CHA P. THIRTEEN UNITED COLONIES. The same shrewd obLII. server whose diatribe to Mr. Strahan I have so 1775. lately cited bears in another letter a striking tes timony to the earnestness and determination which he beheld around him. "Great frugality and great "industry are now become fashionable here. "Gentlemen who used to entertain with two or "three courses pride themselves now in treating "with simple beef and pudding. Thus we shall "be better able to pay our voluntary taxes for "the support of our troops."* The troops to which Franklin here refers were indeed in such a state as to require all the aid that zeal could prompt or that money could supply. On reaching the head quarters at Cambridge, Washington had expected to find an army of twenty thousand men; he found no more than sixteen thousand on the rolls; and of them only fourteen thousand fit for duty. Even these he was obliged to describe as "a mixed multitude of people under very little order or government." The men had no uniforms, but continued to wear the common working dresses in which they had come; a deficiency which was afterwards in some degree remedied by a supply from Congress of ten thousand hunting shirts, at the General's suggestion. "I know nothing," says he, "in a speculative "view more trivial, yet nothing which, if put in "practice, would have a happier tendency to unite * Dr. Franklin to Dr. Priestley, Philadelphia, July 7. 1775. LII. 1775. "the men and abolish their provincial distinc- CHAP. "tions." The want of money was most severely felt. On the 21st of September Washington reports the military chest totally exhausted and the Paymaster without one single dollar in hand. For lack of commissaries the supplies of provisions were both insufficient and ill-distributed. Entrenching tools were wanted and likewise engineers. It was also found by Washington that the late action at Bunker's Hill inspired with much higher spirits those who declaimed upon it at a distance, and who by unanswerable arguments proved it an undoubted victory, than those who had closely viewed or themselves partaken in it. With a heavy heart, though with a resolute courage, Washington while making known his wants to Congress could not conceal from them that there was a total laxity of discipline among his troops, and that the greater part of them were not to be relied on in the event of another action. It is highly to the honour of Washington, labouring under so many disadvantages, to have yet achieved so much. The active scenes which followed his arrival are well described in a private letter from one of the Chaplains in his army."There is great over-turning in the camp as to "order and regularity. New lords, new laws. "The Generals Washington and Lee are upon the "lines every day. New orders from His Excel * Letters to his brother, July 27. and to the President of Congress, July 10. 1775. LII. 1775. СНАР. lency are read to the respective regiments every "morning after prayers. The strictest govern"ment is taking place, and great distinction is "made between officers and soldiers. Every one "is made to know his place and keep in it, or be "tied up and receive thirty or forty lashes ac"cording to his crime. Thousands are at work every day from four till eleven o'clock in the "morning. It is surprising how much work has "been done. The lines are extended almost "from Cambridge to Mystic River, so that very soon it will be morally impossible for the enemy "to get between the works. My quarters are at the foot of the famous Prospect Hills, and "it is very diverting to walk among the tents. "They are as different in their form as their owners are in their dress, and every tent is a "portraiture of the temper and taste of the per 66 Some are of boards, Some partly of the one, Others again are made sons who encamp in it. "and some of sail-cloth. "and partly of the other. "of stone and turf, brick or brush. Some are "thrown up in a hurry, others curiously wrought "with doors and windows, done with wreaths and "withes in the manner of a basket. Some are 66 your proper tents and marquees, looking like. "the regular camp of the enemy.' * Letter of the Revd. William Emerson, printed in the Appendix to Mr. Sparks's Washington, vol. iii. p. 491. Washington himself speaks of "incessant labour, Sundays not excepted." (Ibid. p 39) LII. 1775. There was one deficiency, however, which no CHAP. skill in Washington could retrieve or atone for, and which he could only endeavour to conceal. That deficiency was of powder. The first statement made to him on this point by the Massachusetts officers had been quite satisfactory but quite erroneous. "They," says Washington, "not being 66 sufficiently acquainted with the nature of a "return, sent in an account of all the ammunition "which had been collected by the province, so "that the report included not only what was on "hand but what was spent!"* On calling for more exact returns, the General found to his amazement the stock so small as nearly to preclude him from the use of his artillery, and to leave but nine rounds of powder to each musket; and even this small stock was further reduced by the little affairs of outposts which sometimes occurred. Dr. Franklin declares that in the month of October when he visited the army, it had not five rounds of powder a man. "The world," he adds, "wonseldom fired a cannon; why "dered that we so "we could not afford it." Washington did not fail to make most urgent representations on this subject both to the Congress and to the neighbouring colonies, but many weeks, nay months *To the President of Congress, August 4. 1775. This curious passage appears in the American Archives (vol. iii. p. 28.) but is omitted in Mr. Sparks's edition. + Letter to Dr. Priestley, January 27. 1777. Works, vol. viii. p. 198. LII. 1775. CHAP. elapsed, before he was effectually supplied. To a brave officer scarce any position would be more painful than thus to stand in front of a numerous and disciplined enemy; daily awaiting an attack which he knew that he could not repel, and unprovided even with means to fire his own artillery in his own defence. This deficiency of powder, in some degree at least though not to its full extent, was known to the British General. It had been disclosed by a deserter; it was moreover clearly implied in a vote of the Massachusetts Assembly: "Resolved: "That it be and it hereby is recommended to the "inhabitants of this colony not to fire a gun at "beast, bird, or mark without real necessity there"for." Nevertheless, General Gage remained quiet in his lines. He may yet have hoped for a favourable issue from the last Petition of Congress to the King. He may have doubted whether, with the prevailing temper of men's minds, even the most triumphant victory in Massachusetts might not tend to exasperate far more than to subdue. But above all he must have borne in mind that the first inland movement which he had ordered the march to Concord producing the hostilities at Lexington-had been by no means approved by the Ministers in England. Still less were they satisfied with him when there came the news of Bunker's Hill. Immediately after those * Resolution, August 12. 1775. American Archives, vol. iii. p. 325. |