Account of the proceedings of the aforesaid officers, in consequence of further orders end instructions from General Gage, of the 20th March following; with occurrences during their mission.
he twentieth of March Captain Brown and myself received orders to set out for Concord, and examine the road and situation of the town; and also to get what information we could relative to what quantity of artillery and provisions. We went through Roxbury and Brookline, and came into the main road between the thirteen and fourteen mile-stones in the township of Weston; we went through part of the pass at the eleven mile-stone, took the Concord road, which is seven miles from the main road. We arrived there without any kind of insult being offered us, the road is high to the right and low to the left, woody in most places, and very close and commanded by hills frequently. The town of Concord lies between hills that command it entirely; there is a river runs through it, with two bridges over it, in summer it is pretty dry; the town is large and covers a great tract of ground, but the houses are not close together but generally in little groups. We were informed that they had fourteen pieces of cannon (ten iron and four brass) and two cohorns, they were mounted but in so bad a manner that they could not elevate them more than they were, that is, they were fixed to one elevation, their iron cannon they kept in a house in town, their brass they had concealed in some place behind the town, in a wood. They had also a store of flour, fish, salt and rice; and a magazine of powder and cartridges. They fired their morning gun, and mounted a guard of ten men at night. We dined at the house of a Mr. Bliss, a friend to government; they had sent him word they would not let him go out of town alive that morning; however, we told him if he would come with us we would take care of him, as we were three and all well armed,—he consented and told us he could shew us another road, called the Lexington road. We set out and crossed the bridge in the town, and of consequence left the town on the contrary side of the river to what we entered it. The road continued very open and good for six miles, the next five a little inclosed, (there is one very bad place in this five miles) the road good to Lexington. You then come to Menotomy, the road still good; a pond or lake at Menotomy. You then leave Cambridge on your right, and fall into the main road a little below Cambridge, and so to Charlestown; the road is very good almost all the way.
In the town of Concord, a woman directed us to Mr. Bliss's house; a little after she came in crying, and told us they swore if she did not leave the town, they would tar and feather her for directing Tories in their road.
Transactions of the British troops previous to, and at the Battle of Lexington; with a Return of their killed, wounded and missing, as made to General Gage.
On the night of the 18th of April 1774, at nine o'clock, the grenadiers and light-infantry of the army at Boston, received orders to embark immediately under the command of Col. Smith, in the men of war's boats, and proceed according to his directions. They embarked at the common in Boston, and crossed to the shore lying between Charlestown and Cambridge, where they landed and received a day's provisions: They began their march about twelve o'clock for Concord, that being the place they were ordered to go to, for the purpose of destroying some military stores laid up there by the rebels. The troops received no interruption in their march until they arrived at Lexington, a town eleven miles from Boston, where there were about 150 rebels drawn out in divisions, with intervals as wide at the front of the divisions; the light-infantry who marched in front halted, and Major Pitcairn came up immediately and cried out to the rebels to throw down their arms and disperse, which they did not do; he called out a second time, but to no purpose; upon which he ordered our light-infantry to advance and disarm them, which they were doing, when one of the rebels fired a shot, our soldiers returned the fire and killed about fourteen of them; there was only one of the 10th light-infantry received a shot through his leg; some of them got into the church and fired from it, but were soon drove out. We then continued our march for Concord, and arrived there between nine and ten o'clock in the morning of the 19th April, the light-infantry marched on the hills that lay the length of the town, and the grenadiers took the lower road immediately on our arrival; Capt. Parsons of the 10th, was dispatched with six light-companies to take possession of a bridge that lay three quarters of a mile from Concord, and I was ordered to shew him the road there, and also to conduct him to a house where there was some cannon and other stores hid; when we arrived at the bridge, three companies under the command of Capt. Lowry of the 43rd, were left to protect it, these three companies were not close together, but situated so as to be able to support each other; we then proceeded to Col. Barrett's, where these stores were, we did not find so much as we expected, but what there was we destroyed; in the mean time Capt. Lowry and his party were attacked by about 1500 rebels and drove from the bridge, three officers were wounded and one killed, three soldiers were killed and a number wounded, notwithstanding they let Capt. Parsons with his three companies return, and never attacked us; they had taken up some of the planks of the bridge, but we got over; had they destroyed it we were most certainly all lost; however, we joined the main body. Col. Smith during our absence, had sent Capt. Pole of 10th regiment, to destroy some provisions and cannon that were lodged in another part of the town, he knock'd the trunnions off three iron 24 pound cannon and burnt their carriages; they also destroyed a quantity of flour, and some barrels of trenchers and spoons of wood for their camp. Upon the different detachment's joining the main body, and after getting some horses and chaises for the wounded, we began the march to return to Boston, about twelve o'clock in the day, in the same order of march, only our flankers were more numerous and further from the main body; all the hills on each side of us were covered with rebels—there could not be less than 5000; so that they kept the road always lined and a very hot fire on us without intermission; we at first kept our order and returned their fire as hot as we received it, but when we arrived within a mile of Lexington, our ammunition began to fail, and the light companies were so fatigued with flanking they were scarce able to act, and a great number of wounded scarce able to get forward, made a great confusion; Col. Smith (our commanding-officer) had received a wound through his leg, a number of officers were also wounded, so that we began to run rather than retreat in order—the whole behaved with amazing bravery, but little order; we attempted to stop the men and form them two deep, but to no purpose, the confusion increased rather than lessened: At last, after we got though Lexington, the officers got to the front and presented their bayonets, and told the men if they advanced they should die: Upon this they began to form under a very heavy fire; but at that instant, the first brigade joined us, consisting of the 4th, 23d, and 47th regiments, and two divisions of marines, under the command of Brigadier-General Lord Percy; he brought two field-pieces with him, which were immediately brought to bear upon the rebels, and soon silenced their fire.—After a little firing the whole halted for about half an hour to rest. Lord Percy then made the light-infantry march in front, the grenadiers next, and the first brigade brought up the rear and sent out flankers; the rebels still kept firing on us, but very lightly until we came to Menotomy, a village with a number of houses in little groups extending about half a mile, out of these houses they kept a very heavy fire, but our troops broke into them and killed vast numbers; the soldiers shewed great bravery in this place, forcing houses from whence came a heavy fire, and killing great numbers of the rebels. At about seven o'clock in the evening we arrived at Charlestown, they kept up a scattering fire at us all the way; at Charlestown we took possession of a hill that commanded the town, the Selectmen of which sent to Lord Percy to let him know that if he would not attack the town, they would take care that the troops should not be molested, and also they would do all in their power for to get us across the ferry; the Somerset man of war lay there at that time, and all her boats were employed first in getting over the wounded, and after them the rest of the troops; the piquets of 10th regiment, and some more troops, were sent over to Charlestown that night to keep every thing quiet, and returned next day. The rebels shut up the neck, placed sentinels there, and took prisoner an officer of the 64th regiment that was going to join his regiment at Castle-William.—So that in the course of two days, from a plentiful town, we were reduced to the disagreeable necessity of living on salt provisions, and fairly blocked up in Boston.
RETURN of the killed, wounded and missing, on the 19th of April, 1775, as made to General Gage.