les of sticks--and chandeliers or frameworks to hold the
bundles in place in order to serve as the body of an embankment.
Remembering how at Bunker Hill the regulars had been led to suppose that
the troops at the rail fence, protected by nothing except the rails and
hay, were behind an embankment, he collected ropes of hay to use if
necessary for the same purpose, but also to bind the wheels of his carts
that they might make no noise. Carts he collected to the number of three
hundred. In the Charles River he prepared boats enough to carry
twenty-eight hundred men. Two floating batteries were also made ready
there; a third had earlier been destroyed by the bursting of its cannon
when firing at the camp on the Common. Washington was about to strike,
with the suddenness which characterized him, but also with the thorough
readiness.

For his camp, even if temporarily, was now full. Early in February came
in ten regiments of militia, summoned on service until the first of
April. They manifested, he wrote with satisfaction, the greatest
alertness, and the determination of men engaged in the cause of freedom.
And on the first of March he called into camp the militia of the
neighboring towns, who were to report at Roxbury fully equipped for
three days' service. To these men was read his general order, preparing
their minds for action. They were forbidden to play at cards or other
games of chance, and advised to ponder the importance of the cause in
which they were enlisted. "But it may not be amiss for the troops to
know," he added, "that if any man in action shall presume to skulk, or
hide himself, or retreat from the enemy without the orders of his
commanding officer, he will be instantly shot down." And with this
exhortation and warning Washington concluded his preparations.

FOOTNOTES:

[138] See the "Writings of Washington," iii, 123-124, note.

[139] See letter to Ward, "Writings," iii, 161.

[140] See the "Writings of Washington," iii, 161, note. The facts
concerning Washington's difficulties with enlisting are taken chiefly
from this volume, where they can best be studied.

[141] This was a Sunday.

[142] Frothingham's "Siege," 104.

[143] Carcasses were hollow shells with several openings. They were
filled with combustibles, and when thrown into a town were intended to
set fire to buildings.

[144] Washington's communications to Congress were addressed to Hancock,
as its President.

[145] He had paid in ad