified Bunker Hill and the Charlestown peninsula, but didn’t make any other moves; and, for several months, neither did the Americans.
Sources
“To John Adams from William Prescott, 25 August 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0070. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, May 1775–January 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 124–126.]
Letter from Peter Brown to his mother, Cambridge, June 28, 1775. The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, ed. Franklin Bowditch Dexter (New York, 1901), 1:595-6.
“To John Adams from William Tudor, 26 June 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0030. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, May 1775 – January 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 48–49.]
Letter from General Gage to Lord Dartmouth, Boston, June 25, 1775. American Archives, ed. Peter Force, 2:1097.
OK, it wasn’t really as bad as it sounds. Not many people were hurt in the skirmish, the only things burnt were some hay and a house or two, and the only things slaughtered were livestock.
The water around Noddle’s and Hog (or Hogg) Islands was shallow enough that the Americans were able to walk there from the shore in order to destroy supplies that would have been used by the British.
Noddle’s Island, in Boston Harbor, was the scene of one of many skirmishes and confrontations over supplies while the British were besieged in Boston. The British were continually trying to get food for themselves and their horses, as well as firewood, and several times the New Englanders tried to either stop them in the process, or to destroy the supplies before the British could get them. The latter is what happened in this case. American soldiers went to Noddle’s Island, in Boston Harbor, to destroy what they could before the British could get it, and the British Marines went to stop them. British Lieutenant John Barker, stationed in Boston, recorded the fight in his diary the next day:
Yesterday afternoon about 40 of the Rebels came to Noddles Island expecting to meet with hay to destroy: they set two houses on fire and began killing the Cows and Horses, which the Adml. [Admiral] seeing immediately dispatched the Marines from the Men of War to drive the Rebels away, and at the same time sent some Boats and an armed Schooner round the Island to intercept them; the Rebels as soon as they saw this scour’d off as fast as they cou’d and escaped by wading up to their necks; one was killed in the flight; after this there was a constant firing at each other from the opposite sides of the water, but I believe without any mischief [meaning that nobody was hurt]; there was also firing at and from the Schooner and boats, which continued all night and part of this morning. I fancy we are the greatest sufferers for some time in the night the schooner run aground within 60 yards of their shore, and after a cannonade a considerable time on both sides, having no chance of saving the Schooner as the tide was going out, they were obliged to set her on fire and quit [i.e., leave] her without being able to save a single article…
From The British in Boston: Being a Diary of Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s Own Regiment from November 15, 1774 to May 31, 1776, pp. 50-51.
Notes
Noddle’s Island is no longer an island; the water around it has been filled up, and the island is now part of Boston.
