Transcripts For CSPAN3 Beginning Of The Revolutionary War 20

CSPAN3 Beginning Of The Revolutionary War October 9, 2016

Good evening. I am the executive director of the society of the cincinnati. It is my pleasure to introduce our speaker this evening. I want you all to do me a favor. This is his book. Hes going to talk to us about it. The book is the road to concord how four stolen cannon ignited the revolutionary war. He will defend that premise for us a little bit later. I want to tell you what my reaction to this book is because i have had the opportunity to read it already. It is one of three books in the last 20 years i read cover to cover in one sitting. I dont read quickly. The reason i read it cover to cover in one sitting is it is extremely well written. It is graceful prose of an oldfashioned sort. And second, it is wonderfully researched, when i was taught in graduate school to refer to as a revisionist work in history. All good works of history if they are good are revisionist in some way, but he is telling us a new story about the coming of the revolution in massachusetts. A story you might have thought was already told to death. This book is a reflection of two things. One, really good oldfashioned history writing of a kind we dont see as much as we used to. And the second thing is, it is indicative of the emergence of what i think is a new sort of history writing or a new kind of history research. It is now possible in ways it was not possible 20 years ago to research the lives of second and third and fourth tier kind of historical characters, the people who did not leave behind for us large bodies of paper like George Washington and James Madison and thomas jefferson. It is possible to talk about the revolution through the experience of fairly ordinary people who did extraordinary things. Doing that kind of research is extremely difficult and timeconsuming. It is analogous to crushing lots of low yield ore to extract a small knot of precious metal. It is not something you could do easily 50 years ago. You had to travel from place to place. If you were lucky, you got to crank reels of microfilm looking for fugitive references to the particular actors in the drama you were trying to reconstruct. The only people who would do that were antiquarians, people doing it for a hobby, and genealogists tracking their ancestors in a kind of maniac pursuit. I have engaged in it myself. It is not a pejorative term. To find them because they cared about those individuals in the role of their own family experience. Professional historians tended to shy away from those characters because writing about them and researching them was so arduous. The internet is both to be praised and despised. It contains a lot of junk, but it contains an awful lot, a growing amount of really valuable, original, primary source material which is being made available by institutions all over the country and the world so you can reach and mine what i describe is the low yield ore and crush it and draw from it precious metals. You can tell stories that it was once impossible or so arduous to tell it that they never got told. There is a whole new generation of practitioners of this kind of historical research. We see them here in our oldfashioned library downstairs. It is oldfashioned libraries like ours downstairs in the process of digitizing and putting their material on the internet that are helping to facilitate this kind of work. This is not an entirely new thing. It is a new way of doing something which historians, good ones, have been doing for a very long time. If you have the patience for it. J. L. Bell has the patience for it. And in this book at the end of tonights lecture each and every one of you will go to the back table and acquire for yourself i hope you will. You have already acquired one. Shame on you. You need two. [laughter] and you will find what he is talking about. Let me assure you know matter how good he is as a public speaker, and i have no idea because i have never heard him before, he is probably a better writer because he is an extraordinarily good one. He is an historian. That is all you really need to know. I will not stand up here and tell you about his credentials because they dont matter. If you want to see some of his work which is the basis for his claim for your attention, go to his website which is a extraordinary site detailing events and people and ideas that relate to the American Revolution in its early stages in boston. I have to confess. I have talked with him and tried to persuade him the American Revolution did not end in march of 1776 when the british evacuated boston. It continued thereafter. The entire story is not the story of what happened in boston. There are things in philadelphia, virginia, south carolina, and georgia that happened in the American Revolution which seems to be a revelation to him. [laughter] but by mining this ore in and around boston, he is telling us the extraordinary story, a new story about what you would think is the one day of the American Revolution, april 19, 1775, we would already have done all the research on. We have not. Theres a lot more to be done. I have plugged him. Im going to plug us for a moment before i turn the lectern over to him. This is the first in a series of programs over the next several months that relate to the theme of artillery in the American Revolution. He is talking about stolen cannons and the role in the coming of the revolution. At the end of this month, october 1, we will open at exhibition in the adjacent room on artillery in the American Revolution. Artillery was central to the story of the revolution. You cannot run an 18thcentury revolution without them. Washington was desperate to have a fine Artillery Service. His commander of artillery, general henry knox looking down on us from the painting over here, was in extraordinary commander who developed the american artillery from the beginning of the revolution into a creditable arm of the American Military that was admired by the french and the british. And they did not admit when they admired the americans in the revolutionary war very often. It is an extraordinary american success story. Along the way, we overcame lots of problems in manufacturing, repair, training, to have an effective Artillery Service that made it possible for us to win the revolutionary war. We are going to touch on this theme repeatedly over the next six or seven months. It is exciting to start tonight with the cannons that started the American Revolution, at least that is what our author is going to persuade us up tonight. I would ask you to welcome j. L. Bell. [applause] j. L. Bell thank you to everybody here at the Anderson House for inviting me back and to the society of the cincinnati for supporting my travel. This talk begins with the basic question. What were the british soldiers in concord on april 19, 1775, looking for . We usually say the revolutionary war started that day, so it is important that they were there. It started at dawn on the 19th when british soldiers killed eight militiamen on the lexington town common. But the british soldiers were in lexington because they were on the way to concord because they had been ordered west to search concord for something in particular. What did he hope the men would find . The usual answer is military supplies. But what sort of military supplies . A standard description of what the provincial congress had gathered in concord appears in the siege of boston published in 1911. The committee gathered together a few hundred pickaxes, muskets, 4000 flints, and a small supply of peas and flour. This is what james warren, a plymouth delegate to the provincial congress, wrote to his wife on april 6, 1775. This town is full of cannons, ammunition, etc. The people are ready and determined to defend this country into by inch. Allen frenchs history reflected how lots of americans like to look back on the revolutionary soldier as poorly armed underdogs. James warrens letter reflects how they saw themselves as well armed defenders of their traditional rights including the rights to a collective military selfdefense which meant cannons. For seven months before the british marched to concord, the military authorities and new england resistance had been an arms race. The goal was artillery, cannons and mortars, field pieces, cannons designed for use in battle. The most advanced battlefield weapons of the time. Unlike muskets, there was no peacetime use for cannons. These were weapons of war and nothing but war. There were many cannon around boston in the summer of 1774. Many were on Castle Islands and other islands. This is near Governors Island, on shore batteries. At that time, boston was a peninsula connected to the mainland by a neck very narrow at high tide so it was easily defended from the land. That is why they have chosen boston as their town location in the first place in 1630. By 1774, the towns defenses were designed to protect it from attack by sea, particularly from the french navy. On september 1, the royal governor ordered the soldiers under his command to empty this provincial gunpowder storehouse outside of boston. He had his men take two small cannon away from the local county militia. The next day, the men of eastern massachusetts rose up. 4000 armed new englanders marched to cambridge. They forced the Lieutenant Governor and every other royal appointee to resign. That confrontation ended without violence, but it was revolutionary. By the end of the day, it was clear to everyone there was a new political and military order in massachusetts. General gages authority stopped at the gates of boston. He could not enforce royal laws unless he had troops nearby. September 1774, all the rest of massachusetts was for all intents and purposes politically independent. Gage was back to the situation of the earliest english settlers worrying about how to defend boston from the mainland. Between the royal navy and his men at castle william, the major fort, the harbor was safe but the countryside was hostile. Fortunately for gage, he had a contingent of the kings army including the Royal Artillery. On september 3, four large field pieces were dragged from the common and placed at the only entrance to the town by land on the boston neck. To the people in the countryside, that looked like the royal government was taking away their militia cannon on the first and applying regular army cannon against them on the third. That came on top of a long line of disputes over taxes and governance. The people of the countryside began to collect cannon themselves. Each side for the other was preparing for war so they wanted to keep cannons and other weapons away from the other side. But it is very easy to slide from keeping weapons away to taking them for yourself and preparing to use it. As i said before, there were lots of cannon around boston. The charlestown battery on this peninsula north of boston contained five cannon. They could fire balls that weighed 18 pounds apiece. In the first week of september, people in charlestown began to move ammunition away from the battery. The governor heard about this and sent an officer over on september 7 to investigate. Heres how the Boston Merchant described how people in charlestown reacted. The inhabitants, suspecting what would take place, provided a number of teams and slung all the guns together belonging to the battery and carried them upcountry. About midnight, another formidable expedition set off. The Royal Navy Ships were manned with soldiers ordered to dismantle the fort and bring up all the ordinance stored. I imagine the chagrin was as great as their disappointment. Teams had hauled the guns away. They were reportedly hidden on schoolhouse hill under what an 1845 historian turned stable dirt. People in other towns followed charlestowns example. On september 12, he recorded in his diary the great gun was removed from prestons point at the mouth of the river. There were also cannon inside boston proper. This is a map showing the town of military facilities as of september 1, 1774. The pieces in red were under the control of the British Military. The pieces in blue were boston militia buildings. Two large batteries overlooked the main harbor. In 1770, they contained 22 cannon between them. The Royal Artillery was using the cell battery already to store supplies, so that was under the control of the regular army. For the north battery was still under militia control. On september 14, sailors of the royal navy entered the north battery and spiked all the guns inside. It was reported the cannon were cleared the next day without difficulty. Spiking would render a gun useless temporarily but not permanently. Why would they do this if they knew they could be repaired . The cannon in the back of Governors Island were removed by the governors order. The sailors disabled the north battery so locals cannot attack them while they disabled the Harbor Island battery which provided the list presented more of a threat to the navy. They were keeping the shipping channels safe for the royal navy guns and causing a headache for the local militia. Gage and his commanders won that lap of the arms race. Cannons in the batteries were old, heavy, not easily maneuvered for battles. A provincial army would need field pieces, smaller cannon, light enough to move with teams of horses and men. The best field pieces were made of brass. In boston, the militia had only four brass cannon. They belong to the towns Artillery Company and were stored into the brick armories in the towns south end. These were small even by the standard of field pieces. Some sources identify the older pair as being able to fire cannon balls weighing two pounds and the others as three pounders. The other pair was ordered specially from london. They arrived in 1768, and the boston gazette described them proudly as having the massachusetts emblem. When the army spent something, that showed they valued having this militia artillery. The boston train displayed their skills on training days in september 1772, the boston newsletter published a long description of wargames on boston commons without cap portraying the noble british army and the other half for trying the hated french. Firing a cannon required a squad of men to work. Everybody doing their job properly at the right time or else they could blow themselves up. I would argue that meant the Militia Company had a more greater sense of cohesion, of trust, working together, than your average 18thcentury infantrymen. But the boston train was developing a split. The man in charge of the company had been born in england and he leaned toward the crown. The other officers and most of the men were strong whigs against the crown. On september 5, 1774, the Boston Company was to have a training day. Instead of drilling, the Company Seems to have fallen apart. The major reaffirmed his loyalty to the royal government and the men refused to serve under him. It dissolved as a working unit. Gage did not want to lose control of the field pieces. Since the cannon were taken away, the governor has ordered a double guard to the new and old gun houses. But that guard was not enough. On september 14, the same night the royal navy was busy, we know the half moon set about 10 00. One man later wrote in his diary that it rained. It was literally a dark and stormy night. When the sun came up at 5 45 a. M. , people found a hole in the side of the older gun house and the two cannon stored inside were missing. Naturally, general gage put an Even Stronger guard in front of the new gun house. That site already seemed secure. It was right next to the common, very near the common, meaning it was close to the kings regiment. They were camped on the comments right across the street. The gun house also looked secure. The door to the street was guarded and locked, and the admiral had the only key. There was another wider door around this side. It was barred on the inside. Even to get to that side dormant going through a gate in the view of the camp were over a high fence around the yard or through the south school which shared that yard with the gun house. That school was in session nearly the full day with about 200 boys inside. Even that situation did not seem secure enough to general gage. Royal artillery officers went to take the gun house key and move the gun house into their camp. On friday, september 16, john andrews wrote the officer on guard brought a number of artillery to move the cannon. But the guns were gone. [laughter] how did the patriots move those guns without the guards hearing . Almost 50 years later, one of the men involved claimed to know what happened. Contemporaneous records confirmed gore was an active patriot. As a teenager, he was wounded in a right 11 days before the boston massacre. His family hosted a spinning bee. He participated in the boston tea party. About 50 years later, every revolutionary war veteran accepted his story about the cannon. He seems to be a very reliable person, a very reliable witness of this. We have a portrait of John Singleton gore. Would you like to see a picture of this old and dangerous rebel . [laughter] this is a portrait of john gores four oldest children. It is now at the museum in delaware. By 1774, sammy gore, the Second Brother who became the oldest brother. He was 23. He was a member of the militia Artillery Company. His oldest sister on the left is doing the thing you do in 18thcentury portraits where you sit the girl down so she does not tower over the boy. She was the wife of thomas kraft, a commander of the train and an active political organizer. This family had great ties to the train. Lets go back to the gun house beside the common. Gore and other patriot members of the train waited until the fourth regiment on the common had roll call, which meant lots of marching and shouting. All of that noise covered their movement. They made the proximity of the camp into an advantage. When the Riding School was not in session, they went through the schoolhouse into the yard. The second obstacle of the

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