Source 6: British Officer Lt. John Barker’s Diary Entries April, 1775 ?
I'm having a really difficult time answering these questions ... This is the source from Lt. John Barker's Diary Entries .. I'm having a really hard time analyzing it & answering the questions ... "Last night between 10 & 11 all the Grenadiers and Light Infantry of the army making about 600 men under the command of Lt. Col. Smith of the 10th and Major Pitcairn of the Marines embarked and were landed upon the opposite shore on Cambridge Marsh; few but the Commanding Officers know what expedition we were going upon. After getting over the marsh where we were wet up to the knees, we were halted in a dirty road and stood there ‘till two o’clock in the morning waiting for provisions to be brought from the boats and to be divided, and which most of the men threw away, having carried some with ‘em. At 2 o’clock we began our march by wading through a very long ford up to our middles: after going a few miles we took 3 or 4 people who were going off to give intelligence; about 5 miles on this side of a town called Lexington which lay in our road, we heard there were some hundreds of people collected together intending to oppose us and stop our going on; at 5 o’clock we arrived there and saw a number of people, I believe 2 and 3 hundred, formed on a common in the middle of the town; we still continued advancing, keeping prepared against an attack tho’ without intending to attack them, but on our coming near them they fired one or two shots, upon which our men without any orders rushed in upon them, fired and put ‘em to flight; several of them were killed, we could not tell how many because they were got behind walls and into the woods; We had a man of the 10th Light Infantry wounded, nobody else hurt. We then formed upon the common but with some difficulty, the men were so wild they could hear no orders; we waited a considerable time there and at length proceeded on our way to Concord, which we then learnt was our destination, in order to destroy a magazine of stores collected there." & The questions are these three ... 1.What does Barker say he encountered when his men arrived at Lexington? 2.What does Barker say was the purpose of their mission? 3.Is his story believable? Why or why not? (Not so much the first question, but two & three) Oh & If you couldn't already tell ... This is from events at Lexington and Concord Battle ...
History - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
It seems plain to me. Why don't you read the passage and then you too will know. I'm not going to do your homework for you.
2 :
Do not understand your problem the acount of Lt Barker seems very close to the known facts
3 :
1. They encounter 2-300 armed men who were to oppose them. 2. The purpose was to destroy a magazine of stores collected at Concord. 3. It is believable to a point: Because he is a ground trooper and he is telling the story from his point of view it is believable until he comes to an opposing side at which time he may be more likely to twist things. In this situation he said that the rebels fired first. That could be considered questionable because it would look bad if he said that his men just fired on a group of civilians and then the civilians defended itself. Other than that point his story is completely believable, at that point it comes into question.
