The ships and sailors of old Salem

by Ralph Delahaye Paine

“To the Publick.

“London, June 12, 1775.

“When the news of a massacre first arrived, the pensioned writer of the Gazette entreated the publick ‘to suspend their judgment, as Government had received no tidings of the matter.’ It was added that there was every reason to expect the despatches from General Gage, by a vessel called the Sukey. The publick have suspended their judgment; they have waited the arrival of the Sukey; and the humane part of mankind have wished that the fatal tale related by Captain Derby might prove altogether fictitious. To the great grief of every thinking man, this is not the case. We are now in possession of both the accounts. The Americans have given their narrative of the massacre; the favorite servants have given a Scotch account of the skirmish. In what one material fact do the two relations, when contrasted with each other, disagree? The Americans said ‘that a detachment of the King’s Troops advanced toward Concord; that they attempted to secure two bridges on different roads beyond Concord; that when they reached Lexington they found a body of Provincials exercising on a green; that on discovering the Provincial militia thus employed, the King’s Troops called out to them to disperse, damned them for a parcel of rebels, and killed one or two, as the most effectual method intimidating the rest.’ This the writer of the Scotch account in the Gazette styles, ‘marching up to the rebels to inquire the reason of being so assembled.’ Both relations, however, agree in this, that a question was asked; the pensioned varnisher only saying that it was asked in a civil way, attended with the loss of blood.

“Thus far, then, the facts, in every material circumstance, precisely agree; and as yet, we have every reason to believe that the Salem Gazette is to the full as authentick as our Government paper, which, as a literary composition, is a disgrace to the Kingdom.

“The Salem Gazette assured us that the King’s Troops were compelled to return from Concord; that a handful of militia put them to rout, and killed and wounded several as they fled. Is this contradicted in the English Gazette? Quite the contrary; it is confirmed. The Scotch account of the skirmish acknowledges that ‘on the hasty return of the troops from Concord, they were very much annoyed, and several of them were killed and wounded.’ The Scotch account also adds ‘that the Provincials kept up a scattering fire during the whole of the march of the King’s Troops of fifteen miles, by which means several of them were killed and wounded.’ If the American Militia ‘kept up a scattering fire on the King’s Troops, of fifteen miles,’ the Provincials must have pursued, and the regulars must have fled, which confirms the account given in the Salem Gazette, wherein it is asserted that the Regulars ‘were forced to retreat.’ Whether they marched like mutes at a funeral, or whether they fled like the relations and friends of the present ministry who were amongst the rebel army at the battle of Cullodon, is left entirely to the conjecture of the reader; though it should seem that a scattering fire, poured in upon a retreating enemy for fifteen miles together, would naturally, like goads applied to the sides of oxen, make them march off as fast as they could.”

The newspaper account which Captain Derby carried to London was printed in The Essex Gazette of the issue of “from Tuesday, April 18, to Tuesday, April 25.” The Salem Gazette had suspended publication the day before the great events of Concord and Lexington, and therefore it was The Essex Gazette of Salem which was taken to England, the slight error in the name of the journal being immaterial. This edition of the little four-paged weekly newspaper which shook the British Empire to its foundations, was not made up after the pattern of modern “scarehead” journals. The story of Concord and Lexington was tucked away on an inside page with no headline, title or caption whatever, and was no more than a column long. It may be called the first American war correspondence and no “dispatches from the front” in all history have equaled this article in The Essex Gazette as a stupendous “beat” or “scoop,” measured by the news it bore and the events it foreshadowed. The Gazette carried on its title page the legends, “Containing the freshest advices, both foreign and domestic”; “Printed by Samuel and Ebenezer Hall at their Printing-Office near the Town House.”

The article in question read, for the most part, as follows:

“Salem, April 25.

“Last Wednesday, the 19th of April, the troops of his Britannick Majesty Commenced Hostilities upon the People of this Province, attended with circumstances of cruelty not less brutal than what our venerable Ancestors received from the vilest savages of the Wilderness. The Particulars relative to this interesting Event, by which we are involved in all the Horrors of a Civil War, we have endeavoured to collect as well as the present confused state of affairs will admit.

“On Tuesday Evening a Detachment from the Army, consisting, it is said, of 8 or 900 men, commanded by Lieut. Col. Smith, embarked at the Bottom of the Common in Boston, on board a Number of Boats, and landed at Phip’s farm, a little way up Charles River, from whence they proceeded with Silence and Expedition, on their way to Concord, about 18 miles from Boston. The People were soon alarmed, and began to assemble, in several towns, before Daylight, in order to watch the Motion of the Troops. At Lexington, 6 miles below Concord, a Company of Militia, of about 100 Men, mustered near the Meeting House; the Troops came in Sight of them just before Sun-rise, and running within a few rods of them, the Commanding Officer accosted the Militia in words to this Effect: