Home        Contact Salem Focus at   salemfocus@comcast.net

 

Text Box: Plaque located at 96 North Street, Salem, Massachusetts Text Box:   Leslie’s Retreat It was February 1775 when British headquarters in Boston learned of a stash of 17 cannon concealed somewhere in North Salem by the American patriots. It is likely they were told of this by a local tory. The real concern of General Gage, the commander in charge of British forces, was the rumor that the colonials were building carriages in Salem designed to transport the cannon that had been built in Massachusetts. These cannon were a threat to the Crown’s troops—especially if the cannon could easily be transported.  On Sunday, February 26, Colonel Alexander Leslie was sent out from Boston with a contingent of 300 British regulars to destroy the cannon, ammunition and other weapons. Leslie and his soldiers landed by ship at Marblehead and proceeded to march the six miles to the North Bridge in Salem.  News of the approaching regulars spread like wildfire, and by the time Leslie and his men arrived at North Bridge in Salem, the drawbridge was raised so that it was impossible for the British to advance. On the opposite side of the North River minutemen from Salem and Danvers stood armed with everything from muskets to pitchforks and clubs, defiantly facing the British on the other side of the river. The colonials had lined their side of the river with cannon pointing toward the British on the other side. There was talk of the Red Coats climbing down the embankment and somehow fording the river, but they wisely chose not to do this, since when they reached the other side they would have been looking up at a hundred or so muskets. The Americans were outnumbered three-to-one, but conditions favored them in this encounter. Leslie was aware that the longer he waited the more patriots he would face. Men were arriving by the minute from all over Salem and the surrounding towns.  In early 1775 a good third of the colonials wanted to break away from Britain and were looking for any excuse to sever the connection. Another third of the population agreed that the abuses the colonies had endured probably justified revolution. But members of this group were not sure they’d actually resort to revolution to solve the problem—partly because they weren’t sure they’d win and partly because they still felt the tug of loyalty to the crown. A final third remained loyal to the king, willing to ignore or forgive the Crown’s abuses for whatever reason.  When Leslie ordered the crowd to lower the bridge, Colonel Timothy Pickering of Salem said no, and asked Leslie why they should. Leslie replied that they should do it because they were subjects of his majesty. The colonials proceeded to say that they needed their weapons to protect themselves from tyranny. After much wrangling Leslie, seeing that discretion was the better part of valor said that if the colonials would let him and his men cross over the river, they would do so and immediately go back without taking any further action. The Americans agreed, and after some time in which they spirited away the cannon to a secure hiding place, they lowered the drawbridge.  The British kept their word, crossed the bridge, advanced no more than 150 yards, and then turned around and headed back toward Marblehead. If Leslie had any thought of treachery (and there is no evidence that he did), it was only fleeting as he saw that the assemblage of minutemen continued to grow. He no longer had the advantage in numbers. While Leslie failed to achieve his objective, the agreement allowed him to save face. The first encounter between American and British forces ended with little blood being shed. Only Joseph Whicher of Salem sustaining a minor injury, a non-life-threatening bayonet blow. That, of course, was about to change as the bloody encounters at Lexington and Concord would occur less than two months later The British failure in Salem would not deter them from trying again. This time they would attempt to capture weapons stored at Concord.□  Photos courtesy of Mrs. McAllister's Fourth Grade Class, Port Jefferson, NY    d     ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccGra