The Boston
(Irish) Massacre
By
John
William Tuohy
The Boston Massacre, which might be more aptly
known as the Boston Irish massacre, started innocently enough, here at this
spot, at about noon on Friday, March 2, 1770 when William Green, a rope maker
spotted Private Patrick Walker, an Irishmen in the British regiment assigned to
Boston. Green knew that the soldiers were notoriously underpaid and in their
off hours held down temporary odd jobs around the city to pick up some extra
cash. Green turned to his workmates and smiled and then spoke to the passing
infantrymen "Hey, soldier, do you want some work?"
"Yes,
I do"
"Then
go clean out my shithouse"
More
words were exchanged and Private Walker flew at Green but was quickly beaten to
the ground by Green and his workmates, one of them picking up a knife that had
fallen out of the soldiers pocket and waved it at him. Outnumbered and
humiliated, Private Patrick Walker beat a retreat back to his barracks and
recruited eight or ten fellow infantry men and returned to the rope works.
By
this time the Rope makers were also reinforced and after a brief fistfight, the
British soldiers were beaten back to their barrack. A few days later, the
incident was repeated, almost exactly at MacNeils rope makers. Later that
night, three troops were missing from roll call and a barracks rumor started
that they locals had killed the unaccounted men.
It wasn't true of course, but tensions were
high on both sides and it was only a matter of time before something broke.
Several
days later three soldiers were making their way to their barracks when a small
crowd assembled around them. One of the soldiers poked one of the civilians
with the butt of his bayonet, a shouting match broke out and more civilians
gathered around the three troopers.
The
soldiers pulled out their swords and starting swinging them as they walked,
nicking a few shoulders and ripping clothes. Several British officers came out
to defuse the situation but to no avail.
The
crowd of Americans, mostly school boys, grew in size. Someone in the crowd
yelled "The Main Guard" and the crowd rushed here, to King Street
where they pelted British soldiers with snowballs, ice and curses. Again an
Officer came and ordered his men back in to their barracks. The crowd made its
way to another guard station manned by Private Hugh White, who had been
involved in a fistfight with a local named Edward Garrick a few days before. Now
Garrick was in the crowd, and having spotted Private White
"There's
the son of a bitch who knocked me down a few days ago"
The
crowd turned on White and hurled ice at him and dared him to step out of his
guard house. White replied that he could not leave his station and told the mob
that if they did not disburse that he would call the main guard. The mob pelted
him again and White fixed his bayonet at ready and then made a great show of
loading his musket to warn the mob off. A local bookseller, Henry Knox warned
White against firing, telling him that the mob was made up mostly of teenagers.
"Sir,
if they molest me, I will fire"
A
barrage of ice slammed inches away from Whites head and a chorus of shouts came
from the crowd "Kill him" and "Fire damn you fire, we defy
you"
More
people joined the mob. Private White shouted for reinforcements "Main
Guard turn out!"
The
town’s people also called for reinforcements. This is what they had been
waiting for.
Inside
the main Guardhouse, Irish born Captain Thomas Preston paced the floor for an
answer. He had sent out scouts to find out what was happening to Private White.
Noted for his sound judgment, Preston was lost for an answer.
He knew that he had no authority to send armed
troops out on to the street without the consent of the local officials, a
Justice of the Peace, but he also understood that no Justice of Peace could be
relied on to brave the mob outside. In the meantime Private White stood alone,
surrounded by a growing mob, some armed with clubs the others pelting the young
soldier with chunks of sharp ice. As White saw the situation and ordered his
subordinate, a Lieutenant James Basset to form a relief column of half a dozen
men and bring White back to the barrack.
The
Lieutenant rounded up six men. Three of them, John Carroll, Mathew Kilroy and
William Warren, had been involved in the rope incident a few days before and a
corporal and started to march out to Private White. Preston rethought his
command. Lieutenant Basset, he knew, was incompetent. Through family connects
Basset had been commissioned an officer at age twelve, and now at age twenty
was badly shaken over the mob outside.
Preston ordered Basset to stay behind and
marched his squad outside the Guard house, rounded up White and started to
march back to the Guard house. But by then the crowd had encircled the soldiers
and made passing impossible. Preston ordered his men in to a semi-circle next
to the corner of a customs house. The soldiers stood three feet apart, bayonets
at ready with Preston standing directly in front of his men.
A
local walked up to Preston and asked if his men intended to fire in to the
crowd, Preston assured him that they would not fire in to the crowd, and
besides they would have to shoot him first due to where he was standing A Tory
made his way to the back of the soldiers and shouted
"Fire,
by God, I will stand by you whilst I have a drop of blood! Fire!"
Samuel
Gray, one of the men involved in the rope incident, showed up on the scene.
Slightly drunk, he started the crowd chanting "Fire Damn you fire!"
at the soldiers. A club was thrown through the air and struck Private Hugh
Montgomery in the head. Montgomery lifted himself up off the ground and fired a
round off in to the crisp New England air.
A
man from the crowd, armed with a club, flung himself at Captain Preston but was
prodded back by Montgomery’s bayonet. The crowd fell silent and Preston walked
behind his men.
The
chants "fire, Fire damn you fire" started again. The soldier, all
young men and understandably scared, may have thought they heard their officer
order them to fire. (Preston had not ordered them to fire or not fire, he may
have stood behind his men to avoid being beaten by clubs) When it looked as
though the Redcoats would not fire, the drunken Samuel Gray turned to another
man in the crowd and said
"My
lads they will not fire"
At
that very second Private Matthew Kilroy fired a shot from his musket. Kilroy
wasn't aiming at Gray or anyone else; by his testimony he had by shooting in to
the air.
The
bullet went through Gray’s forehead and was said to have left a hole three by
two inches. The other soldiers started to shoot. A shot struck and killed six
foot two Crispus Attucks who may or may not have been an African American, he
was dark skinned, possibly a Mulatto or an American Indian. He had been slave
by had escaped in 1751. He had come to King Street leading a band of merchant
sailors.
Someone
shouted that the mob should advance on to the soldiers to keep them from
shooting again, as the crowd Pressed in the Soldiers reloaded and fire in to
the mob killing James Caldwell, a local sailor. A second shot killed Irish born
Patrick Carr, one other was killed and another wounded. Captain Preston drew
his sword and rushed down the firing line shoving the musket barrels in to the
air "Stop firing! stop firing!"
Outraged,
Preston demanded to be told why his men had fired. They all responded alike,
they were sure that they had heard Preston order them to fire. What had
actually happened was that Private Hugh Montgomery, having been knocked to the
ground, stepped back from his position and shouted to the others "Damn
you, Fire!" The other soldiers, assuming that Preston had shouted the
ordered, opened fire. By three O’clock that morning, Captain Preston was in
jail on charges of murder. The soldiers who had done the actual shooting were
indicted for the killings, but were not held in cells. Early that next day Irish
born James Forrest, a friend of Preston’s entered Lawyer John Adams office
weeping. Forrest wept so often he was referred to around town as the Irish
infant. Forrest retained Adams, for one dollar, as Preston’s attorney for the
upcoming trial. Adams petitioned the court for a separate trail for Preston and
Preston's soldiers balked. Why, they asked the court, should Preston have a
better chance of defending himself, when they who had simply been following his
orders, should be tried as one. The court disagreed and Preston was tried
separately and Preston’s trial would become the first criminal case in New
England’s history to run more than one day. The jury found him innocent of all
charges in six days’ time.
The
soldier’s trial came in early December of 1770. They would be defended by a 26
year old Lawyer named Josiah Quincy with Samuel Adams acting as the
prosecution. The most damaging testimony came from the Doctor who treated young
Irishman Patrick Carr who had lived for four days after being shot. Carr told
the Doctor that he was surprised that the British had not fired sooner, that he
thought that the soldiers had been abused beyond reason, that it was his
opinion that had they not fired that they would have been assaulted by the mob,
that they fired in self-defense and that he had heard the mob scream "Kill
them" The clincher came when the Doctor reported that the Irish boy did
not blame the soldier who had shot him. It was damaging testimony. When
the Doctor stepped down, Samuel Adams
walked over to the all Protestant Jury and pointed out that Carr was an
Irishmen who more than probably had been given a Catholic funeral, the Jury, he
said, could figure out how much value to put on the words of an Irish Catholic.
For
his summation, the soldier’s lawyer called the mob "Irish Teague’s and
outlandish jack tars"
Several
days later, the jury foreman, an Irishman in name at least, Joseph Mayo, told
the court that Privates James Hartigan, William McCauley, John Carrol, Hugh
White and William Warren were found not guilty. Privates Mathew Kilroy and Hugh
Montgomery, the two men who were known to have fired in to the crowd were found
guilty and had their right thumbs seared with a fire brand. All seven men were
then transferred by boat to various forts in New Jersey.