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Show As Isaac Snow Saw It Revolution Veteran's Story of the Siege of Boston X yM Isaac Snow as a Sentinel at the Siege of Boston. The personal history of Isaac Snow has always been regarded as remark ." able, as was that y K of ulmort all of V A. . "",s' llv''1 In )ho stirring V vi times of the Kev- f vCvV- J ol",lon; and ho I i, 7 j appeared to take 1 tff 1 pleasure In re- V Y a '""s rrr11'' f vl ft n d hai d.shlps. 'N(lt a fow of the rvVj VI youth of this gen- eratlon have Rath-"red Rath-"red around him ut different times, while he would tell them his story, iut!:;tantlally as follows: "When I was seventeen years old, 1 recruiting sergeant calling for volunteers vol-unteers for Ihe American army under Seneral Washington, at tho siege of Doston. canto along. I wished to go ind Join my country's army, and although al-though my mother and sister tried to dissuade me, and wept and bepged I wouM not go, 1 enlisted for three months. When measured to see It 1 was Vill enough to answer the law, I tretthed myiself up all that was possible, possi-ble, and then was Just able to pass. And iiow I took the all wool greatcoat great-coat made by my mother, and with the others that had enlisted marched from homo to Poston or Koxbury In the month of February, 1776. At the nd of this Journey I found my shoes worn out, and also that the other soldiers sol-diers were, many of them, barefoot, and poorly supplied with clothing. Wo often stood sentry In the cold, and at one time In the night, six men took cedar rails and broke them up and made a fire to warm themselves. The fire, although comfortable to them, proved a mark for the British to lire upon, and poon a cannon ball killed one of their number and broke the gun of another while In his hand. After this we did not venture to light a fire, but often some of us sheltered ourselves In the cellars where bouses had tood, but had been burnt down by the British, and often all the shelter shel-ter we had was In the lee of the walls. "In March, 1776, It was determined by General Washington to build breastworks upon Dorchester heights. I was In a company from Fastham, commanded by Cnpt. Solomon lllg-gins, lllg-gins, and assisted In the work. It bud been In contemplation some time, although kept us secret as possible. "We were prepared with spades, crowbars, shovels, picks, etc., and when the evening of the fourth of March came., none thought of sleeping. sleep-ing. The working party consisted of 1.200, with a covering party of too. We reached the place unobserved by the enemy, and ret to work with all possible dispatch, and before morning morn-ing we hsd thrown up a breastwork sufficient to bel)er us; but ttill kept at work, relieving each other only to eat. It was expected Hint the Fng-llsh Fng-llsh would leave Poston with troops, and proceed to drive us from the new-fort. new-fort. If they could not knock It down with cannon balls. We prepared to meet them by drawing up and placing all around Ihe fort larpe trees with limbs attached. lalng (hem buh end out. so that they ni'ii-t step and cut their way through them before reach-hg reach-hg the fort. Before this, men had been employed In Ikrchester woods fillin; barrels wl;h clay and ffone 1 and heading them up Mr. r.g These ' barrel were hud In nadur-si the ' first day, to roll down the hill and j thus break and cut up the rank of the enemy rtould Ihey attempt to renin iiji'D ns. It was told afi rwiird. hat In the inornlrg the Figish com- ' rnardi r. After looking with hii rpy-lar.s rpy-lar.s at our works, da-bed the glass o the Rro!:nd. and exclaimed: 'All the Pshe of the fea have turned lo lien and are swarning the hill;' at Jie same time ordering the car.ron to fire upon our works, which they did ell day, but with little damage to js. The balls mostly pas-cd evr v and lodred In a ni'iriow beyond, and 1.CC0 talis were picked up and atter-aard atter-aard used by us. As e were sb'irt Bf balls a small bounty was given for tech one brought In, and one ef oar men ran to pick up on almost befor It had lost its forco, found It too hot to hold, and dropped It very quickly. "In a few days the Fngllsh admiral, finding his tships could not lay In tho harbor In safety, and after ten days' bombarding our fort without doing us any damage, sent word to General W ashington that If he would promise not to lire upon his ships, the troops would evacuate Boston and the ships leave the harbor, but without that promise he should burn tho town to ashes. Washington gave Ma word that they should pr:s unmolested, nnd on the 17th saw them set aail! We most g'ailly marched into Boston, and found tho people rejoiced to bo released, re-leased, and no wonder, for they had been shut In for 10 months suffering, suffer-ing, hunger and other privations. Some had their stores rifled to feed and clothe the British soldiers but all was for the time forgotten In rejoicing re-joicing at seeing their oppressors gone from them. "After serving my time out, which was three months, I returned home, strongly In love of my country's cause, so much so that I soon enllhted again for nine months In a compnny froi Eastham, under dipt. Isaiah Hlgglns, and again went to Boston, and was employed some time building fortifications fortifi-cations In Boston harbor. I then en-llHted en-llHted In another company, under Captain Cap-tain Hamilton of Chatham, and marched to Rhode Island, where I was employed with others In building fortifications, for-tifications, and drilling with tjje army stationed thero till the time exprTeiT for which I enlisted (six months). "The (.hip Defence, of 18 guns, wanting want-ing a crew, myself and some others from the cape and from Boston, engaged en-gaged )o make up tho complement of men. Soon all was ready, and the ship put to sea under command of Captain Samuel Smedley, to cruise for a prlrn, hoping soon to meet with an Fngllsh vessel. On the third day out a quartermaster broke out with smallpox, when It was decided by the officers that all the crew should be vaccinated thin made sickness enough, and we feared the result should we meet an enemy. But In a few days a sail was seen, which proved to be a large English letterof-marque, letterof-marque, and our captain determined to engage her, although .10 or our crew were sick of smallpox, and a number not able to sit up to take a seat on the hencoop and use small arms. 1 could si) up and walk some, so I took a gun and sat upon the hencoop till the action commenced, when I forgot my sickness, sprang to my feet and loaded and fired my piece as fast as possibleand as the powder monkey brought up the cartridges to distribute them among us, I took a handful and Ihrew them into the bosom of my shirt, which hung bagqlng down enotiRh lo receive them, and so continued con-tinued to fire awny, not thinking I was In danger of llEhting the contents or my bosom with my own firelock. The battle went on; I now hud only a pair of canvas t roarers and a tow shirt, and fired till my gun was very hot, and then changed It for another. The engagement lasted three tlases (three half hours), when ph struck her colors to us. When we board-d her we found he was from Liverpool bound to Jamahs, and had on loud a governor for that Island and 'h. r passengers of some note, ;h many alti;,ble articles, a quantity of plate belonging to passengers, hoioii a rtr-go rtr-go quite a val-" val-" . - v I'sb'e prize. We N. 'ook out pnrt of ."-"- 'f ,'r." I er crew, and put V f sL'e n. a. -1 r .n ; ; ; bold of her srd j j f f l:t her to I os- I ' ,nr!- Wrep p ts i '! d aff'y .u r J ; reives !h the i prl7. Wheo we settvj s,p and tliere was a d!vl t slon cf the prlre J L money nd a c!U ,' I ; charge of to J - j '3 crew, some of the -.J officers received S r l-OO or mcr prize money. |