Revolution 250 Podcast
Revolution 250 Podcast
William Prescott:Stalwart of Bunker Hill
Few images of the Battle of Bunker Hill are as evocative as Colonell William Prescott striding up and down the walls of the redoubt, his sword drawn, his banyan fluttering in the breeze as the British regiments marched up the hill. The stalwart defense of Prescott and his troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill established the American army as a formidable foe for the British army. For all this, there is much about Prescott's life we don't know. Author Don Ryan is completing a biography of Prescott wherein he will bring to life Colonel Prescott and all of his services to the people of Massachusetts in their effort to secure independence.
WEBVTT
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Hello, everyone.
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Welcome to the Revolution
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two fifty podcast.
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I am Bob Allison.
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I chair the Rev two fifty advisory group.
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I also teach history at
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Suffolk University.
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We are a consortium of
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seventy plus organizations.
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It's looking at ways to
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commemorate the beginnings
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of American independence.
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And our guest today is Don Ryan.
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Don Ryan received the History Medal at St.
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Raymond School in the Bronx,
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but then put history aside
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until his retirement.
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He spends a lot of time up at Bunker Hill,
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and he has just written a book,
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Searching for William Prescott,
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The Stalwart of Bunker Hill.
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So, Don, thanks for joining us.
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Well, thanks for having me.
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I'm looking forward to our conversation.
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So how did you get,
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so I think two questions.
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Who was William Prescott?
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Why is there a statue of him?
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And then how did you get
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interested in telling his story?
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Yeah, great.
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So I knew very little about
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William Prescott until I
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became a volunteer for the
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National Park Service back
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in twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen,
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and have since that time
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been giving talks and
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meeting visitors from
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around the country and
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really around the world and
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talking about the Battle of Bunker Hill.
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And it was really my
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interactions with the
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visitors that I met with.
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there that prompted me to
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dig into Prescott's background.
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I wanted to be an
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informative docent up there
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and started doing research,
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not only about the battle,
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but as you mentioned,
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Prescott's statue is the
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only statue on the battlefield.
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And it's where a lot of the
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visitors congregate as they
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come up from the street and
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take pictures and strike
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the pose of Prescott with
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his sword extended and so forth.
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And so I ended up
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doing a lot of work,
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background work on Prescott.
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A big turn in that work that
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led me to the book was that
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when COVID shut down the
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park in in twenty twenty,
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I had some extra time on my
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hands and I originally
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thought I would take my
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notes and maybe write a
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couple of articles or a
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small pamphlet of some kind.
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In the course of still doing some work,
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I got some encouragement from
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Probably some folks that you
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know quite well.
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John Ferling,
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who has written extensively
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on the Revolutionary War.
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Nathaniel Philbrook, who, of course,
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wrote Hunker Hill.
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Gordon Wood, Christian Despigna,
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Paul Lockhart, all who have written nice,
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nice books about the Revolutionary Era,
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said, gee, you know, you're right.
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Prescott hasn't been written
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about in a very long time.
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and here he was.
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He was the major commander, really,
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at the battle.
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I mean,
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he wasn't the only commander there.
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John Stark from New Hampshire was there,
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Israel Putnam from Connecticut,
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and so forth,
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but he was really given the
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orders to fortify and defend Bunker Hill,
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and so he became the focal
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point of my work.
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Why is there a statue of him?
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I mean,
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you said that there were other
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commanders.
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You say he was the only one
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who was there throughout.
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That's right.
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So when was the statue put up?
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So the statue comes quite
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distant after the battle.
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The battle, of course,
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is in June of seventeen seventy five.
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And the first really
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monument that's created up
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there of any consequence is
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the Bunker Hill Monument,
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which was started in in
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eighteen twenty five was
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when they had the cornerstone laid.
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The cornerstone was laid by
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the Marquis de Lafayette,
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who was on a tour.
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He had come back.
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In his late sixties,
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he was on tour of the
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United States and he came
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up here and he was actually part of that.
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The monument got completed
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in in eighteen forty three.
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But along the way,
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there was some interest in
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having a statue done, both of Dr. Warren.
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And if you go to go to the
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park and go into the lodge building,
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there is a eight foot
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marble statue of Dr. Warren there.
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That was done in eighteen fifty seven,
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I believe.
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But similarly,
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the Bunker Hill Minutemen
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Association was very
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interested in having a
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statute of Prescott.
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And they ended up hiring
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William Wetmore Story,
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who was actually a law,
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went to Harvard Law.
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His father was a justice of
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the Supreme Court.
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That's right.
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His father was a famous justice.
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And he was quite an
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interesting guy because he
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decided to become a sculptor.
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and they said, well, gee,
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why don't you do the statue
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of William Prescott,
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and we'll give you a commission,
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and he said,
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I'll do it if I can train
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myself a little bit better than I am,
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so he actually went over to Rome, Italy,
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and studied sculpture there,
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and did the statue in eighteen eighty,
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and it was dedicated in
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eighteen eighty-one on the
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anniversary of the battle.
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And it is a dramatic pose,
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unlike a lot of statues at the time,
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which are kind of static.
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I mean, he is a
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Yeah,
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there are different interpretations
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of that.
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I have my own interpretation.
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A lot of people that I've read,
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and maybe they're just kind
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of copying each other,
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but we'll say that he has
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his right arm extended.
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He has a short sword that
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signifies his rank.
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And on his left hand,
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he kind of holds it up.
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And they say he's telling
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the troops not to fire yet.
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And they're kind of alluding
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to the don't fire until the
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whites of their eyes.
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Yeah.
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I see it as a more aggressive pose because,
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of course, the British,
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when they get up in the
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morning on the day of the battle,
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June seventeenth,
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not expecting to have a battle that day,
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but seeing hundreds of men
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up on Breed's Hill, not Bunker's Hill,
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Breed's Hill, constructing their fort,
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that they start firing
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cannon shots from their
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warships in the harbor.
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And Prescott is very defiant.
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He's a six foot two, very athletic guy.
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He's forty nine years old.
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He's not a spring chicken.
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And he's, you know,
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encouraging his men to to
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build the fort and get it
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done because he's
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anticipating that now the
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British know they're there
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and what they're doing,
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that they're going to come over.
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And so I see the statue as
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kind of a challenge to the British that
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And I say this in my book,
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that when I see the statue,
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I hear him saying, we know you're coming.
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We're going to be ready for you.
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That kind of a thing.
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And years later,
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a private in the British
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Army said that he had
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actually fired at Prescott
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several times deliberately,
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but missed him, couldn't hit him,
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as he is defying the entire British Army.
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Yeah, there's a great story when the
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Redoubt is being built on Saturday morning,
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the seventeenth,
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and the British are firing
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cannon and so forth.
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And Prescott at one point
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mounts the wall of the redoubt.
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So he's the redoubt is about
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six feet high.
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It's you know, it's a dirt earthworks.
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And he's walking back and forth,
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encouraging the men to get the work done.
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And at one point,
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he reputedly stops over in
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the southeast corner of the
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rectangular redoubt.
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looks towards Boston and
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docks his cap towards the British.
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So he's, he's got a lot of, but this guy,
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and one of the other
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reasons I enjoyed getting into him, but,
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um, in Boston at the time in Cops Hill,
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which is where the North end is,
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if people are familiar with
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the North end of Boston, um,
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was a military governor, Thomas Gage.
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Right.
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And he's up there looking at, um,
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what's going on through a spyglass.
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And he has with him an aide,
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Abijah Willard, who is a loyalist.
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And he gives the spyglass to
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Willard and says,
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tell me who's commanding up there.
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And Willard looks through
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the spyglass and says, it's Prescott.
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And he knows it's Prescott
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because Prescott is his brother-in-law,
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which is really an
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interesting thing to find out.
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He had married
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um, William Prescott's, uh, older sister,
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Elizabeth.
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And, um,
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actually Willard and Prescott had met in,
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in Prescott's home in, in Pepperell, uh,
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weeks before where Willard
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had warned him that given
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the fighting at Lexington and Concord,
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which was two months
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earlier and other things
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that had been going on at little events,
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he said, you know, things are getting,
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I'm paraphrasing here, but he said, no,
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things are getting kind of testy.
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And, um,
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You know, if there's fighting,
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you could lose your farm.
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You could lose your life.
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And Prescott very famously says,
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I have made up my mind on that subject.
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And I think it's probable I
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may be found in arms,
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but I will not be taken alive.
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The Tories will not have the
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satisfaction of seeing me hang.
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So Gage asks Willard if
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Prescott's going to fight.
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And he says, oh, he's an old soldier,
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but he's going to fight you
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to his last drop of blood.
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Wow.
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So that's when Gage decides
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we must carry the works.
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And he moves their attack,
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which had been planned for Sunday,
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the eighteenth,
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up to the day of the battle.
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Right.
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We're talking with Don Ryan,
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author of Searching for William Prescott,
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Stalwart of Bunker Hill.
00:09:45.826 --> 00:09:48.107
And Prescott was an old soldier.
00:09:48.168 --> 00:09:49.628
He had been at the siege of
00:09:49.668 --> 00:09:51.509
Lewisburg in seventeen forty five,
00:09:51.528 --> 00:09:52.889
had fought in the French
00:09:52.909 --> 00:09:54.750
and Indian War in the fifty
00:09:54.809 --> 00:09:55.630
seventeen sixty.
00:09:55.650 --> 00:09:56.571
So he does have a lot of
00:09:56.610 --> 00:09:58.351
military experience.
00:09:58.432 --> 00:09:58.672
Right.
00:09:59.192 --> 00:09:59.792
That's correct.
00:10:00.373 --> 00:10:00.952
He wasn't, you know,
00:10:01.033 --> 00:10:01.692
I wouldn't call him a
00:10:01.732 --> 00:10:02.734
professional soldier,
00:10:03.774 --> 00:10:06.855
but if you look at his ancestry,
00:10:07.416 --> 00:10:09.177
and I was lucky enough to
00:10:09.576 --> 00:10:10.557
get access to a
00:10:10.616 --> 00:10:12.018
genealogical history of the
00:10:12.057 --> 00:10:15.038
family written by Dr. William Prescott,
00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:17.240
one of many William
00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:18.341
Prescotts I found out that
00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:19.260
you run across when you
00:10:19.321 --> 00:10:21.442
start digging into these records,
00:10:21.522 --> 00:10:25.384
but he was a medical doctor
00:10:25.443 --> 00:10:27.304
who wrote this history back in
00:10:28.038 --> 00:10:30.679
I think it's around mid-eighteen hundreds,
00:10:30.820 --> 00:10:32.301
eighteen seventy, somewhere around there.
00:10:33.061 --> 00:10:35.263
And you find out that the Prescott's,
00:10:36.062 --> 00:10:37.283
he can go back in history
00:10:37.323 --> 00:10:40.667
into the fifteen hundreds in England.
00:10:41.427 --> 00:10:44.909
And his ancestors all had
00:10:44.950 --> 00:10:46.190
some type of military
00:10:46.250 --> 00:10:47.971
experience with them.
00:10:47.991 --> 00:10:51.594
They were, you know,
00:10:51.634 --> 00:10:53.134
militia leaders in their town.
00:10:53.514 --> 00:10:54.956
His great grandfather comes
00:10:54.975 --> 00:10:57.217
from England via Barbados.
00:10:58.097 --> 00:11:01.080
in sixteen forty and lands in.
00:11:01.139 --> 00:11:02.500
Yeah, this is interesting.
00:11:02.541 --> 00:11:04.883
It lands in Boston in sixteen forty.
00:11:05.503 --> 00:11:06.364
John Prescott.
00:11:07.163 --> 00:11:08.345
And he's a young man.
00:11:08.384 --> 00:11:09.265
He has a young family.
00:11:10.307 --> 00:11:11.847
He's kind of seeking his fortune.
00:11:11.868 --> 00:11:14.490
And he originally lands in
00:11:15.190 --> 00:11:17.292
or settles in Watertown,
00:11:17.711 --> 00:11:18.732
just west of Boston,
00:11:19.192 --> 00:11:20.573
but then moves out to what
00:11:20.614 --> 00:11:21.654
was then the frontier in
00:11:21.715 --> 00:11:22.815
central Massachusetts,
00:11:23.255 --> 00:11:24.996
founds the town of Lancaster.
00:11:25.721 --> 00:11:27.962
which he names after his town in England.
00:11:28.823 --> 00:11:30.264
And then the Prescotts
00:11:30.664 --> 00:11:32.986
eventually are part of the
00:11:33.866 --> 00:11:35.849
settlers that found Rodden
00:11:35.889 --> 00:11:38.431
and Pepperell and Sudbury and Concord.
00:11:38.471 --> 00:11:39.792
That whole area is kind of
00:11:39.871 --> 00:11:41.572
populated with Prescotts.
00:11:42.113 --> 00:11:42.813
Interesting.
00:11:43.374 --> 00:11:43.573
Yeah.
00:11:43.735 --> 00:11:46.255
And so he follows in the
00:11:46.297 --> 00:11:47.157
tradition of the family.
00:11:47.197 --> 00:11:48.798
They're all very active,
00:11:49.458 --> 00:11:51.059
whether it's his great-grandfather,
00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:52.100
his grandfather, his father,
00:11:52.160 --> 00:11:53.381
all very active in civic
00:11:53.422 --> 00:11:54.962
matters to build up these
00:11:55.332 --> 00:11:56.573
fledgling little towns.
00:11:57.193 --> 00:11:59.556
And then in each case,
00:11:59.596 --> 00:12:01.937
they're like a captain in
00:12:01.977 --> 00:12:02.817
the town militia.
00:12:03.339 --> 00:12:04.418
And that's what he becomes.
00:12:06.100 --> 00:12:07.981
That is part of your civic obligation,
00:12:09.163 --> 00:12:09.842
particularly if you're a
00:12:09.883 --> 00:12:11.083
leader in the town.
00:12:11.504 --> 00:12:13.365
Exactly, exactly.
00:12:15.547 --> 00:12:15.908
Also,
00:12:15.988 --> 00:12:17.908
talking about his brother-in-law
00:12:17.928 --> 00:12:18.809
being on the other side,
00:12:18.830 --> 00:12:20.090
the Mass Historical Society
00:12:20.129 --> 00:12:21.711
has the two crossed swords.
00:12:21.772 --> 00:12:23.253
That's right.
00:12:23.273 --> 00:12:25.053
Can you tell us a bit about that?
00:12:25.635 --> 00:12:26.817
Yes, sure.
00:12:26.856 --> 00:12:28.077
So very famously,
00:12:31.580 --> 00:12:32.279
the swords that you're
00:12:32.299 --> 00:12:35.101
referring to are Prescott's
00:12:35.142 --> 00:12:36.822
sword that he carried in the battle.
00:12:38.302 --> 00:12:39.384
They called it the thirsty
00:12:39.443 --> 00:12:41.625
sword because it wasn't a blade sword.
00:12:41.684 --> 00:12:44.047
It was actually triangular sword.
00:12:44.586 --> 00:12:47.028
And so that when you stab somebody with it,
00:12:47.048 --> 00:12:49.929
it would create a gaping hole in it.
00:12:50.029 --> 00:12:53.192
But that sword and the sword
00:12:53.412 --> 00:12:55.173
of Captain John Lindsay,
00:12:55.875 --> 00:12:59.498
who was the captain of the Falcon,
00:12:59.658 --> 00:13:01.658
one of the battleships in
00:13:01.698 --> 00:13:02.899
the harbor that was firing
00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:05.201
cannon up at the readout
00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:06.101
during the battle.
00:13:07.263 --> 00:13:08.403
Their grandkids,
00:13:09.303 --> 00:13:12.666
Prescott's grandson and
00:13:13.066 --> 00:13:14.187
Lindsay's granddaughter,
00:13:14.626 --> 00:13:15.567
ended up getting married.
00:13:16.528 --> 00:13:18.110
And the swords ended up in
00:13:18.649 --> 00:13:21.611
William Hinkling Prescott's possession.
00:13:21.692 --> 00:13:24.953
He mounted them on a walnut plaque.
00:13:25.527 --> 00:13:28.448
And it hung in the Prescott home.
00:13:28.469 --> 00:13:29.668
The Prescott home is still around.
00:13:29.688 --> 00:13:30.549
It's still occupied.
00:13:31.009 --> 00:13:31.149
Yeah,
00:13:31.169 --> 00:13:32.730
the Society of Colonial Games
00:13:33.051 --> 00:13:33.772
operates it.
00:13:33.792 --> 00:13:34.611
That's right.
00:13:35.552 --> 00:13:36.592
And they have a replica,
00:13:36.634 --> 00:13:37.953
but they think they put the
00:13:38.014 --> 00:13:39.695
swords at the mass historical.
00:13:39.995 --> 00:13:41.096
Tremendous house.
00:13:41.696 --> 00:13:42.937
William Hickman Prescott was
00:13:42.976 --> 00:13:43.618
the historian.
00:13:44.158 --> 00:13:45.958
He was the historian, famous historian,
00:13:45.999 --> 00:13:48.821
who unfortunately isn't
00:13:48.860 --> 00:13:50.501
born until four years after
00:13:50.562 --> 00:13:51.501
Prescott dies.
00:13:51.942 --> 00:13:53.702
Prescott dies when he's sixty nine,
00:13:53.743 --> 00:13:54.663
almost seventy years old.
00:13:55.447 --> 00:13:57.408
and William Hinkling Prescott,
00:13:57.568 --> 00:14:00.211
who has a phenomenal career
00:14:00.312 --> 00:14:01.192
as a historian.
00:14:01.272 --> 00:14:01.712
In fact,
00:14:02.273 --> 00:14:03.975
every year there's an award in his
00:14:04.034 --> 00:14:05.897
name given out there.
00:14:07.477 --> 00:14:09.659
Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne,
00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:15.966
oh my God, I'm going to lose her name,
00:14:16.225 --> 00:14:16.606
Harris,
00:14:18.467 --> 00:14:19.830
received the award a couple of years ago.
00:14:22.250 --> 00:14:23.530
Joanne Freeman, I should be saying.
00:14:23.551 --> 00:14:24.072
Joanne Freeman.
00:14:24.672 --> 00:14:26.594
But yeah, so the swords are there.
00:14:27.195 --> 00:14:28.076
The last time I was there,
00:14:28.115 --> 00:14:29.056
they had moved them from
00:14:29.376 --> 00:14:30.898
where they had been in the
00:14:30.937 --> 00:14:32.158
front of the building.
00:14:32.820 --> 00:14:34.581
But it's quite an interesting story.
00:14:34.841 --> 00:14:35.623
Actually, Lindsay,
00:14:35.663 --> 00:14:36.884
who of course was the enemy,
00:14:37.244 --> 00:14:38.225
he ends up coming back to
00:14:38.245 --> 00:14:41.347
Boston and he gets, he settles back here.
00:14:41.368 --> 00:14:42.048
Right, right.
00:14:42.993 --> 00:14:44.153
We're talking with Don Ryan,
00:14:44.234 --> 00:14:46.054
author of Searching for William Prescott,
00:14:46.095 --> 00:14:47.395
Stalwart of Bunker Hill.
00:14:47.956 --> 00:14:49.337
And Prescott is at the
00:14:49.378 --> 00:14:50.918
battle from the beginning.
00:14:50.938 --> 00:14:51.099
I mean,
00:14:51.119 --> 00:14:52.539
his men are fortifying the hill the
00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:53.139
night before.
00:14:53.221 --> 00:14:54.761
And then till the very end,
00:14:54.841 --> 00:14:57.604
he is one of the last to retreat.
00:14:57.663 --> 00:14:59.284
So he is there for a long time.
00:14:59.345 --> 00:15:03.148
And then he goes back home,
00:15:03.567 --> 00:15:05.129
but then he comes back into the army.
00:15:05.909 --> 00:15:06.210
Yeah.
00:15:06.289 --> 00:15:07.831
I'll tell you one other quick story,
00:15:08.432 --> 00:15:10.692
which one of the reasons I
00:15:10.712 --> 00:15:11.774
got interested in this
00:15:12.119 --> 00:15:14.539
because of his incredible courage.
00:15:15.559 --> 00:15:17.140
And it's not just displayed
00:15:17.780 --> 00:15:18.841
at Bunker Hill and all the
00:15:18.881 --> 00:15:19.841
people who stood there that
00:15:19.861 --> 00:15:21.663
day facing off against the
00:15:21.702 --> 00:15:23.004
British army had to have a
00:15:23.063 --> 00:15:24.364
certain amount of physical courage.
00:15:24.384 --> 00:15:26.024
You know,
00:15:26.085 --> 00:15:27.345
I mentioned earlier how he said
00:15:27.365 --> 00:15:28.666
he would not be taken alive
00:15:29.166 --> 00:15:30.046
when the British on their
00:15:30.105 --> 00:15:32.226
third attempt eventually
00:15:32.267 --> 00:15:33.327
get into the redoubt and it
00:15:33.347 --> 00:15:34.727
becomes hand-to-hand fighting.
00:15:35.729 --> 00:15:37.028
Prescott, true to his word,
00:15:37.769 --> 00:15:39.289
is in the fort fighting
00:15:39.330 --> 00:15:41.110
them and he's pairing the thrusts
00:15:41.583 --> 00:15:44.705
of their bayonets with his short sword.
00:15:45.184 --> 00:15:47.525
His jacket is getting torn
00:15:48.167 --> 00:15:50.326
by the bayonets.
00:15:50.807 --> 00:15:52.207
And somehow, miraculously,
00:15:52.288 --> 00:15:53.268
he's not wounded.
00:15:53.327 --> 00:15:54.869
He's not killed or captured.
00:15:55.489 --> 00:15:56.389
He does escape.
00:15:57.990 --> 00:16:00.471
He retreats out of the redoubt.
00:16:00.831 --> 00:16:02.251
The British have taken control.
00:16:02.731 --> 00:16:06.734
The Americans head back to Harvard Square,
00:16:07.033 --> 00:16:08.433
to the headquarters.
00:16:08.754 --> 00:16:10.335
He reports to Artemis Ward,
00:16:10.827 --> 00:16:11.948
who was the major general at
00:16:11.989 --> 00:16:13.269
the time of the New England troops.
00:16:14.070 --> 00:16:17.451
And in an incredible situation,
00:16:17.532 --> 00:16:18.932
he says to Ward,
00:16:21.134 --> 00:16:22.654
I did everything I could in my power.
00:16:22.835 --> 00:16:23.975
I stayed as long as I could,
00:16:24.015 --> 00:16:25.216
but we became overwhelmed
00:16:25.277 --> 00:16:26.477
and we ran out of ammunition.
00:16:27.278 --> 00:16:29.700
But if you give me three regiments,
00:16:29.820 --> 00:16:32.181
a thousand men, muskets and bayonets,
00:16:32.782 --> 00:16:34.602
I will go back and recapture the hill,
00:16:35.123 --> 00:16:36.984
even if I perish in the effort,
00:16:37.004 --> 00:16:38.264
he tells Ward.
00:16:39.171 --> 00:16:40.572
Now that's a pretty amazing
00:16:40.631 --> 00:16:42.312
statement and how it
00:16:42.352 --> 00:16:44.413
demonstrates how much he
00:16:44.453 --> 00:16:47.235
was into the cause and Ward
00:16:47.274 --> 00:16:48.196
won't let him go.
00:16:49.375 --> 00:16:51.037
But to get to your point,
00:16:51.596 --> 00:16:53.518
he does stay in the army.
00:16:55.158 --> 00:16:57.039
He becomes part of the Boston siege.
00:16:57.379 --> 00:16:58.740
George Washington arrives in
00:16:58.801 --> 00:17:00.721
Boston on July third,
00:17:00.741 --> 00:17:02.001
a few weeks after the battle.
00:17:02.802 --> 00:17:04.282
And he helps Washington
00:17:04.323 --> 00:17:05.903
along with others to put
00:17:05.923 --> 00:17:07.565
together really the, the,
00:17:07.881 --> 00:17:09.401
The Army of the United Colonies,
00:17:09.421 --> 00:17:10.342
which is what it was first
00:17:10.402 --> 00:17:11.682
called until it became the
00:17:11.741 --> 00:17:12.622
Continental Army.
00:17:13.402 --> 00:17:14.502
And he's there for the siege.
00:17:14.583 --> 00:17:14.863
Of course,
00:17:14.883 --> 00:17:16.282
there was no fighting in the siege.
00:17:16.323 --> 00:17:19.423
The British, under William Howe,
00:17:19.463 --> 00:17:20.624
who was the on-the-field
00:17:20.663 --> 00:17:22.305
commander at Bunker Hill for the British,
00:17:23.404 --> 00:17:25.545
decide to evacuate the city.
00:17:25.585 --> 00:17:26.425
And that's what they do.
00:17:27.246 --> 00:17:28.465
Washington, excuse me.
00:17:28.586 --> 00:17:28.726
Yeah,
00:17:28.766 --> 00:17:30.527
Washington then is going to go down
00:17:30.567 --> 00:17:31.846
to New York to defend New York.
00:17:32.727 --> 00:17:34.267
And there is a recruiting
00:17:34.387 --> 00:17:36.327
effort to get soldiers to go with him.
00:17:37.074 --> 00:17:38.673
and Prescott decides he will
00:17:38.733 --> 00:17:40.615
sign up for a tour of duty.
00:17:41.255 --> 00:17:42.835
And he and his regiment
00:17:42.934 --> 00:17:44.915
march down to New York.
00:17:45.076 --> 00:17:46.455
You know, there's a lot of marching, Bob,
00:17:46.496 --> 00:17:46.976
in this area.
00:17:46.996 --> 00:17:48.116
There's a lot of marching, yeah.
00:17:48.156 --> 00:17:49.777
There aren't trains or buses.
00:17:49.797 --> 00:17:50.237
That's right, yeah.
00:17:50.277 --> 00:17:52.357
And then there's Governor's
00:17:52.458 --> 00:17:53.958
Island off the tip of Manhattan.
00:17:54.738 --> 00:17:55.278
That's right.
00:17:56.019 --> 00:17:56.898
He and his troop,
00:17:56.939 --> 00:17:58.459
and probably many of these
00:17:58.519 --> 00:17:59.439
men have probably never
00:17:59.459 --> 00:18:01.660
been out of their region.
00:18:02.059 --> 00:18:02.819
Now they're going to go two
00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:04.560
hundred miles south to
00:18:04.621 --> 00:18:06.500
fight the British in New York.
00:18:07.384 --> 00:18:09.746
And Israel Putnam,
00:18:09.826 --> 00:18:12.167
who has kind of a dubious, in my mind,
00:18:12.208 --> 00:18:14.410
dubious experience at Bunker Hill,
00:18:14.450 --> 00:18:16.251
he's actually referred to
00:18:16.311 --> 00:18:18.334
by some historians as the
00:18:18.374 --> 00:18:19.315
hero of Bunker Hill.
00:18:19.335 --> 00:18:20.296
Now,
00:18:20.336 --> 00:18:22.778
I take issue with that because I think
00:18:23.097 --> 00:18:24.439
certainly Prescott and you
00:18:24.459 --> 00:18:25.900
could add John Stark from
00:18:25.961 --> 00:18:27.682
New Hampshire have major roles.
00:18:28.702 --> 00:18:29.703
Putnam never really is
00:18:29.743 --> 00:18:31.204
involved in the fighting,
00:18:31.945 --> 00:18:33.146
but he was there and he was
00:18:33.227 --> 00:18:34.407
a famous general and
00:18:35.641 --> 00:18:37.741
when Washington goes down to New York,
00:18:38.102 --> 00:18:39.423
he actually puts Putnam in
00:18:39.463 --> 00:18:41.845
charge of the defense of New York.
00:18:42.105 --> 00:18:44.027
Charles Lee had been there previously.
00:18:45.288 --> 00:18:46.009
He then puts,
00:18:46.328 --> 00:18:48.891
Washington then puts Putnam
00:18:48.931 --> 00:18:53.413
in charge and Putnam
00:18:54.836 --> 00:18:58.258
assigns Prescott to Governor's Island,
00:18:58.317 --> 00:18:59.138
which is a hundred and
00:18:59.179 --> 00:19:01.201
seventy nine acre island
00:19:01.381 --> 00:19:02.961
off the southern tip of Manhattan.
00:19:03.461 --> 00:19:04.202
I was just there.
00:19:04.690 --> 00:19:05.450
two months ago,
00:19:05.529 --> 00:19:07.211
I wanted to be on the
00:19:07.290 --> 00:19:09.612
island myself to see the
00:19:09.652 --> 00:19:12.894
panorama that Prescott would have seen.
00:19:14.153 --> 00:19:15.355
Governor's Island sits at
00:19:15.375 --> 00:19:16.654
the mouth of the East River.
00:19:16.875 --> 00:19:19.056
So you have Manhattan to the
00:19:19.096 --> 00:19:20.856
west and Brooklyn to the east.
00:19:21.557 --> 00:19:22.657
And the thought was,
00:19:23.238 --> 00:19:25.078
if we can control the entrance there,
00:19:25.118 --> 00:19:25.980
we can keep the British
00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:27.380
from sailing their ships up
00:19:27.420 --> 00:19:29.881
and bombarding the two areas.
00:19:30.781 --> 00:19:30.961
And
00:19:32.688 --> 00:19:35.608
This is maybe going too much
00:19:35.628 --> 00:19:36.549
into speculation,
00:19:36.609 --> 00:19:40.592
but after the Battle of Bunker Hill,
00:19:40.971 --> 00:19:42.192
and I found this is interesting,
00:19:42.251 --> 00:19:45.034
and it was William Prescott Jr., his son,
00:19:45.074 --> 00:19:47.055
and Prescott only has only one child,
00:19:47.075 --> 00:19:48.115
which was very rare for
00:19:48.154 --> 00:19:48.894
people in that age,
00:19:48.934 --> 00:19:51.056
particularly a farmer who needs labor.
00:19:51.576 --> 00:19:52.596
He only had one child.
00:19:52.696 --> 00:19:54.038
He became a famous jurist,
00:19:55.558 --> 00:19:57.519
and he tells the story.
00:19:58.519 --> 00:19:59.559
I think this information is
00:19:59.579 --> 00:20:00.941
at the Mass Historical Society.
00:20:01.512 --> 00:20:02.933
about how after the battle,
00:20:04.694 --> 00:20:07.276
Prescott had confronted Putnam.
00:20:08.136 --> 00:20:09.758
Putnam had come to Prescott
00:20:10.337 --> 00:20:11.459
just before the battle had
00:20:11.499 --> 00:20:12.779
started and asked for some
00:20:12.819 --> 00:20:13.640
men to take all the
00:20:13.700 --> 00:20:15.820
entrenching tools out of
00:20:15.861 --> 00:20:17.721
the redoubt and send them
00:20:17.741 --> 00:20:19.482
back towards Cambridge to protect them,
00:20:19.844 --> 00:20:21.003
which sort of made sense.
00:20:22.825 --> 00:20:24.866
Prescott was worried, and rightly so,
00:20:25.426 --> 00:20:27.448
that the men who took those
00:20:27.488 --> 00:20:29.128
tools wouldn't come back.
00:20:29.394 --> 00:20:30.693
And he was already losing
00:20:30.733 --> 00:20:33.075
people who were leaving the front.
00:20:33.994 --> 00:20:36.234
And he said that to Putnam.
00:20:36.255 --> 00:20:37.215
And Putnam said that they
00:20:37.236 --> 00:20:38.395
would return once they had
00:20:38.816 --> 00:20:39.655
moved the tools.
00:20:39.695 --> 00:20:40.715
Well, they never came back.
00:20:41.395 --> 00:20:42.477
And so after the battle,
00:20:43.616 --> 00:20:46.416
Prescott confronts Putnam and says,
00:20:46.657 --> 00:20:47.778
why did you not come back
00:20:47.817 --> 00:20:48.657
like you said you were?
00:20:49.417 --> 00:20:51.519
And Putnam says,
00:20:51.638 --> 00:20:53.058
I couldn't make the dogs go.
00:20:54.318 --> 00:20:57.180
To which point Prescott said,
00:20:57.720 --> 00:20:58.539
if you had said,
00:20:58.955 --> 00:20:59.675
Come with me.
00:21:00.175 --> 00:21:01.395
You would have found enough men.
00:21:02.156 --> 00:21:03.817
So he really challenges him.
00:21:04.977 --> 00:21:06.537
He's basically calling him out.
00:21:06.797 --> 00:21:07.416
And, you know,
00:21:07.457 --> 00:21:08.837
John Stark referred to
00:21:08.978 --> 00:21:10.657
Israel Putnam as a poltroon,
00:21:10.738 --> 00:21:13.157
a coward from that battle.
00:21:13.238 --> 00:21:15.239
So in New York, jumping ahead now,
00:21:17.378 --> 00:21:19.239
Putnam assigns Prescott to
00:21:19.278 --> 00:21:21.900
this isolated spot in the
00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:22.720
middle of the harbor.
00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:24.500
And I thought, is this a little bit of,
00:21:24.579 --> 00:21:26.080
you know, payback for some of this?
00:21:26.980 --> 00:21:28.461
Just coincidental, as you think.
00:21:28.887 --> 00:21:29.968
Maybe Prescott's the best
00:21:30.008 --> 00:21:32.009
guy to do that because after all,
00:21:32.068 --> 00:21:33.230
he was in charge of Bunker
00:21:33.269 --> 00:21:34.589
Hill and that was a very
00:21:34.609 --> 00:21:35.789
dangerous situation too.
00:21:37.211 --> 00:21:39.632
There are not many officers
00:21:39.692 --> 00:21:41.673
who are as good at telling
00:21:41.692 --> 00:21:43.432
their own story as Putnam was.
00:21:43.653 --> 00:21:45.253
And there's a legend in the
00:21:45.314 --> 00:21:46.594
town in Connecticut he was
00:21:46.653 --> 00:21:47.914
from about he had gone into
00:21:47.934 --> 00:21:49.595
a cave and found a sleeping
00:21:49.634 --> 00:21:51.256
bear and wrestled the bear.
00:21:51.316 --> 00:21:53.237
And they said if you didn't
00:21:53.257 --> 00:21:54.076
believe the story,
00:21:54.096 --> 00:21:55.477
they would point you to the cave.
00:21:55.497 --> 00:21:57.218
Yeah, that's funny.
00:21:58.541 --> 00:22:00.363
Yeah, that's funny.
00:22:00.383 --> 00:22:00.643
So, you know,
00:22:00.682 --> 00:22:02.023
it's curious because there's
00:22:02.044 --> 00:22:03.463
a lot of discussion about
00:22:04.644 --> 00:22:06.464
the decision to fortify
00:22:06.704 --> 00:22:07.766
Charlestown Heights and
00:22:07.806 --> 00:22:09.086
where they put the readout
00:22:09.145 --> 00:22:09.807
on Breed's Hill.
00:22:11.946 --> 00:22:13.407
And Prescott had gone along.
00:22:13.428 --> 00:22:14.528
Putnam was very aggressive.
00:22:14.567 --> 00:22:15.709
He wanted to fight the British.
00:22:16.689 --> 00:22:18.869
And several times he had
00:22:19.190 --> 00:22:19.970
demonstrated that.
00:22:20.049 --> 00:22:22.090
But Prescott went along with
00:22:22.131 --> 00:22:24.192
him to put the readout on Breed's Island,
00:22:24.832 --> 00:22:25.412
Breed's Hill.
00:22:25.491 --> 00:22:25.833
Right.
00:22:27.782 --> 00:22:29.044
that kind of precipitated
00:22:29.084 --> 00:22:30.286
the British coming over that day.
00:22:30.306 --> 00:22:30.925
Yeah.
00:22:30.945 --> 00:22:31.906
Yeah.
00:22:32.027 --> 00:22:32.708
It's interesting,
00:22:32.728 --> 00:22:34.469
the personalities in this.
00:22:35.170 --> 00:22:39.272
And then after the siege of New York,
00:22:39.292 --> 00:22:41.154
when Washington's army is
00:22:41.194 --> 00:22:42.355
chased across New Jersey,
00:22:42.516 --> 00:22:43.656
January of seventy seven,
00:22:43.696 --> 00:22:45.739
he retires from he leaves the army.
00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:47.019
That's correct.
00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:48.421
He leaves the army.
00:22:50.202 --> 00:22:52.664
Incidentally, when Washington does escape,
00:22:53.358 --> 00:22:54.720
with his army from Brooklyn
00:22:54.839 --> 00:22:56.779
and that famous evacuation
00:22:56.819 --> 00:23:00.061
in the middle of the night and under fog.
00:23:01.883 --> 00:23:02.962
When Washington leaves
00:23:03.022 --> 00:23:04.544
Brooklyn and Howe's troops
00:23:04.564 --> 00:23:06.003
can't battle them,
00:23:06.845 --> 00:23:08.005
the last people to leave
00:23:08.045 --> 00:23:09.506
Southern New York is
00:23:09.586 --> 00:23:10.605
Prescott and his men on
00:23:10.645 --> 00:23:11.346
Governor's Island.
00:23:11.787 --> 00:23:12.946
It isn't until seven o'clock
00:23:12.987 --> 00:23:15.248
in the morning that they finally decide,
00:23:15.929 --> 00:23:17.169
they can see the British up
00:23:17.269 --> 00:23:20.210
on Brooklyn Heights because
00:23:20.250 --> 00:23:21.230
it's not that far away.
00:23:21.885 --> 00:23:22.866
And they get into their
00:23:22.906 --> 00:23:24.907
boats and sail back and escape.
00:23:24.948 --> 00:23:25.989
And Washington actually
00:23:26.048 --> 00:23:28.230
commends Prescott for the
00:23:28.309 --> 00:23:30.750
orderly retreat up Manhattan Island.
00:23:31.092 --> 00:23:31.692
But you're right.
00:23:32.551 --> 00:23:34.012
The Americans are eventually
00:23:34.073 --> 00:23:34.973
pushed out of Manhattan.
00:23:35.753 --> 00:23:37.115
Washington is being chased
00:23:37.154 --> 00:23:38.215
across New Jersey.
00:23:39.016 --> 00:23:42.478
And Prescott's tour of duty is up.
00:23:42.578 --> 00:23:43.578
And he decides he's going to
00:23:43.598 --> 00:23:44.720
go back to Pepperell and go
00:23:44.740 --> 00:23:47.361
back to his farming, which he does.
00:23:48.241 --> 00:23:49.462
Only to come out of
00:23:49.522 --> 00:23:51.644
retirement in September of
00:23:52.065 --> 00:23:59.611
in October of, um, when, um, Horatio Gates,
00:24:00.310 --> 00:24:02.232
who's in charge of the New England troops,
00:24:03.192 --> 00:24:03.374
um,
00:24:04.134 --> 00:24:06.215
puts out a call for support because
00:24:06.276 --> 00:24:07.155
John Burgoyne,
00:24:07.175 --> 00:24:09.258
the British general who is
00:24:09.377 --> 00:24:10.558
in Boston at the time of
00:24:10.578 --> 00:24:11.460
the Battle of Bunker Hill,
00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:12.380
but was not part of it,
00:24:12.820 --> 00:24:14.102
is bringing his army down
00:24:14.162 --> 00:24:16.083
from Canada in an attempt
00:24:16.103 --> 00:24:18.144
to cut off the New England
00:24:18.224 --> 00:24:20.906
colonies from the Southern colonies.
00:24:21.730 --> 00:24:23.549
And they are very nervous
00:24:23.609 --> 00:24:25.851
about Burgoyne's activity.
00:24:25.891 --> 00:24:28.211
Burgoyne has recaptured Fort
00:24:28.250 --> 00:24:30.251
Ticonderoga and some other forts.
00:24:31.071 --> 00:24:32.372
He's got six thousand men.
00:24:33.071 --> 00:24:34.413
William Howe is supposedly
00:24:34.452 --> 00:24:35.353
going to be coming up from
00:24:35.393 --> 00:24:38.794
New York to cut off the New
00:24:38.854 --> 00:24:39.794
England colonies.
00:24:40.554 --> 00:24:42.594
And Prescott in Pepperell
00:24:43.654 --> 00:24:45.674
hears the call and he
00:24:46.035 --> 00:24:47.914
volunteers for the army again.
00:24:49.256 --> 00:24:50.576
And I've seen the muster roll
00:24:51.634 --> 00:24:53.996
in the Massachusetts archives listing him.
00:24:54.756 --> 00:24:56.196
And it lists him as a private.
00:24:56.217 --> 00:24:57.657
Oh, my goodness.
00:24:57.678 --> 00:24:58.857
Because he, I mean, he was a colonel.
00:24:59.097 --> 00:25:01.019
They list him as a volunteer private.
00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:02.559
And in parentheses,
00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:03.921
it says former colonel.
00:25:05.162 --> 00:25:08.202
So he's fifty years old and he and about,
00:25:08.864 --> 00:25:10.464
I think it's around sixty
00:25:10.505 --> 00:25:11.744
or seventy men from his
00:25:11.825 --> 00:25:13.806
region march a hundred and
00:25:13.846 --> 00:25:16.347
forty miles out west
00:25:16.387 --> 00:25:18.429
through Massachusetts over
00:25:18.449 --> 00:25:19.910
the Berkshire Mountains into
00:25:20.902 --> 00:25:22.623
into the Saratoga battlefields.
00:25:22.722 --> 00:25:23.844
They arrive too late.
00:25:23.903 --> 00:25:25.625
He's not a part of the
00:25:25.664 --> 00:25:27.405
fighting that occurs at
00:25:27.726 --> 00:25:29.406
Freeman's Farm or Bemis Heights,
00:25:29.727 --> 00:25:30.626
but he is there for the
00:25:30.686 --> 00:25:33.368
siege and for the surrender ceremony.
00:25:33.388 --> 00:25:33.489
Right.
00:25:33.509 --> 00:25:35.049
Okay.
00:25:35.150 --> 00:25:37.931
In fact, I was just going to say,
00:25:38.030 --> 00:25:40.251
and I might be jumping
00:25:40.271 --> 00:25:41.232
around here a little bit for you,
00:25:41.252 --> 00:25:44.034
but there's a famous painting,
00:25:44.394 --> 00:25:46.296
The Surrender of John Beloyne,
00:25:46.875 --> 00:25:48.136
and it hangs in the rotunda.
00:25:48.156 --> 00:25:48.257
Yeah.
00:25:49.076 --> 00:25:50.136
of the United States Capitol,
00:25:50.176 --> 00:25:51.217
along with a couple of other.
00:25:51.237 --> 00:25:52.417
Yeah, by Trumbull,
00:25:52.657 --> 00:25:53.818
who also did the death of
00:25:53.838 --> 00:25:54.778
Warren at Bunker Hill.
00:25:55.380 --> 00:25:55.859
Exactly.
00:25:55.880 --> 00:25:57.141
And that's what I was getting to here.
00:25:57.161 --> 00:25:58.582
This is a little side story.
00:25:59.162 --> 00:25:59.622
And in fact,
00:25:59.721 --> 00:26:00.962
I talked to some people at the
00:26:00.982 --> 00:26:02.864
Massachusetts Fine Arts
00:26:02.943 --> 00:26:03.964
Museum about this.
00:26:04.865 --> 00:26:07.386
So Trumbull, who was a very famous painter,
00:26:08.968 --> 00:26:10.249
his father was the governor
00:26:10.388 --> 00:26:12.490
of Connecticut, royal governor,
00:26:12.529 --> 00:26:13.871
who was the only royal governor
00:26:14.534 --> 00:26:15.835
to go over to the provincial
00:26:15.875 --> 00:26:16.996
side of things and became a
00:26:17.056 --> 00:26:18.536
close friend of George Washington.
00:26:18.836 --> 00:26:20.897
And became the elected governor.
00:26:20.998 --> 00:26:21.857
Yeah, that's right.
00:26:21.897 --> 00:26:27.182
So, um, but Trumbull, um, in, uh, in, uh,
00:26:27.301 --> 00:26:28.982
paints the first of what
00:26:29.143 --> 00:26:31.703
ends up being three paintings, uh,
00:26:31.723 --> 00:26:34.145
the death of, uh, General Joseph Warnock,
00:26:34.205 --> 00:26:35.186
the Battle of Bunker Hill.
00:26:36.047 --> 00:26:37.468
And if you look at that closely,
00:26:37.688 --> 00:26:39.909
and the one in here in Boston, um,
00:26:40.028 --> 00:26:42.250
is only about three feet by two feet.
00:26:42.290 --> 00:26:42.790
It's small.
00:26:42.971 --> 00:26:44.152
It was commissioned by the, uh,
00:26:44.824 --> 00:26:45.763
by the Warren family,
00:26:45.983 --> 00:26:47.144
but his other two paintings
00:26:47.224 --> 00:26:48.684
are like ten by ten, they're big.
00:26:50.505 --> 00:26:51.226
You see all these
00:26:51.546 --> 00:26:53.945
Connecticut folk prominently displayed.
00:26:54.046 --> 00:26:56.467
Thomas Knowlton, Israel Putnam,
00:26:56.507 --> 00:26:57.307
Thomas Grosvenor,
00:26:57.326 --> 00:26:59.027
they're all there up front and center.
00:26:59.827 --> 00:27:01.367
And you have to peek over
00:27:01.407 --> 00:27:02.448
someone's shoulder and you
00:27:02.468 --> 00:27:04.828
see this little face with a hat on,
00:27:05.429 --> 00:27:06.249
and that's Prescott.
00:27:07.429 --> 00:27:08.970
And I thought, oh my God,
00:27:09.009 --> 00:27:10.329
he's like in the background
00:27:10.369 --> 00:27:11.470
here in this famous battle.
00:27:12.190 --> 00:27:14.290
And the story goes that when
00:27:14.835 --> 00:27:17.336
Burgoyne surrendered to
00:27:17.396 --> 00:27:20.138
Gates at Saratoga and
00:27:20.199 --> 00:27:21.200
Trumbull was going to paint
00:27:21.220 --> 00:27:24.162
that scene that he was so
00:27:24.221 --> 00:27:25.442
embarrassed that he hadn't
00:27:25.461 --> 00:27:27.943
given Prescott his due in
00:27:27.963 --> 00:27:29.644
the prior paintings of
00:27:29.704 --> 00:27:31.586
Bunker Hill that he puts
00:27:31.666 --> 00:27:34.348
Prescott prominently in that painting.
00:27:35.269 --> 00:27:37.270
And you'd have to look at it
00:27:37.290 --> 00:27:38.791
and I could point out who
00:27:38.811 --> 00:27:39.451
Prescott is there.
00:27:39.491 --> 00:27:40.573
You see his full body.
00:27:41.113 --> 00:27:41.894
He's carrying a musket.
00:27:42.465 --> 00:27:44.106
But one of the senior
00:27:44.247 --> 00:27:45.448
historians in the National
00:27:45.468 --> 00:27:47.169
Park Service in Saratoga,
00:27:47.769 --> 00:27:49.630
he and I were chatting and he said,
00:27:49.650 --> 00:27:49.851
you know,
00:27:49.871 --> 00:27:51.090
I could never figure out why
00:27:51.171 --> 00:27:51.971
Prescott is in this
00:27:51.991 --> 00:27:53.071
painting because he didn't fight.
00:27:53.172 --> 00:27:54.012
I don't think he even shot
00:27:54.032 --> 00:27:55.413
his musket at all.
00:27:56.595 --> 00:27:57.055
And I said,
00:27:57.134 --> 00:27:58.395
I think I have the answer for you.
00:27:59.115 --> 00:28:00.817
And he kind of chuckled at that.
00:28:01.436 --> 00:28:01.978
Interesting.
00:28:02.057 --> 00:28:02.538
Interesting.
00:28:03.318 --> 00:28:03.719
Yeah.
00:28:03.739 --> 00:28:04.778
He's right behind Daniel
00:28:04.798 --> 00:28:06.460
Morgan in the Saratoga.
00:28:06.500 --> 00:28:07.020
That's right.
00:28:07.040 --> 00:28:07.740
So you do not.
00:28:07.941 --> 00:28:08.682
That's right.
00:28:08.842 --> 00:28:08.922
Yeah.
00:28:09.835 --> 00:28:11.576
We're talking to Don Ryan,
00:28:11.757 --> 00:28:13.618
author of Search Seeking
00:28:13.659 --> 00:28:14.538
General Prescott.
00:28:14.558 --> 00:28:16.780
I'm sorry, I got the title wrong.
00:28:17.041 --> 00:28:18.403
Searching for William Prescott,
00:28:18.423 --> 00:28:19.604
the stalwart of Bunker Hill.
00:28:20.003 --> 00:28:20.144
Now,
00:28:20.163 --> 00:28:22.306
Stark leaves the army because he
00:28:22.365 --> 00:28:23.626
hadn't gotten promoted.
00:28:23.707 --> 00:28:25.568
Was that a reason for
00:28:25.608 --> 00:28:27.210
Prescott or he just thought
00:28:27.289 --> 00:28:27.911
he had had enough?
00:28:27.931 --> 00:28:28.451
I don't think so.
00:28:28.471 --> 00:28:29.832
That's a very good question.
00:28:29.852 --> 00:28:31.534
You're right.
00:28:31.574 --> 00:28:32.494
John Stark,
00:28:32.535 --> 00:28:35.457
who is a fierce fighter and was
00:28:35.557 --> 00:28:36.577
also a veteran of the
00:28:36.597 --> 00:28:37.719
French Indian War and
00:28:38.068 --> 00:28:39.009
He became the hero of
00:28:39.048 --> 00:28:39.950
Bennington and all that.
00:28:39.970 --> 00:28:42.269
He also comes back for Saratoga.
00:28:42.329 --> 00:28:43.631
He comes back and he plays a
00:28:43.691 --> 00:28:44.911
big role in the Battle of
00:28:44.951 --> 00:28:47.771
Bennington and also in Saratoga.
00:28:48.652 --> 00:28:49.692
But he was upset he wasn't
00:28:49.712 --> 00:28:50.373
getting promoted.
00:28:50.813 --> 00:28:53.153
And much like another famous
00:28:53.213 --> 00:28:56.875
battle commander, Benedict Arnold,
00:28:57.934 --> 00:28:58.756
who was not getting
00:28:58.796 --> 00:28:59.855
promoted despite even
00:28:59.875 --> 00:29:01.236
George Washington promoting
00:29:01.276 --> 00:29:02.257
him to the Congress.
00:29:03.477 --> 00:29:04.057
But Prescott,
00:29:04.196 --> 00:29:06.057
I never see any indication of him being
00:29:06.903 --> 00:29:07.964
upset by anything.
00:29:08.884 --> 00:29:08.984
Um,
00:29:09.065 --> 00:29:11.405
I think he just has praise for the army.
00:29:11.486 --> 00:29:12.546
He, he, uh,
00:29:12.605 --> 00:29:14.146
is very dedicated to the soldiers.
00:29:14.186 --> 00:29:16.567
In fact, um, in the town of Pepperell,
00:29:16.667 --> 00:29:19.469
they, uh, put him in charge of, um,
00:29:19.509 --> 00:29:20.630
helping to take care of the
00:29:20.670 --> 00:29:23.871
families of veterans.
00:29:24.230 --> 00:29:26.832
Um, he, uh, he has real, real, you know,
00:29:26.872 --> 00:29:27.952
soft spot for,
00:29:27.972 --> 00:29:29.772
for veterans actually of both sides.
00:29:30.393 --> 00:29:31.153
If I have time,
00:29:31.213 --> 00:29:33.035
I can tell you a very quick little story.
00:29:33.375 --> 00:29:33.934
Um,
00:29:35.540 --> 00:29:38.321
When he is down in New York, and this is,
00:29:38.382 --> 00:29:38.662
I think,
00:29:38.682 --> 00:29:40.422
just before he actually gets over
00:29:40.461 --> 00:29:41.422
to Governor's Island,
00:29:43.063 --> 00:29:43.663
there are a couple of
00:29:43.782 --> 00:29:45.462
provincial or government
00:29:45.482 --> 00:29:47.084
soldiers that are taking a
00:29:47.144 --> 00:29:47.983
British deserter,
00:29:48.663 --> 00:29:50.104
and they happen to walk by
00:29:50.344 --> 00:29:51.224
where Prescott is.
00:29:52.105 --> 00:29:54.444
And the British deserter says,
00:29:55.045 --> 00:29:56.786
over yonder is Colonel Prescott.
00:29:57.965 --> 00:30:01.586
And so the American troops
00:30:01.686 --> 00:30:02.707
bring him over to Prescott.
00:30:03.806 --> 00:30:05.788
And this fellow identifies
00:30:05.827 --> 00:30:06.847
himself and says,
00:30:07.888 --> 00:30:09.190
I saw you at Bunker Hill.
00:30:10.111 --> 00:30:12.471
And Prescott says to him, well,
00:30:12.511 --> 00:30:13.492
why didn't you kill me?
00:30:14.294 --> 00:30:16.095
And this British deserter says,
00:30:16.535 --> 00:30:17.236
I tried to.
00:30:17.796 --> 00:30:19.798
I was trying to stab you with my bayonet.
00:30:20.637 --> 00:30:21.778
And I was very close to you,
00:30:21.798 --> 00:30:22.839
but I never got you.
00:30:23.539 --> 00:30:25.701
And Prescott laughed and then said,
00:30:25.761 --> 00:30:26.501
come with me.
00:30:26.942 --> 00:30:27.803
And he took him into his
00:30:27.863 --> 00:30:29.044
tent to give him a treat.
00:30:29.064 --> 00:30:29.124
Wow.
00:30:30.803 --> 00:30:31.784
this is just kind of the
00:30:31.844 --> 00:30:33.385
personality of Prescott.
00:30:33.405 --> 00:30:33.685
I mean,
00:30:33.705 --> 00:30:38.270
you pick these little stories up and he,
00:30:38.310 --> 00:30:40.452
you know, he's a man of high integrity,
00:30:41.013 --> 00:30:41.694
honesty.
00:30:42.255 --> 00:30:43.616
He's a very simple man.
00:30:44.196 --> 00:30:45.719
He's not looking for praise
00:30:45.818 --> 00:30:47.099
or any of that sort of thing.
00:30:47.580 --> 00:30:49.782
He would be the last to say, you know,
00:30:49.863 --> 00:30:50.983
how is it that people don't
00:30:51.023 --> 00:30:52.986
know me all these years later?
00:30:53.067 --> 00:30:53.446
That sort of
00:30:54.740 --> 00:30:55.902
Did he leave much in the way
00:30:55.961 --> 00:30:58.123
of personal papers, letters, diaries?
00:30:58.223 --> 00:30:58.743
Oh, boy.
00:30:58.804 --> 00:30:59.744
Now you're really getting to
00:30:59.785 --> 00:31:00.545
the heart of it, Bob.
00:31:01.625 --> 00:31:02.886
Unfortunately for me,
00:31:02.946 --> 00:31:04.008
and maybe this is why not
00:31:04.067 --> 00:31:05.067
much has been written about
00:31:05.127 --> 00:31:06.930
Prescott in so long.
00:31:06.970 --> 00:31:07.150
I mean,
00:31:07.170 --> 00:31:08.971
the last things I've seen are
00:31:09.010 --> 00:31:10.271
speeches that were given at
00:31:10.772 --> 00:31:12.113
the centennial of his death
00:31:12.153 --> 00:31:13.233
in eighteen ninety five.
00:31:14.075 --> 00:31:15.715
But he wasn't really a writer.
00:31:16.336 --> 00:31:18.978
He wasn't a letter writer.
00:31:19.358 --> 00:31:20.479
He didn't leave a diary.
00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:23.902
I did find a few letters here and there.
00:31:25.291 --> 00:31:25.592
Actually,
00:31:25.672 --> 00:31:27.012
some of them are in William
00:31:27.053 --> 00:31:28.574
Hinkling Prescott's papers
00:31:29.134 --> 00:31:30.715
at the Mass Historical Society.
00:31:32.436 --> 00:31:35.619
But so it made the work of
00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:36.901
really trying to find out
00:31:37.201 --> 00:31:38.882
what I could about him much
00:31:38.942 --> 00:31:39.682
more difficult.
00:31:39.923 --> 00:31:42.285
And I mentioned a little bit
00:31:42.325 --> 00:31:45.086
earlier that the structure
00:31:45.106 --> 00:31:45.928
of the book changed a
00:31:45.948 --> 00:31:47.308
little bit as I was going through it.
00:31:47.348 --> 00:31:49.111
And the reason it's entitled
00:31:50.111 --> 00:31:52.012
Searching for William Prescott is that
00:31:52.757 --> 00:31:53.717
I was getting so many
00:31:53.757 --> 00:31:55.998
questions from people up on
00:31:56.038 --> 00:31:57.818
the Monument Park.
00:31:58.699 --> 00:31:59.739
Who is this person?
00:31:59.798 --> 00:32:00.838
Where did he come from?
00:32:01.219 --> 00:32:02.339
Did he survive the battle?
00:32:02.420 --> 00:32:03.500
What else did he do in the war,
00:32:03.539 --> 00:32:04.119
if anything?
00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:05.621
What did he do after the war?
00:32:05.921 --> 00:32:07.020
And I had the same questions.
00:32:08.020 --> 00:32:09.701
And as I started to look into it,
00:32:10.541 --> 00:32:11.481
I went on this quote
00:32:11.501 --> 00:32:14.022
unquote search to find what
00:32:14.103 --> 00:32:15.523
I could about William Prescott.
00:32:15.824 --> 00:32:17.824
And so the book is actually
00:32:17.884 --> 00:32:18.845
structured in a way
00:32:21.019 --> 00:32:22.160
I call it part history,
00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:23.319
part detective story.
00:32:24.401 --> 00:32:26.102
In an effort to maybe have
00:32:26.142 --> 00:32:30.703
it have some broader interest, I actually,
00:32:30.723 --> 00:32:32.164
in working with an editor,
00:32:32.845 --> 00:32:33.545
one of the very first
00:32:33.565 --> 00:32:35.506
questions she asked me when
00:32:35.546 --> 00:32:38.548
we first started collaborating was,
00:32:39.028 --> 00:32:40.469
she said to me, are you in this book?
00:32:41.429 --> 00:32:42.890
And I said, am I in this book?
00:32:42.950 --> 00:32:44.290
No, I'm a narrator here,
00:32:44.351 --> 00:32:46.551
but this is a history from
00:32:46.692 --> 00:32:47.491
hundreds of years ago.
00:32:48.192 --> 00:32:48.692
And she said, oh,
00:32:48.752 --> 00:32:49.613
I was just wondering if I
00:32:49.633 --> 00:32:50.713
was going to see you in the book.
00:32:51.488 --> 00:32:54.069
And that led me to think about, well,
00:32:54.109 --> 00:32:55.790
maybe I'll put myself in the book.
00:32:55.951 --> 00:32:57.071
And part of it will be,
00:32:57.571 --> 00:32:59.193
it'll be kind of the
00:32:59.233 --> 00:33:00.694
present and the past.
00:33:00.835 --> 00:33:03.656
And I move back and forth chronologically.
00:33:04.217 --> 00:33:05.397
When I run into something
00:33:05.417 --> 00:33:06.638
that I want to investigate,
00:33:07.038 --> 00:33:08.279
I actually talk about the
00:33:08.339 --> 00:33:10.541
efforts I've made to try to
00:33:10.582 --> 00:33:11.782
retrieve information.
00:33:12.303 --> 00:33:13.384
I can't go through it all,
00:33:13.423 --> 00:33:14.484
but here it would take too long.
00:33:14.505 --> 00:33:16.185
But one thing I was able to
00:33:16.246 --> 00:33:17.987
do in working with the kind
00:33:18.027 --> 00:33:18.768
people in Pepperell
00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:21.840
was to go to their Lawrence Library.
00:33:22.521 --> 00:33:24.182
It's a fabulous facility.
00:33:24.262 --> 00:33:25.683
Deborah Spratt there is the
00:33:25.763 --> 00:33:26.723
senior librarian.
00:33:27.525 --> 00:33:30.467
And in a sealed room on the second floor,
00:33:31.146 --> 00:33:32.708
there is a document,
00:33:33.208 --> 00:33:34.368
it's a large document,
00:33:34.969 --> 00:33:42.255
and it's town records from to .
00:33:39.231 --> 00:33:42.574
These are the original documents.
00:33:43.414 --> 00:33:48.057
And I was given a seat at a
00:33:48.116 --> 00:33:49.057
table in this room
00:33:50.346 --> 00:33:51.948
a pair of white gloves that
00:33:52.008 --> 00:33:54.607
I had to wear and a magnifying glass,
00:33:54.688 --> 00:33:55.769
which was worth its weight
00:33:55.788 --> 00:33:57.848
in gold because you can
00:33:57.888 --> 00:33:59.410
imagine what some of these
00:34:00.190 --> 00:34:01.029
documents were like.
00:34:01.069 --> 00:34:01.509
They're kind of,
00:34:01.951 --> 00:34:02.871
some of them are fading
00:34:02.911 --> 00:34:03.951
away or they're very
00:34:04.010 --> 00:34:05.632
fragile and you need the
00:34:05.672 --> 00:34:07.332
magnifying glass just to
00:34:07.372 --> 00:34:09.333
try to decipher what's on the page.
00:34:09.972 --> 00:34:10.693
It almost looks like
00:34:10.733 --> 00:34:12.594
hieroglyphics and some of
00:34:12.614 --> 00:34:14.173
the writing is very flowery
00:34:14.233 --> 00:34:15.594
and there are curlicues and,
00:34:16.094 --> 00:34:18.735
and other times it's chicken scratch, but,
00:34:18.815 --> 00:34:18.956
um,
00:34:20.487 --> 00:34:21.307
those are some of the
00:34:21.367 --> 00:34:22.568
original documents that I
00:34:22.608 --> 00:34:26.490
was able to go through that really, um,
00:34:26.530 --> 00:34:28.030
provide a chronology of
00:34:28.231 --> 00:34:29.672
Prescott's involvement in
00:34:29.711 --> 00:34:31.693
his town and reacting to
00:34:31.773 --> 00:34:32.934
some of these public events
00:34:32.954 --> 00:34:33.974
that we've been talking about.
00:34:34.594 --> 00:34:34.795
You know,
00:34:34.835 --> 00:34:36.135
it's there that I find out that
00:34:36.195 --> 00:34:38.336
he's involved in committees
00:34:38.376 --> 00:34:39.838
that decide who is going to
00:34:39.858 --> 00:34:40.679
be the pep rule
00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:43.019
representative when the U S
00:34:43.059 --> 00:34:45.561
constitution is sent around
00:34:46.081 --> 00:34:48.222
to the States for ratification.
00:34:49.063 --> 00:34:49.664
And, um,
00:34:51.094 --> 00:34:53.996
They picked Deacon Daniel Fisk,
00:34:55.117 --> 00:34:56.797
who attends the conference,
00:34:57.239 --> 00:34:58.599
listens to all the arguments.
00:34:59.721 --> 00:35:00.721
He's one of, you know,
00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:01.722
three hundred and seventy
00:35:02.081 --> 00:35:02.822
representatives in
00:35:02.862 --> 00:35:04.304
Massachusetts that go there.
00:35:05.224 --> 00:35:07.385
And what's very curious is that.
00:35:08.927 --> 00:35:09.487
And of course,
00:35:09.628 --> 00:35:10.648
I've kind of skipped over a
00:35:10.668 --> 00:35:11.650
little bit of Shays'
00:35:11.690 --> 00:35:13.371
Rebellion to that because
00:35:13.391 --> 00:35:14.972
that was one of the
00:35:15.012 --> 00:35:17.173
impetuses for the actual
00:35:17.833 --> 00:35:18.894
Constitutional Convention.
00:35:20.864 --> 00:35:22.025
The central part of
00:35:22.945 --> 00:35:25.465
Massachusetts and the western counties,
00:35:25.865 --> 00:35:27.387
Berkshire County, Hampshire County,
00:35:27.447 --> 00:35:30.327
Worcester County, Middlesex County,
00:35:32.387 --> 00:35:34.909
all vote against the Constitution.
00:35:34.929 --> 00:35:35.389
Oh, yeah.
00:35:35.409 --> 00:35:37.369
The overall vote was at one
00:35:37.650 --> 00:35:38.769
hundred eighty-seven to one
00:35:38.829 --> 00:35:39.909
hundred sixty-eight,
00:35:39.929 --> 00:35:40.710
so it was a very close vote.
00:35:40.971 --> 00:35:42.190
That's right.
00:35:42.210 --> 00:35:43.731
If ten people switched over,
00:35:44.452 --> 00:35:45.411
about three percent,
00:35:46.052 --> 00:35:47.211
Massachusetts would not
00:35:47.231 --> 00:35:48.932
have ratified the Constitution.
00:35:49.650 --> 00:35:51.152
And James Madison was afraid
00:35:51.172 --> 00:35:52.673
that if Massachusetts didn't,
00:35:53.175 --> 00:35:54.416
then Virginia and New York
00:35:54.456 --> 00:35:55.157
and maybe some of the
00:35:55.197 --> 00:35:56.117
others wouldn't either.
00:35:56.878 --> 00:35:59.340
So it was a critical, critical aspect.
00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:00.081
I mean, Worcester,
00:36:00.581 --> 00:36:01.503
I think the numbers were
00:36:01.543 --> 00:36:02.925
like forty three against
00:36:02.985 --> 00:36:03.925
and only seven four.
00:36:03.945 --> 00:36:04.025
Yeah.
00:36:04.867 --> 00:36:07.548
So and it was the more populous, you know,
00:36:07.590 --> 00:36:09.150
representatives from the east, you know,
00:36:09.190 --> 00:36:09.831
Suffolk County,
00:36:09.911 --> 00:36:11.052
Essex County and so forth
00:36:11.092 --> 00:36:11.853
that carry the day.
00:36:13.492 --> 00:36:15.893
So how a Prescott,
00:36:16.253 --> 00:36:17.373
what side he would have been on,
00:36:17.434 --> 00:36:18.494
had he been a delegate as
00:36:18.534 --> 00:36:19.394
opposed to just sending.
00:36:19.414 --> 00:36:20.135
Yeah.
00:36:20.195 --> 00:36:22.858
You know, I, I have to admit,
00:36:22.878 --> 00:36:24.018
and I do this in the book
00:36:24.059 --> 00:36:25.960
that there are some things
00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:27.360
that I wasn't able to
00:36:27.380 --> 00:36:28.481
determine in my search.
00:36:28.561 --> 00:36:30.202
I said, like any good detective story,
00:36:30.802 --> 00:36:32.764
not everything gets answered at the end.
00:36:33.545 --> 00:36:35.686
And there are aspects of his
00:36:35.786 --> 00:36:39.728
life that are left unknown, how he,
00:36:40.215 --> 00:36:41.416
What was his opinion about
00:36:41.996 --> 00:36:42.817
George Washington?
00:36:42.896 --> 00:36:43.777
How did he feel about the
00:36:43.817 --> 00:36:44.998
Declaration of Independence
00:36:45.057 --> 00:36:45.918
and all this sort of thing?
00:36:45.938 --> 00:36:47.199
You can go on a whole
00:36:47.259 --> 00:36:48.298
laundry list of things.
00:36:48.938 --> 00:36:50.099
And one of them to me is
00:36:52.099 --> 00:36:53.101
about the Constitution.
00:36:53.161 --> 00:36:55.681
Would he have voted for it?
00:36:55.822 --> 00:36:57.242
And I came to the conclusion
00:36:57.262 --> 00:36:57.862
that he would have.
00:36:59.003 --> 00:37:00.123
And I'm piecing together
00:37:00.262 --> 00:37:01.643
other aspects of his life
00:37:02.204 --> 00:37:03.324
and what type of a person
00:37:03.364 --> 00:37:07.965
he was to say I think he
00:37:07.985 --> 00:37:08.947
would have supported it.
00:37:08.987 --> 00:37:09.686
Now, it's curious.
00:37:10.148 --> 00:37:12.429
What I did learn about that
00:37:12.469 --> 00:37:13.568
convention was that some of
00:37:13.588 --> 00:37:14.588
the counties actually
00:37:14.628 --> 00:37:15.469
instructed their
00:37:15.510 --> 00:37:16.630
representative to vote a
00:37:16.690 --> 00:37:19.311
certain way before they even went there.
00:37:20.271 --> 00:37:21.271
And some of them didn't.
00:37:21.411 --> 00:37:22.791
And Pepperell did not tell
00:37:24.112 --> 00:37:25.913
Mr. Fisk how to vote.
00:37:26.873 --> 00:37:28.172
The idea was you go,
00:37:28.213 --> 00:37:29.313
you listen to the discussion,
00:37:29.353 --> 00:37:30.173
and then you decide.
00:37:31.855 --> 00:37:33.675
But there were a fair number
00:37:33.715 --> 00:37:34.934
of people there who were
00:37:35.195 --> 00:37:37.456
supporters of Shays' Rebellion,
00:37:37.815 --> 00:37:39.697
who were sent there by their towns
00:37:40.527 --> 00:37:41.126
represent them.
00:37:41.367 --> 00:37:41.867
So, uh,
00:37:41.907 --> 00:37:42.987
the two representatives from
00:37:43.148 --> 00:37:47.550
Voughton voted, uh, nay and voted nay.
00:37:47.849 --> 00:37:50.331
And I think that would have been tough for,
00:37:50.451 --> 00:37:52.652
for Prescott to, um, to accept.
00:37:52.672 --> 00:37:56.373
And then he knew Job Shattuck and he,
00:37:56.452 --> 00:37:57.693
when Shattuck and a group
00:37:57.733 --> 00:37:59.014
are trying to stop the
00:37:59.054 --> 00:38:01.394
courts in Concord in seventeen eighty-six,
00:38:01.414 --> 00:38:02.436
he's involved there.
00:38:02.876 --> 00:38:04.056
That's, that's correct.
00:38:04.336 --> 00:38:07.717
So, uh, this is at the point where, um,
00:38:09.005 --> 00:38:11.324
Prescott is sixty, sixty one years old.
00:38:12.545 --> 00:38:13.945
He kind of settled in his
00:38:14.005 --> 00:38:15.545
retirement and working on his farm.
00:38:16.246 --> 00:38:16.827
And of course,
00:38:17.047 --> 00:38:19.766
Shays' Rebellion erupts in
00:38:20.047 --> 00:38:22.827
September of seventeen eighty six.
00:38:23.788 --> 00:38:27.128
And while Daniel Shays gets
00:38:27.228 --> 00:38:28.949
kind of headline status,
00:38:29.748 --> 00:38:31.349
we all know it as Shays' Rebellion.
00:38:31.929 --> 00:38:32.949
And he's obviously very
00:38:33.090 --> 00:38:35.989
active in that in the more
00:38:36.110 --> 00:38:38.731
eastern provinces and around
00:38:40.201 --> 00:38:41.081
Middlesex County.
00:38:41.181 --> 00:38:42.202
It's Job Shattuck.
00:38:42.541 --> 00:38:43.802
And the Shattuck family is
00:38:44.762 --> 00:38:45.983
pretty much as old as the
00:38:46.003 --> 00:38:47.164
Prescotts are in that area.
00:38:48.603 --> 00:38:49.985
I went back and looked at
00:38:50.905 --> 00:38:52.065
the tax valuation of
00:38:52.126 --> 00:38:53.945
properties through the
00:38:53.985 --> 00:38:56.766
Registry of Deeds and found
00:38:56.847 --> 00:38:58.728
out that there were in the
00:38:58.807 --> 00:39:00.768
in the tax evaluation of
00:39:00.809 --> 00:39:01.909
seventeen seventy one,
00:39:02.728 --> 00:39:04.929
there was there were twenty
00:39:05.030 --> 00:39:07.570
one Shattucks that lived in Pepperell.
00:39:09.045 --> 00:39:12.266
And where Job Shattuck was in Groton,
00:39:12.766 --> 00:39:14.248
it was dominated by Prescotts.
00:39:14.447 --> 00:39:15.268
So they were neighbors,
00:39:15.309 --> 00:39:16.228
they were close to each other.
00:39:17.510 --> 00:39:19.590
And William Prescott, Colonel Prescott,
00:39:20.012 --> 00:39:22.032
had actually recruited Job
00:39:22.052 --> 00:39:25.014
Shattuck to be a captain in
00:39:25.135 --> 00:39:27.635
his regiment that fights in
00:39:27.655 --> 00:39:29.498
the French Indian War and
00:39:29.518 --> 00:39:30.438
gets him promoted.
00:39:30.958 --> 00:39:32.619
So they're obviously very
00:39:32.639 --> 00:39:33.719
familiar with one another.
00:39:34.360 --> 00:39:36.282
They were friends and former neighbors.
00:39:36.987 --> 00:39:38.927
But when Shays' Rebellion breaks out,
00:39:39.827 --> 00:39:41.429
Shattuck was very much a
00:39:41.489 --> 00:39:44.090
supporter of the rebels,
00:39:44.130 --> 00:39:44.969
the insurrectionists.
00:39:45.909 --> 00:39:48.030
And the Prescotts were not.
00:39:48.251 --> 00:39:49.972
I mean, it was really Oliver Prescott,
00:39:50.012 --> 00:39:52.492
who is William Prescott's younger brother,
00:39:52.952 --> 00:39:53.813
who is working with the
00:39:53.873 --> 00:39:56.094
governor to put together
00:39:57.855 --> 00:40:00.096
the case to have Job Shattuck arrested.
00:40:01.195 --> 00:40:01.916
And he is arrested.
00:40:01.956 --> 00:40:03.677
He's one of only fourteen
00:40:04.284 --> 00:40:05.324
of the four thousand
00:40:05.364 --> 00:40:06.244
insurrectionists to be
00:40:06.324 --> 00:40:07.085
sentenced to death.
00:40:08.965 --> 00:40:09.945
And luckily for him,
00:40:10.005 --> 00:40:10.746
he doesn't get killed.
00:40:10.786 --> 00:40:11.945
He eventually gets pardoned.
00:40:12.706 --> 00:40:15.286
Now, nine months after he's captured,
00:40:15.686 --> 00:40:19.947
finally, Governor Hancock,
00:40:20.007 --> 00:40:21.168
who was reelected,
00:40:22.628 --> 00:40:24.429
who has been listening to people saying,
00:40:24.489 --> 00:40:26.110
hey, we we ought to let Shattuck go.
00:40:26.130 --> 00:40:30.271
You know, you know, yeah.
00:40:32.047 --> 00:40:32.847
Yeah, think of it today.
00:40:32.867 --> 00:40:34.048
Here's, you know,
00:40:34.068 --> 00:40:35.289
the January sixth
00:40:35.929 --> 00:40:36.929
insurrectionists that have
00:40:36.949 --> 00:40:38.451
been sent to prison and so forth.
00:40:39.112 --> 00:40:40.391
But if you go back to the
00:40:40.431 --> 00:40:43.454
insurrection of seventeen eighty six,
00:40:43.574 --> 00:40:44.193
eighty seven,
00:40:45.494 --> 00:40:46.755
virtually all of those
00:40:46.795 --> 00:40:48.076
insurrectionists were
00:40:48.135 --> 00:40:49.717
pardoned if they took an
00:40:49.856 --> 00:40:53.117
oath of allegiance back to Massachusetts.
00:40:53.137 --> 00:40:53.378
Yeah.
00:40:53.398 --> 00:40:53.858
Yeah.
00:40:53.878 --> 00:40:55.219
James Bowden was tossed out
00:40:55.239 --> 00:40:56.440
of office along with about
00:40:56.739 --> 00:40:57.481
three quarters of the
00:40:57.521 --> 00:40:59.402
legislature in the way they
00:40:59.461 --> 00:41:00.222
were heavy handed.
00:41:01.222 --> 00:41:01.501
Right.
00:41:01.661 --> 00:41:02.003
Yeah.
00:41:02.163 --> 00:41:05.023
And, um, and I found a document in, uh,
00:41:05.063 --> 00:41:07.726
in a large safe that was, that's,
00:41:07.905 --> 00:41:10.047
that's in the town hall of Pepperell.
00:41:10.067 --> 00:41:12.288
Uh, one of the people, you know,
00:41:12.369 --> 00:41:14.789
I give my in the book because I'm, I'm in,
00:41:14.809 --> 00:41:15.730
I'm in the book talking
00:41:15.769 --> 00:41:16.731
about some of my efforts.
00:41:16.791 --> 00:41:18.431
I give a lot of credit to
00:41:18.452 --> 00:41:19.373
the people that I work with.
00:41:19.432 --> 00:41:20.492
It does take a village as
00:41:20.532 --> 00:41:23.175
somebody once famously said, uh,
00:41:23.195 --> 00:41:24.375
or maybe a few villages in
00:41:24.394 --> 00:41:26.416
this case to get this information.
00:41:26.456 --> 00:41:28.998
But there was a woman there that I met, uh,
00:41:29.057 --> 00:41:30.679
Joan Lattic, who, um,
00:41:31.364 --> 00:41:34.445
works part-time in the town hall.
00:41:34.545 --> 00:41:35.945
And she called herself the
00:41:39.726 --> 00:41:40.666
keeper of the vault.
00:41:41.407 --> 00:41:42.907
And so she invited me up one
00:41:42.927 --> 00:41:44.347
day and I went there and
00:41:44.367 --> 00:41:46.728
she opened up the big door of this vault.
00:41:47.007 --> 00:41:48.588
It's like an old bank vault
00:41:48.608 --> 00:41:50.447
that you'd see in a bank robbery movie.
00:41:51.168 --> 00:41:52.789
And I went through some
00:41:52.829 --> 00:41:55.329
files there and I found a
00:41:55.409 --> 00:41:57.108
document from March of, uh,
00:42:01.103 --> 00:42:04.045
And it's Prescott noting
00:42:04.106 --> 00:42:06.047
that thirty two people have
00:42:06.108 --> 00:42:07.389
met with him and are taking
00:42:07.429 --> 00:42:09.590
the oath of allegiance back to the state.
00:42:10.170 --> 00:42:11.351
And seven of them are Shattuck.
00:42:11.492 --> 00:42:12.532
Seven of them are Shattucks.
00:42:12.693 --> 00:42:12.992
Wow.
00:42:13.273 --> 00:42:13.652
In there.
00:42:13.733 --> 00:42:16.476
So, yeah, he was involved in that.
00:42:16.536 --> 00:42:18.777
He had written down to Concord,
00:42:18.817 --> 00:42:20.157
as you were alluding to earlier,
00:42:21.219 --> 00:42:22.780
to insert himself between
00:42:23.260 --> 00:42:24.862
Shattuck and two to three
00:42:24.902 --> 00:42:26.143
hundred armed
00:42:26.182 --> 00:42:27.184
insurrectionists who were
00:42:27.204 --> 00:42:28.965
shutting down the courts in Concord.
00:42:29.925 --> 00:42:30.365
And there were
00:42:30.833 --> 00:42:31.614
There were folks from
00:42:31.653 --> 00:42:33.054
Concord who were trying to
00:42:33.094 --> 00:42:37.277
negotiate with Shattuck, but uninvited.
00:42:38.778 --> 00:42:39.898
William Prescott got on his
00:42:39.938 --> 00:42:42.380
horse and rode down to Concord,
00:42:42.581 --> 00:42:43.862
got himself in the middle of it,
00:42:43.961 --> 00:42:44.842
helped negotiate a
00:42:44.882 --> 00:42:46.083
settlement so there was no
00:42:46.443 --> 00:42:48.905
violence that particular day.
00:42:48.945 --> 00:42:50.065
The court was shut down.
00:42:50.485 --> 00:42:51.706
Incidentally, his brothers,
00:42:51.806 --> 00:42:53.086
both James and Oliver,
00:42:53.367 --> 00:42:55.208
were judges in Concord,
00:42:55.407 --> 00:42:58.230
and they had fled along with the other
00:42:58.612 --> 00:43:00.393
the other jurists because of
00:43:00.434 --> 00:43:01.293
what was happening there.
00:43:02.414 --> 00:43:04.056
So he's a, he's a very active guy.
00:43:04.077 --> 00:43:05.958
You're getting this picture
00:43:05.998 --> 00:43:08.300
of somebody who I find, it wasn't just,
00:43:08.360 --> 00:43:10.621
he had one shining moment on January,
00:43:11.483 --> 00:43:12.804
on June, the seventeenth,
00:43:12.824 --> 00:43:14.344
the seventeen seventy-seven.
00:43:14.684 --> 00:43:15.686
Throughout his whole life,
00:43:15.706 --> 00:43:18.469
he's dedicated to, you know,
00:43:18.509 --> 00:43:20.349
making his state and his
00:43:20.409 --> 00:43:21.911
town as secure and as
00:43:21.972 --> 00:43:23.193
prosperous as he can.
00:43:23.913 --> 00:43:25.534
And so that's why I think,
00:43:26.376 --> 00:43:26.577
you know,
00:43:26.617 --> 00:43:27.818
he would have supported the
00:43:27.858 --> 00:43:29.719
Constitution as putting the
00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:30.679
country on a better footing.
00:43:31.701 --> 00:43:33.141
Well, we're looking forward to the book.
00:43:33.262 --> 00:43:35.063
We've been talking to Don Ryan,
00:43:35.103 --> 00:43:36.164
who has written Searching
00:43:36.184 --> 00:43:37.164
for William Prescott,
00:43:37.204 --> 00:43:38.246
Stalwart Bunker Hill,
00:43:38.286 --> 00:43:39.527
which we hope will be out
00:43:39.586 --> 00:43:40.907
next spring in time for the
00:43:41.349 --> 00:43:42.289
two hundred fiftieth
00:43:42.349 --> 00:43:43.590
anniversary of that shining
00:43:43.630 --> 00:43:45.992
moment of June of seventeen seventy five.
00:43:46.371 --> 00:43:47.572
Exactly.
00:43:47.592 --> 00:43:49.175
So thank you so much for joining us, Don,
00:43:49.215 --> 00:43:50.996
and telling us so much of the story.
00:43:51.016 --> 00:43:52.077
We look forward to the book
00:43:52.456 --> 00:43:53.097
and hearing more.
00:43:53.557 --> 00:43:53.898
Great.
00:43:53.938 --> 00:43:54.719
Thank you very much.
00:43:54.739 --> 00:43:55.920
I appreciate it.
00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:56.320
And I want to
00:43:56.717 --> 00:43:59.079
Thank Jonathan Lane, our producer,
00:43:59.119 --> 00:44:00.400
the executive director of
00:44:00.440 --> 00:44:01.701
Revolution Two Fifty.
00:44:01.740 --> 00:44:03.442
And I want to thank our many
00:44:03.481 --> 00:44:04.362
listeners around the
00:44:04.382 --> 00:44:05.802
country and around the world.
00:44:05.842 --> 00:44:06.503
And if you're in one of
00:44:06.523 --> 00:44:07.704
these places and want some
00:44:07.744 --> 00:44:09.003
of our Revolution Two Fifty
00:44:09.043 --> 00:44:10.125
swag or just want to tell
00:44:10.204 --> 00:44:11.726
us things you want to hear
00:44:11.766 --> 00:44:12.786
about on the podcast,
00:44:12.806 --> 00:44:14.246
send Jonathan Lane an email,
00:44:14.286 --> 00:44:16.688
jlane at revolution two fifty dot org.
00:44:17.128 --> 00:44:17.809
And this week,
00:44:17.909 --> 00:44:20.309
I want to thank our friends in Old Bridge,
00:44:20.369 --> 00:44:22.891
New Jersey and Elkhart, Indiana,
00:44:23.291 --> 00:44:25.132
Great Falls and Helena, Montana.
00:44:25.753 --> 00:44:28.835
Rancho Palos Verdes in California, Clinton,
00:44:28.855 --> 00:44:31.436
Massachusetts and Clifton Park, New York,
00:44:31.896 --> 00:44:34.237
as well as in Vienna, Edinburgh,
00:44:34.297 --> 00:44:35.657
Lisbon and Sydney and all
00:44:35.697 --> 00:44:36.938
places between and beyond.
00:44:36.978 --> 00:44:37.858
Thanks for joining us.
00:44:37.998 --> 00:44:39.559
Now we will be piped out on
00:44:39.579 --> 00:44:40.460
the road to Boston.