The precipitation of warfare, however, can only be connected with the expedition to Lexington and Concord. Every stage of the affair has been invested with interest by discussion and illustration. The ride of Paul Revere to give warning has grown to be a household tale in the spirited verse of Longfellow; but, as is the case with almost all of that poet's treatments of historical episodes, he has paid little attention to exactness of fact, and has wildly, and often without poetic necessity, turned the channels of events. In literary treatment, the events of Lexington and Concord form so distinct a group of references that they can be best considered in a later note (A), as can also the sources of information respecting the fight at Bunker Hill (B). Of the siege of Boston, the chief monograph is Frothingham's, already referred to. Other contributions of a monographic nature are the address and chronicle of the siege by Dr. George E. Ellis in the _Evacuation Memorial of the City of Boston_ (1876); W. W. Wheildon's _Siege and Evacuation of Boston and Charlestown_ (Boston, 1876, pp. 64); and the chapters on the siege in Dawson's _Battles of the United States_, vol. i., and Carrington's _Battles of the Revolution_ (1876).[511] Among the general historians, Bancroft has made an elaborate study of the siege, devoting to it a large part of his vol. viii. (orig. edition), and all the histories of the United States, Massachusetts, and Boston necessarily cover it.[512] The principal of the later British historians is Mahon, in his _Hist. of England_, vol. vi. Lecky (_England in the Eighteenth Century_, ii. ch. 12), while he goes little into details, gives an admirable account of the two respective camps. _The Life of Burgoyne_, by Fonblanque, is the fullest of the biographies of the actors on the British side. On the American side, the lives of leading officers all necessarily yield to those of Washington,[513] whose letters, as contained in vol. iii. of Sparks's ed. of his _Writings_, can well be supplemented by those of Reed, then his secretary.[514] Of the contemporary general historians, Gordon and Mercy Warren were familiar with the actors of the time. The _Journals_ of the Continental Congress and of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts follow the development of events, and show how in some ways the legislation shaped them.[515] Contemporary records and comments are garnered in Almon's _Remembrancer_, Force's _Archives_, Niles's _Principles and Acts of the Revolution_, and Moore's _Diary of the Amer. Revolution_. The life and daily routine of both camps are to be traced in abundant orderly books, diaries, and correspondence, of which the register is given in the notes (C and D) following this essay.