Page 160. Tom Gage's Proclamation. General Gage's proclamation, issued June 12, 1775, was as follows:—
"Whereas the infatuated multitudes, who have long suffered themselves to be conducted by certain well-known incendiaries and traitors, in a fatal progression of crimes against the constitutional authority of the state, have at length proceeded to avowed rebellion, and the good effects which were expected to arise from the patience and lenity of the king's government have been often frustrated, and are now rendered hopeless by the influence of the same evil counsels, it only remains for those who are entrusted with the supreme rule, as well for the punishment of the guilty as the protection of the well-affected, to prove that they do not bear the sword in vain."
Page 162. The Ballad of Bunker Hill. An unsigned copy of these verses, apparently an authentic Revolutionary ballad, but really written by Dr. Hale in 1845, was "discovered," about 1858, among some old manuscripts at Millbury, Mass., and reproduced in the "Historical Magazine," iii, 311. Dr. Hale had himself lost all trace of the poem, until he came across it in the first edition of this compilation.
Page 163. Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle. Dr. Holmes himself says:—
"The story of Bunker Hill battle is told as literally in accordance with the best authorities as it would have been if it had been written in prose instead of in verse. I have often been asked what steeple it was from which the little group I speak of looked upon the conflict. To this I answer that I am not prepared to speak authoritatively, but that the reader may take his choice among all the steeples standing at that time in the northern part of the city. Christ Church in Salem Street is the one I always think of, but I do not insist upon its claim. As to the personages who made up the small company that followed the old corporal, it would be hard to identify them, but by ascertaining where the portrait by Copley is now to be found, some light may be thrown on their personality."
It has been pointed out that the belfry could hardly have been that of Christ Church, since tradition has it that General Gage himself watched the battle from that vantage point.
The poem was first published in 1875, in connection with the centenary of the battle which it describes.
Page 167. The Battle of Bunker Hill. This "popular" ballad was written and printed as a broadside for the purpose of encouraging recruiting for the English army. There are many versions of it, as well as parodies composed by Yankee sympathizers.
Page 169. 'Twas then he took his gloomy way. Washington's journey was, as a matter of fact, a kind of triumph.