tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post5395068676050451143..comments2024-03-21T21:53:01.837-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: “An authentic Copy of a Letter, which was thrown into both the Camps”?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-13023055587079322952022-09-16T12:48:12.069-05:002022-09-16T12:48:12.069-05:00I don’t think “both the Camps” means both British ...I don’t think “both the Camps” means both British army and Patriot camps because at this point, in September 1774, the provincials didn’t have an army or a camp. I think the author of the article meant the two main places in Boston that British troops were camped at that time, on the Common and around the South Battery. But Bostonians referred to only one of those as “the Camp.”<br /><br />There’s still the question of how the author of the article knew about the two copies of the letter. One possibility is that that author also wrote the letter and did the tossing. And since sending the text to a newspaper guaranteed it would be more widely disseminated than tossing two copies on the ground, the author could have just skipped the tossing. <br /><br />Another possibility is that British officers from the two areas did ask each other about the letters they found, and word got around, either within the army or within the larger population. I think that’s what the author of the article wanted readers to assume. But that raises the question of why no one in Boston left any discussion of the letter before and independent of its appearance in the <i>New-York Gazetteer</i>.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-40063242572192812892022-09-16T11:03:42.200-05:002022-09-16T11:03:42.200-05:00How would the article’s author know the letter was...How would the article’s author know the letter was thrown into “both” camps? Are we to believe the reporter saw that happen? Or that someone from the Patriot camp told someone from the British camp, “Hey, we got this letter,” and a Brit answer, “My goodness, we got that too” — and the reporter overheard the conversation?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com