| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
CASTLE ISLAND |
SO NO. |
53 |
||
|
|
||||
|
creased their number to ten or twelve, but these were also successfully resisted. In consequence of these quarrels the soldiery declared they would be avenged. The following account of their proceedings is taken from the Boston Chronicle of March 8, 1770. " Last Monday about 9 o'clock -at night a most unfortunate affair happened in King Street. The sentinel posted at the Custom House, being sur-r unded by a number of people, called to the main-guard, upon which Captain Preston, with a party, went to his assistance, soon aftei which some of the party fired, by which the following persons were killed. Samuel Gray, rope maker, a mulatto man, named Attucks, and Mr. James Caldwell. Early the next morning Captain Preston was committed to jail, and the same day eight soldiers. A meeting of the inhabitants was called at Faneuil Hall that forenoon, and the lieutenant-governor and council met at the council chamber, where the Colonels, Dalrymple and Carr, were desired to attend, when it was concluded upon, that both regiments should go down to the barracks at Castle William, as soon as they wrere ready to receive them."
The funeral of the victims of the massacre was attended the 8th of March. On this occasion the shops of the town were, closed, and all the bells were ordered to be tolled, as were those of the neighboring towns. The procession began to move between 4 and 5 o'clock, P. M., the bodies of the two strangers, Caldwell and Altvclcs, being borne from Faneuil Hall, and those of the other victims, from the residence of their families,—the hearses meeting in King Street, near the scene of the tragedy, and passing through the main street, to the burial ground, where the bodies were all deposited in one vault. Patrick Carr, who was wounded in the affair, died on the 14th, and was buried on the 17th, in the same vault with his murdered associates. Shortly after the occurrence Paul Revere, of Boston, engraved and printed a large handbill, giving a sketch of the scene, and accompanied it with the following lines :
" Unhappy Boston ! see thy sons deplore
Thy hallowed waJkR besmear*d with guiltless gore. |
||||
|
|
||||