£ljc Shtmefs lltontljhj btaitor. 



93 



'Zarhnriah Hill, whose posterity of the same 

 names live on the ground of tlieir first settle- 

 ment more than two hundred years ago. "(Jn- 

 . cle Siim. Frost " was taken prisoner at the time 

 of the " Concord fight "as a wonderful escape 

 ftiltl death. The retreating British army had 

 flank guards varying the distance on either side 

 of the wide road, over which the main hody 

 passed in the retreat. Mr. Frost heing an older 

 man than those used to carrying arms, from 

 c iriosily to witness the passing red-coats at a 

 . distance, had crouched in the corner of a walled 

 B.id, looking through the crevices of the rocks. 

 Two of the flunk guards, all officer and a soldier, 

 came suddenly upon him looking over the wall : 

 the soldier cocked his gun and laid it over the 

 wall (or sure aim. The officer prevented the 

 discharge taking effect hy striking up the barrel 

 of the musket; and the old man in dishabille, 

 holding his broken waistbands all the way foi 

 the distance of about six miles to Charlestown, 

 was marched off" a prisoner, where he was kept 

 •on board the Glasgow frigate in Charles river 

 for several weeks, until he found means of escape 

 and return to his family by jumping from the 

 deck and swimming ashore in the night. 



A company of men from the Salem regiment 

 '■o advance of the other companies of the same 

 regiment, came into the action in Menotomy, 

 when the British were retiring, on the mill 

 stream north of the road coming down from 

 Lexington, as one of the branches of My stick 

 n- r: ten or twelve of this company were here 

 killed, being drawn inside the undiscovered po- 

 rtion of the guard, and exposed to a galling fire 

 on either band. The town of Acton, situated 

 beyond Concord in another direction as distant 

 from the scene of action as Danvers and Lynn, 

 at the bridge over Conco'rd river, suffered the 

 loss of several of its estimable heads of families. 

 Of the men who fought like tigers on the 

 American side, was David Lamson, the Indian, 

 and Gift' Carlwright, alias Whittemore, an Afri- 

 can slate, inheriting the names of his two respec- 

 ted masters, for whom he had the strongest at- 

 tachment : both the Indian and the negro we 

 yvell recoh'ct. Lamson lay in the hollow be- 

 tween Wbitemore's corner and the new ceme- 

 tory : be sinned out of the flank guard at a dis- 

 tance, a mark In- his sure aim, of three red-coals 

 in a group: ontof the three (altering after his 

 .fire, was upheld <nd led a few rods by the others 

 and abandoned, fining mortally wounded. Near 

 • bis momenta nioi numerous body of the flank- 

 ing guard down tb. valley coming in sight al- 

 n, st directly upon Lt)) S on, his only resort was 

 to lake to his heels cross the open field. A 

 whole volley of discharge struck the sand be- 

 hind him, giving him t e chance lo reach too 

 great a distance for injuy before bis pursuers 

 could reload. Cuff Whilte, 0lej servant of the 

 family of the old gchool-ma- er f t|, e village, 

 William Whittemore, who was, c | nssmate grad- 

 uate of Harvard with the elder .,|, n Adams, was 

 among ihe foremost for fight ., that day: be 

 was afterwards in the army of le revolution 

 during the war, was a servant torj | 4 Brooks 

 who distinguished himself at SaraU a an ,i „,],„ 

 subsequently was the popular governor ,| ie | ( | 

 Bay State: Cuff was as Brave a man a|,j s mas . 

 ter — he was twice taken prisoner auu ll( . ees . 

 caped with an officer's horse all caparist^j j; (1 . 

 parade, and came safely into the An..; can 

 camp. For several years the painted liken s j 

 this true-hearted African was exhibited it)| |e 

 halls of Harvard University. 



The town of Charlestown, including the whole 

 of the present town of Somerville without the 

 neck and a part of West Cambridge, extended 

 in a narrow strip between Cambridge and Med- 

 ford, nearly lo Lexington. Walter Russell resi- 

 ded on the Winter bill road, three miles from 

 the neck in the Charlestown precinct, near the 

 outlet into the Mysliek river from the Spy pond, 

 running through Fresh pond: that outlet is the 

 present boundary line between Cambridge and 

 Somerville on the east, and West Cambridge on 

 the west. Of this part of Charlestown adjacent 

 to Medford was the land of the Charlestown 

 Russells, which yet remains in their descendants 

 of the name. Thomas Russell, of another 

 family residing below the neck, had bis coun- 

 try seat in this part of the town, where he was 

 born: after the revolution bis reputation was 

 that of being the most wealthy merchant of New 

 England. Two of his daughters married John 

 Langdon and Richard Sullivan, sons of the late 

 Gov. Sullivan of Massachusetts. 



The mother of the editor of the Visitor, the 

 only daughter of Walter Russell, was three years 

 old at ihe time of the Concord fight : her mother 

 was the daughter of Thomas Adams, who resi- 

 ded and kepi tavern one-fourth of a mile below 

 West Cambridge meeting bouse on the main 

 road 10 the colleges : this road parted and 

 branched off below to Charlestown leading 

 through Milk-row. Capt. Adams was an elder 

 brother of Deac. Joseph Adams, whose house 

 was rifled on this occasion. The night when 

 the first detachment of regular troops went up, 

 was a bright moonlight : the family of Thomas 

 Adams were on his Cambridge farm, fifty miles 

 off at Ashburnham where he had commenced a 

 settlement: he was that night alone in the tavern 

 house which yet stands with the gable end to 

 the road. He retired to the garret, where he 

 looked down upon the street through a window 

 in the gable end. The regulars, with their bright 

 arms glittering in the moonlight, passed bis 

 bouse silently without entering. In the alarm 

 which followed between the detachments going 

 up and returning, the women and children fled 

 as far as they could get away from danger. The 

 father of Walter Russell, then a \evy old man, 

 remained at his home on the Winter hill road, 

 half way between the main Cambridge road 

 across towards Medford : standing in full view 

 when the main hody of the troops passed over 

 the Cambridge road, a spent bullet struck the 

 milk cart in the yard before him. The men 

 of the neighborhood who were able, were all 

 engaged to defend the homes of their neighbors 

 assailed, to fight off the enemy. The wile 

 of Walter Russell, before she left her house, 

 prepared one of those large ovens which were 

 common to farmers in old times, with meats and 

 the good brown bread to be baked ready lo feed 

 the exhausted men, should they return, and the 

 house be spared. With her four sons and 

 daughter, the eldest twelve years and ihe 

 youngest three months old, and other women 

 and children of the neighborhood, further distant 

 from any passing rout of travel, she retired to 

 that eminence in Charlestown westerly of the 

 powder house which overlooks the Ryal farm 

 and the village of Medford. Coming down from 

 Woburn the Lowell railroad passes in the 

 lower ground between West Cambridge and 

 Medford, cutting as it approaches Boston' di- 

 rectly through the north-easterly edge of the 

 hill which was the place of refuge for the 

 women and children at the day of the Con- 



cord fight. Passing it often in view of the 

 beautiful farms and orchards in the amphithea- 

 tre which composes parts of Medford, West 

 Cambridge, Watertown and Somerville, with 

 five glittering spires in the village of West Cam- 

 bridge on the right and nearly as many more in 

 thai of Medford on the left— the enihusaism re- 

 turns which memory never fails to elicit when it 

 recurs to the great consequences resulting from 

 that opening ball of the revolution first put in 

 motion by our ancestors. 



This neighborhood, in its cultivated gardens 

 and fields, in its fruit orchards and grass plats 

 more beautiful than any other part of America- 

 the region in whose bosom is the clay material 

 for building up cities and the water surface of 

 whose romantic ponds furnishes ice for the 

 warmer climates of the four quarters of ihe 

 world — deserves the prominence which we give 

 in it this number of the Visitor as opening the 

 great drama. Our indefatigable friend Col. Phin- 

 ney more than twenty years agb collected au- 

 thenticated facts in relation to the Lexington 

 battle more materially relating to his own town, 

 which were published in a pamphlet that we 

 saw in Coi. Force's collection. The subject re- 

 vived by the exhumation and erection of the 

 monument over the remains of the slaughtered 

 patriots of Menotomy, we may again take occa- 

 sion to revert to it in the columns of the Visitor. 



EVENTS SUCCEEDING THE LEXINGTON BATTLE. 



[This sketch is taken from the Annual Regis- 

 ter, compiled and printed at the time, a hook 

 more favorable to the British than to the Ameri- 

 cans.] 



In the mean lime the governor and forces at 

 Boston, as well as the inhabitants, continued 

 closely blocked up hy land ; and being shut 

 out from till supplies of fresh provisions and 

 vegetables, which the neighboring countries 

 could have afforded by sea, they began lo expe- 

 rience those inconveniences which afterwards 

 amounted to real distress. As the inhabitants 

 hud now no other resource for their subsistence 

 than the king's stores, the provincials were the 

 more strict in preventing all supplies, hoping 

 that the want of provisions would lay the gover- 

 nor under a necessity of consenting to their de- 

 parture from the town; or at' least that the wo- 

 men and children would be suffered to depart, 

 which was repeatedly applied for. It is probable 

 that tlie governor considered the inhabitants as 

 necessary hostages for Ihe security of the town, 

 at least, if not the troops. However it was, he 

 at length entered into a capitulation with the in- 

 habitants, by which, upon condition of delivering 

 up their arms, they were to have free liberty lo 

 depart with all tlieir other effects. The inhabi- 

 tants accordingly delivered up their arms; but to 

 their utter dismay and astonishment, the governor 

 refused lo fulfil the conditions on his side. This 

 breach of fiulh, and the consequences that at- 

 tended it, were much complained of. Many, 

 however, both then, and at different times after, 

 obtained permission to quit the town ; but they 

 were obliged to leave all their effects behind ; so 

 that those who hail hitherto lived in ease and 

 affluence were at once reduced to the extremity 

 of indigence and misery. 



* # "# • * * 



About the same time (June 12, 1775) General 

 Ga;.'e issued a proclamation, by which a par, Ion 

 was offered i" the king's name, to till those who 

 should forthwith lay down their arms, and return 

 to their respective occupations and peaceable 

 duties, excepting only from the benefit of the 

 pardon, Samuel .'lilums and John Hancock, whose 

 offences were said lo he of too flagitious a na- 

 ture lo admit of any other consideration liian 

 that of condign punishment, 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL, JUNE 17, 1775. 



It becoming expedient closely to invest Boston, 

 preparation was made by the provincials to take 



