Summary:
Following their response to the Lexington Alarm and the Battle of Bunker Hill, Ward’s Regiment was stationed on the lines at Dorchester and remained there until their term of service expired on January 1, 1776. Many reenlisted in other units and may have taken part in the seizure of Dorchester Heights in March, which forced the British to evacuate Boston.
Manuscript Document Signed by Bunker Hill veteran "William Ware", 1p. (8.5 x 2 in.), "Cambridge Camp", June 10, 1775 in which Ware acknowledges receipt of "a Blanket appraized [sic] at Eight Shillings by the Select men of Grafton..."
Inventory# 20778.08 $600
Historical Background:
Grafton Minutemen: On April 19, 1775, 45 minute men marched out of Grafton, Massachusetts upon receiving word of the Lexington Alarm (it is possible that they were warned the night before from a ‘midnight rider’). They were led by Captain Luke Drury, a grist mill operator who had commanded the company of minute men since 1773. The Grafton men arrived in Cambridge the following morning following a 40 mile march. There they became part of a massive volunteer army besieging the British in Boston. During the first month of the siege, many of the men of Drury’s company began to leave for home as other obligations beckoned. About a month after their arrival at Cambridge, Drury’ Company, like many of the original minute men companies, were incorporated as companies into regiments of Continental troops. Drury’s company came under the command of Colonel Jonathan Ward.
In June 1775 the company was active during the Battle of Bunker Hill. On June 17, 1775 Jonathan Ward’s Regiment was ordered to form the vanguard at Lechmere’s Point (between Charlestown Neck and Cambridge) to guard against a possible British flanking maneuver that would have cut off rebel troops on Charlestown Neck. The first British charge up Breed’s Hill began around 3:30 in the afternoon. At 4pm, the threat of a flanking maneuver waning, Ward’s Regiment was ordered to cross Charlestown Neck and reinforce those already engaged.
According to Frothingham’s exhaustive History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill: “This regiment [Ward’s] was not ordered to Charlestown until late in the afternoon, and halted on its way; but a detachment from it pushed on, and arrived in season to take part in the action. Lieutenant-colonel Ward, with a few men, reached the rail fence; and Captains Cushing and Washburn, and another company, fired upon the British after the retreat had commenced from the redoubt. The remainder of the regiment, under Major Barnes, retreated before it got near enough to engage the enemy.” Drury later wrote to George Washington accusing Major Edward Barnes of cowardice. In his letter of October 4, 1775 he complained that Barnes halted “his men on their march when ordered to proceed immediately to assist at the engagement...” Drury further found fault in Barnes’ “ordering his men to retreat before he got in sight of the Enemy... [and] for his deserting his men & making his Escape thro his own troops off of Bunkers Hill...” We have no record of a further investigation.
For the remainder of the siege, Ward’s Regiment was stationed on the lines at Dorchester and remained there until their term of service expired on January 1, 1776. Many reenlisted in other units and may have taken part in the seizure of Dorchester Heights in March which forced the British to evacuate Boston.
Condition:
Light vertical crease, else fine condition.
