ose who, from further away, were eagerly coming to avenge the rumored
death of their countrymen and the bombardment of the town. Putnam, after
disbanding his Connecticut company, wrote to urge the men of
Massachusetts to take better care of the remainder of their powder.

The "Powder Alarm" stirred the country everywhere. At Philadelphia its
exaggerated reports greatly disturbed the Congress, but the response was
significant. "When the horrid news was brought here of the bombardment
of Boston," wrote John Adams, "which made us completely miserable for
two days, we saw proofs both of the sympathy and the resolution of the
continent. War! war! war! was the cry, and it was pronounced in a tone
which would have done honor to the oratory of a Briton or a Roman. If it
had proved true, you would have heard the thunder of an American
Congress."[47]

Gage now, for the first time, seems to have had a glimmer of an idea of
the formidable forces that were against him. He began to consider the
military situation, and the defence of the town against another such
rising. If on the next occasion the provincials should attempt to pursue
a commissioner not merely to the Neck, but past it, there must be means
of stopping them. Gage gave orders to fortify the Neck, which was in
those days the single land approach to Boston.

[Illustration: THE INVESTMENT OF BOSTON]

The modern city in no way resembles the old town. Now, between South
Boston and Cambridge, a score of highways lead into the city. Bridges
and even tunnels give direct communication from South Boston, Cambridge,
Charlestown, Chelsea, and East Boston. But in 1774 South Boston was a
mudflat; the Back Bay--at least at high water--was what its name
implies; Chelsea was Winnisimit, with but half a dozen houses; and East
Boston was an island, having but two houses on it. Now the flats have
been filled up, the mainland brought closer, and the approaches bridged.
In Governor Gage's day Boston was still a peninsula, roughly
pear-shaped, and connected with the mainland by a strip of land which
was, at high tide, scarcely a hundred yards wide.

Batteries commanding the road which crossed this isthmus seemed, at the
time, quite sufficient to defend the town. It was not till later that
Gage began to consider the heights of Dorchester and Charlestown, which,
to the south and north, threatened Boston. Now he set to work upon an
earthwork at the Neck, brought cannon there, and began to bui