General Gage Retreats

This conversational presentation with General Thomas Gage, the last Royal Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony shares his perspective of the War for Independence after leaving Danvers in 1774 and Boston in 1776, and making his way home to England. Historian and reenactor Paul O’Shaughnessy will reflect on the summer of 1774, when Gage moved the government of Massachusetts from Boston to Salem in an attempt to bypass the Sons of Liberty and patriot influence in Boston. July and August of 1774, General Gage set up office in the Page House and lived at the Danvers Hooper-Collins House (Lindens), now in Washington, DC. Hoping to find a more receptive audience Salem and Danvers. That was not to be.

We will discuss Gage’s move back to Boston, the outbreak of war, and the British evacuation from Boston.

Paul O’Shaughnessy is a longtime reenactor of British soldiers and officers from the opening years of the American Revolution.  He recently portrayed General Thomas Gage, newly appointed Governor of Massachusetts, in a re-creation of Gage’s arrival in Salem in June 1774.  He is also a Board member of the Lexington Historical Society and the Friends of Minute Man National Park and an officer in His Majesty’s Tenth Regiment of Foot, a re-created British infantry regiment of 1775. The Tenth Foot is based in Lexington, MA.  See their website at www.redcoat.org