Characters Mentioned
Barrett, Colonel James – Concord militia commander
Browne, Captain John – 10th Regiment. One of three spies sent to Worcester and Concord
Church, Doctor Benjamin – Boston physician, paid spy of General Gage
DeBerniere, Ensign Henry – 10th Regiment, spy, scout for Colonel Smith
Gage, General Thomas – military governor and commanding general of British forces stationed in Boston
Howe, Corporal John – servant of Captain Brown. Spy
Percy, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh – commander of the 1st Brigade, commander of the relief column that rescued Colonel Smith’s forces
Revere, Paul – Boston silversmith and express rider
Commentary
This section provides contextual information vital for the reader’s understanding of forthcoming events.
Chapter 6, “Acute Hostility,” Section 1
In his study one hour each afternoon, recalling past friendships, recreating personal and professional accomplishments, Thomas Gage warded off his anxieties. Intermittently, he indulged in flights of fancy: Tom Gage, suave, virile lothario; Thomas Gage, vanquishing general/enlightened prime minister. Revitalized, he returned to his duties primed to vanquish each new outrage directed upon his competency. Once or twice every fourteen days or so his methodology of self-renewal failed him. This afternoon his apprehensions and resentments had not receded.
Having stared for two minutes at a spot of sunlight on his threadbare carpet, annoyed by the tick of his wall clock, Gage pulled open his bottom right-hand desk drawer. He removed from beneath scribbled drafts of correspondence his in-laid oak letter box. Having placed it on his blotter, he removed his Provincial Congress informant’s most recent letter. The physical act of retrieval triggered what he had been unable the past half-hour to evoke, a filtered recollection of past martial achievements.
He recalled his participation in the Battle of Fontenoy, on Flanders Field, three decades past. He had beheld appalling death. Afterward, to harden himself, he had walked amid the dying and dismembered. A year later in Scotland he had survived the Battle of Culloden -- a victory, the power of the Highland clans broken -- witnessing again terrible carnage. They had called him, a young lieutenant, “Honest Tom.” Twenty years ago, ambushed near Fort Duquesne leading Braddock’s advance guard against the French, he had been one of 1,600 British and American soldiers wounded or killed. Three years later he had directed the light infantry for Abercromby at Fort Ticonderoga and had again been wounded. The war against France concluded, the King, acknowledging Gage’s lengthy, steadfast service, had appointed him commander-in-chief in North America. He had persevered in that capacity nine difficult years.
Provincial lawlessness had culminated in 1770 with the libelously propagandized Boston Massacre. Shortly thereafter, risking his career, Gage had advised the King and his counsel to initiate a policy that would restrict “the growth of virulent democracy.” Confine the colonials to the Atlantic seaboard, where they must adhere to English law and authority, he had by letter declared. Abolish immediately their rancorous town meetings, which were the wombs of sedition. Remove trials of such matters to England, away from intimidated judges and corrupt juries. The King had ordered him to sail to London to confront his critics. During his absence lawless Bostonians had seized and destroyed 342 chests of imported East India Company tea. The need for harsher administrative policy affirmed, King George had returned Gage to Boston as Massachusetts’s military governor.
What the King had demanded had proved impossible to enforce.
Refusing to violate constitutional law, eschewing heavy-handed repression, implementing, instead, a benign, yet firm, consistent policy, Gage had attempted to win the obedience of the populace. His attempts to do what was lawful and just had been thwarted at virtually every turn.
He had been unable to stop the town meetings in Salem and Boston. He had nominated royal judges to the Massachusetts bench. Loyalist juries had refused to serve. Many judges, fearful of reprisal, had refused to sit. Seven months ago he had removed 250 half-barrels of powder from the Provincial Powder House at Charlestown and, additionally, several cannon at Cambridge. The powder had been the lawful property of the Province of Massachusetts, not the illegal Provincial Congress and the proliferating town militias. The following day 4,000 provincials, incited by fraudulent rumors, had demonstrated on the Cambridge Common! Dubbed the “Powder Alarm,” the uprising had instructed him to proceed thereafter with greater circumspection.
Subsequently, he had fortified the Neck; entrance and egress were now carefully monitored. He had ordered the inhabitants of Boston to surrender their weapons, after having purchased the inventory of every gun merchant. He had advised Lord Dartmouth in London that there was “no prospect of putting the late acts in force, but by first making a conquest of the New England provinces.” That would necessitate a force of at least 20,000 soldiers. In November he had urged that the Coercive Acts be suspended until more troops were provided. Waiting for Dartmouth’s response, in December he had planned the removal of Provincial gunpowder and cannon from a crumbling fortress near the entrance of Portsmouth Harbor. The mechanic Paul Revere had alerted the local militia before Admiral Graves and a detachment of British soldiers had embarked on the sloop H.M.S. Canceaux. Four hundred militiamen had overwhelmed the guard of six, injuring its captain. A regular had been struck on the head with a pistol. One hundred barrels of gunpowder and sixteen cannon had been carried away. Shortly thereafter, militia companies had seized munitions at royal forts in Newport and Providence.
Two months ago he had attempted to remove from a Salem forge eight new brass cannon and field pieces converted from the cannon of four derelict ships. Despite the care he had taken to keep the operation a secret, word had reached the town of Salem before the seaward arrival of Colonel Leslie’s regulars. Thwarted by a raised drawbridge that provided access to the forge, Leslie, to avert bloodshed, had acquiesced. Despite his efforts to act humanely, to respect the constitutional rights of the populace, to restrain his soldiers’ desire to respond aggressively to invidious criticism, Boston’s citizenry perceived their governor/commanding general to be a tyrant.
From the Earl of Dartmouth’s most recent letter, dated January 27, which he had just received, Gage had learned that the King had angrily rejected his requests. Troops were, in fact, on the way: 700 Marines and three regiments of foot. But, the King and his ministers did not accept Gage’s estimate that 20,000 soldiers were needed to quell the rebellion. If General Gage sincerely believed that more soldiers were required than what he was being provided, he should recruit men from “friends of the government in New England.” Dartmouth had stated succinctly Gage’s duty. “The King’s dignity, and the honor and safety of the Empire, require, that, in such a situation, force should be repelled with force.” Seize the ringleaders; disarm the populace. They are “a rude Rabble without plan, without concert, and without conduct. A smaller force now, if put to the test, would be able to encounter them with greater probability of success than might be expected from a great army.”
He was bitter. He had three good reasons to be. The “rude Rabble” had rejected with prejudice his benign governance. His superiors were demanding outcomes that no governor or general or he could realistically accomplish. If men in Government like Sandwich, Townshend, Rigby, and Germain continued to have their way, despite what he might yet practically achieve, he would be relieved of his command.
Touching absently the blemish below his right cheekbone, Gage exhaled a lengthy breath. His reminiscences had not brought about mental and emotional rejuvenation. They had advanced instead his bleakest thoughts.
He stared at length at the envelope, unopened on his ink-stained blotter.
His spy, in another letter, dated March 4, had reported that the Provisional Congress had appointed a committee to “watch” the Army. If you should decide to send armed soldiers into the country, minutemen would be summoned to oppose them. “The Minutemen amount to 7,500 and are the picked men of the whole body of the militia and are properly armed,” the message stated. Nearly their entire magazine of powder, some 90 to 100 barrels, lies hidden at Concord. This, together with information received from other agents that British soldiers, traitorous riffraff, were selling their muskets!
On March 9 he had received a note in French from John Hall, of Concord. Food supplies as well as armament were being stockpiled in that Middlesex County town. Hall had been useful; in earlier reports he had described the route out of Boston taken by deserters and their method of getting past the sentries at the Neck, a procedure devised by unknown rebel conspirators. Hall had identified the exact location of the dumps, the main magazine being at the farm of James Barrett, the recently appointed colonel of the town militia. Hall believed that Barrett had the four brass cannon stolen out of Boston.
Hesitant to order the magazine’s immediate destruction, he had sent his three spies -- Browne, De Berniere, and Browne’s young servant -- to Concord to scout the roads and to corroborate his intelligence. They had brought back Ensign De Berniere’s meticulously drawn maps and a knowledgeable Tory, Daniel Bliss. On April 5 he had sent Colonel Smith and Browne’s servant to Worcester to ascertain the location of a second munitions depot, with the option, thereafter, to inspect Concord. Corporal Howe, the servant, had just returned. His report had been a mixture of old and new information, indisputable corroboration that the rebels’ stockpile of arms and powder had to be destroyed.
The contents of this most recent letter, dated April 13, authored by his spy, Doctor Benjamin Church -- an important member of the Congress's Committee of Safety -- was especially important!
Take action within the next several days! his informant had advised. When it serves your purpose! Sam Adams and his cronies want confrontation. Defeat their designs when their Congress least expects it!
Their “justification” for an armed confrontation -- they would have the populace believe -- is the damage to private property caused by Colonel Percy's First Brigade during its recent training exercise. Their confrontation, their “defense of private property,” they will turn into a clash of arms, its true purpose being to incite reluctant provincials to commit to their cause.
They seek to replicate on a much larger scale the late, so-called Boston Massacre. By passing a truculent resolve Congress has set the stage. Should soldiers be marched out of Boston again with artillery and baggage, expect numerous militia companies to combat them.
Planning farther ahead, Congress has agreed to raise an army of 18,000 men. 8,000 are to come from Massachusetts. Important Committee of Correspondence leaders from New Hampshire and Rhode Island are taking part in Congress's discussions.
Daunting in concept, these plans are but a dog’s bark. The Provincial Congress suffers much irresolution. “Great division among the members … Many of them opposed raising an army … many insurmountable difficulties … no determination.”
His spy had written, “A recess at this time could easily be brought about.” Congress, despite its belligerency, because of its division of opinion, rather than escalate matters will probably wait, in abeyance, until you receive your official dispatches instructing you as to how the additional troops crossing the Atlantic are to be utilized. During this recess a sudden blow by you would remove their powder, scuttle their idea of a provincial army, and dissuade Connecticut and New Hampshire interference.
He could not do otherwise. The festering sore that he had attempted to salve would not heal. If he did not immediately lance it, others would attempt to excise it at great cost. The problem was no longer the decision of whether to do it. The difficulty was logistics.
His plan to destroy Concord’s munitions would require swift execution!
Logistics indeed. The particulars!
For several months Gage had considered combining the elite elements of his infantry into a swift, powerful attack force. He had done so. He had but days ago removed light infantry and grenadier units from specific regiments. Special training exercises had been his official explanation. He had sent those elements of the 38th and 52nd Foot on a long march to give credence to that explanation and to accustom Middlesex County provincials to the army’s presence. Now he needed to transport his enlarged force across the water.
A swift raid upon Concord would require their removal across the Charles River to a location near the Cambridge/Lexington road. To take the circuitous land route from Boston Neck to Cambridge would add hours to the expedition. Making the necessary preparations without exposing his purpose was a major difficulty. He would send most of the Navy's launching boats -- his long-standing enemy, Admiral Graves, had already lowered them conspicuously into the water -- to the 70 gun Boyne, moored in the Back Bay near Boston Common. Would that frigate's vastly increased number arouse suspicion? Certainly. Would intelligence of it be sent into the interior before the boats were launched? Probably. Could he do anything about either? He could the latter.
Every exigency he had thought of he had acted upon. Transported across the River, the expedition would advance swiftly beyond his reach. What contingency had he miscalculated, or neglected? Too much of his plan depended on probabilities, reasoned assumptions. If he had been accurate in his assessment of the major difficulties, if he had chosen effective measures to negate them, the expedition’s outcome would be determined by how well its commander executed the plan and how rapidly and aggressively the enemy responded. Intangibles all!
He looked again at the envelope, undisturbed on his blotter. He had taken it from his correspondence box to remind himself … of what? He had set in motion a sequence of events the outcome of which only the Heavenly Father knew. Was that what he had wanted evoked?
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