Part 12 (1/2)
the 29. Nothing remarkable onely one of our Privateers took a prize richly Laden.[185]
[Footnote 185: That was the British stores.h.i.+p _Nancy_, captured off Cape Anne, and carried into that harbor, by Captain John Manly, commander of the American armed schooner _Lee_, one of the six vessels fitted out at Boston under the direction of Was.h.i.+ngton, before Congress had yet taken any measures to establish a navy. So valuable were the stores of the _Nancy_, that Was.h.i.+ngton supposed General Howe would immediately make efforts to recover her, and he had an armed force sent to Cape Anne to secure them. There were two thousand muskets, one hundred thousand flints, thirty thousand round shot for one, six, and twelve pounders, over thirty thousand musket-shot, and a thirteen-inch bra.s.s mortar that weighed twenty-seven hundred pounds. The arrival of these produced great joy in the camp. Colonel Moylan, describing the scene, says: ”Old PUT [General Putnam] was mounted on the mortar, with a bottle of rum in his hand, standing parson to christen, while G.o.d-father Mifflin [afterward General Mifflin] gave it the name of _Congress_.”
On the 29th of November, Was.h.i.+ngton commenced planting a bomb-battery on Lechmere's point, with the intention of bombarding the British works on Bunker hill. They completed it in the course of a few days, entirely unmolested.]
the 30. Nothing extreordenary this day that I know of.
DECEMBER.
the 1. Nothing remarkable this day.
the 2. This day I with a number of rispectable gentlemen went[186]....
[Footnote 186: The author did not expect to have his Journal published, or he would have omitted the entry here made. There seems nothing in it derogatory to his character, yet he has chosen words to express his thoughts not suited ”to ears polite.”]
the 3. Being Sunday it rained nothing remarkable hapned this day.
the 4. Nothing remarkable hapnd this day at night we were ordered to Ly upon our arms.[187]
[Footnote 187: Was.h.i.+ngton was now in hourly expectation of an attack from the British, and, knowing his own weakness, he considered his situation very critical. In vigilance alone seemed a security for safety.]
the 5. Nothing Strange hapned this day.
the 6. Nothing comical this day only their was considerable of tradeing caryd on.[188]
[Footnote 188: The Yankee love of trade and barter appears to have been very prevalent in the camp.]
the 7. This day nothing Strang.
the 8. This day I with several more inlisted for the year 1776 under captain Oliver Pond.
the 9. Nothing remarkable this day.
the 10. This day the Long faced People[189] arived here from wrentham and other places.
[Footnote 189: New militia recruits from the country, who had never seen service.]
the 11. This day I past muster before general Spencer[190] nothing more this day.
[Footnote 190: General Joseph Spencer, of East Haddam, Connecticut. He remained in service until 1778, when he resigned, left the army, and became a member of Congress. He held rank next to Putnam in the army at Boston. He died in 1789, at the age of seventy years.]
the 12. This day it was very cold and the melitia had to mount guard that is good for them.
the 13. This day I went to cambridg and viewed the works on copple[191] hill.[192]
[Footnote 191: Cobble.]
[Footnote 192: These, it is said, were the most perfect of any of the fortifications raised around Boston at that time.]
the 14. This day I went to Watertown[193] with Lieutenant Bacon and a number of others in order to get some coats but we could not find any that suited us and so we returned.[194]