There is one history of the Revolution that has never been written; it is that of beacons. The beacon, in the sense of a signal, was the night alarm, the night order. The hills on which beacons were set were those that could be seen from afar, and those who planted these far angles of communications of light were patriots, like the rest.
There was a beacon at Mt. Hope, R. I. It probably signaled to a beacon on King’s Rocks, Swansea, which picturesque rocks are near to the Garrison House at Myles Bridge, and the Swansea church, founded in the spirit of liberty and learning by the famous John Myles, a learned exile from Wales, who came to Swansea, Mass., for religious liberty, bringing his church records from Swansea, Wales, with him. The old Hessian burying-ground is near the place. Here John Myles founded education in the spirit of the education of all. He made every house a schoolhouse by becoming a traveling teacher.
The King’s Rocks beacon communicated with Providence, and Providence probably with Boston.
In Boston was the beacon of beacons. Beacon Hill now bears its name. A book might be written in regard to this famous beacon. It stood on Sentry Hill, a tall mast overlooking city and harbor, not at first with a globe on the top and an eagle on the globe, as is represented on the monument. Sentry Hill was the highest of the hills of Trimountain. The golden dome of the State-house marks the place now.
The first beacon in Boston was erected here in 1635. It was an odd-looking object.
The general court of Massachusetts thus gave the order for the erection of the beacon:
“It is ordered that there shall be a beacon set on Sentry Hill, to give notice to the country of danger.”
The beacon had a peg ladder and a crane, on which was hung an iron pot.
This beacon seems to have remained for nearly one hundred and fifty years. It was the suggestion of beacons in many places, and these were the telegraph stations of the Revolutionary War. A history of the beacons would be a history of the war.
What a signal it made as it blazed in the heavens! What eyes were turned toward it in the nights of alarm of the Indian wars, and again in the strenuous times of the expedition against Louisburg, and in all the years of the great Revolution! A tar-barrel was placed on the beacon-mast in perilous times, and it flamed in the sky like a comet when the country was in danger.