On the 22d. of June, 1775, Hancock had written to Ward, transmitting his commission as first major-general, and next in command after Washington. He says of the new commander-in-chief, that "he takes his departure to-morrow morning from this city [Philadelphia] in order to enter upon his command. I the rather (he adds) mention the circumstance of his departure, that you may direct your movements for his reception." (Ward MSS., in Mass. Hist. Society.)
The assumption of command by Washington under this tree rests, so far as the writer knows, on tradition only, and he knows of no detail of the ceremonies given by contemporary evidence, though writers have much exercised their ingenuity in giving various attendant circumstances.
[422] Cf. Sparks's Washington, iii. 486.
[423] He held subsequent councils during the siege, at Cambridge, Aug. 3, Sept. 11, Oct. 8, Oct. 18, Jan. 16, 1776, Jan. 18, Feb. 16, and at Roxbury, Mar. 13. Copies of their proceedings are in the Sparks MSS. Minutes of Gates's speech at the council of war in Cambridge, Dec., 1775, in which he advised against an assault on Boston, are among the Gates papers (copied in Sparks MSS., xxii., and xxxix. 446).
[424] Washington complained that vessels cleared at New York with fresh provisions for the West Indies, and, when free of the harbor, steered for Boston. (N. Y. Arch., in Sparks MSS., no. xxix.)
[425] Cf. John Adams' Works, i. 245; ix. 358. See, on the Southern view of the North at this time, Life of Chief Justice Parsons, p. 40.
[426] Bancroft, orig. ed., viii. 26. Cf. John Adams's opinion, Works, ix. 362.
[427] Lee had his headquarters at one time at the Royall house, in Medford. Cf. Drake's Landmarks of Middlesex, ch. vi.; Lamb's Homes of America; Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xi. 334. A paper on Lee, Gates, Stephen, and Darke as generals from the Shenandoah Valley, by J. E. Cooke, is in Harper's Mag., 1858, p. 500.
[428] Cf., for the letters and comment, Niles's Principles and Acts, 1876, p. 118; Sparks's Washington, iii. 498; Moore's Diary, 108; Boston Evacuation Memorial, p. 146; Fonblanque's Burgoyne, 172. The correspondence was soon printed, as Letter from General Lee to General Burgoyne, with General Lee's answer, and the letter declining an interview (Boston, 1775). Cf. Haven, in Thomas, ii. p. 659. The letters are given in the Lee Papers (N. Y. Hist. Coll., 1871, pp. 180, 188, 222), and were translated into German and published at Braunschweig, 1777. (Sabin, iii. no. 5,259.) When Burgoyne sailed for England, Lee says, in a letter written from the camp at Winter Hill, Dec. 15, 1775: "I have written a parting letter to Burgoyne. It is in my opinion the most tolerable of my performances." Sparks MSS., xxvi.
