sisted on limiting himself to the capacity of the side boxes. This might be construed as an indication that he had an aversion to baggage on a short forced march. I have wondered whether those mysterious wagons could have been an after-thought of the headquarters in Boston. Gage made up his mind slowly, and his best laid plans were wont to miscarry.1

We now come to the consideration of the charges of vandalism and brutality that have been brought against Percy, and I will ask you to listen to the indictments. This is from the first account sent to England by the provincial authorities:

They pillaged almost every House they passed by, breaking and destroying Doors, Windows, Glasses, etc. and carrying off Cloathing and other valuable Effects. It appeared to be their Design to burn and destroy all before them; and nothing but our vigorous Pursuit prevented their infernal Purposes from being put in Execution. But the savage Barbarity exercised upon the Bodies of our unfortunate Brethren who fell, is almost incredible: Not content with shooting down the unarmed, aged and infirm, they disregarded the Cries of the wounded, killing them without Mercy, and mangling their Bodies in the Most shocking Manner.2

Here is an extract from the sermon of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Langdon, President of Harvard College, preached before the Congress at Watertown on May 31st, 1775:

They acted the part of Robbers and Savages, by burning, plundering and damaging almost every house in their way, to the utmost of their power, murdering the unarmed and helpless, and not regarding the

1 The Rev. Dr. David McClure, writing April 19, 1775, seems in a measure to support this theory: "A waggon loaded with provisions was sent from Boston, for the refreshment of the retreating army, under an escort of 6 Granidiers. They got as far as this place, [Menotomy], when a number of men, 10 or 12, collected, and ordered them to surrender. They marched on, & our men fired, killed the driver & the horses, when the rest fled a little way, & surrendered. Another waggon sent on the same business, was also taken that day. It was strange that General Gage should send them through a country, in which he had just kindled the flames of war, in so defenceless a condition" (Diary, ed. F. B. Dexter, 1899, p. 161; cf. 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi. 158).

2 Essex Gazette, April 25, 1775, p. 3/2-3. Also printed in the Massachusetts Spy of May 3, 1775, p. 3/2; and reprinted in Almon's Remembrancer, 1775, i. 33; Force, 4 American Archives, ii. 439, etc.

weakness of the tender sex, until they had secured themselves beyond the reach of our terrifying arms.1

Hear what the Rev. Jonas Clark has to say in a sermon preached at Lexington, April 19, 1776:

After they were joined by Piercy's brigade, in Lexington, it seemed as if all the little remains of humanity had left them; and rage and revenge had taken the reins, and knew no bounds! Cloathing, furniture, provisions, goods, plundered, carried off, or destroyed! Buildings (especially dwelling houses) abused, defaced, battered, shattered and almost ruined! And as if this had not been enough, numbers of them doomed to the flames! Add to all this; the unarmed, the aged and infirm, who were unable to flee, are inhumanly stabbed and murdered in their habitations! Yea, even women in child-bed, with their helpless babes in their arms, do not escape the horrid alternative, of being either cruelly murdered in their beds, burnt in their habitations, or turned into the streets to perish with cold, nakedness and distress! But I forbear words are too insignificant to express, the horrid barbarities of that distressing day!2

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In the middle of the nineteenth century, Bancroft and Frothingham reflected these accusations in a fashion that would have satisfied the earliest prosecutors, and in 1880 the Rev. Charles Hudson, the historian of Lexington, declared before the Massachusetts Historical Society "that we have discovered no general traces of barbarity until the troops became subject to Percy's command, when a general system of vandalism prevailed." Since then it has been customary to depict the British commander as devising and practising a brutal method of warfare abhorrent to civilized standards. He is held personally responsible for some half-dozen alleged offences of the troops against non-combatants, all that in nearly a century and a half it has been possible to unearth.

Before reviewing these specific acts, let us consider the broad charge of vandalism and brutality. I will ask you to consider first the nature of the problem with which Percy had to deal and will at the outset

1 Government corrupted by Vice, and recovered by Righteousness. A Sermon, etc. (Watertown, 1775), p. 8.

2 Narrative, pp. 7-8, appended to his "Fate of Blood-thirsty Oppressors, and God's tender Care of his distressed People. A Sermon," etc., Boston, 1776. 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvii. 322.