Subject: Diary of a British Officer in Boston in 1775 Part 4 Source: The Atlantic Monthly Magazine, Vol XXXIX. April 1877. No. CCXXXIV. March 20th, 1775. A General Court Martial was ordered to be held to try Ensign Murray of the 43d Regt. in consequence of an affair between him and Ensign Butler of the King's Own, who accuses the former of ungentlemanlike behavior; they had been out to fight but were prevented and put under arrest; it seems to be a confused affair and I believe both sides in the wrong; it is suspected Mr. Butler will gain as little credit by it as the other. March 23d, 1775. Three Officers of the 5th put in arrest for a riot, viz., Col. Gore, Ensigns James Raymond and John Belaguire, [the latter of whom was later wounded at Bunker Hill]; the same evening another duel stopped be- tween the Lieut. Col. of that regiment and Ensign Patrick of the same; some words passing between them, the Liuet. Colonel struck Mr. Patrick in the face, upon which they both immediately drew their swords; but the other Officers interferring it was put a stop to until the Rolls were called, when both went to the Common, where they agreed to fight with pistols, which Mr. Patrick went for, and upon his return was met by an Officer of the regiment who by some means took the pistols and fired them in the air, which alarmed the Guard, which turned out and took him prisoner and carried him to Lord Percy, who put him in arrest, then went to Col. Wallcott and put him in arrest likewise. There the affair rests. March 30th. The 1st Brigade marched into the country at 6 o'clock in the morning; it alarmed the people a good deal. Expresses were sent to every town near: at Watertown about 9 miles off, they got two pieces of cannon to the bridge and loaded them, but nobody would stay to fire them. At Cambridge they were so alarmed that they pulled up the bridge. However they were quit of their fears, for after marching about the country for five hours we returned peaceably home. A General Court Martial has been sitting some days to try Lieut. Col. Walcott and Ensign Patrick of the 5th; it's thought it will be a tedious one. The Works at the Lines are enclosing in the rear with pickets; the gorges of the bastions are shut up; the General wouldnt employ but 20 men, and as a further saving made the Guard work for nothing, which was a hardship for them, as they worked in their good things, it was represented to him, and there is now a Sub. and 20. April 1st. Lieut Jackson of the 5th died of a fever; the same day Capt. Robert Hamilton of the 18th or Royal Irish fell from his horse and was near killed; he now lies in a dangerous way. [Capt. Robert Hamilton. John Andrews in his Letters gives an account of his vain endeavors to get Hamilton to pay his debts. This was probably Sir Walter Scott's friend, of whom he writes in his diary on August 6, 1814, "a laugh with Hamilton, whose gout keeps him stationary at Lerwick, but whose good humour defies gout and every other provocation - concludes the evening." Lockhart adds a note explaining that it was Robert Hamilton, afterwards sheriff of Lanarkshire, a particular favorite with Scott; that he had fought gallantly and been wounded severely in the American War, and that when upon his death-bed in 1831, he gave to Sir Walter Scott the sword which he had worn at Bunker Hill.] April 3d. Yesterday the Court Martial upon Ensign Murray finished. He is honorably acquitted. April 6th. By way of burlesque, several officers have formed a congress, that they call the Grand Congress of Controul; three officers from each regiment and one from the Navy have been chosen for it. April 12th. The officers ordered to provide themselves with baggage saddles, at least three per company, one for the Captain, one for the company's tents, etc., and one for the two subalterns. April 14th. Today's orders say, "As the contractors decline giving fresh meat for the present, the troops will receive salt provisions until further orders." This because meat happens now to be a trifle dearer than usual. Excercise and new evolutions are to be off all duties, till further orders. This I suppose is by way of a blind. I dare say they have something for them to do. April 19th. Last night between 10 and 11 o'clock all the Grenadiers and Light Infantry of the Army making about 600 men (under the command of Lieut. Col. Smith of the 10th and Major Pitcairn of the Marines,) embarked and were landed upon the opposite shore on Cambridge Marsh, few but the commanding officers knew what expedition we were going upon. After getting over the marsh, where we were wet up to our knees, we were halted in a dirty road and stood there until two o'clock in the morning, waiting for provisions to be brought from the boats and to be divided, and which most of the men threw away, having carried some with them. At 2 o'clock we began our march by wading through a very long ford up to our middles, after going a few miles we took three or four people who were going off to give intelligence; about 5 miles on this side of a town called Lexington, which lay in our road, we heard there were some hundreds of people collected together intending to oppose us and stop our going on; at 5 o'clock we arrived there and saw a number of people, I believe between 200 and 300, formed in a Common in the middle of the town; we still continued ad- vancing, keeping prepared against an attack though without intending to attack them - but on our coming near them they fired one or two shots, upon which our men without any orders rushed in upon them, fired and put them to flight, several of them were killed - we could not tell how many because they were got behind walls and into the woods. We had a man of the 10th Light Infantry wounded, nobody else hurt. We then formed on the Common, but with some difficulty, the men were so wild they could hear no orders. We waited a considerable time there, and at length proceeded on our way to Concord, which we then learnt was our destination, in order to destroy a magazine of stores collected there. To be continued Part 5. Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth