{"id":19773,"date":"2017-08-29T13:53:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-29T17:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unclerickaudios.com\/?p=19773"},"modified":"2017-08-29T13:53:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T17:53:45","slug":"nightshirts-in-the-cornfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/2017\/08\/29\/nightshirts-in-the-cornfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Nightshirts in the Cornfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was the evening of the 18th\u00a0of April, 1775.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Elbridge Gerry, a member of the Continental Congress from Massachusetts was staying overnight in a house near Menotomoy with his friend, Colonel Orne.<\/div>\n
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There had been a meeting of a Congressional committee that day in nearby Cambridge and Gerry had taken part.<\/div>\n
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The community was all abuzz with rumors of British military action.\u00a0 Patriot leaders John Hancock and Sam Adams were staying in Lexington, and military supplies had been collected and stored a few miles further up the road at Concord.\u00a0 Rumor had it the British had plans to seize the men and the munitions soon.<\/div>\n
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Sam Adams<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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John Hancock<\/p><\/div>\n

Mr. Gerry had noticed parties of British officers passing through the area that afternoon.\u00a0 Others had paid little attention; such groups were not an uncommon sight in the area.\u00a0 But something told the statesman that something was afoot.\u00a0 Hastily, he wrote a warning letter to his friend, Hancock, and sent it by messenger on a path that would avoid the prying British eyes.<\/div>\n
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After a while he and Orne retired to bed, concerned about the possibility of danger to Hancock and Adams but giving little thought to the possibility that they themselves might be rounded up and taken captive.<\/div>\n
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Later that night, the tramp of marching feet awoke them.\u00a0 Hundreds of red-coated soldiers were passing by!\u00a0 Looking out the window in the moonlight, Gerry and Orne saw the marching file stop and an officer direct his men to surround the house in which the committee was staying.<\/div>\n
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There was no time to dress.\u00a0 In their nightclothes, the two Patriot leaders fled out the back door and into a nearby cornfield.\u00a0 There, they reasoned, they would be out of sight but could hear what went on in and around the house.\u00a0 While they spent an uncomfortable hour standing in the darkness, the British soldiers searched every nook and cranny of the house.\u00a0 Finally, they gave up and moved on.<\/div>\n
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Hancock- Clarke house in Lexington, Massachusetts<\/p><\/div>\n

Gerry and Orne returned to the house, dressed and proceeded to help spread the alarm carried by Paul Revere and other riders that the British were indeed moving to capture their desired prey in Lexington and Concord.<\/p>\n
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Paul Revere warning that the “British are coming!”<\/p><\/div>\n

Elbridge Gerry’s life is chronicled in\u00a0For You They Signed<\/a><\/i>, a book Mrs. Marilyn wrote.<\/div>\n
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Also, you can hear more about John Hancock and John Adams in several of my audios, like:<\/div>\n
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America First<\/a><\/div>\n
War for Independence<\/a><\/div>\n
Heroes of our Revolution.<\/a><\/p>\n
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(also available at the\u00a0Uncle Rick Audio Club<\/a>)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the evening of the 18th\u00a0of April, 1775. Elbridge Gerry, a member of the Continental Congress from Massachusetts was staying overnight in a house near Menotomoy with his friend, Colonel Orne. There had been a meeting of a Congressional committee that day in nearby Cambridge and Gerry had taken part. The community was all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2,4,5,6,7],"class_list":["post-19773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-stories","tag-character-concepts","tag-character-stories","tag-helping-parents-raise-kids-of-character","tag-kids-blog","tag-uncle-rick-audio-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}