upply them. Their affairs at home they left just where they
stood. In the next few days many of these men went home, for the
necessary arrangement of their affairs and for more clothing. The larger
number of them returned to camp immediately, some were slower, and yet
others stayed for a longer time. Even those who joined the army after
more preparation often had business that called them home, in which case
they considered it a hardship to be denied. The officers sympathized,
especially when that business was haying. Cases occurred in which the
men on furlough were making their officers' hay, while at the same time
drawing the pay of the province. The position of the general commanding
such troops was not to be envied.

Further, military supplies were very few. In spite of the preparations
of the provincial congress, there were on hand only sixty-eight
half-barrels of powder, a scanty stock with which to begin the siege of
a military garrison. Of cannon a varying number is reported, few of
them as yet of value, for lack of shot to fit them. It was doubtless a
great relief to Ward that he was not called upon to use his cannon,
since they would have drawn too heavily upon his scanty supply of
ammunition, which could be replaced but slowly.

Altogether, the position of senior major-general was a difficult one. To
knit into an army such a mass of units, to create supplies out of
nothing, to organize a commissary and means of communication, and
maintain a firm front over a line of ten miles, these were the needs of
the situation. We need scarcely marvel that Ward, old and enfeebled,
with his hands tied by uncertain authority, could not meet them. A
genius was needed in his place, and the good fortune was that the genius
eventually came. In the meanwhile Ward, pottering at his task, depended
much on the initiative of his subordinates. The passage from the Neck to
Roxbury was now guarded by Brigadier-General John Thomas of
Marshfield,[86] who to deceive the enemy as to his numbers occasionally
marched his force of seven hundred round and round a hill. The ruse was
successful, for Lieutenant Barker wrote that "at Roxbury there must be
between 2 and 3000." Nevertheless, it is hard to believe that so
important a post was long left so slightly guarded. Thomas exercised his
men with equal profit in cutting down trees to obstruct the passage, and
in throwing up earthworks. Of other entrenchments, at this stage, we
hear little. Put