Preparations for war.

Minute-men.

Doings of the Continental Congress.

They re

prayer from the Rev. Jacob Duché, of Philadelphia. mained in session until the 26th of October, during which time they matured plans for future action, and

prepared and put forth several state pa

CARPENTER'S HALL.

their countrymen.

They expressed a

firm loyalty to the king, and adjourned to meet on the 10th of May succeeding [1775], unless the grievances complained of should, in the mean time, be redressed. first great bond of the American Union.

CHARLES THOMSON.

Then was formed the

SECTION II.

FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE [1775.]

1. While preparations were making for the Continental Congress, in the summer of 1774, the people were arming and drilling. In Massachusetts, in particular, the patriotic spirit was very zealous. The people enrolled themselves into companies, chose leaders, and prepared to take up arms at a minute's warning. From this circumstance they were called Minute-men. During the session of the Congress in autumn,' and also throughout the ensuing winter, these warlike preparations continued, and public speakers everywhere, as well as the newspapers, boldly proclaimed the right of the people to resist oppression. General

1. Verse 29, page 127.

QUESTIONS.-1. What were the people doing in the summer and autumn of 1774? How did their actions affect General Gage? What did he do?

Spirit of the New England people.

New measures of oppression.

Gage' was alarmed, and commenced fortifying Boston Neck.' He seized all the ammunition that he could find in the vicinity of Boston, and, in many ways, so exasperated the people, that it was with difficulty that prudent counselors kept them from attacking the troops."

2. The spirit of New England was manifested early in September. A rumor went abroad that British ships were cannonading Boston. Within two days, full thirty thousand armed Minute-men were on their way to that city. It was a false report, but the effect gave Gage a useful lesson. He lowered his haughty tone, and sought to soothe the people by calling an assembly of delegates to meet at Salem. Then, dreading their presence, he revoked the order. Ninety delegates met [October 5, 1774], appointed John Hancock their president, and proceeding to Cambridge, formed a Provincial Congress, almost within cannon-shot of Gage's headquarters. They made provisions for an army, and boldly declared General Gage to be an "inveterate enemy " of the people.

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3. Such was the state of affairs in America at the beginning of 1775. It was an absorbing topic in Great Britain, for Dr. Franklin, the agent there for several of the colonies, had given wide circulation to the proceedings of the first Continental Congress. The subject received the early attention of Parliament, and Pitt proposed [January 7, 1775] conciliatory measures. They were rejected, and in their stead Parliament struck another severe blow at the prosperity of New England' [March], by prohibiting fishing on the banks of Newfoundland. The colonists now lost

1. Verse 26, page 126.

2. The peninsula of Boston was originally connected with the main land by a narrow isthmus called the Neck. It has been greatly widened by filling in the marginal morasses; and over it now passes the fine avenue which connects the city with Roxbury, on the main. 3. Many hundreds of armed men assembled at Cambridge. At Charlestown, the people took possession of the arsenal, after Gage had carried off the powder. At Portsmouth, N. H., they captured the fort, and carried off the ammunition. At Newport, R. I., the people seized the powder, and took possession of forty pieces of cannon at the entrance to the harbor. In New York, Philadelphia, Annapolis, Williamsburg, Charleston, and Savannah, the people took active defensive measures, and the whole country was in a blaze of indignation. 4. Verse 29, page 127. 5. Verse 25, page 126. 6. Verse 3, page 16. At that time there were employed by the Americans, in the British Newfoundland fisheries, about 400 ships, 2,000 fishing shallops, and 20,000 men. On account

QUESTIONS.-2. What can you tell about a war rumor, and its effects? What can you tell about the Massachusetts assembly and a Provincial Congress? 3. What can you tell about the impression made by American affairs in England? What did Parliament do? What did the colonists resolve to do?

British troops in Boston.

Bloodshed at Lexington and Concord. The country aroused.

all hopes of reconciliation, and, with reliance upon the justice of their cause and the aid of the Lord God Omnipotent, they resolved to defy the fleets and armies of Great Britain.

4. On the 1st of April, 1775, there were three thousand British troops in Boston; yet Gage was uneasy. He was told that the people were gathering ammunition and stores at Concord, sixteen miles from the city. He sent Lieutenant-Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn, with some troops, at near midnight on the 18th, to destroy them. The movement was made secretly, but vigilant men, like Dr. Joseph Warren and Paul Revere, were watching unceasingly. The latter hastened toward Concord to arouse the inhabitants and the Minute-men, and when, at dawn [April 19, 1775], Pitcairn approached Lexington, he found eighty armed men prepared to meet him. "Disperse, you rebels ! lay down your arms!" he shouted. They stood firm. They stood firm. A severe skirmish ensued, in which eight citizens were killed and wounded. Then and there the FIRST BLOOD was shed in the great REVOLUTION.

5. The British pushed on to Concord, and, after a skirmish with the Minute-men there, destroyed the stores, and then moved hastily toward Boston. They were terribly harassed by the militia concealed behind trees, stone fences, and buildings; and nothing saved the eight hundred men from destruction or capture but the arrival of reënforcements under Lord Percy. The whole body fled to Charlestown, pursued by the Americans, who killed or wounded two hundred and seventy-three of them. The Americans lost one hundred and three.

6. The whole country was soon aroused to action by this invasion. Before the close of April, full twenty thousand Americans were engaged in building a line of fortifications from Roxbury to the Mystic river, for the purpose of confining the foe to the narrow peninsula on which Boston stood.' The Provincial Congress, with Joseph Warren at its head, was in perpetual session

of this blow to the fishing trade, a great many inhabitants of Nantucket and vicinity, chiefly Quakers, went to North Carolina, and in Orange and Guilford counties became planters. Their descendants were yet numerous there when the civil war broke out in 1861.

1. Verse 6, page 58.

QUESTIONS.-4. What can you tell of British troops in Boston? What scenes ensued at Lexington? 5. What happened at Concord? the retreat of British troops toward Boston? 6. What were the effects of

What did Gage do? What can you tell of this armed invasion?

Aggressive measures.

Committee of Safety.

The British reënforced.

at Watertown, working day and night for the public good.' The same zeal was manifested in other colonies, in which provincial congresses were formed, arms and ammunition seized, and royal Before the close of summer, governors defied. the power of every one of these magistrates, from Massachusetts to Georgia, was utterly destroyed.

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7. The Americans did not confine themselves to the task of imprisoning the British in Boston. They struck an aggressive blow early in May, which opened the way to an invasion of Canada. Some Connecticut and Vermont militia, led by Colonels Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, seized Ticonderoga on the 10th of May; and two days afterward a detachment, under Colonel Seth Warner, took possession of Crown Point. The spoils of victory were one hundred and forty pieces of cannon and a large amount of ammunition and stores.

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8. Meanwhile the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts had appointed a Committee of Safety, and clothed them with full power to regulate the operations of the army. They sat at Cambridge and worked faithfully. Artemas Ward was appointed commander-in-chief of the troops, and Richard Gridley chief engineer. Putnam, Stark, and other veterans of the French and Indian war were appointed to important commands.

9. On the 25th of May large reënforcements for Gage arrived at Boston, under the command of the three experienced generals, Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, making the whole British force there about twelve thousand men. Admiral Graves was also there with several vessels of war. Thus strengthened, Gage prepared to break through the American lines that hemmed him in, and penetrate the country. He issued a proclamation declaring all Americans in arms to be rebels and traitors, and offering a free pardon to all who should return to their allegiance, excepting

1. They appointed military officers; organized a system of supplies; issued bills of credit to the amount of $375,000, for the payment of which the province was pledged; and declared General Gage to be an "inveterate enemy" of the people. 2. Verse 26, page 105. 3. Verse 34, page 108.

4. Page 95.

QUESTIONS.-7. What aggressive movements did the Americans make? What can you tell about Ticonderoga and Crown Point? 8. What did the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts do? 9. What can you tell of the arrival of fresh British troops in Boston? What did Gage prepare to do? What was done?

Breed's Hill fortified.

The British alarmed.

The Americans attacked.

John Hancock' and Samuel Adams, whom he intended to seize and send to England to be hanged.

10. The watchful patriots, aware of Gage's intentions, strengthened their intrenchments on Boston Neck; and on the evening of the 16th of June, Colonel Prescott was sent, with a detachment, to take possession of and fortify Bunker's Hill, which commanded Boston and the surrounding waters. They ascended Breed's Hill, nearer the city, by mistake, and before morning they had thrown up a strong redoubt, which greatly astonished the British officers.

11. Gage and his associates perceived the necessity for driving the Americans from this strong position before they should plant heavy cannon there, and, before sunrise on the morning of the 17th, they opened a cannonade upon the redoubt from Copp's Hill in Boston, and from the shipping in the harbor. The effect was small; and hour after hour the patriots labored on. At noon they rested, for their work was done. They exchanged their implements for guns and knapsacks, and prepared for battle.

12. General Howe, with General Pigot and three thousand men, crossed the Charles river to Morton's Point, at the foot of the eastern slopes of Breed's Hill, where he formed his troops into two columns, and marched slowly to attack the redoubt. Although the British commenced firing cannon soon after they had begun to ascend the hill, and the great guns of the ships, and the battery on Copp's Hill, poured out an incessant storm upon the redoubt, the Americans kept perfect silence until the enemy had approached within close musket-shot. Hardly an American could be seen by the invaders, yet behind those rude mounds of earth lay fifteen hundred determined men.

13. When the British column was within ten rods of the redoubt, Prescott shouted Fire! and instantly whole platoons of the assailants were prostrated by well-aimed bullets. The sur

2. Page 121.

3. Note 2, page 129.

1. Verse 15, page 121. 4. A redoubt is a small fortification, generally composed of earth, and having very few features of a regular fort, except its arrangement for the use of cannons and muskets. They are often temporary structures, cast up in the progress of a siege, or a protracted battle. The diagram A, on the map, page 133, shows the form of the redoubt; a is the entrance.

QUESTIONS.-10. What can you tell about the movements of the Americans? 11. How did the British regard and treat the redoubt on Breed's Hill? What did the Americans do? 12. What can you tell of the attack of the British on the Americans in their redoubt?