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The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 1, January, 1884 by Various
page 80 of 124 (64%)
army. The adjacent islands, inlets, and bays swarmed with scouting
parties, which cut off supplies from the city. The army had its redoubts
and trenches, and the heights of Bunker Hill were in sight as a pledge
of full ability to resist assault. As a fact, no successful sortie was
made out of Boston during the siege; but constant activity and
watchfulness were vital to each day's security. Provisions were abundant
and the numerical strength was sufficient. System and discipline alone
were to be added.

The details of camp life in the immediate presence of skilled enemies
compelled officers and men, alike, to learn the minutest details of
field engineering. Gabions, fasces, abattis, and other appliances for
assault or defence were quickly made, and all this practical schooling
in the work of war went on, under the watchful cooperation of the very
officers who afterward became conspicuous in the field, from Long Island
to Yorktown. THE CAMP ABOUT BOSTON MADE OFFICERS, Its discipline
dissipated many colonial jealousies; and there was developed that
confidence in their commander, which, in after years, became the source
of untold strength and solace to him in the darkest hours of the war.

The details of the personal work of the commander-in-chief read more
like some magician's tale. Every staff department was organized under
his personal care, so that he was able to retain even until the end of
the war his chief assistants. Powder, arms, provisions, clothing,
firewood, medicines, horses, carts, tools, and all supplies, however
incidental, depended upon minute instructions of Washington himself.

A few orders are cited, as an illustration of the system which marked
his life in camp, and indicate the value of those months, as preparatory
to the ordeal through which he had yet to pass.
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