<P> On March 27 the eight soldiers, Captain Preston, and four civilians who were in the Customs House and were alleged to have fired shots, were all indicted for murder . Bostonians continued to be hostile to the troops and their dependents . General Gage, convinced the troops were doing more harm than good, ordered the 29th Regiment out of the province in May . Governor Hutchinson took advantage of the ongoing high tensions to orchestrate delays of the trials until later in the year . </P> <P> In the days and weeks following the incident, a propaganda battle was waged between Boston's radicals and supporters of the government . Both sides published pamphlets that told strikingly different stories, which were principally published in London in a bid to influence opinion there . The Boston Gazette's version of events, for example, characterized the massacre as part of an ongoing scheme to "quell a Spirit of Liberty", and harped on the negative consequences of quartering troops in the city . </P> <P> A young Boston artist, Henry Pelham, half - brother of the celebrated portrait painter John Singleton Copley, depicted the event . Silversmith and engraver Paul Revere closely copied Pelham's image, and is often credited as its originator . In order to further public outrage, the engraving contained several inflammatory details . Captain Preston is shown ordering his men to fire, and a musket is seen shooting out of the window of the customs office, which is labeled "Butcher's Hall ." Artist Christian Remick hand - colored some prints . Some copies of the print show a man with two chest wounds and a somewhat darker face, matching descriptions of Attucks; others show no victim as a person of color . The image was published in the Boston Gazette, circulating widely, and became an effective piece of anti-British propaganda . The image of bright red "lobster backs" and wounded men with red blood was hung in farmhouses across New England . </P> <P> Anonymous pamphlets were published describing the event from significantly different perspectives . A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre, published under the auspices of the Boston town meeting, was principally written by James Bowdoin, a member of the governor's council and a vocal opponent of British colonial policy, along with Samuel Pemberton, and Joseph Warren . It described the shooting and other lesser incidents that took place in the days before as unprovoked attacks on peaceful, law - abiding inhabitants, and was, according to historian Neal Langley York, probably the most influential description of the event . The account it provided was drawn from more than 90 depositions taken after the event, and it included accusations that the soldiers sent by Captain Preston had been deployed with the intention of causing harm . In the interest of minimizing impact on the jury pool, city leaders held back local distribution of the pamphlet, but sent copies to other colonies and to London, where they knew depositions collected by Governor Hutchinson were en route . A second pamphlet, Additional Observations on the Short Narrative, furthered the attack on crown officials by complaining that customs officials (one of whom had left Boston to carry Hutchinson's gathered depositions to London) were abandoning their posts under the pretense that it was too dangerous for them to do their duties . </P>

How many soldiers were there in the boston massacre