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Page 8
Not the glitter of arms, nor the dread of a fray
Could make us submit to their claims for a day;
Withheld by affection, on Britons we call,
Prevent the fierce conflict which threatens your fall.
In freedom we're born, &c.
All ages shall speak with amaze and applause
Of the prudence we show in support of our cause;
Assured of our safety, a Brunswick still reigns,
Whose free loyal subjects are strangers to chains.
In freedom we're born, &c.
Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all,
To be free is to live, to be slaves is to fall;
Has the land such a dastard as scorns not a lord,
Who dreads not a fetter much more than a sword?
In freedom we're born, &c.
The song was much applauded for its spirit, and some of the young men
wanted to give three more cheers, but Hand said they were already making
too much noise, and their enthusiasm cooled.
THE SKIRMISH AT LEXINGTON.
"Now," observed Hand, "I should like to hear some account of how things
went on during the war. We are all in the right mood for it."
"I could talk enough to fill whole books about the war," replied
Kinnison; "but I want to hear Mr. Pitts and Mr. Colson, and the rest of
the old men, spend a little breath for our amusement."
"Mr. Kinnison was in the fight at Lexington, and all the principal
battles in the Northern States during the war. I think he could interest
you more than I," said Colson.
"I'll make an agreement with you," remarked Kinnison. "If I tell you all
I know of that skrimmage at Lexington, one of you must follow me." The
agreement was settled, and Kinnison commenced his narrative of how the
first blow of the Revolution was given.
"You see, after that tea scape, and the quarrels with the red-coat
troops in Boston, the people of Massachusetts, and, in fact, of nearly
all New England, began to see that there was no way of upholding their
rights but by war, and they accordingly began to arm and practise
military tactics. The fife and drum were to be heard every day all
around the country. In our village we collected a company of about
thirty men. My father, and two brothers, Samuel and James, and myself,
joined the company, and we used to parade and drill every day. A bold
and knowing fellow, named Jonathan Williams, was our captain. Well,
early in the fall of 1774, we heard the news that Gage had fortified
Charlestown Neck, and sent some troops to seize the gunpowder at
Cambridge. This roused our mettle, and we set into drilling and learning
manoeuvres with more zeal. At one time a rumor reached us that the
British fleet had bombarded Boston, and, I tell you, the men did turn
out. Some of them wanted to march right down to Boston. Everywhere the
people were crying 'to arms! to arms!' and we thought the war had
commenced, sure enough; but it didn't just then. However, there was
about thirty thousand men on the march to Boston, and they wouldn't turn
back until they found the report was a hoax. Soon after, the Provincial
Congress met, and they ordered that a large body of minute-men should be
enrolled, so as to be prepared for any attack. The people of our
province took the matter into their own hands, and organized a body of
minute-men without orders. Our company was included. We were all ready
for fight, but were determined that the red-coats should strike the
first blow; so we waited through the winter. In March, Gage saw that
great quantities of powder and balls were taken out of Boston into the
country, in spite of his guard on the Neck. Every market wagon, and
every kind of baggage, was stowed with ammunition. He then sent a party
of troops to Salem to seize some cannon and stores our men had placed
there; but Colonel Pickering, with a few men, made such a show, that the
red-coats marched back again, without accomplishing their object. Our
chief deposit of stores was at Concord, up here about twenty miles from
Boston; and when our militia-general found that Gage was sending out
parties to sketch the roads, with the aim of getting our stores into his
hands, he sent word to our company to be on hand, and, if we could, to
come up near Concord. John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and all of our other
big men, left Boston and went to Lexington, to keep the people moving
and ready for an attack."
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