Boston 22^d April 1775

Dear Sir

I have just time to tell you that we have had an / engagement with the Rebels & I have escaped unhurt. / – Our loss is very considerable, but not near so / much as theirs as they confess we have killed 2 / for 1, our Reg^t: has 43 killed wounded & missing / amongst the dead is poor Joe Knight; the loss on / y^e whole from y^e returns I have seen is about 60 / dead, 150 wounded, 30 missing but as there was very / little mercy on either side we don’t expect ever to / see them again. The best account I can give you / of this very extraordinary affair is as follows, / Gen^l. Gage on Tuesday night ½ past 11 o’clock detach’d / the Grenadiers & light Infantry to seize a Magazine of / flour & some Cannon at Concord (25 miles from Boston / the Rout we took) without a Surgeon without / ammunition except what was in their Pouches, / not a Carriage to put the wounded into, in short they / were not provided suitable to the expedition, / they had not even Provision for more than 1 / day, they were fired on out of a House upon y^e. / Road side before they got to y^e Town of Concord, & from / that time which was about 5 in y^e morning there / was a continual fire kept up on both sides till / the 1^st. Brigade w^th. which I marched found them in / a wood near Lexington 6 miles from Concord very / hard pressed their ammunition almost gone, & if we / had not come up not a man of them w^d. have escaped / it seems they accomplished what they were sent out / for by destroying 400 Bar^ls. of Flour & other Stores at / Concord but were no sooner out of the Town than / they were fired at on all sides from Houses Woods

we were able & then they might fire on us till / we were out of reach without being in any danger / themselves, but when they found themselves surrounded / they grew desperate & fired to y^e. last, there never was / any set of men behaved w^th. greater Courage than y^e. / soldiers, their officers could not restrain them, they dashed / into every Danger & when they had dislodged y^e. Enemy / they straggled into the Main Body by 3 & 4 at a time / without y^e. least order & threw every thing into / confusion, in short every body did as they pleased / some ran this way some that way wherever there / was any opposition & for y^e last 10 miles you could / neither find out y^r. Regiment, Company, Colours nor / any thing else, & you would see no where more than / 6 or 8 men of any Regiment together, all mixed & / interspersed as if they had been shook out of a Bag / wherever an officer run out to clear any place he / had a hundred at his heels not of his own men but / of a dozen different Regiments in one of those Sallys / I had a very narrow escape having a Grenadier of the 5^th. / a soldier of ours, & a marine killed all round me, but we / soon got into the house & I counted 11 yankies dead in / it & the orchard, one villain had 73 Balls in his Bag / & 2 horns of Powder. before we fell into confusion / when Hamilton & I with Captain Holmes & y^e. Major’s / Company were on the Flanks driving them out of some / underwood the Grenadiers of y^e. 47^th Reg^t. mistaking us for / yankies were absolutely on the present to fire at us, / when Ben Fish of ours knocked up their Pieces & / told them they were firing on their own men, such / a Scene of Confusion never was & I saw several men / killed by our own people firing on them from eagerness, / you would see a Party of Soldiers firing at the front / of a House & another on it’s rear, whilst the main / Body were pelting away at the upper windows by / which means many of our own people fell even after

there seems to be a listlessness about the Head / Quarters which I cannot account for, I suppose / the General means to wait the arrival of the / Troops from Britain.

23^d of the Month –

There are two Men of War this moment arrived / and are now saluting, I suppose the Generals / are on board. The march that we took on / wednesday when you consider every thing is really / surprising for we did not leave the Parade till / after nine, went as far as the woods above Lexing= / =ton which is full 20 miles round by the Neck / & through Cambridge, & from Thence never halted / but fought every Inch of the way to Charles Town / for in fact it was an attack of Posts all the / way; from Lexington to Charles Town is a good / 15 Miles add to that the number of times / that every soldier ran out on the Flanks & / the quantity of ground he must have run over / there you can call the whole little short of 50 / miles, the Granadiers & light Infantry were at / Concord which is 26 measured miles to y^e Magazine / and were continually on foot from 12 on tuesday / night till 10 on wednesday & engaged from 5 on / wednesday morning.