A shot was fired in Boston at the British soldiers
garrisoned there. It was not the celebrated "shot heard 'round the
world" fired in Concord, Massachusetts on 19 April 1775, but a pointed
show of disdain towards the military force that
had been sent to enforce the Coercive Acts, the punitive measures
imposed upon the Massachusetts colony after the Boston Tea Party.
Several British regiments arrived in Boston in the
early summer of 1774 and encamped on the common, the largest military
force that had been assembled in America since the French and Indian
War. Citizens of Boston and neighboring towns
took umbrage at this martial imposition, as military posts were
established and guards marched regularly through the town. They found
ways to harass the soldiers, inveigled them to desert, sometimes plying
them with cheap liquor and spiriting them out of town.
On 18 July, a shot was fired.
The incident was recorded by a young officer of the
43rd Regiment, Lieutenant Alexander Robertson. He was in command of the guard
on Boston Neck that night, the narrow stretch of land that connected
peninsular Boston to the mainland. He wrote
a report about what happened:
On the 18th July 1774, having the Command of the
Guard posted at the Neck, and at sun sett after examining the arms
&c of the Guard as usual, the Men were standing in a group upon the
Neck about Ten or Twelve paces from the Guard room,
when they heard the Report of a Gun, and imediatly called out that it
was a Ball that was fired, for they distinctly heard it whiz, and
observed it fired from a Boat loitring off the Neck with three People in
it, and the Centinel ( - Young of the 5th Regt
and in Earl Percy's Company) who was posted upon the Wall call'd out,
that he saw the Ball strike the Water about Twenty yards from where the
Group of Soldiers were standing and in a direct line with them, and
about Ten yards from the Wall where he was posted.
I was at the time looking at the Boat, saw the
smoke & heard the Report and firmly believe it was in a direct line
with the Soldiers who were talking together, and after the gun was fired
I observ'd the Boat row off, with the utmost expidition
towards the Town, and imediatly sent a soldier to watch its motions,
who return'd & told me he saw it row towards the centre of the Town.
A. Robertson Lieut. 43d. Regt. Boston Camp 19th July 1774
Nothing came of the incident. No investigation, no
arrests; most importantly, no further gunshots. If Lt. Robertson had not
put it in writing, there would probably be no record of the event at
all.
As for the soldier who saw the bullet splash, John
Young would see more gunfire in the coming years. He served with his
regiment throughout the occupation of Boston including the outbreak of
war on 19 April 1775 and the battle of Bunker
Hill the following June. He took part in the rapid campaign that drove
American forces out of the New York City area and across New Jersey in
1776, and that tried unsuccessfully to bring about a pivotal battle in
New Jersey in 1777. Later that year he sailed
up Chesapeake Bay, then marched and fought through Delaware and
Pennsylvania to Philadelphia.
Not long after that city was seized by the British
army, John Young saw his last shots fired. He was killed in the battle
of Germantown on 4 October 1777.
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