[Footnote 207: Here the Journal ends abruptly, and we have no clew to the writer afterward. As he had enlisted for the campaign of 1776, he doubtless remained with the army until after the expulsion of the British from Boston, in March following, unless he was killed in some of the skirmishes that frequently occurred, or was obliged to leave the army on account of sickness. Whatever was his fate, the veil of oblivion is drawn over it, for he was one of the thousands who with warm hearts and stout hands struggled in the field for the liberties of their country, lie in unhonored graves, and have had no biographers. If he lived until the conflict ended, and died in his native town, no doubt his grave is in the old churchyard at Wrentham. His family was among the earliest settlers there, for Daniel Haws was a resident of the village when it was burnt, in the time of King Philip's war, almost two hundred years ago; and on a plain slab in that old burial-place is the name of Ebenezer Haws, who died in 1812, at the age of ninety-one years.]
SUPPLEMENT, CONTAINING OFFICIAL PAPERS ON THE SKIRMISHES AT LEXINGTON AND CONCORD, AND A LIST OF REVOLUTIONARY ARTICLES IN THE POUGHKEEPSIE MUSEUM.
OFFICIAL PAPERS CONCERNING THE SKIRMISHES AT LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.
In the preceding Journal of a Soldier, in 1775, his narrative commences on the day of the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, the opening conflicts of the Revolution. Some official matters relating to those events, which are inaccessible to the general reading-public, will doubtless be acceptable, as they certainly are appropriate, in this connection.
The skirmishes occurred on the 19th of April, 1775. On the 22d, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts assembled, and, deeming it important to have the whole truth known, appointed a committee to take depositions in relation to the transactions of the British troops in their route to and from Concord. Another committee was appointed the following day, consisting of Dr. Church, Elbridge Gerry, and Thomas Cushing, to draw up a narrative of the massacre. The committee to take depositions held their sessions at Concord and Lexington, on the 23d and 25th of April. Feeling it to be expedient to send an account immediately to England, a committee, consisting of Dr. Warren, Mr. Freeman, Mr. Gardiner, and Colonel Stone, was chosen to prepare a letter to Dr. Franklin, the colonial agent in London. They reported a letter, and also an "Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain," on the same day. Captain Richard Derby, of Salem, was employed to proceed immediately with the despatches. He placed them in the hands of Doctor Franklin on the 29th of May, and on the following day the address was printed and circulated. It gave the first intelligence of the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, to the British public.