Good morning everyone and welcome to another exciting episode
of Ask a Ranger. my name is Jim Hollister, a park ranger at Minute Man National
Historical Park in Concord Massachusetts. So we have some great questions for
you this week including one for which I have called upon the
assistance of my coworker a Park Ranger Roger Fuller for the
answer so do look for that during the program. I also want-to let-you know that this will be the
last of our weekly ask a ranger sessions. However do still send
us your questions. We will be putting these videos
out periodically throughout the summer and fall. We enjoy putting them together and
I hope that you enjoy watching them. So let's dive right into the questions.
Whenever the subject
of British soldiers in North America comes up the image we have is of
private householders being forced to lodge soldiers against their will.
That was a practice called "billeting" and this almost never happened in North America.
now during the last French and Indian war in the 1750s soldiers
sometimes did have to spend the winter in cities or towns so,
commanders would notify a city of the arrival of the troops and
would request accommodations for them. And they were allowed
to do this under what was called the Mutiny Act. Now according to the Mutiny Act
a local constable or tythingman would actually choose the suitable lodging
for the troops. And they would choose "inns,
livery stables, ale houses and victualling houses..." And the
mutiny act also
stated quite clearly that the soldiers were to be
lodged "in no private houses whatsoever." Also the army was required to
pay for the use of the suitable lodgings, the public buildings and such.
Even still it was difficult to enforce in North America
as local authorities often complained about the low prices that the army was willing to
pay. Provisioning the troops was also contentious and they often
have to rely on the generosity of local authorities to
help with the cost of the troops and also the it
was unpopular. People did not like sharing their public spaces with these rough, uncouth
soldiers even when they were fighting a war on their behalf.
Now officers more often than not, for their own personal lodging,
negotiated with private householders to rent a room, and they would pay for
that out-of-pocket. The Quartering Act was a law that was passed after the
last French and Indian War for the accommodation of troops in North America
So what Parliament had done instead of taking all the troops home at the end of the last war
they created what was called the North American Establishment, so keeping regular
soldiers in North America for the foreseeable future - also very unpopular.
and the Quartering Act, like the Mutiny Act, required local cities and towns
to provide suitable housing for the soldiers, again public buildings,
inns, warehouses, things like that, and also to
provide certain consumable necessities like firewood, candles,
beddng and beer for the soldiers.
Now when large numbers of soldiers were involved the preferred method of housing them
was in barracks.
You know, a
city or town but actually pay for the construction of a large building
called barracks that could house the army - the soldiers, and if they weren't
available - again warehouses, empty warehouses and public buildings could be
used. Now when the army was sent to Boston in October of 1768
things were a little different. And they weren't there to
fight a war against the French. Their purpose in Boston was to enforce the laws so
you can imagine this is not going to be easy. So when they arrived in October
of 1768 the authorities in Boston said,
alright, we have barracks for you out at
Castle William which is on castle island out in Boston Harbor.
and Colonel Dalrymple, representing the regular troops, said no - my orders are
to lodge into town proper. The selectmen said Castle William is
in the town proper, out in the harbor. That wasn't going to be good enough. So what
ended up happening was the 64th and 65th regiments lodged briefly
in the barracks Castle William, but there were two more regiments that needed to be accommodated: the
14th
and the 29th. So the 14th was lodged for time at
Faneuil Hall and also in the townhouse which today is the Old State House, and the
29th encamped on Boston Common. But with winter fast approaching they were
going to have to find suitable indoor lodging for all
the soldiers and do so quickly.
The governor's council actually offered the use of the manufactory building. So
this was a large building that was built at the expense of the town of Boston and
its purpose was to provide lodging and employment
to the town poor to act is spinners and weaver's. And
unfortunately at the time that the council said sure you can use the manufactory
to lodge the soldiers there were people living in the manufactory who
refuse to leave. And the soldiers laid siege to the manufactory building for
two weeks and still couldn't get the people out so they eventually had to be launched
in warehouses and the other rented public spaces. And other than
that there was a small house known as the main guard in the town actually across
the street from the townhouse where they're soldiers living as well.
In 1774 there was another Quartering
Act passed and troops were sent again into Boston.
They have been removed in 1770 after the Boston Massacre, but
now after the Boston Tea Party they were sent back in, again
to enforce the laws.
So, the 64th regiment took up the
barracks at Castle William, and the rest of the army, nearly four thousand men,
encamped on Boston Common, essentially taking over and controlling
that previously public space. Now with winter coming Gage ordered
that barracks be built on Boston Common, but the problem and that was
that local suppliers and builders refused to work, so
they had to bring in carpenters from other colonies. And they ended up walking
off the job when the Boston select men declared that anyone who would work
on the barracks to be "enemies to the rights and liberties of America."
And also saboteurs destroyed - set fire
to four thousand feet of plank boards. So
it's unclear if the barracks were ever actually built. It seems though
they were not and the army had to rent empty houses and
warehouses and tavern rooms as before. And one officer
claimed that it cost a thousand pounds per regiment, so certainly not cheap. And
because the locals weren't paying for it that expense was on the government.
Hi everyone! I'm Park Ranger Roger Fuller. How you doing Jim. Here is a -somebody got a question
of "Did the British Army have specialized winter gear or uniforms?
Did world armies at the time have uniforms or special troops suitable
for different climates?" Well for the British Army the answer is yes and
no. There was no tropical nor winter uniform issued specifically to the
troops. What they did have got modified for local needs. The
British soldiers were issued one set of standard,
Royal Warrant of 1768 uniforms per year.
But, even before the American Revolution linen clothing such as breeches
and waistcoats and even sleeved collared coats in white linen could be
issued when the men were in tropical stations such as
Minorca in the Mediterranean. For colder climates a wollen watch coat or
two might be issued per company for men to use while on
sentry duty in the winter. But more generous regimental commanders such as
Lord Cornwallis and Hugh, Lord Percy might pay out of their own
pocket for cloaks and watch coats for all the men in the regiment to have in
order to keep warm. At the very least for added warmth some men
modified their blankets with linen tapes sewed onto them so
they could tie the blankets around their necks as some sort of cloak when they're on sentry duty,
for example.
Additionally as the war began Queen Charlotte and others organized the purchase of
donation cloth which was a kind of dark blue green or brown broad
cloth wool to the fitted into long woolen gaiters for the men to wear over
their legs to help keep them warm and winter. This is especially true during the Siege of
Boston. Special troops... Well
other than light infantry, the scouts of the army, and the grenadiers who
are the shock troops of the army, the British only employed after 1776
specified rifle units of Hessian and Brunswick "Jager,"
huntsmen I guess you call them, who wore green and sniped
effectively a General Washington's troops so much so that at one point prices were put on their
heads. The British also introduced their
own rifle units in their own armies but they and the Jager generally weren't used in the tropics
too much. German light infantry were used during the battles of Pensacola
in Florida and the Carolinas and at Yorktown though. I hope
this answers your questions regarding winter gear and uniforms, tropical climates
and specified troops. There you go! Thank you.
Great question Rich so what I'll do is I'll start with a couple of
books that cover the whole American Revolutionary War and,
then we'll talk about sources specifically about April 19
1775, and then we'll talk about some
online resources. So first of all in terms of books that cover the whole war
they're going to be very broad, you know,
you really can't use them for very specific detail but,
just is a way of wrapping your mind around e a very big topic
I suggest starting with "A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution" by
Craig Symonds, and that was published in 1985. And again
what it will do is to help you understand
the chronology and the geography of the war.
Next I recommend "The British are Coming" by Rick Atkinson and that
was published just last year, 2019, and it's part of
the series and this is the first one, it covers Lexington
and Concord to Princeton it's an excellent read. Now getting into April
19th topics and the early part of the war
there's the "History of the Siege of Boston and the Battles of
Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill by Richard Frothingham
written in 1849. It's an early source.
You'll have to read past some of the very,
you know, stylized nineteenth-century writing but he's got
some great information particularly about the structure of the army outside of Boston.
Next is "The Day of Concord and Lexington by Alan French
published in 1925. and there's actually a sequel to
that called "General Gage's Informers" which he wrote after
this the discovery of General Gage's papers so,
just a treasure trove of information that he didn't have access to when he wrote his
first book. So those two books really, really valuable. Next is "The Minute
Men and Their World" by Robert Gross. And he wrote this in 1976.
And what this is, he focuses on the town of Concord. He
does cover military preparations. He does cover the battle, but it's not a military history per se.
It's really focusing on the community the people of Concord and, you know,
the inter-relations among them and how that worked, and how they
reacted to the events that were un-folding around them.
A great book, it's really stood the
test of time. Next is "Paul Revere's Ride" by David Hackett
Fischer, and that was written in 1994. It really covers
the whole event of April 19, 1775 with the focus on Paul
Revere and his role. There's some great information there, the appendences, again just
a wonderful wealth of information. But as with all secondary sources
you know, trust but verify. If you see something that interests you
check the foot note and, then go back to what he's claiming as a source. So
always be an informed consumer whatever you're reading secondary sources. Now in terms
of more specific topics there's "The Road to Concord:
How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the American Revolution" by the historian
JL Bell, published in nineteen... excuse me, 2016.
And what JL Bell covers in this book is the military arms race
between the British Government in Boston and the people of Massachusetts
and, you know, where they're getting arms from and the, you know,
the race to gather artillery. And actually that book ends when the
battle begins. But if you want to know how they got there and the extent
of the military preparations that's where you want to go. There's another great book called "We Stood
Our Ground" by Alex Cain
first published in 2004 and the second
edition in 2018, and that focuses on the
town of Lexington and how they prepared for the outbreak of war and how they
responded to it in the first-year the war. Really,
really great read and he's just a fantastic historian. Also,
in terms of the use of primary sources and April 19, 1775,
unfortunately these books are out of
print but look for maybe you can find it on
Ebay or something, it's called "We Were There!" by Vincent Kehoe, and
there are two books, one is the British soldiers and the other is the
minute men and the militia. Again, they're out of print, they've been out of print for a long-time,
but you might be able to find copies online. It's
a great resource and it's a compilation of firsthand accounts
relating to the first day of the American Revolution; fantastic stuff in there.
and Vincent Kehoe by the way is the founder of His Majesty's 10th Regiment
of Foot in North America so really he is sort of the grandfather of you know,
Revolutionary War reenacting in Massachusetts. Now in
terms of online sources I talked about JL Bell,
he maintains of blog called
Boston 1775, extremely well researched. If
you can think of it chances are he's covered it. The next is Historical
Nerdery by Alex Cain. He focuses a lot of Lexington and also the North Shore and the
Merimac Valley at the beginning of the Revolution, really great resource there. And
then lastly "The Coming of the
American Revolution which is run by the Massachusetts Historical Society. And what they did
is digitized a lot of their primary resources
and they separated them out by topic, and so you can research, you know,
particulars and reference these primary source materials. Great
resource for historians, park rangers, teachers.
Really a lot of great stuff there. So that's a
wrap everyone. Thank you for joining us once again for Ask a Ranger and
stay safe out there. Have a great summer and we'll see you soon. Take care.