XLII. CHAP. noitred those of the enemy. From Prospect Hill he took a comprehensive view of Boston and Charles1775. town. Of the latter town, nothing was to be seen July. but chimneys and rubbish. Above the ruins rose the tents of the great body of the British forces, strongly posted on Bunker Hill. Their sentries extended about one hundred and fifty yards beyond Charlestown Neck. Cn Breed's Hill there was a redoubt; two hundred men kept guard at Moultrie's Point; a battery was planted on Copp's Hill; three floating batteries lay in Mystic river; and a twenty-gun ship was anchored below the Charlestown ferry. The light horse and a few men were in the town of Boston; the remainder were on Roxbury Neck, where they were deeply intrenched and strongly fortified, with outposts so far advanced, that the sentries of the two armies could almost have conversed together. Of the inhabitants of Boston six thousand seven hundred and fifty three still remained in the town, pining of sorrow; deprived of wholesome food; confined to their houses after ten o'clock in the evening; liable to be robbed without redress; ever exposed to the malice of the soldiers, and chidden for tears as proofs of disloyalty. The number of the British army should have exceeded ten thousand men, beside the complements of ships of war and transports, and was estimated by the American council of war as likely to amount altogether to eleven thousand five hundred; yet such were the losses on the retreat from Concord, at Bunker Hill, in skirmishes, from sickness, and by desertion, that even after the arrival of all the transports, the commanding officer had never more than sixty XLII. five hundred effective rank and file. But these were CHAP. the choicest troops, thoroughly trained, and profusely supplied with the materials of war; and as he had 1775. the dominion of the water, he was able, as from a centre, to bend them against any one point in the straggling line of their besiegers. Washington found the American army dispersed in a semicircle, from the west end of Dorchester to Malden, a distance of nine miles. At Roxbury, where Thomas commanded two regiments of Connecticut and nine of Massachusetts, a strong work, planned by Knox and Waters, crowned the hill, and with the brokenness of the rocky ground, secured that pass. The main street was defended by a breastwork, in front of which sharpened and well-pointed trees, placed with the top towards Boston, prevented the approach of light horse. A breastwork also crossed the road to Dorchester. The men of Rhode Island were partly on Winter Hill, partly at Sewall's Farm, near the south bank of the Charles. The centre of the army was with Ward at Cambridge, its lines reaching from the colleges almost to the river. Putnam, with a division of four thousand men, composed of troops from Connecticut and eight Massachusetts regiments, lay intrenched on Prospect Hill, in a position which was thought to be impregnable. The New Hampshire forces were fortifying Winter Hill; assisted perhaps by a Rhode Island regiment, and certainly by Poor's Massachusetts regiment, which for want of tents had its quarters in Medford. The smaller posts and sentinels stretched beyond Malden river. Apart, in a very thick wood, near where the Charles enters the bay, stood the wigwams of about July. XLII. CHAP. fifty domiciliated Indians of the Stockbridge tribe. They were armed with bows and arrows, as well as 1775. guns, and were accompanied by their squaws and lit July. tle ones. The American rolls promised seventeen thousand men; but Washington never had more than fourteen thousand five hundred fit for duty. The community in arms presented a motley spectacle. In dress there was no uniformity. The companies from Rhode Island were furnished with tents, and had the appearance of regular troops; others filled the college halls, the episcopal church, and private houses; the fields were strown with lodges, which were as various as the tastes of their occupants. Some were of boards, some of sailcloth, or partly of both; others were constructed of stone and turf, or of birch and other brush. Some were thrown up in a careless hurry; others were curiously wrought with doors and windows, woven out of withes and reeds. The mothers, wives, or sisters of the soldiers were constantly coming to the camp, with supplies of clothing and household gifts. Boys and girls, too, flocked in with their parents from the country to visit their kindred, and gaze on the terrors and mysteries of war. Eloquent and accomplished chaplains kept alive the habit of daily prayer, and preached the wonted sermons on the day of the Lord. The habit of inquisitiveness and self-direction stood in the way of military discipline; the men had never learnt implicit obedience, and knew not how to set about it; between the privates and their officers there prevailed the kindly spirit and equality of life at home. In forming a judgment on the deficiency of num XLII. July. bers, discipline, and stores of the army, Washington CHAP made allowances for a devoted province like Massachusetts, which had so long suffered from anar- 1775. chy and oppression. "Their spirit," said he, "has exceeded their strength." In the "great number of able-bodied men, active, zealous in the cause, and of unquestionable courage," he saw the materials for a good army; but, accustomed to the watchfulness of the backwoodsmen in the vicinity of wily enemies, he strongly condemned the want of subordination, and the almost stupid confidence of inexperience, which pervaded not only the privates but many of the inferior officers. He set diligently about a reform, though it made "of his life one continued round of vexation and fatigue." The great inefficiency lay with the officers. "If they will but do their duty,' said Hawley, "there is no fear of the soldiery." Towards the incompetent, who, in the suddenness of calling together so large a body of men, had crowded themselves upward with importunate selfishness, Washington resolved to show no lenity. By a prompt and frequent use of courts martial, he made many examples, and by lending no countenance to public abuses, and by insisting on the distinction between officers and soldiers, he soon introduced the aspect of discipline. Every day, Sundays not excepted, thousands were kept at work under strict government from four till eleven in the morning, strengthening the lines, and fortifying every point which could serve the enemy as a landing place. The strong and uniform will of Washington was steadily exerted, with a quiet, noiseless, and irresistible energy. "There are many things amiss in this camp,' CHAP. said the chaplain Emerson; "yet, upon the whole, God is in the midst of us." XLII. 1775. July. Meantime Lee had not been many days in the camp before the British generals in Boston, who knew him well, showed a disposition to tamper with him for their own purposes. From Philadelphia he had, in June, addressed to Burgoyne, his old comrade in Portugal, a public letter condemning American taxation by parliament, and tracing the malady of the state to the corrupt influence of the crown. In an able reply, Burgoyne insisted, for himself and for Howe, that their political principles were unchanged, and invited Lee to "an interview" within the British lines, for the purpose of "inducing such explanations as might tend in their consequences to peace, for," said he, as if with the highest authority, "I know Great Britain is ready to open her arms upon the first overture of accommodation." Clutching at the office of a negotiator, Lee avoided asking advice of a council of war, and of himself requested the Massachusetts congress to depute one of their body to be a witness of what should pass. That body wisely dissuaded from the meeting, and referred him to a council of war for further advice. Thwarted in his purpose, Lee publicly declined to meet Burgoyne, but he also sent him a secret communication, in which among other things he declared "upon his honor that the Americans had the certainty of being sustained by France and Spain." This clandestine correspondence proved that Lee had then no fidelity in his heart; though his treasons may as yet have been but caprices, implying momentary treachery rather than a well considered system. His secret was kept in America, but the statement found |