William Prescott:Stalwart of Bunker Hill

Few images of the Battle of Bunker Hill are as evocative as Colonell William Prescott striding up and down the walls of the redoubt, his sword drawn, his banyan fluttering in the breeze as the British regiments marched up the hill.  The stalwart defense of Prescott and his troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill established the American army as a formidable foe for the British army.  For all this, there is much about Prescott's life we don't know.  Author Don Ryan is completing a biography of Prescott wherein he will bring to life Colonel Prescott and all of his services to the people of Massachusetts in their effort to secure independence.

Transcript

WEBVTT
 
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 Hello, everyone.
 
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 Welcome to the Revolution
 
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 two fifty podcast.
 
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 I am Bob Allison.
 
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 I chair the Rev two fifty advisory group.
 
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 I also teach history at
 
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 Suffolk University.
 
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 We are a consortium of
 
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 seventy plus organizations.
 
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 It's looking at ways to
 
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 commemorate the beginnings
 
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 of American independence.
 
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 And our guest today is Don Ryan.
 
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 Don Ryan received the History Medal at St.
 
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 Raymond School in the Bronx,
 
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 but then put history aside
 
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 until his retirement.
 
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 He spends a lot of time up at Bunker Hill,
 
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 and he has just written a book,
 
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 Searching for William Prescott,
 
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 The Stalwart of Bunker Hill.
 
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 So, Don, thanks for joining us.
 
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 Well, thanks for having me.
 
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 I'm looking forward to our conversation.
 
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 So how did you get,
 
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 so I think two questions.
 
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 Who was William Prescott?
 
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 Why is there a statue of him?
 
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 And then how did you get
 
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 interested in telling his story?
 
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 Yeah, great.
 
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 So I knew very little about
 
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 William Prescott until I
 
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 became a volunteer for the
 
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 National Park Service back
 
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 in twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen,
 
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 and have since that time
 
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 been giving talks and
 
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 meeting visitors from
 
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 around the country and
 
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 really around the world and
 
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 talking about the Battle of Bunker Hill.
 
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 And it was really my
 
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 interactions with the
 
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 visitors that I met with.
 
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 there that prompted me to
 
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 dig into Prescott's background.
 
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 I wanted to be an
 
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 informative docent up there
 
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 and started doing research,
 
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 not only about the battle,
 
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 but as you mentioned,
 
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 Prescott's statue is the
 
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 only statue on the battlefield.
 
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 And it's where a lot of the
 
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 visitors congregate as they
 
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 come up from the street and
 
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 take pictures and strike
 
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 the pose of Prescott with
 
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 his sword extended and so forth.
 
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 And so I ended up
 
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 doing a lot of work,
 
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 background work on Prescott.
 
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 A big turn in that work that
 
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 led me to the book was that
 
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 when COVID shut down the
 
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 park in in twenty twenty,
 
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 I had some extra time on my
 
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 hands and I originally
 
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 thought I would take my
 
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 notes and maybe write a
 
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 couple of articles or a
 
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 small pamphlet of some kind.
 
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 In the course of still doing some work,
 
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 I got some encouragement from
 
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 Probably some folks that you
 
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 know quite well.
 
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 John Ferling,
 
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 who has written extensively
 
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 on the Revolutionary War.
 
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 Nathaniel Philbrook, who, of course,
 
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 wrote Hunker Hill.
 
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 Gordon Wood, Christian Despigna,
 
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 Paul Lockhart, all who have written nice,
 
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 nice books about the Revolutionary Era,
 
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 said, gee, you know, you're right.
 
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 Prescott hasn't been written
 
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 about in a very long time.
 
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 and here he was.
 
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 He was the major commander, really,
 
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 at the battle.
 
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 I mean,
 
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 he wasn't the only commander there.
 
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 John Stark from New Hampshire was there,
 
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 Israel Putnam from Connecticut,
 
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 and so forth,
 
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 but he was really given the
 
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 orders to fortify and defend Bunker Hill,
 
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 and so he became the focal
 
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 point of my work.
 
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 Why is there a statue of him?
 
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 I mean,
 
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 you said that there were other
 
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 commanders.
 
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 You say he was the only one
 
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 who was there throughout.
 
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 That's right.
 
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 So when was the statue put up?
 
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 So the statue comes quite
 
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 distant after the battle.
 
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 The battle, of course,
 
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 is in June of seventeen seventy five.
 
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 And the first really
 
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 monument that's created up
 
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 there of any consequence is
 
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 the Bunker Hill Monument,
 
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 which was started in in
 
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 eighteen twenty five was
 
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 when they had the cornerstone laid.
 
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 The cornerstone was laid by
 
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 the Marquis de Lafayette,
 
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 who was on a tour.
 
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 He had come back.
 
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 In his late sixties,
 
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 he was on tour of the
 
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 United States and he came
 
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 up here and he was actually part of that.
 
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 The monument got completed
 
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 in in eighteen forty three.
 
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 But along the way,
 
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 there was some interest in
 
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 having a statue done, both of Dr. Warren.
 
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 And if you go to go to the
 
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 park and go into the lodge building,
 
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 there is a eight foot
 
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 marble statue of Dr. Warren there.
 
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 That was done in eighteen fifty seven,
 
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 I believe.
 
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 But similarly,
 
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 the Bunker Hill Minutemen
 
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 Association was very
 
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 interested in having a
 
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 statute of Prescott.
 
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 And they ended up hiring
 
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 William Wetmore Story,
 
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 who was actually a law,
 
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 went to Harvard Law.
 
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 His father was a justice of
 
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 the Supreme Court.
 
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 That's right.
 
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 His father was a famous justice.
 
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 And he was quite an
 
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 interesting guy because he
 
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 decided to become a sculptor.
 
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 and they said, well, gee,
 
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 why don't you do the statue
 
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 of William Prescott,
 
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 and we'll give you a commission,
 
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 and he said,
 
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 I'll do it if I can train
 
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 myself a little bit better than I am,
 
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 so he actually went over to Rome, Italy,
 
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 and studied sculpture there,
 
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 and did the statue in eighteen eighty,
 
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 and it was dedicated in
 
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 eighteen eighty-one on the
 
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 anniversary of the battle.
 
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 And it is a dramatic pose,
 
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 unlike a lot of statues at the time,
 
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 which are kind of static.
 
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 I mean, he is a
 
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 Yeah,
 
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 there are different interpretations
 
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 of that.
 
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 I have my own interpretation.
 
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 A lot of people that I've read,
 
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 and maybe they're just kind
 
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 of copying each other,
 
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 but we'll say that he has
 
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 his right arm extended.
 
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 He has a short sword that
 
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 signifies his rank.
 
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 And on his left hand,
 
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 he kind of holds it up.
 
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 And they say he's telling
 
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 the troops not to fire yet.
 
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 And they're kind of alluding
 
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 to the don't fire until the
 
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 whites of their eyes.
 
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 Yeah.
 
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 I see it as a more aggressive pose because,
 
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 of course, the British,
 
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 when they get up in the
 
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 morning on the day of the battle,
 
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 June seventeenth,
 
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 not expecting to have a battle that day,
 
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 but seeing hundreds of men
 
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 up on Breed's Hill, not Bunker's Hill,
 
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 Breed's Hill, constructing their fort,
 
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 that they start firing
 
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 cannon shots from their
 
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 warships in the harbor.
 
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 And Prescott is very defiant.
 
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 He's a six foot two, very athletic guy.
 
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 He's forty nine years old.
 
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 He's not a spring chicken.
 
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 And he's, you know,
 
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 encouraging his men to to
 
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 build the fort and get it
 
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 done because he's
 
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 anticipating that now the
 
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 British know they're there
 
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 and what they're doing,
 
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 that they're going to come over.
 
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 And so I see the statue as
 
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 kind of a challenge to the British that
 
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 And I say this in my book,
 
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 that when I see the statue,
 
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 I hear him saying, we know you're coming.
 
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 We're going to be ready for you.
 
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 That kind of a thing.
 
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 And years later,
 
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 a private in the British
 
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 Army said that he had
 
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 actually fired at Prescott
 
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 several times deliberately,
 
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 but missed him, couldn't hit him,
 
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 as he is defying the entire British Army.
 
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 Yeah, there's a great story when the
 
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 Redoubt is being built on Saturday morning,
 
 00:07:06.863 --> 00:07:07.624
 the seventeenth,
 
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 and the British are firing
 
 00:07:09.105 --> 00:07:10.125
 cannon and so forth.
 
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 And Prescott at one point
 
 00:07:12.187 --> 00:07:13.788
 mounts the wall of the redoubt.
 
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 So he's the redoubt is about
 
 00:07:16.170 --> 00:07:17.069
 six feet high.
 
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 It's you know, it's a dirt earthworks.
 
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 And he's walking back and forth,
 
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 encouraging the men to get the work done.
 
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 And at one point,
 
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 he reputedly stops over in
 
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 the southeast corner of the
 
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 rectangular redoubt.
 
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 looks towards Boston and
 
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 docks his cap towards the British.
 
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 So he's, he's got a lot of, but this guy,
 
 00:07:41.086 --> 00:07:42.226
 and one of the other
 
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 reasons I enjoyed getting into him, but,
 
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 um, in Boston at the time in Cops Hill,
 
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 which is where the North end is,
 
 00:07:49.870 --> 00:07:51.192
 if people are familiar with
 
 00:07:51.211 --> 00:07:54.514
 the North end of Boston, um,
 
 00:07:54.553 --> 00:07:57.314
 was a military governor, Thomas Gage.
 
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 Right.
 
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 And he's up there looking at, um,
 
 00:08:02.100 --> 00:08:03.982
 what's going on through a spyglass.
 
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 And he has with him an aide,
 
 00:08:06.283 --> 00:08:08.644
 Abijah Willard, who is a loyalist.
 
 00:08:10.004 --> 00:08:13.545
 And he gives the spyglass to
 
 00:08:14.165 --> 00:08:15.466
 Willard and says,
 
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 tell me who's commanding up there.
 
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 And Willard looks through
 
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 the spyglass and says, it's Prescott.
 
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 And he knows it's Prescott
 
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 because Prescott is his brother-in-law,
 
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 which is really an
 
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 interesting thing to find out.
 
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 He had married
 
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 um, William Prescott's, uh, older sister,
 
 00:08:34.081 --> 00:08:34.581
 Elizabeth.
 
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 And, um,
 
 00:08:36.322 --> 00:08:39.065
 actually Willard and Prescott had met in,
 
 00:08:39.645 --> 00:08:41.447
 in Prescott's home in, in Pepperell, uh,
 
 00:08:42.668 --> 00:08:45.110
 weeks before where Willard
 
 00:08:45.149 --> 00:08:46.432
 had warned him that given
 
 00:08:46.451 --> 00:08:47.893
 the fighting at Lexington and Concord,
 
 00:08:47.913 --> 00:08:48.613
 which was two months
 
 00:08:48.653 --> 00:08:50.054
 earlier and other things
 
 00:08:50.075 --> 00:08:52.456
 that had been going on at little events,
 
 00:08:52.517 --> 00:08:54.357
 he said, you know, things are getting,
 
 00:08:54.518 --> 00:08:56.360
 I'm paraphrasing here, but he said, no,
 
 00:08:56.379 --> 00:08:57.640
 things are getting kind of testy.
 
 00:08:58.260 --> 00:08:58.761
 And, um,
 
 00:08:59.417 --> 00:09:00.498
 You know, if there's fighting,
 
 00:09:00.557 --> 00:09:01.778
 you could lose your farm.
 
 00:09:01.798 --> 00:09:02.938
 You could lose your life.
 
 00:09:03.739 --> 00:09:05.539
 And Prescott very famously says,
 
 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:07.600
 I have made up my mind on that subject.
 
 00:09:07.620 --> 00:09:08.881
 And I think it's probable I
 
 00:09:08.922 --> 00:09:09.942
 may be found in arms,
 
 00:09:10.523 --> 00:09:12.062
 but I will not be taken alive.
 
 00:09:12.683 --> 00:09:13.923
 The Tories will not have the
 
 00:09:13.964 --> 00:09:16.686
 satisfaction of seeing me hang.
 
 00:09:16.745 --> 00:09:22.428
 So Gage asks Willard if
 
 00:09:22.688 --> 00:09:23.568
 Prescott's going to fight.
 
 00:09:23.908 --> 00:09:26.210
 And he says, oh, he's an old soldier,
 
 00:09:26.289 --> 00:09:27.551
 but he's going to fight you
 
 00:09:27.571 --> 00:09:29.131
 to his last drop of blood.
 
 00:09:29.152 --> 00:09:29.272
 Wow.
 
 00:09:29.620 --> 00:09:31.520
 So that's when Gage decides
 
 00:09:31.581 --> 00:09:32.701
 we must carry the works.
 
 00:09:33.282 --> 00:09:34.501
 And he moves their attack,
 
 00:09:34.522 --> 00:09:36.062
 which had been planned for Sunday,
 
 00:09:36.082 --> 00:09:36.663
 the eighteenth,
 
 00:09:37.302 --> 00:09:39.323
 up to the day of the battle.
 
 00:09:40.224 --> 00:09:40.323
 Right.
 
 00:09:40.364 --> 00:09:41.585
 We're talking with Don Ryan,
 
 00:09:41.764 --> 00:09:43.666
 author of Searching for William Prescott,
 
 00:09:43.686 --> 00:09:45.125
 Stalwart of Bunker Hill.
 
 00:09:45.826 --> 00:09:48.107
 And Prescott was an old soldier.
 
 00:09:48.168 --> 00:09:49.628
 He had been at the siege of
 
 00:09:49.668 --> 00:09:51.509
 Lewisburg in seventeen forty five,
 
 00:09:51.528 --> 00:09:52.889
 had fought in the French
 
 00:09:52.909 --> 00:09:54.750
 and Indian War in the fifty
 
 00:09:54.809 --> 00:09:55.630
 seventeen sixty.
 
 00:09:55.650 --> 00:09:56.571
 So he does have a lot of
 
 00:09:56.610 --> 00:09:58.351
 military experience.
 
 00:09:58.432 --> 00:09:58.672
 Right.
 
 00:09:59.192 --> 00:09:59.792
 That's correct.
 
 00:10:00.373 --> 00:10:00.952
 He wasn't, you know,
 
 00:10:01.033 --> 00:10:01.692
 I wouldn't call him a
 
 00:10:01.732 --> 00:10:02.734
 professional soldier,
 
 00:10:03.774 --> 00:10:06.855
 but if you look at his ancestry,
 
 00:10:07.416 --> 00:10:09.177
 and I was lucky enough to
 
 00:10:09.576 --> 00:10:10.557
 get access to a
 
 00:10:10.616 --> 00:10:12.018
 genealogical history of the
 
 00:10:12.057 --> 00:10:15.038
 family written by Dr. William Prescott,
 
 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:17.240
 one of many William
 
 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:18.341
 Prescotts I found out that
 
 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:19.260
 you run across when you
 
 00:10:19.321 --> 00:10:21.442
 start digging into these records,
 
 00:10:21.522 --> 00:10:25.384
 but he was a medical doctor
 
 00:10:25.443 --> 00:10:27.304
 who wrote this history back in
 
 00:10:28.038 --> 00:10:30.679
 I think it's around mid-eighteen hundreds,
 
 00:10:30.820 --> 00:10:32.301
 eighteen seventy, somewhere around there.
 
 00:10:33.061 --> 00:10:35.263
 And you find out that the Prescott's,
 
 00:10:36.062 --> 00:10:37.283
 he can go back in history
 
 00:10:37.323 --> 00:10:40.667
 into the fifteen hundreds in England.
 
 00:10:41.427 --> 00:10:44.909
 And his ancestors all had
 
 00:10:44.950 --> 00:10:46.190
 some type of military
 
 00:10:46.250 --> 00:10:47.971
 experience with them.
 
 00:10:47.991 --> 00:10:51.594
 They were, you know,
 
 00:10:51.634 --> 00:10:53.134
 militia leaders in their town.
 
 00:10:53.514 --> 00:10:54.956
 His great grandfather comes
 
 00:10:54.975 --> 00:10:57.217
 from England via Barbados.
 
 00:10:58.097 --> 00:11:01.080
 in sixteen forty and lands in.
 
 00:11:01.139 --> 00:11:02.500
 Yeah, this is interesting.
 
 00:11:02.541 --> 00:11:04.883
 It lands in Boston in sixteen forty.
 
 00:11:05.503 --> 00:11:06.364
 John Prescott.
 
 00:11:07.163 --> 00:11:08.345
 And he's a young man.
 
 00:11:08.384 --> 00:11:09.265
 He has a young family.
 
 00:11:10.307 --> 00:11:11.847
 He's kind of seeking his fortune.
 
 00:11:11.868 --> 00:11:14.490
 And he originally lands in
 
 00:11:15.190 --> 00:11:17.292
 or settles in Watertown,
 
 00:11:17.711 --> 00:11:18.732
 just west of Boston,
 
 00:11:19.192 --> 00:11:20.573
 but then moves out to what
 
 00:11:20.614 --> 00:11:21.654
 was then the frontier in
 
 00:11:21.715 --> 00:11:22.815
 central Massachusetts,
 
 00:11:23.255 --> 00:11:24.996
 founds the town of Lancaster.
 
 00:11:25.721 --> 00:11:27.962
 which he names after his town in England.
 
 00:11:28.823 --> 00:11:30.264
 And then the Prescotts
 
 00:11:30.664 --> 00:11:32.986
 eventually are part of the
 
 00:11:33.866 --> 00:11:35.849
 settlers that found Rodden
 
 00:11:35.889 --> 00:11:38.431
 and Pepperell and Sudbury and Concord.
 
 00:11:38.471 --> 00:11:39.792
 That whole area is kind of
 
 00:11:39.871 --> 00:11:41.572
 populated with Prescotts.
 
 00:11:42.113 --> 00:11:42.813
 Interesting.
 
 00:11:43.374 --> 00:11:43.573
 Yeah.
 
 00:11:43.735 --> 00:11:46.255
 And so he follows in the
 
 00:11:46.297 --> 00:11:47.157
 tradition of the family.
 
 00:11:47.197 --> 00:11:48.798
 They're all very active,
 
 00:11:49.458 --> 00:11:51.059
 whether it's his great-grandfather,
 
 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:52.100
 his grandfather, his father,
 
 00:11:52.160 --> 00:11:53.381
 all very active in civic
 
 00:11:53.422 --> 00:11:54.962
 matters to build up these
 
 00:11:55.332 --> 00:11:56.573
 fledgling little towns.
 
 00:11:57.193 --> 00:11:59.556
 And then in each case,
 
 00:11:59.596 --> 00:12:01.937
 they're like a captain in
 
 00:12:01.977 --> 00:12:02.817
 the town militia.
 
 00:12:03.339 --> 00:12:04.418
 And that's what he becomes.
 
 00:12:06.100 --> 00:12:07.981
 That is part of your civic obligation,
 
 00:12:09.163 --> 00:12:09.842
 particularly if you're a
 
 00:12:09.883 --> 00:12:11.083
 leader in the town.
 
 00:12:11.504 --> 00:12:13.365
 Exactly, exactly.
 
 00:12:15.547 --> 00:12:15.908
 Also,
 
 00:12:15.988 --> 00:12:17.908
 talking about his brother-in-law
 
 00:12:17.928 --> 00:12:18.809
 being on the other side,
 
 00:12:18.830 --> 00:12:20.090
 the Mass Historical Society
 
 00:12:20.129 --> 00:12:21.711
 has the two crossed swords.
 
 00:12:21.772 --> 00:12:23.253
 That's right.
 
 00:12:23.273 --> 00:12:25.053
 Can you tell us a bit about that?
 
 00:12:25.635 --> 00:12:26.817
 Yes, sure.
 
 00:12:26.856 --> 00:12:28.077
 So very famously,
 
 00:12:31.580 --> 00:12:32.279
 the swords that you're
 
 00:12:32.299 --> 00:12:35.101
 referring to are Prescott's
 
 00:12:35.142 --> 00:12:36.822
 sword that he carried in the battle.
 
 00:12:38.302 --> 00:12:39.384
 They called it the thirsty
 
 00:12:39.443 --> 00:12:41.625
 sword because it wasn't a blade sword.
 
 00:12:41.684 --> 00:12:44.047
 It was actually triangular sword.
 
 00:12:44.586 --> 00:12:47.028
 And so that when you stab somebody with it,
 
 00:12:47.048 --> 00:12:49.929
 it would create a gaping hole in it.
 
 00:12:50.029 --> 00:12:53.192
 But that sword and the sword
 
 00:12:53.412 --> 00:12:55.173
 of Captain John Lindsay,
 
 00:12:55.875 --> 00:12:59.498
 who was the captain of the Falcon,
 
 00:12:59.658 --> 00:13:01.658
 one of the battleships in
 
 00:13:01.698 --> 00:13:02.899
 the harbor that was firing
 
 00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:05.201
 cannon up at the readout
 
 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:06.101
 during the battle.
 
 00:13:07.263 --> 00:13:08.403
 Their grandkids,
 
 00:13:09.303 --> 00:13:12.666
 Prescott's grandson and
 
 00:13:13.066 --> 00:13:14.187
 Lindsay's granddaughter,
 
 00:13:14.626 --> 00:13:15.567
 ended up getting married.
 
 00:13:16.528 --> 00:13:18.110
 And the swords ended up in
 
 00:13:18.649 --> 00:13:21.611
 William Hinkling Prescott's possession.
 
 00:13:21.692 --> 00:13:24.953
 He mounted them on a walnut plaque.
 
 00:13:25.527 --> 00:13:28.448
 And it hung in the Prescott home.
 
 00:13:28.469 --> 00:13:29.668
 The Prescott home is still around.
 
 00:13:29.688 --> 00:13:30.549
 It's still occupied.
 
 00:13:31.009 --> 00:13:31.149
 Yeah,
 
 00:13:31.169 --> 00:13:32.730
 the Society of Colonial Games
 
 00:13:33.051 --> 00:13:33.772
 operates it.
 
 00:13:33.792 --> 00:13:34.611
 That's right.
 
 00:13:35.552 --> 00:13:36.592
 And they have a replica,
 
 00:13:36.634 --> 00:13:37.953
 but they think they put the
 
 00:13:38.014 --> 00:13:39.695
 swords at the mass historical.
 
 00:13:39.995 --> 00:13:41.096
 Tremendous house.
 
 00:13:41.696 --> 00:13:42.937
 William Hickman Prescott was
 
 00:13:42.976 --> 00:13:43.618
 the historian.
 
 00:13:44.158 --> 00:13:45.958
 He was the historian, famous historian,
 
 00:13:45.999 --> 00:13:48.821
 who unfortunately isn't
 
 00:13:48.860 --> 00:13:50.501
 born until four years after
 
 00:13:50.562 --> 00:13:51.501
 Prescott dies.
 
 00:13:51.942 --> 00:13:53.702
 Prescott dies when he's sixty nine,
 
 00:13:53.743 --> 00:13:54.663
 almost seventy years old.
 
 00:13:55.447 --> 00:13:57.408
 and William Hinkling Prescott,
 
 00:13:57.568 --> 00:14:00.211
 who has a phenomenal career
 
 00:14:00.312 --> 00:14:01.192
 as a historian.
 
 00:14:01.272 --> 00:14:01.712
 In fact,
 
 00:14:02.273 --> 00:14:03.975
 every year there's an award in his
 
 00:14:04.034 --> 00:14:05.897
 name given out there.
 
 00:14:07.477 --> 00:14:09.659
 Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne,
 
 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:15.966
 oh my God, I'm going to lose her name,
 
 00:14:16.225 --> 00:14:16.606
 Harris,
 
 00:14:18.467 --> 00:14:19.830
 received the award a couple of years ago.
 
 00:14:22.250 --> 00:14:23.530
 Joanne Freeman, I should be saying.
 
 00:14:23.551 --> 00:14:24.072
 Joanne Freeman.
 
 00:14:24.672 --> 00:14:26.594
 But yeah, so the swords are there.
 
 00:14:27.195 --> 00:14:28.076
 The last time I was there,
 
 00:14:28.115 --> 00:14:29.056
 they had moved them from
 
 00:14:29.376 --> 00:14:30.898
 where they had been in the
 
 00:14:30.937 --> 00:14:32.158
 front of the building.
 
 00:14:32.820 --> 00:14:34.581
 But it's quite an interesting story.
 
 00:14:34.841 --> 00:14:35.623
 Actually, Lindsay,
 
 00:14:35.663 --> 00:14:36.884
 who of course was the enemy,
 
 00:14:37.244 --> 00:14:38.225
 he ends up coming back to
 
 00:14:38.245 --> 00:14:41.347
 Boston and he gets, he settles back here.
 
 00:14:41.368 --> 00:14:42.048
 Right, right.
 
 00:14:42.993 --> 00:14:44.153
 We're talking with Don Ryan,
 
 00:14:44.234 --> 00:14:46.054
 author of Searching for William Prescott,
 
 00:14:46.095 --> 00:14:47.395
 Stalwart of Bunker Hill.
 
 00:14:47.956 --> 00:14:49.337
 And Prescott is at the
 
 00:14:49.378 --> 00:14:50.918
 battle from the beginning.
 
 00:14:50.938 --> 00:14:51.099
 I mean,
 
 00:14:51.119 --> 00:14:52.539
 his men are fortifying the hill the
 
 00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:53.139
 night before.
 
 00:14:53.221 --> 00:14:54.761
 And then till the very end,
 
 00:14:54.841 --> 00:14:57.604
 he is one of the last to retreat.
 
 00:14:57.663 --> 00:14:59.284
 So he is there for a long time.
 
 00:14:59.345 --> 00:15:03.148
 And then he goes back home,
 
 00:15:03.567 --> 00:15:05.129
 but then he comes back into the army.
 
 00:15:05.909 --> 00:15:06.210
 Yeah.
 
 00:15:06.289 --> 00:15:07.831
 I'll tell you one other quick story,
 
 00:15:08.432 --> 00:15:10.692
 which one of the reasons I
 
 00:15:10.712 --> 00:15:11.774
 got interested in this
 
 00:15:12.119 --> 00:15:14.539
 because of his incredible courage.
 
 00:15:15.559 --> 00:15:17.140
 And it's not just displayed
 
 00:15:17.780 --> 00:15:18.841
 at Bunker Hill and all the
 
 00:15:18.881 --> 00:15:19.841
 people who stood there that
 
 00:15:19.861 --> 00:15:21.663
 day facing off against the
 
 00:15:21.702 --> 00:15:23.004
 British army had to have a
 
 00:15:23.063 --> 00:15:24.364
 certain amount of physical courage.
 
 00:15:24.384 --> 00:15:26.024
 You know,
 
 00:15:26.085 --> 00:15:27.345
 I mentioned earlier how he said
 
 00:15:27.365 --> 00:15:28.666
 he would not be taken alive
 
 00:15:29.166 --> 00:15:30.046
 when the British on their
 
 00:15:30.105 --> 00:15:32.226
 third attempt eventually
 
 00:15:32.267 --> 00:15:33.327
 get into the redoubt and it
 
 00:15:33.347 --> 00:15:34.727
 becomes hand-to-hand fighting.
 
 00:15:35.729 --> 00:15:37.028
 Prescott, true to his word,
 
 00:15:37.769 --> 00:15:39.289
 is in the fort fighting
 
 00:15:39.330 --> 00:15:41.110
 them and he's pairing the thrusts
 
 00:15:41.583 --> 00:15:44.705
 of their bayonets with his short sword.
 
 00:15:45.184 --> 00:15:47.525
 His jacket is getting torn
 
 00:15:48.167 --> 00:15:50.326
 by the bayonets.
 
 00:15:50.807 --> 00:15:52.207
 And somehow, miraculously,
 
 00:15:52.288 --> 00:15:53.268
 he's not wounded.
 
 00:15:53.327 --> 00:15:54.869
 He's not killed or captured.
 
 00:15:55.489 --> 00:15:56.389
 He does escape.
 
 00:15:57.990 --> 00:16:00.471
 He retreats out of the redoubt.
 
 00:16:00.831 --> 00:16:02.251
 The British have taken control.
 
 00:16:02.731 --> 00:16:06.734
 The Americans head back to Harvard Square,
 
 00:16:07.033 --> 00:16:08.433
 to the headquarters.
 
 00:16:08.754 --> 00:16:10.335
 He reports to Artemis Ward,
 
 00:16:10.827 --> 00:16:11.948
 who was the major general at
 
 00:16:11.989 --> 00:16:13.269
 the time of the New England troops.
 
 00:16:14.070 --> 00:16:17.451
 And in an incredible situation,
 
 00:16:17.532 --> 00:16:18.932
 he says to Ward,
 
 00:16:21.134 --> 00:16:22.654
 I did everything I could in my power.
 
 00:16:22.835 --> 00:16:23.975
 I stayed as long as I could,
 
 00:16:24.015 --> 00:16:25.216
 but we became overwhelmed
 
 00:16:25.277 --> 00:16:26.477
 and we ran out of ammunition.
 
 00:16:27.278 --> 00:16:29.700
 But if you give me three regiments,
 
 00:16:29.820 --> 00:16:32.181
 a thousand men, muskets and bayonets,
 
 00:16:32.782 --> 00:16:34.602
 I will go back and recapture the hill,
 
 00:16:35.123 --> 00:16:36.984
 even if I perish in the effort,
 
 00:16:37.004 --> 00:16:38.264
 he tells Ward.
 
 00:16:39.171 --> 00:16:40.572
 Now that's a pretty amazing
 
 00:16:40.631 --> 00:16:42.312
 statement and how it
 
 00:16:42.352 --> 00:16:44.413
 demonstrates how much he
 
 00:16:44.453 --> 00:16:47.235
 was into the cause and Ward
 
 00:16:47.274 --> 00:16:48.196
 won't let him go.
 
 00:16:49.375 --> 00:16:51.037
 But to get to your point,
 
 00:16:51.596 --> 00:16:53.518
 he does stay in the army.
 
 00:16:55.158 --> 00:16:57.039
 He becomes part of the Boston siege.
 
 00:16:57.379 --> 00:16:58.740
 George Washington arrives in
 
 00:16:58.801 --> 00:17:00.721
 Boston on July third,
 
 00:17:00.741 --> 00:17:02.001
 a few weeks after the battle.
 
 00:17:02.802 --> 00:17:04.282
 And he helps Washington
 
 00:17:04.323 --> 00:17:05.903
 along with others to put
 
 00:17:05.923 --> 00:17:07.565
 together really the, the,
 
 00:17:07.881 --> 00:17:09.401
 The Army of the United Colonies,
 
 00:17:09.421 --> 00:17:10.342
 which is what it was first
 
 00:17:10.402 --> 00:17:11.682
 called until it became the
 
 00:17:11.741 --> 00:17:12.622
 Continental Army.
 
 00:17:13.402 --> 00:17:14.502
 And he's there for the siege.
 
 00:17:14.583 --> 00:17:14.863
 Of course,
 
 00:17:14.883 --> 00:17:16.282
 there was no fighting in the siege.
 
 00:17:16.323 --> 00:17:19.423
 The British, under William Howe,
 
 00:17:19.463 --> 00:17:20.624
 who was the on-the-field
 
 00:17:20.663 --> 00:17:22.305
 commander at Bunker Hill for the British,
 
 00:17:23.404 --> 00:17:25.545
 decide to evacuate the city.
 
 00:17:25.585 --> 00:17:26.425
 And that's what they do.
 
 00:17:27.246 --> 00:17:28.465
 Washington, excuse me.
 
 00:17:28.586 --> 00:17:28.726
 Yeah,
 
 00:17:28.766 --> 00:17:30.527
 Washington then is going to go down
 
 00:17:30.567 --> 00:17:31.846
 to New York to defend New York.
 
 00:17:32.727 --> 00:17:34.267
 And there is a recruiting
 
 00:17:34.387 --> 00:17:36.327
 effort to get soldiers to go with him.
 
 00:17:37.074 --> 00:17:38.673
 and Prescott decides he will
 
 00:17:38.733 --> 00:17:40.615
 sign up for a tour of duty.
 
 00:17:41.255 --> 00:17:42.835
 And he and his regiment
 
 00:17:42.934 --> 00:17:44.915
 march down to New York.
 
 00:17:45.076 --> 00:17:46.455
 You know, there's a lot of marching, Bob,
 
 00:17:46.496 --> 00:17:46.976
 in this area.
 
 00:17:46.996 --> 00:17:48.116
 There's a lot of marching, yeah.
 
 00:17:48.156 --> 00:17:49.777
 There aren't trains or buses.
 
 00:17:49.797 --> 00:17:50.237
 That's right, yeah.
 
 00:17:50.277 --> 00:17:52.357
 And then there's Governor's
 
 00:17:52.458 --> 00:17:53.958
 Island off the tip of Manhattan.
 
 00:17:54.738 --> 00:17:55.278
 That's right.
 
 00:17:56.019 --> 00:17:56.898
 He and his troop,
 
 00:17:56.939 --> 00:17:58.459
 and probably many of these
 
 00:17:58.519 --> 00:17:59.439
 men have probably never
 
 00:17:59.459 --> 00:18:01.660
 been out of their region.
 
 00:18:02.059 --> 00:18:02.819
 Now they're going to go two
 
 00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:04.560
 hundred miles south to
 
 00:18:04.621 --> 00:18:06.500
 fight the British in New York.
 
 00:18:07.384 --> 00:18:09.746
 And Israel Putnam,
 
 00:18:09.826 --> 00:18:12.167
 who has kind of a dubious, in my mind,
 
 00:18:12.208 --> 00:18:14.410
 dubious experience at Bunker Hill,
 
 00:18:14.450 --> 00:18:16.251
 he's actually referred to
 
 00:18:16.311 --> 00:18:18.334
 by some historians as the
 
 00:18:18.374 --> 00:18:19.315
 hero of Bunker Hill.
 
 00:18:19.335 --> 00:18:20.296
 Now,
 
 00:18:20.336 --> 00:18:22.778
 I take issue with that because I think
 
 00:18:23.097 --> 00:18:24.439
 certainly Prescott and you
 
 00:18:24.459 --> 00:18:25.900
 could add John Stark from
 
 00:18:25.961 --> 00:18:27.682
 New Hampshire have major roles.
 
 00:18:28.702 --> 00:18:29.703
 Putnam never really is
 
 00:18:29.743 --> 00:18:31.204
 involved in the fighting,
 
 00:18:31.945 --> 00:18:33.146
 but he was there and he was
 
 00:18:33.227 --> 00:18:34.407
 a famous general and
 
 00:18:35.641 --> 00:18:37.741
 when Washington goes down to New York,
 
 00:18:38.102 --> 00:18:39.423
 he actually puts Putnam in
 
 00:18:39.463 --> 00:18:41.845
 charge of the defense of New York.
 
 00:18:42.105 --> 00:18:44.027
 Charles Lee had been there previously.
 
 00:18:45.288 --> 00:18:46.009
 He then puts,
 
 00:18:46.328 --> 00:18:48.891
 Washington then puts Putnam
 
 00:18:48.931 --> 00:18:53.413
 in charge and Putnam
 
 00:18:54.836 --> 00:18:58.258
 assigns Prescott to Governor's Island,
 
 00:18:58.317 --> 00:18:59.138
 which is a hundred and
 
 00:18:59.179 --> 00:19:01.201
 seventy nine acre island
 
 00:19:01.381 --> 00:19:02.961
 off the southern tip of Manhattan.
 
 00:19:03.461 --> 00:19:04.202
 I was just there.
 
 00:19:04.690 --> 00:19:05.450
 two months ago,
 
 00:19:05.529 --> 00:19:07.211
 I wanted to be on the
 
 00:19:07.290 --> 00:19:09.612
 island myself to see the
 
 00:19:09.652 --> 00:19:12.894
 panorama that Prescott would have seen.
 
 00:19:14.153 --> 00:19:15.355
 Governor's Island sits at
 
 00:19:15.375 --> 00:19:16.654
 the mouth of the East River.
 
 00:19:16.875 --> 00:19:19.056
 So you have Manhattan to the
 
 00:19:19.096 --> 00:19:20.856
 west and Brooklyn to the east.
 
 00:19:21.557 --> 00:19:22.657
 And the thought was,
 
 00:19:23.238 --> 00:19:25.078
 if we can control the entrance there,
 
 00:19:25.118 --> 00:19:25.980
 we can keep the British
 
 00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:27.380
 from sailing their ships up
 
 00:19:27.420 --> 00:19:29.881
 and bombarding the two areas.
 
 00:19:30.781 --> 00:19:30.961
 And
 
 00:19:32.688 --> 00:19:35.608
 This is maybe going too much
 
 00:19:35.628 --> 00:19:36.549
 into speculation,
 
 00:19:36.609 --> 00:19:40.592
 but after the Battle of Bunker Hill,
 
 00:19:40.971 --> 00:19:42.192
 and I found this is interesting,
 
 00:19:42.251 --> 00:19:45.034
 and it was William Prescott Jr., his son,
 
 00:19:45.074 --> 00:19:47.055
 and Prescott only has only one child,
 
 00:19:47.075 --> 00:19:48.115
 which was very rare for
 
 00:19:48.154 --> 00:19:48.894
 people in that age,
 
 00:19:48.934 --> 00:19:51.056
 particularly a farmer who needs labor.
 
 00:19:51.576 --> 00:19:52.596
 He only had one child.
 
 00:19:52.696 --> 00:19:54.038
 He became a famous jurist,
 
 00:19:55.558 --> 00:19:57.519
 and he tells the story.
 
 00:19:58.519 --> 00:19:59.559
 I think this information is
 
 00:19:59.579 --> 00:20:00.941
 at the Mass Historical Society.
 
 00:20:01.512 --> 00:20:02.933
 about how after the battle,
 
 00:20:04.694 --> 00:20:07.276
 Prescott had confronted Putnam.
 
 00:20:08.136 --> 00:20:09.758
 Putnam had come to Prescott
 
 00:20:10.337 --> 00:20:11.459
 just before the battle had
 
 00:20:11.499 --> 00:20:12.779
 started and asked for some
 
 00:20:12.819 --> 00:20:13.640
 men to take all the
 
 00:20:13.700 --> 00:20:15.820
 entrenching tools out of
 
 00:20:15.861 --> 00:20:17.721
 the redoubt and send them
 
 00:20:17.741 --> 00:20:19.482
 back towards Cambridge to protect them,
 
 00:20:19.844 --> 00:20:21.003
 which sort of made sense.
 
 00:20:22.825 --> 00:20:24.866
 Prescott was worried, and rightly so,
 
 00:20:25.426 --> 00:20:27.448
 that the men who took those
 
 00:20:27.488 --> 00:20:29.128
 tools wouldn't come back.
 
 00:20:29.394 --> 00:20:30.693
 And he was already losing
 
 00:20:30.733 --> 00:20:33.075
 people who were leaving the front.
 
 00:20:33.994 --> 00:20:36.234
 And he said that to Putnam.
 
 00:20:36.255 --> 00:20:37.215
 And Putnam said that they
 
 00:20:37.236 --> 00:20:38.395
 would return once they had
 
 00:20:38.816 --> 00:20:39.655
 moved the tools.
 
 00:20:39.695 --> 00:20:40.715
 Well, they never came back.
 
 00:20:41.395 --> 00:20:42.477
 And so after the battle,
 
 00:20:43.616 --> 00:20:46.416
 Prescott confronts Putnam and says,
 
 00:20:46.657 --> 00:20:47.778
 why did you not come back
 
 00:20:47.817 --> 00:20:48.657
 like you said you were?
 
 00:20:49.417 --> 00:20:51.519
 And Putnam says,
 
 00:20:51.638 --> 00:20:53.058
 I couldn't make the dogs go.
 
 00:20:54.318 --> 00:20:57.180
 To which point Prescott said,
 
 00:20:57.720 --> 00:20:58.539
 if you had said,
 
 00:20:58.955 --> 00:20:59.675
 Come with me.
 
 00:21:00.175 --> 00:21:01.395
 You would have found enough men.
 
 00:21:02.156 --> 00:21:03.817
 So he really challenges him.
 
 00:21:04.977 --> 00:21:06.537
 He's basically calling him out.
 
 00:21:06.797 --> 00:21:07.416
 And, you know,
 
 00:21:07.457 --> 00:21:08.837
 John Stark referred to
 
 00:21:08.978 --> 00:21:10.657
 Israel Putnam as a poltroon,
 
 00:21:10.738 --> 00:21:13.157
 a coward from that battle.
 
 00:21:13.238 --> 00:21:15.239
 So in New York, jumping ahead now,
 
 00:21:17.378 --> 00:21:19.239
 Putnam assigns Prescott to
 
 00:21:19.278 --> 00:21:21.900
 this isolated spot in the
 
 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:22.720
 middle of the harbor.
 
 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:24.500
 And I thought, is this a little bit of,
 
 00:21:24.579 --> 00:21:26.080
 you know, payback for some of this?
 
 00:21:26.980 --> 00:21:28.461
 Just coincidental, as you think.
 
 00:21:28.887 --> 00:21:29.968
 Maybe Prescott's the best
 
 00:21:30.008 --> 00:21:32.009
 guy to do that because after all,
 
 00:21:32.068 --> 00:21:33.230
 he was in charge of Bunker
 
 00:21:33.269 --> 00:21:34.589
 Hill and that was a very
 
 00:21:34.609 --> 00:21:35.789
 dangerous situation too.
 
 00:21:37.211 --> 00:21:39.632
 There are not many officers
 
 00:21:39.692 --> 00:21:41.673
 who are as good at telling
 
 00:21:41.692 --> 00:21:43.432
 their own story as Putnam was.
 
 00:21:43.653 --> 00:21:45.253
 And there's a legend in the
 
 00:21:45.314 --> 00:21:46.594
 town in Connecticut he was
 
 00:21:46.653 --> 00:21:47.914
 from about he had gone into
 
 00:21:47.934 --> 00:21:49.595
 a cave and found a sleeping
 
 00:21:49.634 --> 00:21:51.256
 bear and wrestled the bear.
 
 00:21:51.316 --> 00:21:53.237
 And they said if you didn't
 
 00:21:53.257 --> 00:21:54.076
 believe the story,
 
 00:21:54.096 --> 00:21:55.477
 they would point you to the cave.
 
 00:21:55.497 --> 00:21:57.218
 Yeah, that's funny.
 
 00:21:58.541 --> 00:22:00.363
 Yeah, that's funny.
 
 00:22:00.383 --> 00:22:00.643
 So, you know,
 
 00:22:00.682 --> 00:22:02.023
 it's curious because there's
 
 00:22:02.044 --> 00:22:03.463
 a lot of discussion about
 
 00:22:04.644 --> 00:22:06.464
 the decision to fortify
 
 00:22:06.704 --> 00:22:07.766
 Charlestown Heights and
 
 00:22:07.806 --> 00:22:09.086
 where they put the readout
 
 00:22:09.145 --> 00:22:09.807
 on Breed's Hill.
 
 00:22:11.946 --> 00:22:13.407
 And Prescott had gone along.
 
 00:22:13.428 --> 00:22:14.528
 Putnam was very aggressive.
 
 00:22:14.567 --> 00:22:15.709
 He wanted to fight the British.
 
 00:22:16.689 --> 00:22:18.869
 And several times he had
 
 00:22:19.190 --> 00:22:19.970
 demonstrated that.
 
 00:22:20.049 --> 00:22:22.090
 But Prescott went along with
 
 00:22:22.131 --> 00:22:24.192
 him to put the readout on Breed's Island,
 
 00:22:24.832 --> 00:22:25.412
 Breed's Hill.
 
 00:22:25.491 --> 00:22:25.833
 Right.
 
 00:22:27.782 --> 00:22:29.044
 that kind of precipitated
 
 00:22:29.084 --> 00:22:30.286
 the British coming over that day.
 
 00:22:30.306 --> 00:22:30.925
 Yeah.
 
 00:22:30.945 --> 00:22:31.906
 Yeah.
 
 00:22:32.027 --> 00:22:32.708
 It's interesting,
 
 00:22:32.728 --> 00:22:34.469
 the personalities in this.
 
 00:22:35.170 --> 00:22:39.272
 And then after the siege of New York,
 
 00:22:39.292 --> 00:22:41.154
 when Washington's army is
 
 00:22:41.194 --> 00:22:42.355
 chased across New Jersey,
 
 00:22:42.516 --> 00:22:43.656
 January of seventy seven,
 
 00:22:43.696 --> 00:22:45.739
 he retires from he leaves the army.
 
 00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:47.019
 That's correct.
 
 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:48.421
 He leaves the army.
 
 00:22:50.202 --> 00:22:52.664
 Incidentally, when Washington does escape,
 
 00:22:53.358 --> 00:22:54.720
 with his army from Brooklyn
 
 00:22:54.839 --> 00:22:56.779
 and that famous evacuation
 
 00:22:56.819 --> 00:23:00.061
 in the middle of the night and under fog.
 
 00:23:01.883 --> 00:23:02.962
 When Washington leaves
 
 00:23:03.022 --> 00:23:04.544
 Brooklyn and Howe's troops
 
 00:23:04.564 --> 00:23:06.003
 can't battle them,
 
 00:23:06.845 --> 00:23:08.005
 the last people to leave
 
 00:23:08.045 --> 00:23:09.506
 Southern New York is
 
 00:23:09.586 --> 00:23:10.605
 Prescott and his men on
 
 00:23:10.645 --> 00:23:11.346
 Governor's Island.
 
 00:23:11.787 --> 00:23:12.946
 It isn't until seven o'clock
 
 00:23:12.987 --> 00:23:15.248
 in the morning that they finally decide,
 
 00:23:15.929 --> 00:23:17.169
 they can see the British up
 
 00:23:17.269 --> 00:23:20.210
 on Brooklyn Heights because
 
 00:23:20.250 --> 00:23:21.230
 it's not that far away.
 
 00:23:21.885 --> 00:23:22.866
 And they get into their
 
 00:23:22.906 --> 00:23:24.907
 boats and sail back and escape.
 
 00:23:24.948 --> 00:23:25.989
 And Washington actually
 
 00:23:26.048 --> 00:23:28.230
 commends Prescott for the
 
 00:23:28.309 --> 00:23:30.750
 orderly retreat up Manhattan Island.
 
 00:23:31.092 --> 00:23:31.692
 But you're right.
 
 00:23:32.551 --> 00:23:34.012
 The Americans are eventually
 
 00:23:34.073 --> 00:23:34.973
 pushed out of Manhattan.
 
 00:23:35.753 --> 00:23:37.115
 Washington is being chased
 
 00:23:37.154 --> 00:23:38.215
 across New Jersey.
 
 00:23:39.016 --> 00:23:42.478
 And Prescott's tour of duty is up.
 
 00:23:42.578 --> 00:23:43.578
 And he decides he's going to
 
 00:23:43.598 --> 00:23:44.720
 go back to Pepperell and go
 
 00:23:44.740 --> 00:23:47.361
 back to his farming, which he does.
 
 00:23:48.241 --> 00:23:49.462
 Only to come out of
 
 00:23:49.522 --> 00:23:51.644
 retirement in September of
 
 00:23:52.065 --> 00:23:59.611
 in October of, um, when, um, Horatio Gates,
 
 00:24:00.310 --> 00:24:02.232
 who's in charge of the New England troops,
 
 00:24:03.192 --> 00:24:03.374
 um,
 
 00:24:04.134 --> 00:24:06.215
 puts out a call for support because
 
 00:24:06.276 --> 00:24:07.155
 John Burgoyne,
 
 00:24:07.175 --> 00:24:09.258
 the British general who is
 
 00:24:09.377 --> 00:24:10.558
 in Boston at the time of
 
 00:24:10.578 --> 00:24:11.460
 the Battle of Bunker Hill,
 
 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:12.380
 but was not part of it,
 
 00:24:12.820 --> 00:24:14.102
 is bringing his army down
 
 00:24:14.162 --> 00:24:16.083
 from Canada in an attempt
 
 00:24:16.103 --> 00:24:18.144
 to cut off the New England
 
 00:24:18.224 --> 00:24:20.906
 colonies from the Southern colonies.
 
 00:24:21.730 --> 00:24:23.549
 And they are very nervous
 
 00:24:23.609 --> 00:24:25.851
 about Burgoyne's activity.
 
 00:24:25.891 --> 00:24:28.211
 Burgoyne has recaptured Fort
 
 00:24:28.250 --> 00:24:30.251
 Ticonderoga and some other forts.
 
 00:24:31.071 --> 00:24:32.372
 He's got six thousand men.
 
 00:24:33.071 --> 00:24:34.413
 William Howe is supposedly
 
 00:24:34.452 --> 00:24:35.353
 going to be coming up from
 
 00:24:35.393 --> 00:24:38.794
 New York to cut off the New
 
 00:24:38.854 --> 00:24:39.794
 England colonies.
 
 00:24:40.554 --> 00:24:42.594
 And Prescott in Pepperell
 
 00:24:43.654 --> 00:24:45.674
 hears the call and he
 
 00:24:46.035 --> 00:24:47.914
 volunteers for the army again.
 
 00:24:49.256 --> 00:24:50.576
 And I've seen the muster roll
 
 00:24:51.634 --> 00:24:53.996
 in the Massachusetts archives listing him.
 
 00:24:54.756 --> 00:24:56.196
 And it lists him as a private.
 
 00:24:56.217 --> 00:24:57.657
 Oh, my goodness.
 
 00:24:57.678 --> 00:24:58.857
 Because he, I mean, he was a colonel.
 
 00:24:59.097 --> 00:25:01.019
 They list him as a volunteer private.
 
 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:02.559
 And in parentheses,
 
 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:03.921
 it says former colonel.
 
 00:25:05.162 --> 00:25:08.202
 So he's fifty years old and he and about,
 
 00:25:08.864 --> 00:25:10.464
 I think it's around sixty
 
 00:25:10.505 --> 00:25:11.744
 or seventy men from his
 
 00:25:11.825 --> 00:25:13.806
 region march a hundred and
 
 00:25:13.846 --> 00:25:16.347
 forty miles out west
 
 00:25:16.387 --> 00:25:18.429
 through Massachusetts over
 
 00:25:18.449 --> 00:25:19.910
 the Berkshire Mountains into
 
 00:25:20.902 --> 00:25:22.623
 into the Saratoga battlefields.
 
 00:25:22.722 --> 00:25:23.844
 They arrive too late.
 
 00:25:23.903 --> 00:25:25.625
 He's not a part of the
 
 00:25:25.664 --> 00:25:27.405
 fighting that occurs at
 
 00:25:27.726 --> 00:25:29.406
 Freeman's Farm or Bemis Heights,
 
 00:25:29.727 --> 00:25:30.626
 but he is there for the
 
 00:25:30.686 --> 00:25:33.368
 siege and for the surrender ceremony.
 
 00:25:33.388 --> 00:25:33.489
 Right.
 
 00:25:33.509 --> 00:25:35.049
 Okay.
 
 00:25:35.150 --> 00:25:37.931
 In fact, I was just going to say,
 
 00:25:38.030 --> 00:25:40.251
 and I might be jumping
 
 00:25:40.271 --> 00:25:41.232
 around here a little bit for you,
 
 00:25:41.252 --> 00:25:44.034
 but there's a famous painting,
 
 00:25:44.394 --> 00:25:46.296
 The Surrender of John Beloyne,
 
 00:25:46.875 --> 00:25:48.136
 and it hangs in the rotunda.
 
 00:25:48.156 --> 00:25:48.257
 Yeah.
 
 00:25:49.076 --> 00:25:50.136
 of the United States Capitol,
 
 00:25:50.176 --> 00:25:51.217
 along with a couple of other.
 
 00:25:51.237 --> 00:25:52.417
 Yeah, by Trumbull,
 
 00:25:52.657 --> 00:25:53.818
 who also did the death of
 
 00:25:53.838 --> 00:25:54.778
 Warren at Bunker Hill.
 
 00:25:55.380 --> 00:25:55.859
 Exactly.
 
 00:25:55.880 --> 00:25:57.141
 And that's what I was getting to here.
 
 00:25:57.161 --> 00:25:58.582
 This is a little side story.
 
 00:25:59.162 --> 00:25:59.622
 And in fact,
 
 00:25:59.721 --> 00:26:00.962
 I talked to some people at the
 
 00:26:00.982 --> 00:26:02.864
 Massachusetts Fine Arts
 
 00:26:02.943 --> 00:26:03.964
 Museum about this.
 
 00:26:04.865 --> 00:26:07.386
 So Trumbull, who was a very famous painter,
 
 00:26:08.968 --> 00:26:10.249
 his father was the governor
 
 00:26:10.388 --> 00:26:12.490
 of Connecticut, royal governor,
 
 00:26:12.529 --> 00:26:13.871
 who was the only royal governor
 
 00:26:14.534 --> 00:26:15.835
 to go over to the provincial
 
 00:26:15.875 --> 00:26:16.996
 side of things and became a
 
 00:26:17.056 --> 00:26:18.536
 close friend of George Washington.
 
 00:26:18.836 --> 00:26:20.897
 And became the elected governor.
 
 00:26:20.998 --> 00:26:21.857
 Yeah, that's right.
 
 00:26:21.897 --> 00:26:27.182
 So, um, but Trumbull, um, in, uh, in, uh,
 
 00:26:27.301 --> 00:26:28.982
 paints the first of what
 
 00:26:29.143 --> 00:26:31.703
 ends up being three paintings, uh,
 
 00:26:31.723 --> 00:26:34.145
 the death of, uh, General Joseph Warnock,
 
 00:26:34.205 --> 00:26:35.186
 the Battle of Bunker Hill.
 
 00:26:36.047 --> 00:26:37.468
 And if you look at that closely,
 
 00:26:37.688 --> 00:26:39.909
 and the one in here in Boston, um,
 
 00:26:40.028 --> 00:26:42.250
 is only about three feet by two feet.
 
 00:26:42.290 --> 00:26:42.790
 It's small.
 
 00:26:42.971 --> 00:26:44.152
 It was commissioned by the, uh,
 
 00:26:44.824 --> 00:26:45.763
 by the Warren family,
 
 00:26:45.983 --> 00:26:47.144
 but his other two paintings
 
 00:26:47.224 --> 00:26:48.684
 are like ten by ten, they're big.
 
 00:26:50.505 --> 00:26:51.226
 You see all these
 
 00:26:51.546 --> 00:26:53.945
 Connecticut folk prominently displayed.
 
 00:26:54.046 --> 00:26:56.467
 Thomas Knowlton, Israel Putnam,
 
 00:26:56.507 --> 00:26:57.307
 Thomas Grosvenor,
 
 00:26:57.326 --> 00:26:59.027
 they're all there up front and center.
 
 00:26:59.827 --> 00:27:01.367
 And you have to peek over
 
 00:27:01.407 --> 00:27:02.448
 someone's shoulder and you
 
 00:27:02.468 --> 00:27:04.828
 see this little face with a hat on,
 
 00:27:05.429 --> 00:27:06.249
 and that's Prescott.
 
 00:27:07.429 --> 00:27:08.970
 And I thought, oh my God,
 
 00:27:09.009 --> 00:27:10.329
 he's like in the background
 
 00:27:10.369 --> 00:27:11.470
 here in this famous battle.
 
 00:27:12.190 --> 00:27:14.290
 And the story goes that when
 
 00:27:14.835 --> 00:27:17.336
 Burgoyne surrendered to
 
 00:27:17.396 --> 00:27:20.138
 Gates at Saratoga and
 
 00:27:20.199 --> 00:27:21.200
 Trumbull was going to paint
 
 00:27:21.220 --> 00:27:24.162
 that scene that he was so
 
 00:27:24.221 --> 00:27:25.442
 embarrassed that he hadn't
 
 00:27:25.461 --> 00:27:27.943
 given Prescott his due in
 
 00:27:27.963 --> 00:27:29.644
 the prior paintings of
 
 00:27:29.704 --> 00:27:31.586
 Bunker Hill that he puts
 
 00:27:31.666 --> 00:27:34.348
 Prescott prominently in that painting.
 
 00:27:35.269 --> 00:27:37.270
 And you'd have to look at it
 
 00:27:37.290 --> 00:27:38.791
 and I could point out who
 
 00:27:38.811 --> 00:27:39.451
 Prescott is there.
 
 00:27:39.491 --> 00:27:40.573
 You see his full body.
 
 00:27:41.113 --> 00:27:41.894
 He's carrying a musket.
 
 00:27:42.465 --> 00:27:44.106
 But one of the senior
 
 00:27:44.247 --> 00:27:45.448
 historians in the National
 
 00:27:45.468 --> 00:27:47.169
 Park Service in Saratoga,
 
 00:27:47.769 --> 00:27:49.630
 he and I were chatting and he said,
 
 00:27:49.650 --> 00:27:49.851
 you know,
 
 00:27:49.871 --> 00:27:51.090
 I could never figure out why
 
 00:27:51.171 --> 00:27:51.971
 Prescott is in this
 
 00:27:51.991 --> 00:27:53.071
 painting because he didn't fight.
 
 00:27:53.172 --> 00:27:54.012
 I don't think he even shot
 
 00:27:54.032 --> 00:27:55.413
 his musket at all.
 
 00:27:56.595 --> 00:27:57.055
 And I said,
 
 00:27:57.134 --> 00:27:58.395
 I think I have the answer for you.
 
 00:27:59.115 --> 00:28:00.817
 And he kind of chuckled at that.
 
 00:28:01.436 --> 00:28:01.978
 Interesting.
 
 00:28:02.057 --> 00:28:02.538
 Interesting.
 
 00:28:03.318 --> 00:28:03.719
 Yeah.
 
 00:28:03.739 --> 00:28:04.778
 He's right behind Daniel
 
 00:28:04.798 --> 00:28:06.460
 Morgan in the Saratoga.
 
 00:28:06.500 --> 00:28:07.020
 That's right.
 
 00:28:07.040 --> 00:28:07.740
 So you do not.
 
 00:28:07.941 --> 00:28:08.682
 That's right.
 
 00:28:08.842 --> 00:28:08.922
 Yeah.
 
 00:28:09.835 --> 00:28:11.576
 We're talking to Don Ryan,
 
 00:28:11.757 --> 00:28:13.618
 author of Search Seeking
 
 00:28:13.659 --> 00:28:14.538
 General Prescott.
 
 00:28:14.558 --> 00:28:16.780
 I'm sorry, I got the title wrong.
 
 00:28:17.041 --> 00:28:18.403
 Searching for William Prescott,
 
 00:28:18.423 --> 00:28:19.604
 the stalwart of Bunker Hill.
 
 00:28:20.003 --> 00:28:20.144
 Now,
 
 00:28:20.163 --> 00:28:22.306
 Stark leaves the army because he
 
 00:28:22.365 --> 00:28:23.626
 hadn't gotten promoted.
 
 00:28:23.707 --> 00:28:25.568
 Was that a reason for
 
 00:28:25.608 --> 00:28:27.210
 Prescott or he just thought
 
 00:28:27.289 --> 00:28:27.911
 he had had enough?
 
 00:28:27.931 --> 00:28:28.451
 I don't think so.
 
 00:28:28.471 --> 00:28:29.832
 That's a very good question.
 
 00:28:29.852 --> 00:28:31.534
 You're right.
 
 00:28:31.574 --> 00:28:32.494
 John Stark,
 
 00:28:32.535 --> 00:28:35.457
 who is a fierce fighter and was
 
 00:28:35.557 --> 00:28:36.577
 also a veteran of the
 
 00:28:36.597 --> 00:28:37.719
 French Indian War and
 
 00:28:38.068 --> 00:28:39.009
 He became the hero of
 
 00:28:39.048 --> 00:28:39.950
 Bennington and all that.
 
 00:28:39.970 --> 00:28:42.269
 He also comes back for Saratoga.
 
 00:28:42.329 --> 00:28:43.631
 He comes back and he plays a
 
 00:28:43.691 --> 00:28:44.911
 big role in the Battle of
 
 00:28:44.951 --> 00:28:47.771
 Bennington and also in Saratoga.
 
 00:28:48.652 --> 00:28:49.692
 But he was upset he wasn't
 
 00:28:49.712 --> 00:28:50.373
 getting promoted.
 
 00:28:50.813 --> 00:28:53.153
 And much like another famous
 
 00:28:53.213 --> 00:28:56.875
 battle commander, Benedict Arnold,
 
 00:28:57.934 --> 00:28:58.756
 who was not getting
 
 00:28:58.796 --> 00:28:59.855
 promoted despite even
 
 00:28:59.875 --> 00:29:01.236
 George Washington promoting
 
 00:29:01.276 --> 00:29:02.257
 him to the Congress.
 
 00:29:03.477 --> 00:29:04.057
 But Prescott,
 
 00:29:04.196 --> 00:29:06.057
 I never see any indication of him being
 
 00:29:06.903 --> 00:29:07.964
 upset by anything.
 
 00:29:08.884 --> 00:29:08.984
 Um,
 
 00:29:09.065 --> 00:29:11.405
 I think he just has praise for the army.
 
 00:29:11.486 --> 00:29:12.546
 He, he, uh,
 
 00:29:12.605 --> 00:29:14.146
 is very dedicated to the soldiers.
 
 00:29:14.186 --> 00:29:16.567
 In fact, um, in the town of Pepperell,
 
 00:29:16.667 --> 00:29:19.469
 they, uh, put him in charge of, um,
 
 00:29:19.509 --> 00:29:20.630
 helping to take care of the
 
 00:29:20.670 --> 00:29:23.871
 families of veterans.
 
 00:29:24.230 --> 00:29:26.832
 Um, he, uh, he has real, real, you know,
 
 00:29:26.872 --> 00:29:27.952
 soft spot for,
 
 00:29:27.972 --> 00:29:29.772
 for veterans actually of both sides.
 
 00:29:30.393 --> 00:29:31.153
 If I have time,
 
 00:29:31.213 --> 00:29:33.035
 I can tell you a very quick little story.
 
 00:29:33.375 --> 00:29:33.934
 Um,
 
 00:29:35.540 --> 00:29:38.321
 When he is down in New York, and this is,
 
 00:29:38.382 --> 00:29:38.662
 I think,
 
 00:29:38.682 --> 00:29:40.422
 just before he actually gets over
 
 00:29:40.461 --> 00:29:41.422
 to Governor's Island,
 
 00:29:43.063 --> 00:29:43.663
 there are a couple of
 
 00:29:43.782 --> 00:29:45.462
 provincial or government
 
 00:29:45.482 --> 00:29:47.084
 soldiers that are taking a
 
 00:29:47.144 --> 00:29:47.983
 British deserter,
 
 00:29:48.663 --> 00:29:50.104
 and they happen to walk by
 
 00:29:50.344 --> 00:29:51.224
 where Prescott is.
 
 00:29:52.105 --> 00:29:54.444
 And the British deserter says,
 
 00:29:55.045 --> 00:29:56.786
 over yonder is Colonel Prescott.
 
 00:29:57.965 --> 00:30:01.586
 And so the American troops
 
 00:30:01.686 --> 00:30:02.707
 bring him over to Prescott.
 
 00:30:03.806 --> 00:30:05.788
 And this fellow identifies
 
 00:30:05.827 --> 00:30:06.847
 himself and says,
 
 00:30:07.888 --> 00:30:09.190
 I saw you at Bunker Hill.
 
 00:30:10.111 --> 00:30:12.471
 And Prescott says to him, well,
 
 00:30:12.511 --> 00:30:13.492
 why didn't you kill me?
 
 00:30:14.294 --> 00:30:16.095
 And this British deserter says,
 
 00:30:16.535 --> 00:30:17.236
 I tried to.
 
 00:30:17.796 --> 00:30:19.798
 I was trying to stab you with my bayonet.
 
 00:30:20.637 --> 00:30:21.778
 And I was very close to you,
 
 00:30:21.798 --> 00:30:22.839
 but I never got you.
 
 00:30:23.539 --> 00:30:25.701
 And Prescott laughed and then said,
 
 00:30:25.761 --> 00:30:26.501
 come with me.
 
 00:30:26.942 --> 00:30:27.803
 And he took him into his
 
 00:30:27.863 --> 00:30:29.044
 tent to give him a treat.
 
 00:30:29.064 --> 00:30:29.124
 Wow.
 
 00:30:30.803 --> 00:30:31.784
 this is just kind of the
 
 00:30:31.844 --> 00:30:33.385
 personality of Prescott.
 
 00:30:33.405 --> 00:30:33.685
 I mean,
 
 00:30:33.705 --> 00:30:38.270
 you pick these little stories up and he,
 
 00:30:38.310 --> 00:30:40.452
 you know, he's a man of high integrity,
 
 00:30:41.013 --> 00:30:41.694
 honesty.
 
 00:30:42.255 --> 00:30:43.616
 He's a very simple man.
 
 00:30:44.196 --> 00:30:45.719
 He's not looking for praise
 
 00:30:45.818 --> 00:30:47.099
 or any of that sort of thing.
 
 00:30:47.580 --> 00:30:49.782
 He would be the last to say, you know,
 
 00:30:49.863 --> 00:30:50.983
 how is it that people don't
 
 00:30:51.023 --> 00:30:52.986
 know me all these years later?
 
 00:30:53.067 --> 00:30:53.446
 That sort of
 
 00:30:54.740 --> 00:30:55.902
 Did he leave much in the way
 
 00:30:55.961 --> 00:30:58.123
 of personal papers, letters, diaries?
 
 00:30:58.223 --> 00:30:58.743
 Oh, boy.
 
 00:30:58.804 --> 00:30:59.744
 Now you're really getting to
 
 00:30:59.785 --> 00:31:00.545
 the heart of it, Bob.
 
 00:31:01.625 --> 00:31:02.886
 Unfortunately for me,
 
 00:31:02.946 --> 00:31:04.008
 and maybe this is why not
 
 00:31:04.067 --> 00:31:05.067
 much has been written about
 
 00:31:05.127 --> 00:31:06.930
 Prescott in so long.
 
 00:31:06.970 --> 00:31:07.150
 I mean,
 
 00:31:07.170 --> 00:31:08.971
 the last things I've seen are
 
 00:31:09.010 --> 00:31:10.271
 speeches that were given at
 
 00:31:10.772 --> 00:31:12.113
 the centennial of his death
 
 00:31:12.153 --> 00:31:13.233
 in eighteen ninety five.
 
 00:31:14.075 --> 00:31:15.715
 But he wasn't really a writer.
 
 00:31:16.336 --> 00:31:18.978
 He wasn't a letter writer.
 
 00:31:19.358 --> 00:31:20.479
 He didn't leave a diary.
 
 00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:23.902
 I did find a few letters here and there.
 
 00:31:25.291 --> 00:31:25.592
 Actually,
 
 00:31:25.672 --> 00:31:27.012
 some of them are in William
 
 00:31:27.053 --> 00:31:28.574
 Hinkling Prescott's papers
 
 00:31:29.134 --> 00:31:30.715
 at the Mass Historical Society.
 
 00:31:32.436 --> 00:31:35.619
 But so it made the work of
 
 00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:36.901
 really trying to find out
 
 00:31:37.201 --> 00:31:38.882
 what I could about him much
 
 00:31:38.942 --> 00:31:39.682
 more difficult.
 
 00:31:39.923 --> 00:31:42.285
 And I mentioned a little bit
 
 00:31:42.325 --> 00:31:45.086
 earlier that the structure
 
 00:31:45.106 --> 00:31:45.928
 of the book changed a
 
 00:31:45.948 --> 00:31:47.308
 little bit as I was going through it.
 
 00:31:47.348 --> 00:31:49.111
 And the reason it's entitled
 
 00:31:50.111 --> 00:31:52.012
 Searching for William Prescott is that
 
 00:31:52.757 --> 00:31:53.717
 I was getting so many
 
 00:31:53.757 --> 00:31:55.998
 questions from people up on
 
 00:31:56.038 --> 00:31:57.818
 the Monument Park.
 
 00:31:58.699 --> 00:31:59.739
 Who is this person?
 
 00:31:59.798 --> 00:32:00.838
 Where did he come from?
 
 00:32:01.219 --> 00:32:02.339
 Did he survive the battle?
 
 00:32:02.420 --> 00:32:03.500
 What else did he do in the war,
 
 00:32:03.539 --> 00:32:04.119
 if anything?
 
 00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:05.621
 What did he do after the war?
 
 00:32:05.921 --> 00:32:07.020
 And I had the same questions.
 
 00:32:08.020 --> 00:32:09.701
 And as I started to look into it,
 
 00:32:10.541 --> 00:32:11.481
 I went on this quote
 
 00:32:11.501 --> 00:32:14.022
 unquote search to find what
 
 00:32:14.103 --> 00:32:15.523
 I could about William Prescott.
 
 00:32:15.824 --> 00:32:17.824
 And so the book is actually
 
 00:32:17.884 --> 00:32:18.845
 structured in a way
 
 00:32:21.019 --> 00:32:22.160
 I call it part history,
 
 00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:23.319
 part detective story.
 
 00:32:24.401 --> 00:32:26.102
 In an effort to maybe have
 
 00:32:26.142 --> 00:32:30.703
 it have some broader interest, I actually,
 
 00:32:30.723 --> 00:32:32.164
 in working with an editor,
 
 00:32:32.845 --> 00:32:33.545
 one of the very first
 
 00:32:33.565 --> 00:32:35.506
 questions she asked me when
 
 00:32:35.546 --> 00:32:38.548
 we first started collaborating was,
 
 00:32:39.028 --> 00:32:40.469
 she said to me, are you in this book?
 
 00:32:41.429 --> 00:32:42.890
 And I said, am I in this book?
 
 00:32:42.950 --> 00:32:44.290
 No, I'm a narrator here,
 
 00:32:44.351 --> 00:32:46.551
 but this is a history from
 
 00:32:46.692 --> 00:32:47.491
 hundreds of years ago.
 
 00:32:48.192 --> 00:32:48.692
 And she said, oh,
 
 00:32:48.752 --> 00:32:49.613
 I was just wondering if I
 
 00:32:49.633 --> 00:32:50.713
 was going to see you in the book.
 
 00:32:51.488 --> 00:32:54.069
 And that led me to think about, well,
 
 00:32:54.109 --> 00:32:55.790
 maybe I'll put myself in the book.
 
 00:32:55.951 --> 00:32:57.071
 And part of it will be,
 
 00:32:57.571 --> 00:32:59.193
 it'll be kind of the
 
 00:32:59.233 --> 00:33:00.694
 present and the past.
 
 00:33:00.835 --> 00:33:03.656
 And I move back and forth chronologically.
 
 00:33:04.217 --> 00:33:05.397
 When I run into something
 
 00:33:05.417 --> 00:33:06.638
 that I want to investigate,
 
 00:33:07.038 --> 00:33:08.279
 I actually talk about the
 
 00:33:08.339 --> 00:33:10.541
 efforts I've made to try to
 
 00:33:10.582 --> 00:33:11.782
 retrieve information.
 
 00:33:12.303 --> 00:33:13.384
 I can't go through it all,
 
 00:33:13.423 --> 00:33:14.484
 but here it would take too long.
 
 00:33:14.505 --> 00:33:16.185
 But one thing I was able to
 
 00:33:16.246 --> 00:33:17.987
 do in working with the kind
 
 00:33:18.027 --> 00:33:18.768
 people in Pepperell
 
 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:21.840
 was to go to their Lawrence Library.
 
 00:33:22.521 --> 00:33:24.182
 It's a fabulous facility.
 
 00:33:24.262 --> 00:33:25.683
 Deborah Spratt there is the
 
 00:33:25.763 --> 00:33:26.723
 senior librarian.
 
 00:33:27.525 --> 00:33:30.467
 And in a sealed room on the second floor,
 
 00:33:31.146 --> 00:33:32.708
 there is a document,
 
 00:33:33.208 --> 00:33:34.368
 it's a large document,
 
 00:33:34.969 --> 00:33:42.255
 and it's town records from to .
 
 00:33:39.231 --> 00:33:42.574
 These are the original documents.
 
 00:33:43.414 --> 00:33:48.057
 And I was given a seat at a
 
 00:33:48.116 --> 00:33:49.057
 table in this room
 
 00:33:50.346 --> 00:33:51.948
 a pair of white gloves that
 
 00:33:52.008 --> 00:33:54.607
 I had to wear and a magnifying glass,
 
 00:33:54.688 --> 00:33:55.769
 which was worth its weight
 
 00:33:55.788 --> 00:33:57.848
 in gold because you can
 
 00:33:57.888 --> 00:33:59.410
 imagine what some of these
 
 00:34:00.190 --> 00:34:01.029
 documents were like.
 
 00:34:01.069 --> 00:34:01.509
 They're kind of,
 
 00:34:01.951 --> 00:34:02.871
 some of them are fading
 
 00:34:02.911 --> 00:34:03.951
 away or they're very
 
 00:34:04.010 --> 00:34:05.632
 fragile and you need the
 
 00:34:05.672 --> 00:34:07.332
 magnifying glass just to
 
 00:34:07.372 --> 00:34:09.333
 try to decipher what's on the page.
 
 00:34:09.972 --> 00:34:10.693
 It almost looks like
 
 00:34:10.733 --> 00:34:12.594
 hieroglyphics and some of
 
 00:34:12.614 --> 00:34:14.173
 the writing is very flowery
 
 00:34:14.233 --> 00:34:15.594
 and there are curlicues and,
 
 00:34:16.094 --> 00:34:18.735
 and other times it's chicken scratch, but,
 
 00:34:18.815 --> 00:34:18.956
 um,
 
 00:34:20.487 --> 00:34:21.307
 those are some of the
 
 00:34:21.367 --> 00:34:22.568
 original documents that I
 
 00:34:22.608 --> 00:34:26.490
 was able to go through that really, um,
 
 00:34:26.530 --> 00:34:28.030
 provide a chronology of
 
 00:34:28.231 --> 00:34:29.672
 Prescott's involvement in
 
 00:34:29.711 --> 00:34:31.693
 his town and reacting to
 
 00:34:31.773 --> 00:34:32.934
 some of these public events
 
 00:34:32.954 --> 00:34:33.974
 that we've been talking about.
 
 00:34:34.594 --> 00:34:34.795
 You know,
 
 00:34:34.835 --> 00:34:36.135
 it's there that I find out that
 
 00:34:36.195 --> 00:34:38.336
 he's involved in committees
 
 00:34:38.376 --> 00:34:39.838
 that decide who is going to
 
 00:34:39.858 --> 00:34:40.679
 be the pep rule
 
 00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:43.019
 representative when the U S
 
 00:34:43.059 --> 00:34:45.561
 constitution is sent around
 
 00:34:46.081 --> 00:34:48.222
 to the States for ratification.
 
 00:34:49.063 --> 00:34:49.664
 And, um,
 
 00:34:51.094 --> 00:34:53.996
 They picked Deacon Daniel Fisk,
 
 00:34:55.117 --> 00:34:56.797
 who attends the conference,
 
 00:34:57.239 --> 00:34:58.599
 listens to all the arguments.
 
 00:34:59.721 --> 00:35:00.721
 He's one of, you know,
 
 00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:01.722
 three hundred and seventy
 
 00:35:02.081 --> 00:35:02.822
 representatives in
 
 00:35:02.862 --> 00:35:04.304
 Massachusetts that go there.
 
 00:35:05.224 --> 00:35:07.385
 And what's very curious is that.
 
 00:35:08.927 --> 00:35:09.487
 And of course,
 
 00:35:09.628 --> 00:35:10.648
 I've kind of skipped over a
 
 00:35:10.668 --> 00:35:11.650
 little bit of Shays'
 
 00:35:11.690 --> 00:35:13.371
 Rebellion to that because
 
 00:35:13.391 --> 00:35:14.972
 that was one of the
 
 00:35:15.012 --> 00:35:17.173
 impetuses for the actual
 
 00:35:17.833 --> 00:35:18.894
 Constitutional Convention.
 
 00:35:20.864 --> 00:35:22.025
 The central part of
 
 00:35:22.945 --> 00:35:25.465
 Massachusetts and the western counties,
 
 00:35:25.865 --> 00:35:27.387
 Berkshire County, Hampshire County,
 
 00:35:27.447 --> 00:35:30.327
 Worcester County, Middlesex County,
 
 00:35:32.387 --> 00:35:34.909
 all vote against the Constitution.
 
 00:35:34.929 --> 00:35:35.389
 Oh, yeah.
 
 00:35:35.409 --> 00:35:37.369
 The overall vote was at one
 
 00:35:37.650 --> 00:35:38.769
 hundred eighty-seven to one
 
 00:35:38.829 --> 00:35:39.909
 hundred sixty-eight,
 
 00:35:39.929 --> 00:35:40.710
 so it was a very close vote.
 
 00:35:40.971 --> 00:35:42.190
 That's right.
 
 00:35:42.210 --> 00:35:43.731
 If ten people switched over,
 
 00:35:44.452 --> 00:35:45.411
 about three percent,
 
 00:35:46.052 --> 00:35:47.211
 Massachusetts would not
 
 00:35:47.231 --> 00:35:48.932
 have ratified the Constitution.
 
 00:35:49.650 --> 00:35:51.152
 And James Madison was afraid
 
 00:35:51.172 --> 00:35:52.673
 that if Massachusetts didn't,
 
 00:35:53.175 --> 00:35:54.416
 then Virginia and New York
 
 00:35:54.456 --> 00:35:55.157
 and maybe some of the
 
 00:35:55.197 --> 00:35:56.117
 others wouldn't either.
 
 00:35:56.878 --> 00:35:59.340
 So it was a critical, critical aspect.
 
 00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:00.081
 I mean, Worcester,
 
 00:36:00.581 --> 00:36:01.503
 I think the numbers were
 
 00:36:01.543 --> 00:36:02.925
 like forty three against
 
 00:36:02.985 --> 00:36:03.925
 and only seven four.
 
 00:36:03.945 --> 00:36:04.025
 Yeah.
 
 00:36:04.867 --> 00:36:07.548
 So and it was the more populous, you know,
 
 00:36:07.590 --> 00:36:09.150
 representatives from the east, you know,
 
 00:36:09.190 --> 00:36:09.831
 Suffolk County,
 
 00:36:09.911 --> 00:36:11.052
 Essex County and so forth
 
 00:36:11.092 --> 00:36:11.853
 that carry the day.
 
 00:36:13.492 --> 00:36:15.893
 So how a Prescott,
 
 00:36:16.253 --> 00:36:17.373
 what side he would have been on,
 
 00:36:17.434 --> 00:36:18.494
 had he been a delegate as
 
 00:36:18.534 --> 00:36:19.394
 opposed to just sending.
 
 00:36:19.414 --> 00:36:20.135
 Yeah.
 
 00:36:20.195 --> 00:36:22.858
 You know, I, I have to admit,
 
 00:36:22.878 --> 00:36:24.018
 and I do this in the book
 
 00:36:24.059 --> 00:36:25.960
 that there are some things
 
 00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:27.360
 that I wasn't able to
 
 00:36:27.380 --> 00:36:28.481
 determine in my search.
 
 00:36:28.561 --> 00:36:30.202
 I said, like any good detective story,
 
 00:36:30.802 --> 00:36:32.764
 not everything gets answered at the end.
 
 00:36:33.545 --> 00:36:35.686
 And there are aspects of his
 
 00:36:35.786 --> 00:36:39.728
 life that are left unknown, how he,
 
 00:36:40.215 --> 00:36:41.416
 What was his opinion about
 
 00:36:41.996 --> 00:36:42.817
 George Washington?
 
 00:36:42.896 --> 00:36:43.777
 How did he feel about the
 
 00:36:43.817 --> 00:36:44.998
 Declaration of Independence
 
 00:36:45.057 --> 00:36:45.918
 and all this sort of thing?
 
 00:36:45.938 --> 00:36:47.199
 You can go on a whole
 
 00:36:47.259 --> 00:36:48.298
 laundry list of things.
 
 00:36:48.938 --> 00:36:50.099
 And one of them to me is
 
 00:36:52.099 --> 00:36:53.101
 about the Constitution.
 
 00:36:53.161 --> 00:36:55.681
 Would he have voted for it?
 
 00:36:55.822 --> 00:36:57.242
 And I came to the conclusion
 
 00:36:57.262 --> 00:36:57.862
 that he would have.
 
 00:36:59.003 --> 00:37:00.123
 And I'm piecing together
 
 00:37:00.262 --> 00:37:01.643
 other aspects of his life
 
 00:37:02.204 --> 00:37:03.324
 and what type of a person
 
 00:37:03.364 --> 00:37:07.965
 he was to say I think he
 
 00:37:07.985 --> 00:37:08.947
 would have supported it.
 
 00:37:08.987 --> 00:37:09.686
 Now, it's curious.
 
 00:37:10.148 --> 00:37:12.429
 What I did learn about that
 
 00:37:12.469 --> 00:37:13.568
 convention was that some of
 
 00:37:13.588 --> 00:37:14.588
 the counties actually
 
 00:37:14.628 --> 00:37:15.469
 instructed their
 
 00:37:15.510 --> 00:37:16.630
 representative to vote a
 
 00:37:16.690 --> 00:37:19.311
 certain way before they even went there.
 
 00:37:20.271 --> 00:37:21.271
 And some of them didn't.
 
 00:37:21.411 --> 00:37:22.791
 And Pepperell did not tell
 
 00:37:24.112 --> 00:37:25.913
 Mr. Fisk how to vote.
 
 00:37:26.873 --> 00:37:28.172
 The idea was you go,
 
 00:37:28.213 --> 00:37:29.313
 you listen to the discussion,
 
 00:37:29.353 --> 00:37:30.173
 and then you decide.
 
 00:37:31.855 --> 00:37:33.675
 But there were a fair number
 
 00:37:33.715 --> 00:37:34.934
 of people there who were
 
 00:37:35.195 --> 00:37:37.456
 supporters of Shays' Rebellion,
 
 00:37:37.815 --> 00:37:39.697
 who were sent there by their towns
 
 00:37:40.527 --> 00:37:41.126
 represent them.
 
 00:37:41.367 --> 00:37:41.867
 So, uh,
 
 00:37:41.907 --> 00:37:42.987
 the two representatives from
 
 00:37:43.148 --> 00:37:47.550
 Voughton voted, uh, nay and voted nay.
 
 00:37:47.849 --> 00:37:50.331
 And I think that would have been tough for,
 
 00:37:50.451 --> 00:37:52.652
 for Prescott to, um, to accept.
 
 00:37:52.672 --> 00:37:56.373
 And then he knew Job Shattuck and he,
 
 00:37:56.452 --> 00:37:57.693
 when Shattuck and a group
 
 00:37:57.733 --> 00:37:59.014
 are trying to stop the
 
 00:37:59.054 --> 00:38:01.394
 courts in Concord in seventeen eighty-six,
 
 00:38:01.414 --> 00:38:02.436
 he's involved there.
 
 00:38:02.876 --> 00:38:04.056
 That's, that's correct.
 
 00:38:04.336 --> 00:38:07.717
 So, uh, this is at the point where, um,
 
 00:38:09.005 --> 00:38:11.324
 Prescott is sixty, sixty one years old.
 
 00:38:12.545 --> 00:38:13.945
 He kind of settled in his
 
 00:38:14.005 --> 00:38:15.545
 retirement and working on his farm.
 
 00:38:16.246 --> 00:38:16.827
 And of course,
 
 00:38:17.047 --> 00:38:19.766
 Shays' Rebellion erupts in
 
 00:38:20.047 --> 00:38:22.827
 September of seventeen eighty six.
 
 00:38:23.788 --> 00:38:27.128
 And while Daniel Shays gets
 
 00:38:27.228 --> 00:38:28.949
 kind of headline status,
 
 00:38:29.748 --> 00:38:31.349
 we all know it as Shays' Rebellion.
 
 00:38:31.929 --> 00:38:32.949
 And he's obviously very
 
 00:38:33.090 --> 00:38:35.989
 active in that in the more
 
 00:38:36.110 --> 00:38:38.731
 eastern provinces and around
 
 00:38:40.201 --> 00:38:41.081
 Middlesex County.
 
 00:38:41.181 --> 00:38:42.202
 It's Job Shattuck.
 
 00:38:42.541 --> 00:38:43.802
 And the Shattuck family is
 
 00:38:44.762 --> 00:38:45.983
 pretty much as old as the
 
 00:38:46.003 --> 00:38:47.164
 Prescotts are in that area.
 
 00:38:48.603 --> 00:38:49.985
 I went back and looked at
 
 00:38:50.905 --> 00:38:52.065
 the tax valuation of
 
 00:38:52.126 --> 00:38:53.945
 properties through the
 
 00:38:53.985 --> 00:38:56.766
 Registry of Deeds and found
 
 00:38:56.847 --> 00:38:58.728
 out that there were in the
 
 00:38:58.807 --> 00:39:00.768
 in the tax evaluation of
 
 00:39:00.809 --> 00:39:01.909
 seventeen seventy one,
 
 00:39:02.728 --> 00:39:04.929
 there was there were twenty
 
 00:39:05.030 --> 00:39:07.570
 one Shattucks that lived in Pepperell.
 
 00:39:09.045 --> 00:39:12.266
 And where Job Shattuck was in Groton,
 
 00:39:12.766 --> 00:39:14.248
 it was dominated by Prescotts.
 
 00:39:14.447 --> 00:39:15.268
 So they were neighbors,
 
 00:39:15.309 --> 00:39:16.228
 they were close to each other.
 
 00:39:17.510 --> 00:39:19.590
 And William Prescott, Colonel Prescott,
 
 00:39:20.012 --> 00:39:22.032
 had actually recruited Job
 
 00:39:22.052 --> 00:39:25.014
 Shattuck to be a captain in
 
 00:39:25.135 --> 00:39:27.635
 his regiment that fights in
 
 00:39:27.655 --> 00:39:29.498
 the French Indian War and
 
 00:39:29.518 --> 00:39:30.438
 gets him promoted.
 
 00:39:30.958 --> 00:39:32.619
 So they're obviously very
 
 00:39:32.639 --> 00:39:33.719
 familiar with one another.
 
 00:39:34.360 --> 00:39:36.282
 They were friends and former neighbors.
 
 00:39:36.987 --> 00:39:38.927
 But when Shays' Rebellion breaks out,
 
 00:39:39.827 --> 00:39:41.429
 Shattuck was very much a
 
 00:39:41.489 --> 00:39:44.090
 supporter of the rebels,
 
 00:39:44.130 --> 00:39:44.969
 the insurrectionists.
 
 00:39:45.909 --> 00:39:48.030
 And the Prescotts were not.
 
 00:39:48.251 --> 00:39:49.972
 I mean, it was really Oliver Prescott,
 
 00:39:50.012 --> 00:39:52.492
 who is William Prescott's younger brother,
 
 00:39:52.952 --> 00:39:53.813
 who is working with the
 
 00:39:53.873 --> 00:39:56.094
 governor to put together
 
 00:39:57.855 --> 00:40:00.096
 the case to have Job Shattuck arrested.
 
 00:40:01.195 --> 00:40:01.916
 And he is arrested.
 
 00:40:01.956 --> 00:40:03.677
 He's one of only fourteen
 
 00:40:04.284 --> 00:40:05.324
 of the four thousand
 
 00:40:05.364 --> 00:40:06.244
 insurrectionists to be
 
 00:40:06.324 --> 00:40:07.085
 sentenced to death.
 
 00:40:08.965 --> 00:40:09.945
 And luckily for him,
 
 00:40:10.005 --> 00:40:10.746
 he doesn't get killed.
 
 00:40:10.786 --> 00:40:11.945
 He eventually gets pardoned.
 
 00:40:12.706 --> 00:40:15.286
 Now, nine months after he's captured,
 
 00:40:15.686 --> 00:40:19.947
 finally, Governor Hancock,
 
 00:40:20.007 --> 00:40:21.168
 who was reelected,
 
 00:40:22.628 --> 00:40:24.429
 who has been listening to people saying,
 
 00:40:24.489 --> 00:40:26.110
 hey, we we ought to let Shattuck go.
 
 00:40:26.130 --> 00:40:30.271
 You know, you know, yeah.
 
 00:40:32.047 --> 00:40:32.847
 Yeah, think of it today.
 
 00:40:32.867 --> 00:40:34.048
 Here's, you know,
 
 00:40:34.068 --> 00:40:35.289
 the January sixth
 
 00:40:35.929 --> 00:40:36.929
 insurrectionists that have
 
 00:40:36.949 --> 00:40:38.451
 been sent to prison and so forth.
 
 00:40:39.112 --> 00:40:40.391
 But if you go back to the
 
 00:40:40.431 --> 00:40:43.454
 insurrection of seventeen eighty six,
 
 00:40:43.574 --> 00:40:44.193
 eighty seven,
 
 00:40:45.494 --> 00:40:46.755
 virtually all of those
 
 00:40:46.795 --> 00:40:48.076
 insurrectionists were
 
 00:40:48.135 --> 00:40:49.717
 pardoned if they took an
 
 00:40:49.856 --> 00:40:53.117
 oath of allegiance back to Massachusetts.
 
 00:40:53.137 --> 00:40:53.378
 Yeah.
 
 00:40:53.398 --> 00:40:53.858
 Yeah.
 
 00:40:53.878 --> 00:40:55.219
 James Bowden was tossed out
 
 00:40:55.239 --> 00:40:56.440
 of office along with about
 
 00:40:56.739 --> 00:40:57.481
 three quarters of the
 
 00:40:57.521 --> 00:40:59.402
 legislature in the way they
 
 00:40:59.461 --> 00:41:00.222
 were heavy handed.
 
 00:41:01.222 --> 00:41:01.501
 Right.
 
 00:41:01.661 --> 00:41:02.003
 Yeah.
 
 00:41:02.163 --> 00:41:05.023
 And, um, and I found a document in, uh,
 
 00:41:05.063 --> 00:41:07.726
 in a large safe that was, that's,
 
 00:41:07.905 --> 00:41:10.047
 that's in the town hall of Pepperell.
 
 00:41:10.067 --> 00:41:12.288
 Uh, one of the people, you know,
 
 00:41:12.369 --> 00:41:14.789
 I give my in the book because I'm, I'm in,
 
 00:41:14.809 --> 00:41:15.730
 I'm in the book talking
 
 00:41:15.769 --> 00:41:16.731
 about some of my efforts.
 
 00:41:16.791 --> 00:41:18.431
 I give a lot of credit to
 
 00:41:18.452 --> 00:41:19.373
 the people that I work with.
 
 00:41:19.432 --> 00:41:20.492
 It does take a village as
 
 00:41:20.532 --> 00:41:23.175
 somebody once famously said, uh,
 
 00:41:23.195 --> 00:41:24.375
 or maybe a few villages in
 
 00:41:24.394 --> 00:41:26.416
 this case to get this information.
 
 00:41:26.456 --> 00:41:28.998
 But there was a woman there that I met, uh,
 
 00:41:29.057 --> 00:41:30.679
 Joan Lattic, who, um,
 
 00:41:31.364 --> 00:41:34.445
 works part-time in the town hall.
 
 00:41:34.545 --> 00:41:35.945
 And she called herself the
 
 00:41:39.726 --> 00:41:40.666
 keeper of the vault.
 
 00:41:41.407 --> 00:41:42.907
 And so she invited me up one
 
 00:41:42.927 --> 00:41:44.347
 day and I went there and
 
 00:41:44.367 --> 00:41:46.728
 she opened up the big door of this vault.
 
 00:41:47.007 --> 00:41:48.588
 It's like an old bank vault
 
 00:41:48.608 --> 00:41:50.447
 that you'd see in a bank robbery movie.
 
 00:41:51.168 --> 00:41:52.789
 And I went through some
 
 00:41:52.829 --> 00:41:55.329
 files there and I found a
 
 00:41:55.409 --> 00:41:57.108
 document from March of, uh,
 
 00:42:01.103 --> 00:42:04.045
 And it's Prescott noting
 
 00:42:04.106 --> 00:42:06.047
 that thirty two people have
 
 00:42:06.108 --> 00:42:07.389
 met with him and are taking
 
 00:42:07.429 --> 00:42:09.590
 the oath of allegiance back to the state.
 
 00:42:10.170 --> 00:42:11.351
 And seven of them are Shattuck.
 
 00:42:11.492 --> 00:42:12.532
 Seven of them are Shattucks.
 
 00:42:12.693 --> 00:42:12.992
 Wow.
 
 00:42:13.273 --> 00:42:13.652
 In there.
 
 00:42:13.733 --> 00:42:16.476
 So, yeah, he was involved in that.
 
 00:42:16.536 --> 00:42:18.777
 He had written down to Concord,
 
 00:42:18.817 --> 00:42:20.157
 as you were alluding to earlier,
 
 00:42:21.219 --> 00:42:22.780
 to insert himself between
 
 00:42:23.260 --> 00:42:24.862
 Shattuck and two to three
 
 00:42:24.902 --> 00:42:26.143
 hundred armed
 
 00:42:26.182 --> 00:42:27.184
 insurrectionists who were
 
 00:42:27.204 --> 00:42:28.965
 shutting down the courts in Concord.
 
 00:42:29.925 --> 00:42:30.365
 And there were
 
 00:42:30.833 --> 00:42:31.614
 There were folks from
 
 00:42:31.653 --> 00:42:33.054
 Concord who were trying to
 
 00:42:33.094 --> 00:42:37.277
 negotiate with Shattuck, but uninvited.
 
 00:42:38.778 --> 00:42:39.898
 William Prescott got on his
 
 00:42:39.938 --> 00:42:42.380
 horse and rode down to Concord,
 
 00:42:42.581 --> 00:42:43.862
 got himself in the middle of it,
 
 00:42:43.961 --> 00:42:44.842
 helped negotiate a
 
 00:42:44.882 --> 00:42:46.083
 settlement so there was no
 
 00:42:46.443 --> 00:42:48.905
 violence that particular day.
 
 00:42:48.945 --> 00:42:50.065
 The court was shut down.
 
 00:42:50.485 --> 00:42:51.706
 Incidentally, his brothers,
 
 00:42:51.806 --> 00:42:53.086
 both James and Oliver,
 
 00:42:53.367 --> 00:42:55.208
 were judges in Concord,
 
 00:42:55.407 --> 00:42:58.230
 and they had fled along with the other
 
 00:42:58.612 --> 00:43:00.393
 the other jurists because of
 
 00:43:00.434 --> 00:43:01.293
 what was happening there.
 
 00:43:02.414 --> 00:43:04.056
 So he's a, he's a very active guy.
 
 00:43:04.077 --> 00:43:05.958
 You're getting this picture
 
 00:43:05.998 --> 00:43:08.300
 of somebody who I find, it wasn't just,
 
 00:43:08.360 --> 00:43:10.621
 he had one shining moment on January,
 
 00:43:11.483 --> 00:43:12.804
 on June, the seventeenth,
 
 00:43:12.824 --> 00:43:14.344
 the seventeen seventy-seven.
 
 00:43:14.684 --> 00:43:15.686
 Throughout his whole life,
 
 00:43:15.706 --> 00:43:18.469
 he's dedicated to, you know,
 
 00:43:18.509 --> 00:43:20.349
 making his state and his
 
 00:43:20.409 --> 00:43:21.911
 town as secure and as
 
 00:43:21.972 --> 00:43:23.193
 prosperous as he can.
 
 00:43:23.913 --> 00:43:25.534
 And so that's why I think,
 
 00:43:26.376 --> 00:43:26.577
 you know,
 
 00:43:26.617 --> 00:43:27.818
 he would have supported the
 
 00:43:27.858 --> 00:43:29.719
 Constitution as putting the
 
 00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:30.679
 country on a better footing.
 
 00:43:31.701 --> 00:43:33.141
 Well, we're looking forward to the book.
 
 00:43:33.262 --> 00:43:35.063
 We've been talking to Don Ryan,
 
 00:43:35.103 --> 00:43:36.164
 who has written Searching
 
 00:43:36.184 --> 00:43:37.164
 for William Prescott,
 
 00:43:37.204 --> 00:43:38.246
 Stalwart Bunker Hill,
 
 00:43:38.286 --> 00:43:39.527
 which we hope will be out
 
 00:43:39.586 --> 00:43:40.907
 next spring in time for the
 
 00:43:41.349 --> 00:43:42.289
 two hundred fiftieth
 
 00:43:42.349 --> 00:43:43.590
 anniversary of that shining
 
 00:43:43.630 --> 00:43:45.992
 moment of June of seventeen seventy five.
 
 00:43:46.371 --> 00:43:47.572
 Exactly.
 
 00:43:47.592 --> 00:43:49.175
 So thank you so much for joining us, Don,
 
 00:43:49.215 --> 00:43:50.996
 and telling us so much of the story.
 
 00:43:51.016 --> 00:43:52.077
 We look forward to the book
 
 00:43:52.456 --> 00:43:53.097
 and hearing more.
 
 00:43:53.557 --> 00:43:53.898
 Great.
 
 00:43:53.938 --> 00:43:54.719
 Thank you very much.
 
 00:43:54.739 --> 00:43:55.920
 I appreciate it.
 
 00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:56.320
 And I want to
 
 00:43:56.717 --> 00:43:59.079
 Thank Jonathan Lane, our producer,
 
 00:43:59.119 --> 00:44:00.400
 the executive director of
 
 00:44:00.440 --> 00:44:01.701
 Revolution Two Fifty.
 
 00:44:01.740 --> 00:44:03.442
 And I want to thank our many
 
 00:44:03.481 --> 00:44:04.362
 listeners around the
 
 00:44:04.382 --> 00:44:05.802
 country and around the world.
 
 00:44:05.842 --> 00:44:06.503
 And if you're in one of
 
 00:44:06.523 --> 00:44:07.704
 these places and want some
 
 00:44:07.744 --> 00:44:09.003
 of our Revolution Two Fifty
 
 00:44:09.043 --> 00:44:10.125
 swag or just want to tell
 
 00:44:10.204 --> 00:44:11.726
 us things you want to hear
 
 00:44:11.766 --> 00:44:12.786
 about on the podcast,
 
 00:44:12.806 --> 00:44:14.246
 send Jonathan Lane an email,
 
 00:44:14.286 --> 00:44:16.688
 jlane at revolution two fifty dot org.
 
 00:44:17.128 --> 00:44:17.809
 And this week,
 
 00:44:17.909 --> 00:44:20.309
 I want to thank our friends in Old Bridge,
 
 00:44:20.369 --> 00:44:22.891
 New Jersey and Elkhart, Indiana,
 
 00:44:23.291 --> 00:44:25.132
 Great Falls and Helena, Montana.
 
 00:44:25.753 --> 00:44:28.835
 Rancho Palos Verdes in California, Clinton,
 
 00:44:28.855 --> 00:44:31.436
 Massachusetts and Clifton Park, New York,
 
 00:44:31.896 --> 00:44:34.237
 as well as in Vienna, Edinburgh,
 
 00:44:34.297 --> 00:44:35.657
 Lisbon and Sydney and all
 
 00:44:35.697 --> 00:44:36.938
 places between and beyond.
 
 00:44:36.978 --> 00:44:37.858
 Thanks for joining us.
 
 00:44:37.998 --> 00:44:39.559
 Now we will be piped out on
 
 00:44:39.579 --> 00:44:40.460
 the road to Boston.