Historic fields and mansions of Middlesex (1874) (14592026340)

Identifier: historicfieldsm00drak (find matches)
Title: Historic fields and mansions of Middlesex
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Drake, Samuel Adams, 1833-1905
Subjects: Middlesex County (Mass.)--History Middlesex County (Mass.)--Description and travel
Publisher: J.R. Osgood and Company
Contributing Library: Thoreau Society Collections at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods
Digitizing Sponsor: Federally funded with LSTA funds through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners



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oinedtogether by curtains. These were carried across the road, andup the slope of what was then called Butlers, since known asNDana Hill, terminating at their northerly extremity in anotherredoubt, situated on the crest and in the angle of Broadway andMaple Avenue, on the Greenough estate. The soil being ahard clay, the earth to build this work was carried from thelower ground on the Hovey estate to the top of the hill. Tothe north of Cambridge Street a breastwork was continued ina northeasterly direction through Mr. C. M. Hoveys nursery.Cannon-shot and other vestiges of military occupation havebeen unearthed there by Mr. Hovey. A hundred yards behindthis line, but of less extent, was another rampart of earth, hav-ing a tenaille, or inverted redan, in the centre. The right flankrested on the main road, which divided the more advancedwork nearly at right angles. Remains of these works haveexisted within twenty-five years. Continuing to trace the lines eastward, — their general direc-
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Putnams headquarters. 187 tion being from east to west, — we find that two little half-moons were thrown up on each side of the Charlestown road atthe point where it crossed the west branch of Williss Creek. No. 3 lay to the southwest of Prospect Hill, a little south ofthe point where the main road from Charlestown (WashingtonStreet) was intersected by that from Medford and Menotomy,and which pass it was designed to defend. It was a strong,well-constructed work, and should be placed very near UnionSquare, in Somerville. These defences were, for the most part,planned by Eichard Gridley, the veteran engineer, assisted byhis son and by Captain Josiah Waters, of Boston, and CaptainJonathan Baldwin, of Brookfield, afterwards colonel of engi-neers. Colonel Knox occasionally lent his aid before receivinghis rank in the army. In coming from Charlestown or Lechmeres Point by the oldcounty road hitherto described, and before the day of bridgeshad created what is now Cambridgeport out of the m