Adams Family Correspondence, volume 1
1775-06-24
Long before this will reach you, you will have an Account of the Action, att Charlestown, in which though the regulars have gaind an Advantageous Cituation have paid for itt very dearly, which loss in Millitary Accheivements is lookt upon as trivial. The distruction of Charlestown is a most Melancholy seen, as Three quarters of the Inhabitants have lost there, all. Brother Kent house, W. house, as likewise sister Austin houses are all destroyed,1 and Although the Cheif of the people had removed and there Effects yet there were Considerable of Value in the Town, and likewise a great many things, belonging to Boston people, which had been left in homes to be transported into the Country not expecting any such a devastation would take place so suddenly and not being Able to get Carts have lost them, all, Among which was Doct. Mathers,2 who's daughters came Out the day before.
You will be informed of the state of Our Affairs, by those who have the Management of them, but as we have had several times since the Engagement people who have liberty to go up, by which, some people get a chance down—One three days past and One Yesterday, a Capt. of a ship being up there to see his Owner Mr. B——, was a spectator from the begining a saturday Morning and while there being connected with many of the friends of Govermt. falsly so-called, by which his Account beleive to be as good as any One's. He says he was on Cops 228hill when the orders came for the burning the Town which was about the same time the Troops landed—and was att the seeing the Wounded brought back (the dead ther's, as well as Ours were buried, on Charlestown side). The talk was that they had lost and wounded about a Thousand about 300 of which was killed. Amongst which Numbers of a Thousand, about 80 Officers were killed and wounded, 30 of which Number were dead and many more
since Amongst which was besides Majo. Pitcarn and Williams, Colo. Abbercrombie, (the latter Yesterday, Intelligence brings) haveing dyed after geting to Boston. Itt was said Majo. Sh
Diary and Autobiography
,
2:174), and since no external evidence is yet known to the editors of Gordon's using JA's files—indeed JA replied evasively when Gordon asked for assistance on his History (Gordon to JA, 27 March 1777, Adams Papers, MHS, Procs.
, 63 [1929–1930]:338; JA to Gordon, 8 April 1777, LbC, Adams Papers, JA, Works
, 9:461–462)—it is very surprising to find traces of his hand in the Adams Papers. The identification of persons by their handwriting being a treacherous business, the editors' conclusion that Gordon consulted and docketed some of JA's early Revolutionary correspondence is put forth tentatively and in the expectation, or at least the hope, that it
will be confirmed or disproved by evidence still to be found. But Gordon's spidery hand is highly individualistic and not easily mistaken for anyone else's. He was also a very pertinacious man and investigator, as shown by his letters gathered and edited by Worthington C. Ford (MHS, Procs.
, 63 [1929–1930]: 303–613) and by the references to privately owned materials in the preface, text, and notes in his 4-volume History, eventually published in London in 1788. He had, moreover, something of a habit of marking up the papers he examined when preparing his book. (For an example in the Washington Papers, which he inspected at Mount Vernon in 1784, see Benjamin Rush, Letters
, 1:185.) And it may be pointed out, finally, that references in his correspondence show that Gordon and his wife visited AA in Braintree on a rather familiar footing at times when JA
was absent. Light on this and on more important matters would doubtless be obtainable if Gordon's own papers survive and could be found. He spent his last years, died, and was buried at Ipswich in England. With 230the exception of a single letter (Jefferson to Gordon, 2 July 1787, in Jefferson's Papers, ed. Boyd, 11:525), the present editors, though they have made extensive inquiries, have found no traces of what must once have been a formidable mass of correspondence and other MSS in Gordon's possession. Apparently they were not dispersed. But if not, were they entirely destroyed, or do they lurk somewhere more or less intact?
Thus in MS. “Brother Kent” was Ebenezer Kent, who had married the writer's sister Anna. “Sister Austin” was Mary Smith, wife of Ebenezer Austin. See Adams Genealogy. “W. house” very likely means warehouse, Kent being a merchant.
Rev. Samuel Mather, Harvard 1723, “last and least of a great dynasty,” minister of the Tenth Congregational Society in Boston, where, though not a loyalist, he remained throughout the siege (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates
, 7:216–238).
Illegible. Probably Maj. William Sheriff is meant.
Thomas Boylston.
Thus in MS. Word or words omitted?