LOOKING AT LIFE

- from other 18th century letterwriters:

July, 1775 - "I was struck with General Washington. You had prepared me to entertain a favorable opinion of him, but I thought the one half was not told me. Dignity with ease, and complacency, the Gentleman and soldier look agreably blended in him. Modesty marks every line and feture of his face."
Abigail Adams

1775 - "It is unsafe to return to Cambridge, as the enemy were advancing up the river, and fixing on the town to stay in. Thus with precipitancy we were driven to the town of Anderson, following some of our acquaintance - five of us to be conveyed with one poor tired horse and chaise; thus we began our pilgrimage, alternately walking and riding, the roads filled with frighted women and children; some in carts with their tattered furniture, others on foot fleeing into the woods. But what added greatly to the horrors of the scene, was our passing through the bloody field at Monotong, which was strewed with the mangled bodies. We met one affectionate father with a cart, looking for his murdered son, and picking up his neighbors who had fallen in battle in order for their burial."
Hannah Winthrop

October, 1775 - "The desk, the pews and other encumbrances are taken down in Old South to make it convenient for the accomodation of Gen. Burgoyne’s light horse; while the infamous Dr. Morrison, whose character I suppose you are acquainted with, reads prayers in the church on Brattle street to a set of banditti who after the rapines, robberies and devastations of the week, dare - some of them - to lift up their sacriligious hands, and bow before the altar of mercy" . . " I will breathe one wish more; and that is for the restoration of peace - peace, I mean on equitable terms, for pusillanimous and feeble as I am, I cannot wish to see the sword quietly put up in scabbard, until justice is done to America”.
Mercy Otis Warren

And a Different Viewpoint
From the Journal of a Lady, Her Journey from Scotland to the West Indies & to North Carolina
"They had got some news that had not been agreeable, which had been transpired by the arrival of a ship from Boston. This was a battle having happened on a place called Bunkershill . . . I shall not be easy until I go into town to inquire the particulars of this battle. . . . .I have seen a newspaper published by the committee's order, where the whole story of the battle is denied, 'tho it is said that the Americans had made an attack on us and killed many of our officers, amongst others they mentioned Major Pitcairn. I hope this is not the Pitcairn that was married to Miss Dalrymple, as I know many of her relations. But though 'tis false altogether, I hope the publisher will be hanged, for they have vexed me, though I do not believe them."
Janet Schaw