The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 1758-1775 Part 12

the 29. Nothing remarkable onely one of our Privateers took a prize richly Laden.[185]

[Footnote 185: That was the British stores.h.i.+p _Nancy_, captured off Cape Anne, and carried into that harbor, by Captain John Manly, commander of the American armed schooner _Lee_, one of the six vessels fitted out at Boston under the direction of Was.h.i.+ngton, before Congress had yet taken any measures to establish a navy. So valuable were the stores of the _Nancy_, that Was.h.i.+ngton supposed General Howe would immediately make efforts to recover her, and he had an armed force sent to Cape Anne to secure them. There were two thousand muskets, one hundred thousand flints, thirty thousand round shot for one, six, and twelve pounders, over thirty thousand musket-shot, and a thirteen-inch bra.s.s mortar that weighed twenty-seven hundred pounds. The arrival of these produced great joy in the camp. Colonel Moylan, describing the scene, says: "Old PUT [General Putnam] was mounted on the mortar, with a bottle of rum in his hand, standing parson to christen, while G.o.d-father Mifflin [afterward General Mifflin] gave it the name of _Congress_."

On the 29th of November, Was.h.i.+ngton commenced planting a bomb-battery on Lechmere's point, with the intention of bombarding the British works on Bunker hill. They completed it in the course of a few days, entirely unmolested.]

the 30. Nothing extreordenary this day that I know of.

DECEMBER.

the 1. Nothing remarkable this day.

the 2. This day I with a number of rispectable gentlemen went[186]....

[Footnote 186: The author did not expect to have his Journal published, or he would have omitted the entry here made. There seems nothing in it derogatory to his character, yet he has chosen words to express his thoughts not suited "to ears polite."]

the 3. Being Sunday it rained nothing remarkable hapned this day.

the 4. Nothing remarkable hapnd this day at night we were ordered to Ly upon our arms.[187]

[Footnote 187: Was.h.i.+ngton was now in hourly expectation of an attack from the British, and, knowing his own weakness, he considered his situation very critical. In vigilance alone seemed a security for safety.]

the 5. Nothing Strange hapned this day.

the 6. Nothing comical this day only their was considerable of tradeing caryd on.[188]

[Footnote 188: The Yankee love of trade and barter appears to have been very prevalent in the camp.]

the 7. This day nothing Strang.

the 8. This day I with several more inlisted for the year 1776 under captain Oliver Pond.

the 9. Nothing remarkable this day.

the 10. This day the Long faced People[189] arived here from wrentham and other places.

[Footnote 189: New militia recruits from the country, who had never seen service.]

the 11. This day I past muster before general Spencer[190] nothing more this day.

[Footnote 190: General Joseph Spencer, of East Haddam, Connecticut. He remained in service until 1778, when he resigned, left the army, and became a member of Congress. He held rank next to Putnam in the army at Boston. He died in 1789, at the age of seventy years.]

the 12. This day it was very cold and the melitia had to mount guard that is good for them.

the 13. This day I went to cambridg and viewed the works on copple[191] hill.[192]

[Footnote 191: Cobble.]

[Footnote 192: These, it is said, were the most perfect of any of the fortifications raised around Boston at that time.]

the 14. This day I went to Watertown[193] with Lieutenant Bacon and a number of others in order to get some coats but we could not find any that suited us and so we returned.[194]

[Footnote 193. Seven miles northwest from Boston.

It was then the seat of the revolutionary government in Ma.s.sachusetts.]

[Footnote 194: Was.h.i.+ngton issued a notice, on the 28th of October, that tailors would be employed to make coats for those who wished them.]

the 15. This day nothing very remarkable.

the 16. This day nothing strange at night their was an atempt made to blow up A s.h.i.+p but it failed also this night we heard that Quebeck was taken.[195]

[Footnote 195: This was a mistake. On the 13th of September, Colonel Benedict Arnold left Cambridge with a detachment to cross the country by the way of the Kennebec, to invade Canada and capture Quebec. Arnold's army suffered terribly on the march, and arrived at Point Levi, opposite Quebec, on the 9th of November, and prepared to attack the city. He was obliged to postpone his attack, and Quebec never fell into the hands of the patriots.]

the 17. Being Sunday it was foul weather nothing remarkable hapned this day onely the enemy fired at our men on Lechmers[196] Point and wounded one and our men returned the fire from copple hill.

[Footnote 196: Lechmere's.]

the 18. This day the s.h.i.+p moved out of the Bay and the Enemy threw Bombs from mount Hoordom[197] but did no Damage.

[Footnote 197: A nickname given to Bunker's hill.]

the 19. This day nothing remarkable hapned.

the 20. Nothing strange this day.

the 21. This day it was very cold nothing strange this day.

the 22. Nothing remarkable this day.

the 23. Nothing strange this day.

the 24. Ditto Ditto Ditto.

the 25. Good.

the 26. Very cold this day nothing remarkable this day.

the 27. Nothing remarkable to day.

the 28. Nothing strange this day.

the 29. Nothing strange this day Last Night our men made an atempt to take Bunker hill but their Scheem was frustrated &c.[198]

[Footnote 198: On the night of the 28th, an unsuccessful attempt was made to surprise the British outposts on Charlestown neck, and then to attack the enemy on Bunker's hill. The Americans started to cross from Cobble hill, on the ice. One of the men slipped and fell when they were half way across, and his gun went off. This alarmed the British, and they were on their guard. It was computed that, from the burning of Charlestown, on the 17th of June, until Christmas day, the British had fired more than two thousand shot and sh.e.l.ls.

They hurled more than three hundred bombsh.e.l.ls at Plowed hill, and one hundred at Lechmere's point.

Gordon says that, with all this waste of metal, they "killed only seven men on the Cambridge side, and just a dozen on the Roxbury side."]

the 30, 31. Nothing remarkable.