Mutiny at Prospect Hill (episode 256)

Transcript

Music

Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to HUB history where we go far beyond the freedom trail to share our favorite stories from the history of boston, the hub of the universe.
This is episode 256 mutiny at Prospect Hill.
Hi, I’m jake. This week, I’ll be talking about the first soldiers to join our nation’s revolution from outside New England.

[0:27] During the summer of 1775, when the siege of Boston was at its peak, about 1500 Pennsylvania riflemen answered a call for volunteers,
by the time they reached the american lines in Cambridge expectations for these troops were through the roof.
Thanks in no small part to a publicity campaign engineered by john Adams.
The new England officers commanding the troops around boston believed that these fresh soldiers were capable of nearly anything.
Their reputation was based in part on the riflemen’s origins on the frontier and in part on the advanced weaponry they carried.
While they’re, the status quo for militaries around the world today, rifles were new to both armies that were facing off in boston, and they were nearly unheard of here in New England.
Unfortunately, fame went to these soldiers heads and after only a couple of months on the front line, they were nearly ungovernable.
They refused to take part in the regular duties of an American soldier.
They staged jailbreaks when their comrades were locked up for infractions against military discipline and on September 10, 1775 they staged the first mutiny in the New Continental Army.

[1:43] But before we talk about the Rifleman mutiny at Prospect Hill.
It’s time for a word from the sponsor of this week’s podcast.
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[3:18] Now it’s time for our main topic.

[3:22] Until the mid summer of 1775, the American Revolution was strictly a new England affair.
After the Red Coats opened fire on Lexington Green one April morning, armed men started pouring into the area from all over the region.
As the morning of April 19 unfolded militia units converged on Concord Lexington and Monogamy Today’s Arlington from about 30 surrounding towns.
From the moment they turned back from North Bridge, these citizen soldiers closely pursued and frequently surrounded the regular troops, causing heavy casualties, pursued back to the Charlestown ferry.
The bloodied and exhausted british troops took refuge and occupied boston, which, as we might possibly have mentioned before, was a small and easily defended peninsula at that time.

Peninsula:
[4:16] Militia units from around New England streamed into Cambridge and Roxbury to keep the british regulars trapped in the peninsula. Town of boston, boston transformed itself from a tiny town on a peninsula to a sprawling city.
It was a small, densely populated city on a tiny mitten shaped peninsula, the tiny Shawmut peninsula that comprised boston before boston was expanded by filling the salt marshes that surrounded the Shawmut peninsula.
John Winthrop and his puritan followers settled on the tiny peninsula they called boston back when boston was a tiny village on the Shawmut peninsula, the only road leading off the peninsula of boston, New England militias rushed to surround boston and trapped the british regulars within the peninsula Town.

Jake:
[4:55] By the time the Sun rose the next morning there were as many as 15,000 Massachusetts troops keeping the regulars penned up inside Boston.
The massachusetts soldiers were already reinforced by units from Connecticut and Rhode island and in the days that followed, regiments from New Hampshire and the eastern counties, we now know as maine would follow though it was a longer walk for them.
The americans at first were fairly loosely organized under generals William Heath and Artemus Ward, with two main camps located in Roxbury and Cambridge.
By blocking the land route out of boston across the narrow neck that connected boston to Roxbury,
and the most convenient what our route by cutting off Charlestown where the ferry landed, the american militias effectively trapped the british troops in boston where they could only be resupplied by sea.
In the weeks that followed, there was a series of skirmishes on the harbor islands in May, where the red coats were seeking a source of livestock and hay that didn’t have to be shipped across the atlantic.

[5:58] These skirmishes only resulted in a tighter perimeter being drawn around the town of boston, effectively cutting the british off from the harbor islands as well as the mainland in an attempt to gain some breathing room.
The british plan to occupy two strategic heights in Charlestown in june Learning of this effort, the Americans countered by pushing their lines forward and fortifying Breed’s Hill.
On the night of June 16, 1775 the next morning british general Howe ordered a general assault to retake the heights, resulting in the battle of bunker Hill,
one of the costliest engagements of the war, where about 1000 british troops and officers were killed or wounded.
Though the americans lost the strategic heights, the british lost much of their offensive capability,
and the siege settled into a long stalemate with the british on Bunker Hill and the Americans on Prospect Hill, eyeing each other warily across a no man’s land in today’s East Somerville.

[6:58] While the siege lines around Boston were solidifying. In the spring of 1775, a parallel debate was playing out in the halls of the Second Continental Congress that was meeting in Philadelphia.
The new England representatives argued that the war that had broken out around boston was a war against all the colonies.
Led by the massachusetts delegation of john Adams robert treat Paine sam Adams and President john Hancock this group argued that all the colonies should send troops to Cambridge and Roxbury to support the new Englanders.
While the new Englanders wanted an aggressive martial stance, while the new England.

[7:39] While the new Englanders wanted an aggressive martial stance, many delegates from the other colonies wanted to leave the door open to reconcile with the mother country.
In a june 11th 17 75 letter to Elbridge Gerry,
who had joined the massachusetts delegation in time to sign the Declaration of Independence, john Adams outlined the debate between the new England radicals in the middle colony moderates and the southern colony conservatives.

[8:06] I find that the general sense abroad is to prepare for a vigorous defensive war, but at the same time to keep open the door of reconciliation, to hold the sword in one hand and the olive branch in the other.
I am myself as fond of reconciliation if we could reasonably entertain hopes of it on a constitutional basis as any man,
we have ever found by experience, the petitions negotiation, everything which holds out to the people hopes of a reconciliation without bloodshed is greedily grasped at and relied on,
and they cannot be persuaded to think that it’s so necessary to prepare for war as it really is.
Hence our present scarcity of powder, etcetera.
However, this continent is a vast, unwieldy machine. We cannot force events.
We must suffer people to take their own way in many cases when we think it leads wrong.
Hoping, however, and believing that our liberty and Felicity will be preserved in the end, though not in the speediest insurance manner.
In my opinion, powder and artillery are the most efficacious. Sure, and infallibly conciliatory measures we can adopt.

[9:20] Eventually, Adams and his allies prevailed. On June 14, Congress voted to adopt the provincial army that already had the British trapped within Boston,
they would be renamed the Continental Army and placed under the authority of the Continental Congress.
In exchange, the middle and Southern colonies that have been hesitant about sending support to New England would begin sending supplies and troops to support the new Continental Army,
as a gesture of unity, John Adams nominated a virginian to head up the new army and his nomination was confirmed the day after the Continental Army was created.

[10:00] In a June 17 letter to abigail about the business of Congress, John Adams revealed the news that George Washington had been chosen to command the New Continental Army before Boston.

[10:12] I can now inform you that the Congress have made the choice of the modest and virtuous, the amiable, generous and brave George Washington to be the general of the american army, and that he is to repair as soon as possible to the camp before boston.
This appointment will have a great effect in cementing and securing the union of these colonies.
The continent is really in earnest in defending the country As part of the Act creating the New Continental Army.
Congress passed a resolution on June 14 ordering That six companies of expert riflemen be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland and two in Virginia,
that each company consists of a captain, three lieutenants for sergeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and 68 privates,
that each company as soon as completed March and joined the army near boston to be their employed as light infantry under the command of the chief officer in that army.

[11:15] In this letter to Abigail John Adams also reported on these 10 companies of riflemen who would soon be marching to Boston.
These would be the first troops from outside New England to join the fight, immediately, embodying the other colonies, willingness to finally help massachusetts in a real and meaningful way along with their symbolic value.
They also brought specialized weapons and tactics and a fearsome reputation.
Adams wrote, They have voted 10 companies of riflemen to be sent from Pennsylvania Maryland and Virginia to join the Army before Boston.
These are an excellent species of light infantry. They use a particular kind of and here the manuscript is torn, but the word is probably musket or maybe fire lock called a rifle.
It has circular grooves within the barrel and carries a ball with great exactness to great distances.
They are the most accurate marksman in the world.

[12:16] He echoed this enthusiasm for the rifleman martial prowess and a letter to Elbridge Gerry the next day saying,
The Congress has likewise resolved that 15,000 men shall be supported at the expense of the continent, 10,000 at Massachusetts and 5000 in New York.
And that 10 companies of riflemen be sent immediately six from Pennsylvania, two from Maryland and two from Virginia consisting of 68 privates in each company to join our army at Boston.
These are said to be all exquisite marksmen and by means of the excellence of their fire locks, as well as their skill, and the use of them to send sure destruction to great distances.

[13:01] Now, both John Adams, letter to abigail and the congressional resolution ordering the rifleman to Boston refer to these 10 companies as light infantry.

[13:11] This term doesn’t refer to how big the riflemen were or how heavy their equipment was. Instead, it refers to their tactics.
In the 18th century. Most encounters between armies were planned to set piece battles.
Companies of regular infantry would march in close formation, form into ranks, shoulder to shoulder facing the enemy and fire massed musket volleys into the opposing lines before charging in with bayonets to finish the job.
Light infantry on the other hand, focused on maneuver warfare,
rather than closing ranks and slowly advancing on the enemy with overwhelming force, Light infantry would disperse into loosely organized lines, use terrain features for cover and move quickly across the landscape.
You can think of them almost as the ranger battalions of their day, perfect for long range patrols, scouting and small units, skirmishing tactics to establish and maintain contact with the enemy.
These riflemen were also considered expert marksman and employed as snipers, the peculiar kind of weapon they carried as john Adams put, it gave them an advantage over soldiers armed with the more typical smooth bore muskets of the era.
Writing for the Journal of the American Revolution, Joshua shepherd explains that the rifle, with its long grooved barrel was almost unheard of among the troops who were already surrounding boston.

[14:40] A rarity in New England. The rifle was far more prevalent in the back country of the southern colonies, largely due to the gunsmiths of pennsylvania and Virginia’s shenandoah valley.
While most continental regiments, as well as militia units, were armed with smooth bore muskets.
The frontier newcomers came equipped with state of the art, 18th century arms technology.
The muskets, carried by both provincial militia and british regulars during the siege of boston tended to be a fairly heavy caliber.
They were quick enough to load that a trained soldier could fire two or three aimed shots in a minute and they were easy to attach a bayonet to for hand to hand combat.

[15:22] The trade off was accuracy with their smooth barrel and loosely fitted ammunition, musket shots left the muzzle inaccurately and even the best marksman would have a hard time hitting the same spot twice.

[15:37] Rifles on the other hand tended to fire smaller caliber rounds.
They were very slow to load quick to require cleaning and required special training to handle.
At this point in the war rifles mostly couldn’t be fitted with the bayonet though a new type of bayonet would be specially developed for them.
Later the grooves cut into the rifle’s barrel made it worth all these tradeoffs.
However, these grooves were cutter forged on the inside walls of the barrel and a sort of helical pattern,
when it was rammed home, the musket ball fit tightly into these grooves and when the gun was fired, the ball left the muzzle spinning in a tight spiral.
The difference was night and day. Imagine what it looks like when a toddler throws a football, and then compare that to tom brady.
There was about that much difference in accuracy also a well trained soldier might be able to hit a man sized target with a musket at 100 yards, at least most of the time,
the rifle was a game changer in this regard.

[16:47] George Hanger was a hunter and a gun enthusiast call him a gun nut who wrote a book about hunting.
He was also a british colonel who served mostly in the southern theater of the american war, and he had personal experience with facing american rifleman, armed with these impressive new weapons, he wrote.
I have often asked American rifleman what was the most they thought they could do with the rifle they ever applied, that they thought they were generally sure of splitting a man’s head at 200 yards for so they turned their hitting the head.
I have also asked several whether they could hit a man at 400 yards.
They have replied, certainly, or at least shoot very near him by only aiming at the top of his head.

[17:33] I never in my life saw better rifles or men who shot better than those made in America.
They are chiefly made in Lancaster and two or 3 neighbouring towns in that vicinity. In Pennsylvania.
The barrels weigh about £6.02 or three ounces, and carry a ball no larger than 36 to a pound, at least.
I never saw one of a larger caliber, and I have seen many hundreds and hundreds.
I’m not going to relate anything respecting the american war, but to mention one instance, as a proof of the most excellent skill of an american rifleman.
If any man show me an instance of better shooting, I will stand corrected Colonel.
Now. General Tarlton and myself were standing a few yards out of a wood, observing the situation of a part of the enemy which we intended to attack.

[18:24] There was a rivulet in the enemy’s front, and a mill on it too, which we stood directly with our horses heads fronting, observing their motions.
It was an absolute Plainfield between us and the mill, not so much as a single bush on it.
Our orderly bugle stood behind us about three yards, but with his horse’s side to our horses tails.
A rifleman passed over the mill dam, evidently observing two officers, and laid himself down on his belly for in such positions they always like to take a good shot at a long distance.
He took a deliberate and cool shot at my friend, at me and the bugle horn man.
A rifle ball passed between him and me. Looking directly to the mill. I evidently observed the flash of the powder.
I directly said to my friend, I think we’d better move, or we shall have two or three of these gentlemen, shortly amusing themselves at our expense.
The words were hardly out of my mouth when the bugle horn man behind us and directly central jumped off his horse and said, Sir, my horses shot, the horse, staggered, fell down and died.
He was shot directly behind the foreleg, near to the heart.

[19:44] Just the knowledge that not only were reinforcements coming from the other colonies, but they were sending these elite marksmen with their advanced weapons, was an immediate morale boost among the massachusetts and new England soldiers in the camps in Cambridge and Roxbury,
in an article for the Mass Historical Society’s beehive blog thomas.
A rider said in the early stages of the Revolutionary War.
No soldiers recruited in the american colonies generated a greater anticipation than the frontier rifleman.

[20:14] Armed with the pennsylvania rifle, A weapon that in the hands of a skilled marksman was far more accurate than the smooth bore muskets most 18th century soldiers carried and skilled in the native american way of war,
the rifleman seemed to promise a valuable augmentation of George Washington’s nation army besieging boston.
It is not an exaggeration to suggest that even before the Continental Congress authorized the creation of rifle companies from the pennsylvania Maryland and Virginia back countries that these soldiers took on a mythological status,
as writer points out part of the rifle men’s mystique came from the reputation as frontiersman from the fringes of european society.
So it’s important to point out that the frontier was a lot closer to home in 17 75 than we usually imagine it,
When most of us think of the frontier, we envision the rapid westward expansion of the mid to late 19th century, we might have a mental image of the frontier as the Rocky Mountains, the high plains or perhaps a red rock desert.

[21:17] 20 years before the revolution at the outbreak of the seven years war or french and indian war.
The frontier started at Cumberland Maryland, which is only about a two hour drive from Washington D.
C. Today, in pennsylvania.
What we now know is Pittsburgh was part of new France and down in Virginia. The western border was hotly contested between the colonial government at Williamsburg and the french Shawnee and Iroquois nations.

[21:47] The end of the seven years war saw the french cede all territorial claims in North America and the frontier moved west.
However, a Royal Proclamation in 1763 forbade English colonists from settling to the west of a line that was drawn roughly down the allegheny front.
Everything to the west of Pittsburgh became part of the new british colony of Quebec and between Pittsburgh and the proclamation line that was now a three hour drive from D. C.
An indian reserve was set aside for the Iraq oy, the Wyandotte and the other indigenous nations that had been allied with Britain against France.
In the late war, the backwoodsman or frontiersmen who volunteered for the rifle companies were mostly from families that had settled in the newly opened lands between the former frontier and the new proclamation line,
no doubt some were line jumpers who had illegally settled on indigenous lands west of the line and some of course were from the original territories of the three colonies they enlisted from.

[22:54] As the first units began to make the grueling march from the mid atlantic to New England.
In the full heat of summer, john Adams gushed to James warren on a july 6th letter, 10 companies of expert riflemen have been ordered already from the three colonies of pennsylvania Maryland and Virginia.
Some of them have marched under excellent officers. We are told by gentlemen here that these riflemen are men of property and family, some of them of,
independent fortunes who go from the purest motives of patriotism and benevolence into the service,
I hope they will have justice done them and respect, shown them by our people, of every rank in order.
I hope also, that our people will learn from them the use of that excellent weapon, a rifle barreled gun.

[23:42] While everyone who knew that the riflemen were coming was excited for the prospect.
A few people did as much as john Adams to bolster the reputation and set high expectations for them.
He was their most enthusiastic supporter, and he corresponded with so many people back home in the boston area that his enthusiasm soon became contagious.

[24:03] In his article for the Journal of the American Revolution, Joshua, Sheppard noted when the rifleman began arriving around boston by the end of july, they achieved something of a celebrity status.
They were the first troops from outside New England to reinforce the continental army, and their appearance constituted a much needed show of tangible support from the southern colonies.
James Thatcher, a medical doctor from Barnstable, who served throughout the war as a surgeon in the Massachusetts. 16th Regiment kept a journal of his military service.
In his entry for August 1775, he recalls the arrival of the rifleman a few weeks earlier.
Several companies of riflemen, amounting it is said to more than 1400 men have arrived here from Pennsylvania and Maryland, a distance of from 500 to 700 miles.
There are remarkably stout and hearty men, many of them exceeding six ft in height.

[25:02] They are dressed in white frocks or rifle shirts and round hats.
These men are remarkable for the accuracy of their aim, striking a mark with great certainty, at 200 yards distance,
At a review, a company of them, while on a quick advance fire their balls into objects of 7″ diameter at the distance of 250 yards.
They are now stationed on our lines, and their shot have frequently proved fatal to british officers and soldiers who exposed themselves to view even at more than double the distance of common musket shot.

[25:38] Despite the high expectations set by john Adams and others.
The initial performance of the rifleman was mixed at best.
As the first summer of war dragged on, there were a series of small engagements along the siege lines,
at the end of july, just a few days after the first rifle companies arrived, a company from york county was ordered into action,
ironically, from the record I’m looking at, I can’t be sure whether these were pennsylvania or Virginia troops because they were your counties in both colonies.
On the evening of July 28, the riflemen were ordered to Sneak into British held Charlestown, surround the enemy’s advanced guard and take some prisoners. It could be interrogated about recent changes to the British fortifications on Boston Neck.
According to a letter from an officer at the american camp in Cambridge, the rifle company divided and executed their plan in the following manner.
Captain Dawdle, with 39 men filed off to the right of bunker’s hill and creeping on their hands and knees, got into the rear of the enemy’s centuries without being discovered.
The other division of 40 men under Lieutenant miller were equally successful in getting behind the centuries on the left,
and were within a few yards of joining the division on the right, when a party of regulars came down the hill to relieve their guard and crossed our rifleman under Captain Dawdle as they were lying on the ground in indian file.

[27:07] The regulars were within 20 yards of our riflemen before they saw them and immediately fired,
the rifleman returned the salute, killed several and brought off to prisoners in their muskets with the loss of corporal Krause, who is supposed to be killed, as he has not been heard of since the affair.

[27:27] So the rifleman almost managed to sneak up on the red coats and get the drop on them without being detected, but not quite.

[27:37] About a month later, a detachment of 1000 continentals were ordered to press the lines forward and take a small piece of high ground called plowed hill on August 26,
a few 100 riflemen were sent into action as a flanking party, but they were again largely ineffective.
So this doesn’t seem to have dampened their fearsome reputation among the New England units, perhaps because they were not expected to act as regular line troops in combat.
The riflemen quickly got it into their heads that they also didn’t need to undertake regular non combat duties.
They managed to get themselves excused from most of the day to day chores that keep an army occupied, especially fatigue duty, meaning the exhausting work of cutting firewood, digging trenches and standing guard overnight.
In a letter to a friend dated september 13th jesse Lukens A gentleman volunteer, in a pennsylvania Rifle company, who J.
L Bell notes, was the son of the pennsylvania surveyor general described the effect this special treatment had on the attitudes of soldiers serving with him under Colonel William Thompson.

[28:45] Our camp is separate from all others. About 100 yards. All our courts martial and duty was separate.
We were excused from all working parties, camp guards and camp duty.
This indulgence, together with the remoteness of discipline and care, and our young officers had rendered the men rather insolent for good soldiers.

[29:08] The reality of dealing with these insolent riflemen quickly eroded the high regard that they had built up thanks to john Adams enthusiasm.
In a letter to Adams about the state of the siege. James. Warren complained, all seems to be in a tranquil state for a war.
The greatest difficulty seems to be to govern our own soldiery, I may say the rifleman only for I hear of no other.
They are the most disorderly part of the army, if not alone.
So in his book, the war before Independence, 17 75 to 17 76 Derek w back,
pulls no punches when discussing the insubordination that was bred by the special treatment these units received.

[29:54] The accuracy of the rifle also gave its wielder an air of cockiness.
The rifleman egos were further intensified by their exclusion from fatigue or work details such as entrenching a policy thought necessary to curry the favor and loyalty of these otherwise independent minded backwoodsman.
True on the occasional skirmishes along the boston lines, Rifleman came in handy, accurately picking off handfuls of british troops from afar,
but they’re privileged place in the army, quickly made them insolent troublemakers, wholly unsuited for the disciplined army that Washington was forging as a battalion of troublemakers.
These riflemen also quickly became intolerant of discipline if it wasn’t bad enough that they were caught disobeying orders, drinking and being absent from camp without permission.
They also began interfering with attempts by their officers to punish the men who committed these infractions.

[30:53] Rifleman Lukens goes on to describe the pattern of escalating and subordination that his unit indulged in during the first week of September 1775,
they meaning his company had twice before broke open our guard house and released their companions, who were confined there for small crimes,
and once when an offender was brought to the post to be whipped.
It was with the utmost difficulty. They were kept from rescuing them in the presence of all their officers.
They openly damned them, meaning the officers and behaved with great insolence, whoever the colonel was pleased to pardon the man and all remained quiet.

[31:35] That quiet wouldn’t last for long after a popular sergeant was confined to the company guardhouse, rumors spread that the men of the company were again planning a jailbreak.
General Nathaniel Greene shared his concerns and preparations with George Washington, and a note on September 10.
The rifles seem very sulky, and I am informed threatened to rescue their mates tonight, but little is to be feared from them, as the regiment are already at a moment’s warning to turn out and the guards very strong.

[32:09] Rifleman, Jesse, Lukens September 13 Letter goes on to describe the long stretches of boredom punctuated by sudden action that soldiers throughout history have experienced.
He started with an account of the brief battle for plowed hill on August 26, but noted that not much had happened since then, except,
a few false alarms, which took us out of our beds into the trenches at midnight, and some other matters of no great moment until last sunday, and I feel myself blush with shame and indignation for what I am forced to relate.
Last Sunday for Lukens was September 10 the same day that General Green warned Washington about another potential jailbreak by the rifleman.
Lukens continues on sunday last. The pageant haven’t confined a sergeant for neglect of duty, and murmuring the men began again, and threatened to take him out.
The Adjutant, being a man of spirit sees the principal mutineer, and put him in also and coming to report the matter to the Colonel where we were all sitting after dinner, were alarmed with the hazy in,
upon going out, found that they had broke open the guard house and taken the man out.
In an article about this incident. J. L. Bell notes that the adjutant was Lieutenant David Ziegler born in Heidelberg, one of a number of german immigrants, or sons of immigrants in the battalions, officer corps.

[33:39] The Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel with several of the officers and friends seized the fellow from amongst them and ordered a guard to take him to Cambridge at the main guard, which was done without any violent opposition.
But in about 20 minutes 32 of Captain Ross’s company with their loaded rifles were by God, they would go to the main guard and release the man or lose their lives and set off as hard as they could run.
It was in vain to attempt stopping them.
We stayed in camp and kept the others quiet, sent word to General Washington.

[34:16] Now pausing for a moment to interpret after the privates broke their popular sergeant out of the hoosegow, the senior officers of the pennsylvania battalion took custody of them again,
in an attempt to keep the men from making another rescue, they sent the prisoner to the main guardhouse at the Continental camp near Harvard Square.
Rather than trying to keep him locked up in the regimental camp on Prospect Hill.
It didn’t take long, however, before the soldiers armed themselves and went in pursuit of the sergeant.
This was the event that General Green had warned about and Lukens letter described how Green, along with the rest of the senior generals of the Continental Army, personally responded to the mutiny,
Generals, Washington Lee and green came immediately are 32 mutineers who had gone about a half a mile towards Cambridge and taken possession of a hill in woods.
Beginning to be frightened at their proceedings were not so hardened but upon the generals, meaning Washington’s ordering them to ground their arms.
They did it immediately.

[35:21] In the war before independence. Derek W. Beck describes how the mutineers were quickly placed in custody.
This was the army’s first mutiny and Washington not to be bullied was determined to teach these men the consequences of such insubordination.
His excellency ordered the main guard surrounded by some 500 troops, bayonets, fixed guns loaded.
He also issued orders to Colonel Daniel Hitchcock’s regiment, and several other companies of Brigadier General Nathaniel Greene’s brigade, all near Prospect Hill, to cut off the mutineers and subdue them with force, if necessary,
Washington and General Lee joining Green, then rode out toward Prospect Hill to intercept the mutineers personally.

[36:09] As if to restore some honor to the wayward rifle battalion, Captain George nodules, Company of the same pennsylvania rifle battalion then surrounded the mutineers.
They arrested the six principal actors binding the two ringleaders, then marched all six off to the main guard to join their companion.
The rest were sent back to their camp for discipline. There, Lukens The Gentleman volunteer was dismayed by the stain.
This event placed on his unit’s honor, and embarrassed that as the first troops to arrive from the southern colonies, they let their fellow southerner General Washington down.
I was glad to find our men were all true and ready to do their duty except these 32 rascals 26 were conveyed to the Quarter Guard on Prospect Hill, and six of the Principals to the main guard.
You cannot conceive what disgrace we are all in, and how much the generalist chagrined that only one regiment should come from the southward, and that sets so infamous an example.

[37:14] In his article about the mutiny for the Journal of the American Revolution, Joshua Shepard writes,
News of the mutiny spread fast.
Benjamin Crafts, a lieutenant in Mansfield massachusetts regiment, recorded in his diary on the evening of september 11th that a number of riflemen have been confined for mutiny, and some of them sent to the main guard in irons.
Not surprisingly, one of the pennsylvania rifleman had a different perspective on the day’s events,
erin right cast blame for the trouble on Ziegler writing that there had been a great commotion on Prospect Hill among the riflemen caused by the unreasonable confinement of a sergeant by the adjutant of Thompson’s regiment.

[38:03] George Washington had to move fast to quell the discontent and stay ahead of the rumors and complaints that were already spreading like wildfire.
His general orders for the Continental Army for September 11 the morning after the mutiny immediately put an end to the special treatment as fellow southerners had gotten used to.
And it set the stage for a court martial for the mutineers.

[38:26] Colonel Thompson’s battalion of riflemen posted upon Prospect Hill to take their share of all duty of guard and fatigue with the brigade.
They encamp with a general court martial to sit as soon as possible to try the men of that regiment who are now prisoners in the main guard and at Prospect Hill and accused of mutiny.
The rifleman posted at Roxbury and toward leech Mears Point are to do duty with the brigade.
They are posted with James.
Warren had heard so much advanced praise from John Adams in the weeks leading up to the rifleman arrival in Boston now wrote back to Adams on September 11 and burst the Congressman’s bubble.
I have not been at headquarters since saturday, but I’m told that for some crime one of the riflemen was ordered under guard.
An attempt was made by a number to rescue him upon which they were also ordered to be put under guard,
upon which a whole company undertook to rescue them, and the general was obliged to call it a large detachment from the Rhode island troops to apprehend them, who, though prepared for resistance,
thought proper to submit,
and the ringleaders are now in custody.
I believe you will choose to make examples of them I should were I in his place.

[39:46] Ironically, General Washington was still dealing with the backlog of courts martial left over from the battle of bunker Hill, way back in june.
So many accusations and counter accusations of cowardice and dereliction of duty emerged from the confusion and chaos of that bloody battle.
That Washington had plenty of chances to make examples of both soldiers and officers.
The general’s orders from September 13 record that he took a different approach in the court martial that was held for the rifleman the preceding day.

[40:17] The 33 riflemen of Col Thompson’s battalion, tried yesterday by a general court martial where of Col Nixon was president for disobedient and mutinous behavior.
Are each of them sentenced to pay the sum of 20 shillings, except John Lehman, who over and above his fine is to suffer six days imprisonment.
The paymaster of the regiment, to stop the fine from each man out of their next month’s pay, which must be paid to dr Church for use of the General hospital.

[40:48] Dr Church was bostonian Benjamin Church, who was acting as the first surgeon general of the Continental Army.
Ironically, this was just weeks before Church’s secret correspondence with the british officer came to lay marking churches the first known turncoat of the war.
Perhaps if Washington had known, then he would have used the rifleman spines for something else.

[41:11] Was the sentence of 20 shillings to Repay Church for Hospital costs. An effective deterrent to future indiscretions in the war before independence. Derek W Beck called it a slap on the wrist.
But rifleman Lukens seemed optimistic that the shame of being publicly branded mutineers, along with the increased discipline imposed by taking a full share of fatigue duty, would inspire his comrades in arms to behave better.

[41:38] In order.
That idleness shall not be a further bane to us.
The general orders on monday were that Colonel Thompson’s regiment shall be upon all parties of fatigue, and do all other camp duty equal with any other regimen.
The men have since been tried by a general court martial and convicted of mutiny,
and we’re only find 20 shillings each for the use of the hospital too small a punishment for so basic crime and mitigated, no doubt on account of their having come so far to serve the cause, and it’s being their first crime.
The men are returned to their camp seem exceedingly sorrowful for their misbehavior and promise amendment.
This will, I hope awaken the attention of our officers to their duty for their remiss.
Nous I charge our whole disgrace and the men being employed will yet no doubt due honor to their province for this much.
I can say of them that upon every alarm it was impossible for men to behave with more readiness, or attend better to their duty.
It is in the camp only that we cut a poor figure tomorrow morning, or sometime in the day May perhaps restore our honor if we behave in the day of battle, as well as I hope we shall.

[42:55] A few days before the mutiny. General Washington on September five had ordered one company of riflemen from Virginia and two from Pennsylvania to prepare to join Benedict Arnold’s over land expedition to Quebec.
According to Derek Beck, the disgrace resulting from the rifleman, mutiny may have cost their company the opportunity of participating in this campaign.
Days before this incident, Washington assigned two of Colonel Thompson’s rifle companies to Benedict Arnold’s expedition into Canada.
It’s unknown whether Captain Ross is mutinous company was intended to be among them, but if so, it was stripped of that honor.
Instead, the two companies of captains, William, Hendricks and Matthew smith were given the responsibility of restoring glory to the battalion, and so assigned to Arnold’s great expedition,
doubtless some in the camp were eager to see fewer riflemen around after this incident.

[43:52] Of course, if the rifleman had known that Arnold’s campaign would result in extreme starvation casualties, they might just have been glad to be excluded from the opportunity.
Nonetheless, the reputation was more or less permanently tarnished,
in a sign that the bloom was off the rose George Washington griped about the performance of the rifleman in a letter to his brother Samuel on september 30th saying,
the rifleman have had very little opportunity of showing their skill or their ignorance.
For some of them, especially from pennsylvania. No, no more of a rifle than my horse being new imported irish, many of whom have deserted to the enemy.

[44:35] That’s a far cry from the reputation as the most accurate marksman in the world that greeted them when they first arrived in the camp at Cambridge just two months before.

[44:45] As the Rifle men’s first and most enthusiastic booster.
John Adams certainly got an earful in the weeks following the mutiny On October 24, John Thomas wrote to him complaining.
There is in this camp from the southward a number called Rifleman, who are, as in different men as I ever served with,
their private mutinous and often deserting to the enemy, unwilling for duty of any kind, exceedingly vicious.
And I think the army here would be as well without as with them.

[45:20] General William Heath, who first organized the siege of Boston before Artemus ward took over, sent his own complaint to Adams on October 23, largely blaming the Irish and German immigrants and the rifle companies for their trouble.
The rifleman so much boasted off by many before their arrival, have been guilty of as many disorders as any core in camp, and there has been more desertions to the enemy from them than from the whole army. Besides perhaps double.
But these were foreigners, and there is in that core as faithful and brave officers and soldiers as any other.
It would be ungenerous to characterize the troops of any colony, from the conduct of a few scoundrels For his part. General Artemus Ward was even less generous than heath in his own letter to Adams on October 30.

[46:12] They do not boast so much of the rifleman is heretofore. General Washington has said that he wished they had never come General lee has damned them, and wish them all In boston.
General Gates has said if any capital movement was about to be made. The rifleman must be moved from this camp.
Billy Tudor, the father of Ice King, Frederic Tudor, legal protege of john Adams and subject of our episode 1 31 was by this time the judge advocate of the Continental Army.
He was not impressed with the rifle men’s performance in battle.
In a letter to his mentor Adams, written in December 1775, just after one of many skirmishes around mears point in Cambridge, tutor says that the rifleman just aren’t worth the trouble.
The pompous display of rifle men’s courage, which fill half the papers of the southward is ridiculous.
The affair at least Mears Point hardly deserved mentioning, and when read by house officers will make them laugh.
At least I will not buy letter, make any other observation on the subject.

[47:23] The pennsylvania rifleman would have a chance to redeem themselves.
Later organized as the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line.
They fought with honor through the New York and New Jersey campaign and later in the Philadelphia campaign.
Their mutiny at Prospect Hill was the first the Continental Army faced, but not the last.
Later in the war, when morale among the troops ran as low as their stocks of food and ammunition, there were three major mutinies.
First the Connecticut line staged a short lived rebellion in May 1780 when they were forced to go hungry.
Then the Pennsylvania line staged a much larger rebellion starting on new year’s day 1781.
In that uprising, nearly the entire military of the state marched on the camp without orders intending to go to Philadelphia to demand the food supplies and pay that they had been promised, eventually forcing their officers to negotiate a peaceful settlement.
The mutiny of the pennsylvania line inspired a similar mutiny among the New Jersey line less than a month later with several 100 troops starting on a march to Trenton to demand supplies.

[48:35] This time two of the ringleaders were summarily executed by firing squad bringing an end to the short lift mutiny, Washington’s officers have come a long way from the slap on the wrist.
They gave for the Prospect Hill mutiny to learn more about the rifleman, mutiny at Prospect Hill Check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 256.
I’ll have links to articles about the mutiny by Joshua shepherd in the journal of the american revolution by thomas rider on the mass historical society’s beehive blog and by J. L. Bell on his boston 17 75 blog.

[49:15] I owe a special thanks to Joshua shepherd because I used a lot of his framing and sources in creating this episode.
I’ll also have links to a ton of primary sources, including a lot of letters to and from john Adams, the hunting advice of british Colonel George Hanger,
and the letter from rifleman jesse Lukens along with a few acts of congress and general orders from George Washington.

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