250th Anniversary of Leslie’s Retreat

A Very Brief History (Courtesy of Salem 400)

The Salem Gunpower Raid of February 26th, 1775, known locally as “Leslie’s Retreat”, was a significant incident leading up to the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. British troops had previously been successful at capturing the Massachusetts Provincial militia’s powder stores in Somerville on September 1^st, 1774, but after stores were seized and relocated by the Americans from Portsmouth, NH, the British knew another mission would be needed.

On Sunday, February 26^th, 1775, Lt. Colonel Alexander Leslie of the 64^th Regiment of Foot embarked from Castle Island in Boston Harbor aboard the HMS Lively to confiscate some cannon the Salem militia had recently secured. Leslie’s orderly landing and march from Marblehead to Salem was noticed and the alarm raised. By the time he arrived in Salem, the drawbridge across the North River to where the cannons were stashed, had been raised. A large rabble of Salemites had formed surrounding and upon the Bridge – a tense situation only grew more excited as British troops attempted to requisition some small boats to cross the North River. One gentleman who was scuttling the boats, Thomas Whicher, defiantly bared his chest and walked into an extended British bayonet.

After a few hours and stiff negotiation between Col. Leslie, Captain John Felt, Colonel Timothy Pickering and Rev. Thomas Barnard, an agreement was met. The frequently cited account of the incident by Charles Endicott mentions, “By the prudence and praise-worth forbearance of Colonel Leslie, any serious collision with the troops was happily averted”. Under a lesser officer than Leslie, it is easy to imagine the inciting incident of the Revolution starting at our North Bridge rather than Concord’s. The drawbridge would be lowered, Col. Leslie and his troops would march 30 rods (~500 feet) into North Salem to do their search, accomplishing their mission of searching for the guns, before returning to their vessel in Marblehead Harbor and ultimately back to Boston. No weapons were found, and after returning across the bridge, the Danvers and Salem militias escorted Leslie and the 64^th Regiment back out of town. As the neither of the two militia companies had a drummer present, both bodies of troops marched the beat of the British drummer, an unusual incident in retrospect. After leaving Salem, the Marblehead militia took over the role of supervising the British troops back to their transport vessel, ready to fall open to them if conflict had broken out.

While no shots were fired that day, the incident is historically significant on several counts and deserves our recognition and commemoration. A British magazine published April 1775 stated that “the Americans have hoisted the standard of liberty at Salem”, clearly viewing this as an inciting incident to the anticipated conflict. Joseph Whicher was recognized as sustaining the first injury in the conflict, proudly displaying his wound when asked, even late into life. Most importantly, the monument placed by the City of Salem identifies it as “the first armed resistance to the Royal authority was made at this Bridge”. While previous opposition to the British military had either been unsuccessful or clandestine in nature, this was the first open, successful opposition made but could easily have resulted in the war starting if not for cooler heads prevailing that day. There would not be another incident of this nature – only 6 weeks later, on April 19^th, the very next attempt to oppose the British troops erupted into violent conflict in the pre-dawn hours at Lexington Green.