Captain Thomas Preston of the 29th Regiment was, according to his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Carr, "as cool and distinct as any officer of his rank in the service." On the moonlit night of March 5, 1770, Preston was officer of the day. When a guard alerted Preston of a potentially life-threatening situation involving sentry Hugh White developing on King Street, Preston began pacing in front of the Main Guard, considering his not-very-good options. He paced for thirty minutes before yelling to his troops, "Turn out, damn your bloods, turn out!" Preston, in his redcoat with lace hat and drawn sword, followed his soldiers to the scene of the trouble. Although one witness had Preston barking orders such as "Support your arms! Prime and load!" along the way, this testimony was disputed by others. After making their way to Hugh White, Preston and his men found the crowd began pressing in on them. Preston ordered the soldiers to line up in a semi-circle facing the taunting, snowball-throwing crowd. Preston stood behind them. Then someone--Private Montgomery as it turned out--yelled "Fire!" and the massacre began. (Later, several witnesses would falsely identify Preston as having given the "Fire!" order.) With soldiers reloading and nearly ready to began another round of fire, Preston shouted, "Stop firing! Do not fire!" Sometime after midnight, Preston was arrested and brought to the Town House where he was interrogated for an hour about the shooting by two justices. At three o'clock in the morning, he was sent to the jail where he would remain for the next seven months. Jail-cell writings of Preston appeared in the Boston Gazette. In an early letter to the paper, Preston extended his "thanks...to the inhabitants of this town--who throwing aside all party and prejudice, have with the utmost humanity and freedom stept forth advocates for truth, ind defense of my injured innocence." On June 25, however, a letter Preston sent to London found its way into Boston papers and undermined whatever goodwill he might have built up earlier. In his London letter, Preston complained about Bostonians who "have ever used all means in their power to weaken the regiments and to bring them into contempt, by promoting and aiding desertions, and by grossly and falsely promulgating untruths concerning them." He wrote that bitter "malcontents" were maliciously "using every method to fish out evidence to prove [the March 5 shooting] was a concerted scheme to murder the inhabitants." Preston's trial, in which he was ably defended by John Adams, took place from October 24 to 30 in Boston. Although no transcript of his trial testimony survives, in his deposition Preston stated that he believed on the night of March 5 that the crowd would have murdered the sentry had he not ordered troops to his rescue. He also stated that he believed the ultimate goal of the mob to have been to "plunder the King's chest" at the nearby Custom House. Whether or not the jury believed all of Preston's story is not known, but they apparantly concluded that there was insufficient prove that he gave the order to fire: Preston was acquitted on all charges. After his trial, Preston wrote: "I take the liberty of wishing you joy at the complete victory obtained over the knaves and foolish villains of Boston." In December, Preston sailed for England, where he was awarded 200 pounds for his troubles.