Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...
Francis Smith (1723–1791) was a
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer. Although Smith had a lengthy and varied career, he is best known as the British commander during most of the
Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
on 19 April 1775. The fighting ignited the
American War of Independence that would see
thirteen
Thirteen or 13 may refer to:
* 13 (number), the natural number following 12 and preceding 14
* One of the years 13 BC, AD 13, 1913, 2013
Music
* 13AD (band), an Indian classic and hard rock band
Albums
* ''13'' (Black Sabbath album), 2013
* ...
of Britain's
American Colonies become a separate nation.
Lexington and Concord
Smith was Lieutenant Colonel of the
10th Regiment of Foot
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...
. He was given overall command of the expedition to
Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
, which consisted of twenty one companies of
Light infantry
Light infantry refers to certain types of lightly equipped infantry throughout history. They have a more mobile or fluid function than other types of infantry, such as heavy infantry or line infantry. Historically, light infantry often fought ...
and
grenadiers totaling around 700 men, whose orders were to search the town for contraband supplies and weapons, particularly
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
. General
Thomas Gage
General Thomas Gage (10 March 1718/192 April 1787) was a British Army general officer and colonial official best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as British commander-in-chief in the early days of th ...
believed that the mission required a force larger than a
regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation.
In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...
but smaller than a
brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
B ...
and so assembled it by taking individual
companies
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
from the various units in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. This left Smith's force lacking a proper command structure or staff.
As the crisis in Massachusetts had intensified during late 1774 and early 1775, a number of British expeditions had marched into the countryside to search towns where it was believed weapons and supplies were being stored while other units took part in a series of rapid route marches through the countryside to keep the troops physically active. Several minor confrontations and stand-offs occurred during these months, such as the
Salem Incident, but had ended without bloodshed. Gage anticipated that Smith's march to Concord would be similar to these earlier expeditions and was unlikely to come under attack. The vast majority of the colony's inhabitants considered themselves loyal Britons and apart from a handful of hard-liners on both sides there was a strong desire to avoid the upheaval of
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
.
Lexington
Smith's departure was widely observed by
Boston Whigs, and several messages were slipped out of the city to alarm the countryside. After being alerted to the possibility that there was opposition on the road, Smith ordered some light infantry to move forward while he stayed with the main body of the expedition, thus he was not present at the skirmish in
Lexington. Major
John Pitcairn
Major John Pitcairn (28 December 1722 – 17 June 1775) was a Marine Service officer who was stationed in Boston, Massachusetts, at the start of the American War of Independence.
Born in Scotland in 1722, Pitcairn joined the Naval Service at ...
of the Royal Marines was in charge of the advance guard. Pitcairn's men encountered a company of militiamen under
John Parker on
Lexington Green
The Lexington Battle Green, also known as Lexington Common, is the historic town common of Lexington, Massachusetts, United States. It was at this site that the opening shots of the Battles of Lexington and Concord were fired on April 19, 1775, st ...
. Despite orders on both sides not to open fire, shooting broke out and a number of men were killed and wounded. By the time Smith arrived, his troops had scattered to pursue fleeing militiamen and it took some time for him to restore order and reform his companies. Several of his officers suggested that they should now return to Boston, but Smith decided to push on to Concord to complete the mission. He had sent messages back to Gage requesting reinforcements and informing him that the countryside was on alert.
Concord
As he marched towards Concord, Smith remained unaware how quickly the militia could assemble. Already within a five-mile radius of his force seventy-five companies of militiamen, many of them
minutemen, were either mustering or marching with many others also on the move from further away. Once Smith reached Concord, he sent various troops to secure strategic points around the town. He also sent a detachment north of the
Concord River to search a farm where weapons were stored, in the process of which further firing broke out at the
Old North Bridge
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
* Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...
. As his troops finished searching the town, Smith managed to extricate his troops without further fighting and began the march back to Boston.
Withdrawal
His men had not gone far when firing broke out near
Meriam's Corner. Smith's troops were now heavily outnumbered by the militia and for the rest of the day this imbalance grew as more and more companies of militia arrived from around the colony while Smith's men suffered from casualties as they were repeatedly ambushed along the road. Smith ordered a very fast pace for his column, reasoning that if the men slowed down they would be overwhelmed and soon run out of ammunition, supplies of which were rapidly running low. Despite his difficulties, Smith was largely able to keep his men in disciplined formations for much of the return to Lexington. More and more of Smith's officers were killed or wounded, hampering his attempts to maintain control, and his men finally lost unit cohesion and hurried onward in a general mass.
Not far west of Lexington, Smith was wounded in the thigh in an ambush by Lexington militia, led by
John Parker in what has been called "Parker's Revenge". Smith gave up his horse so that more badly wounded men could use it. His column was extremely hard-pressed and close to total collapse but managed to reach the comparative safety of Lexington where a brigade of British reinforcements under
General Percy had arrived. Percy took command and his reinforcements became the rear guard and the flankers of the expedition while Smith's tired troops became the
advance guard. In
Menotomy, they came under further attack from freshly-arrived militiamen and had to clear several houses in further heavy fighting. It was not until Smith's men reached
Charlestown, that the threat of attack ended.
Militia from across
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
had been alerted of the fighting at Lexington and Concord, but poured in too late to take part in the battle. They assembled outside Boston and blockaded the city, severing its land but not its sea connections. Although many were not initially aware of it, the sporadic fighting had triggered the outbreak of the
American War of Independence and the civil war which many on both sides had warned of and tried to avoid.
Siege of Boston
Smith's conduct was highly praised by Gage in his dispatches to London reporting the outbreak of fighting. He was promoted to full colonel at the year's end and later promoted to brigadier general. On the night of 4 March 1776, during a
snow storm, British sentries on duty near the Boston Neck heard digging across the bay on
Dorchester Heights
Dorchester Heights is the central area of South Boston. It is the highest area in the neighborhood and commands a view of both Boston Harbor and downtown.
History
Dorchester is remembered in American history for an action in the American Rev ...
. This was reported to Smith, who did not report this to his own superiors at the
Province House. By dawn on 5 March, the Americans now had a full breastworks constructed on the heights. This resulted in the British choosing to evacuate Boston and sail to
Halifax,
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
.
New York and Rhode Island
When General
William Howe and the British Army sailed to
New York in August, Smith commanded a brigade during the British victory at the
Battle of Long Island
The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, was an action of the American Revolutionary War fought on August 27, 1776, at the western edge of Long Island in present-day Brooklyn, New Yor ...
. In August 1778, he led the brigade at Quaker Hill in
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
during the
Battle of Rhode Island. The 10th Regiment served in America until 1778 and then returned to England after 19 years service overseas. Smith returned to America in 1779 and was promoted to major general. His son Robert Smith became Minister of War under King George.
Legacy
Smith is largely remembered for his role in the fighting at Lexington and Concord. Perceptions of him have altered over time as the battles have been re-examined – moving away from initial portrayals that tended to paint him and his officers having deliberately set out with the intention of killing colonial militia. While the first reports of the fight were the catalyst for the outbreak of the war, tipping a number of colonies into open rebellion, its importance as a historical event only really grew in significance in the century after American independence was granted by the 1783
Peace of Paris.
The narrative of the fight on Lexington Green gradually changed from one of an unprovoked massacre of loyal citizens by the redcoats, into a more even-handed and inevitable clash between the two forces which was the inescapable consequence of an American desire for nationhood. This new perception, which reached its height in the late nineteenth century, came from a changing desire in the United States to present a more self-confident creation of the country. Since the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, many accounts have disregarded this interpretation, and emphasized the more ambiguous nature of the situation in Massachusetts in Spring 1775 when the colonists still considered themselves British and very few advocated outright independence. More recent studies have often focused on the hesitation of both regular and militia officers to open fire, and the clear orders put out by both sides to avoid engagements.
Considerable confusion still remains about what exactly happened at Lexington Green when the British regulars and militiamen drew up opposite each other with a number of different versions of who fired the first shot advanced by various accounts and historians. Whoever fired first, Smith and Pitcairn have generally been criticized for poor handling of their troops.
While Smith has often been attacked for his decisions, he has also been praised for bringing his column through repeated ambushes during the retreat from Concord to the safety of Percy's reinforcements without entirely disintegrating.
John Galvin who wrote a history of the Lexington and Concord fighting, observed that "Smith, unfortunately, could match this steadiness with an equal slowness and lack of imagination, a fact that has received more than enough attention over the years, perhaps obscuring his coolness and courage".
[Galvin p.99]
References
Bibliography
* Galvin, John R. ''The Minute Men. The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution''. Potomac Books, 2006.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Francis
British Army generals
1723 births
1791 deaths
Royal Lincolnshire Regiment officers
British Army personnel of the American Revolutionary War
Devonshire Regiment officers