Even ordinary Massachusetts soldiers marched south uncertain of their own destination in spring 1776

Evidence

Hodgkins expected to reach Providence on April 3 but still did not know his unit’s ultimate destination—perhaps, he heard, to repel a Royal Navy assault on Newport, Rhode Island’s leading port. “We expect to Receive orders whare to go Next,” Hodgkins wrote to Sarah on April 2. “We may go to Newport But if the Enemy are not there we Expect to go to Norrege,” or Norwich, an inland port on the Thames River in Connecticut, another sister colony of Massachusetts. His unit received warm welcome and “good Lodging” from townspeople along the way. Heavy spring rains muddied the route, but his unit still marched more than twenty miles per day. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 146

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Outside New England many patriots still favored reconciliation in spring 1776
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Outside New England many patriots still favored reconciliation in spring 1776

Broader Connections

• Outside New England many patriots still favored reconciliation in spring 1776 #expands (0.75)