“She wrenched the bayonet from the piece”

George Harris was a captain in His Majesty’s 5th Regiment of Foot, sent to Boston in the summer of 1774.

Without barracks on the Boston peninsula, the 5th camped on Boston Common for the first few months.

Since the Common was where Bostonians let their cows graze, that produced some conflict, as shown in Capt. Harris’s letter on 7 August:

Our duty is so strict, that I have not yet had an opportunity of exploring the interior of the country, so that all I can say is, that it has a most beautiful and luxuriant appearance. The entrance to the harbour, and the view of the town of Boston from it, is the most charming thing I ever saw: far superior to the harbour of Dublin (which some consider equal to the Bay of Naples), and having the advantage of being wooded by nature as picturesquely, as if art had superintended her operations.

Our camp is pitched in an exceedingly pleasant situation on the gentle descent of a large common, hitherto the property of the Bostonians, and used for the purpose of grazing their cows, which now, poor creatures, from custom, often attempt to force their way into their old pastures, where the richest herbage I ever saw abounds. But from these they are now driven by stones flung at them by the different sentries.

An unfortunate one, the other day, when endeavouring to effect an entrance, ran on a range of firelocks, with the bayonets on, with such force, that she wrenched the bayonet from the piece, and went off with it sticking in her body. Finding herself wounded, she made towards home, and passed close by our mess-tent, from which some of us ran out, and drew the bayonet from her with great difficulty, then ordered a serjeant to attend her home, by letting her walk slowly the way she chose. We have since had the pleasure of hearing she is likely to recover.

I looked in the newspapers to see if this incident provoked any complaints from the locals. Remarkably, there were none.