Mount Whoredom – 18 April 1775

Since both Sam Adams and John Hancock had departed Boston weeks earlier to avoid arrest by Royal Governor Thomas Gage, Dr. Joseph Warren was now the leader of Patriots and the Sons of Liberty in town. Thanks to his having an affair with the governor’s wife, Margaret Gage, he was alerted to the possible invasion of the redcoats into the countryside. Concord was the objective to confiscate weapons, specifically cannons from the rebel militia. The following is an excerpt from my novel Tyranny and Defiance.

Mount Whoredom – 10 PM

            Just one hundred yards north of where the longboats were loading with redcoats, Dr. Joseph Warren both praised and cursed the late moon-rise. Poor visibility concealed his position atop Mt. Whoredom, but he could hardly make out the figures boarding the longboats down below. Despite the semi-darkness, Margaret Gage’s letter was accurate. He peered one more time with his spyglass at the hundreds of dark shadows struggling down the bluff to the longboats. To his right he could see the silhouette of the tall masts of the Somerset.

            He elbowed his companion William Eustis, a fellow surgeon, “I must get back to my house. Meanwhile, I need you to alert Revere. I need to see him as soon as possible and tell him he should be ready to ride tonight.” As he scampered away, keeping to the shadows to evade roving sentries, he could hear the creaking of the big frigate as it strained against its moorings.

—

            Meanwhile, Pitcairn paced along the shore, watching the last of the longboats row into the darkness, their oars muffled with rags for absolute quiet. Not a word was spoken among the three hundred fifty men arrayed along the shoreline. It was approximately a mile across the Back Bay to Lechmere Point, and the longboats, filled to the gunwales, had to make two trips to get everyone across. The major glared at the slowly rising moon. “Damn it!” he muttered under his breath. “I thought the navy had more boats. It will be a miracle if we make it to Concord before sunrise. So much for the element of surprise!”