author
Henry De Berniere
A little-known figure from the opening months of the American Revolution, he is remembered for the reconnaissance missions and mapmaking linked to General Thomas Gage's plans before Lexington and Concord. His surviving writings have value less as polished literature than as firsthand historical evidence.
1 Audiobook
Gage's Instructions
by Henry De Berniere, Thomas Gage
About the author
Henry De Berniere appears in historical records as a British Army officer, usually identified as an ensign, active in Massachusetts in 1775. Sources connected with the Massachusetts Historical Society and later historical writing describe him as one of the officers sent out under General Thomas Gage's instructions to observe roads, landmarks, and provincial activity outside Boston.
He is best known for the reconnaissance missions that helped the British gather intelligence in the tense weeks before the battles of Lexington and Concord. His name is also associated with a map of the area and with published versions of Gage's Instructions, which survive as primary-source material for readers interested in the Revolutionary era.
Because information about his life is relatively sparse in the sources located here, much of his interest today comes from that eyewitness role: not as a major literary author in the modern sense, but as a participant whose notes and associated documents offer a direct glimpse into the British military view on the eve of war.