The Minute Boys of Boston Part 22

It was no longer possible for any man to remain within the breastwork and live, therefore all were ordered to come into the redoubt, where we were better sheltered, and where the enemy had not as yet found the range.

Forgetting the danger, in my eagerness to know what might follow this new method of attack, I leaned far over the fortification until it was possible for me to see, in the distance, the Britishers coming once more upon us, and that scene was not calculated to give me courage, for I soon understood that the king's soldiers were making better preparations than they had in the past attempts. Instead of climbing the hill laden with heavy knapsacks and sweltering in thick, tightly-fitting uniforms, they had cast aside all that might impede or distress them, and even like the rag-tag, they counted on fighting in their shirt-sleeves as should have been done on such a hot day when they first set the pace.

I cannot set down in military terms the tactics which General Howe now displayed; but certain it is that instead of marching straight up the hill, thus giving us every chance at them, after using their artillery to drive us back into the redoubt, they counted on a.s.saulting us at the weakest point, which was the s.p.a.ce between the outworks and the rail fence, as I have already set down.

But whatsoever might be their intentions, certain it was they were coming with as much show of determination as ever before, and we must perforce stand against them so long as our ammunition lasted, and what then?

My heart sank within me as I tried to answer my own question even while making ready to do my share in the faint hope of repulsing the Britishers.

CHAPTER XI

THE RETREAT

I believe of a verity that we on Breed's hill might have driven back the Britishers once more, even though our store of ammunition was so small, had it not been for the enemy's artillery which, as I have already said, swept the interior of the breastwork from end to end, forcing us into the redoubt.

Grimly we awaited the oncoming of those lines of red coats. I believe our people fired with truer aim than at any other time during the action, for each knew only too well how necessary it was that every bullet should count.

As they advanced, and the word for us to fire had been given, among the first that fell was one of their colonels, and then two of their majors, after which Hiram set up a shout of triumph, claiming that he had wounded General Howe himself. Even amid the smoke of the battle I could see that the British leader was moving painfully, yet I must confess bravely, in order to remain at the head of his men.

The breeze from the westward, which had come up just in time to blow from our eyes the smoke of the burning buildings in the town, still continued, and the battle field was more clearly in view than ever before.

During mayhap ten minutes we of the American army did quite as great execution as during the previous a.s.sault, cutting great gaps in their lines, and bringing down officer after officer in rapid succession.

Then it was that we could see the beginning of the end. Glancing quickly around to the right and left as I rammed home my last charge, I could see this man and that standing idle, and it was the idleness of impotence and despair, for they had come to the end of their ammunition.

There was no longer anything to be done save await that final a.s.sault, with the poor hope of beating back troops armed with bayonets, by the use of clubbed muskets.

Nearer and nearer came the red lines, swarming like hornets over the breastworks, and we all powerless to prevent them!

Could we have had at that moment but half the powder and b.a.l.l.s with which we began this battle on Breed's hill, there would never have been a red-coated soldier show his head above our line of works and lived to tell of it.

It seemed to me as if all the s.p.a.ce between the fortification and the foot of the hill was covered with lobster backs swarming upon us, and I know that if perchance they were twenty musket-charges left among us, it was what might be called, in such desperate straights, rare good fortune.

Then the enemy clambered up over the parapet, while we met them with a volley of stones, throwing the missiles with as good aim as we had discharged our muskets, and while one might have counted thirty, held them in check.

I have often wondered since, if we had had at our hand as many stones as could have been used, what would have been the result? But even that poor method of warfare was denied us, for the supply we had gathered was speedily expended, and, what was worse, the fact that we had ceased to shoot bullets showed the Britishers plainly the plight into which we had fallen.

The first officer who appeared above the parapet was that same Major Pitcairn who had led the troops at Lexington when our people were slaughtered there, and although I was no longer a.s.sailed by the fever of battle, and could not well look upon the death of a human as being a reason for rejoicing, yet I shouted aloud in glee when a negro soldier among us shot that dastard through the head.

My cry of triumph was speedily swallowed up by the shouts of the lobster backs as they leaped into the redoubt from all sides, coming at us fearlessly with their bayonets, knowing full well we could not make reply save with the b.u.t.ts of our muskets, and these we used, so desperate had our people become, until a score of the king's men had fallen before such crude weapons.

Again and again as we thus fought hand to hand, we Americans retreating backwards step by step, striving to keep the red-coated enemy from spitting us like larks on a toasting fork, I saw the muskets of our people shattered, the b.u.t.t breaking from the barrel with the force of a blow upon the head of an enemy.

"Are we ordered to retreat?" I shouted wildly in Hiram's ear as we fought side by side, Archie and Silas just behind us.

"Some one has said that Colonel Prescott gave the order; but whether he did or not there is no longer any chance to make resistance," Hiram replied as he crushed the head of a Britisher much the same as you would shatter an egg. "We'll not turn tail and run as the lobster backs did; but go out of here like men, if so be we may."

It was no longer a battle. There were no armies contending; but it had become a fight of the rabble, where each man was striving to defend himself or deal death as best he might, and at such close quarters that those of the Britishers nearest us had no opportunity to reload their weapons. Therefore, save for the fact of having bayonets, they were in little better condition than were we.

We who called ourselves part of the American army were much like a handful of rats surrounded by a pack of dogs, save that there was in our hearts the satisfaction of knowing we had twice bested these same soldiers who were fighting for money alone, and would have beaten them back the third time but for the misfortune of not having the wherewithal to deal out death as we had done before.

How we succeeded in getting out of the redoubt I cannot well say. In a street brawl where forty or fifty men are engaged, those in the thickest of the fight have no idea of what may be going on around them, and so it was with me. We Minute Boys remained in a solid body so far as was possible, aiding each other whenever the opportunity came to ward off a blow from a comrade's head, or striking down with musket or stone a Britisher who was about to thrust his bayonet into a companion's heart.

I only know distinctly that when what was left of our company succeeded in fighting their way backward out of the redoubt, Colonel Prescott and Doctor Warren were yet facing the Britishers as if it was their purpose to be the last to leave this poor fortification, and immediately we were come into the open where the lobster backs could use their bayonets to greater advantage, it was a case of depending upon our legs entirely, for the red-coats strove mercilessly to cut us to pieces.

Our people were doing their best to gain Bunker hill, where were four or five hundred men of the American army striving bravely to cover our retreat by pouring a heavy fire into the red-coated ranks, and save for this aid we had never lived to gain Charlestown Neck.

After we had turned to run, and I did not do so until Hiram Griffin demanded fiercely that I must in order to save my life, I heard some one shout that Doctor Warren had been killed, and during two or three minutes, mayhap, even while I was putting forth my best efforts at running, did it seem as if it mattered little whether I escaped or not since that friend of the Cause, he who was ever the kindly gentleman and true son of the colony, had been killed even when the battle was at an end.

It was to my mind more like being murdered than having been killed in fair fight, and I shouted to those around me that we should turn about and avenge his death, when Hiram seized me by the shirt collar, forcing me on in front of him as he swore that unless I put forth my best efforts he would strangle me.

I was not the only one fleeing toward Charlestown Neck pursued by the lobster backs, who was much the same as crazy. We were mad with disappointment, frenzied by the thought that all this had come about because we lacked the means of finishing the battle as it had been begun.

And now right here let me set down what we afterward learned was the cost in blood of this engagement at Breed's hill. Our officers reported that one hundred and fifteen had been killed or were missing; three hundred and five wounded, and thirty taken prisoners, making in all a total of four hundred and fifty who had either given up their lives, or were suffering from wounds. The most serious of our losses, as it seemed to me, was the death of Doctor Warren. Colonel Gridley was wounded; but had been carried by our people from the field.

General Gage reported to the British Government that two hundred and twenty-six of his men had been killed; eight hundred and twenty-eight wounded, making in all ten hundred and fifty-four as against our four hundred and fifty. Among the British were killed eighty-nine officers.

About four hundred buildings in Charlestown were burned by the British, and the estimated money loss was six hundred thousand dollars.

I have put this in here lest I forget to make mention of the fact, that in what the Britishers set down as a victory they lost twice and a half as many men as we, and all that had been gained by this outpouring of blood were the hastily constructed works which we had thrown up on Breed's hill.

And now to continue my feeble attempt at telling what part we Minute Boys of Boston took in that terrible retreat.

I believe of a verity that had it not been for Hiram Griffin some, if not all, of us would have fallen into the hands of the lobster backs, for it is true that we were sadly confused--frightened if you choose to put it in such words, and had so far lost mastery of ourselves that but for his holding us up sharply to the work we would have come to grief.

As I said, the men who had come to Bunker hill did good work in covering our retreat until they themselves became panic-stricken, heeding not the entreaties nor the threats of Israel Putnam, as he strove in vain to hold them steady that we who were without ammunition might have some small show of escaping with our lives.

Then it was that when all of General Putnam's attempts were shown to be vain, these men of ours who should have held their own on Bunker hill, joined in the retreat, and we set off, a rabble rather than the remnants of an army, in the perilous attempt to pa.s.s across Charlestown Neck, which was swept with shot from the ship _Glasgow_ and the small craft which had been anch.o.r.ed by the British in position to cover that narrow pa.s.sage in order to prevent reinforcements being sent to us who were struggling on Breed's hill.

Panic-stricken as we were, the only thought in our minds was that the enemy would pursue us even as far as Cambridge, in order to make an end of the so-called rebellion at once, and while fleeing at my best speed, dodging now and then a British cannon ball, I feverishly hoped they would come after us with all their force, for there, where we could find ammunition, it might be possible for us to pay back some part of the debt of revenge which we owed.

Of that terrible retreat it is, perhaps, not necessary I should set down more than that after we had succeeded in crossing the Neck, leaving behind us many a poor fellow weltering in his blood, we continued on at a speed which, in view of our fatigue, would not have been possible save because of the seeming certainty that death must overtake him who played the laggard.

Not until we were come to the encampment at Cambridge and were lying at full length upon the ground as do dogs after a furious race, did I realize all of the exhaustion which had been brought about by the night of perilous toil and the day of suspense and desperate fighting, together with the mad flight which called for the last remaining ounce of strength in our bodies.

I no longer gave heed to my comrades; it was as if the Minute Boys of Boston had never an existence--almost as if the Cause was forgotten, while I lay p.r.o.ne upon the ground so weary that it was an exertion to breathe. Hunger and thirst had no place in my mind, nor did I realize anything distinctly, save the utter physical collapse, until another day had come, when Hiram aroused me to a sense of life and responsibility.

"What has happened?" I cried stupidly, staggering to my feet when he had shaken me into consciousness, and he replied grimly, like one who has a deep sore in his heart and strives to hide it by showing anger:

"Much has happened as you will understand when slumber has been driven from your eyelids. Now is not the time for you to remain idle, after having had eight hours of sleep. Where are your Minute Boys?"

"Here, if I mistake not," I answered, not yet fully realizing all that had taken place since we marched out from Cambridge under the leadership of Colonel Prescott.

"I have been astir since sunrise, and find but seven, counting you and I as two. It seems certain many of the lads have given up their lives; but I have learned from what seems good evidence that Silas Brownrigg was taken prisoner by the lobster backs."