| [66] | Born, 1737; died, 1793. Earnest patriot, and member of the Massachusetts legislature from 1766 to 1772; became member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1774; was exempted from pardon by Governor Gage in 1775; was in Continental Congress from 1775 to 1780, and from 1785 to 1786; president of Congress from 1775 to 1777; signer of the Declaration of Independence, his bold signature standing first on the document; was commissioned as major general; delegate to Massachusetts constitutional convention in 1780; governor of Massachusetts from 1780 to 1785, and from 1787 to 1792; liberally used his large fortune for patriotic and benevolent purposes. |
CHAPTER VII.
the campaigns of 1775 and 1776.
EARLY MOVEMENTS.
144. Continental Army and Commander in Chief.—When the Second Continental Congress came together in the spring of 1775, one of its first acts was to adopt as a continental army the forces which had enlisted in Massachusetts. It then performed an act of the greatest possible service to the cause by appointing George Washington[[67]] commander in chief. Washington was forty-three years of age, and the important services he had rendered in Virginia and Pennsylvania (§§ [106]-[111]) had given him such military knowledge and such accuracy of judgment in dealing with men as made him universally respected and admired. He accepted the appointment with a full sense of the greatness of the task, and declared that he would receive no pay, but would rely on Congress to reimburse him for his expenses.
145. Capture of Ticonderoga.—While Congress was taking these preliminary steps, there was great activity in various parts of the country. Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, with a small force from Vermont, assisted by a few men from Connecticut under Benedict Arnold, surprised and captured Fort Ticonderoga. By this success the Americans got possession of an important fort, as well as of many stores and more than two hundred cannon.
146. Fortification of Bunker Hill.—As soon as the news of Lexington and Concord spread through the colonies, troops poured in to the vicinity of Boston from Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania. Before the middle of June, Boston, on the land side, was thoroughly invested. The British had seventeen battalions of infantry and five companies of artillery, and before June their army was joined by three major generals—Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne. Late in the afternoon of June 16, General Ward, then in command of the Americans, ordered a force to take possession of Bunker Hill, a commanding point in Charlestown, just north of Boston. About twelve hundred troops under Colonel Prescott, a veteran of the French War, went over from Cambridge with spades and picks, which in the course of the night they used so industriously that the British soldiers in the morning saw strong works confronting them. But instead of obeying orders and occupying Bunker Hill, Prescott occupied Breed’s Hill, a point nearer Boston.
Boston and Environs, 1775
