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Home , Burning of Falmouth, Crean Brush, Dorchester Heights, Edmond Thomas Quinn, Fort Crown Point, John Buttrick

The Campaign The birth of the American Revolutionary War

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Articles

Introduction 1 Boston campaign 1

Start of the campaign 7 7 Battles of Lexington and Concord 11

Siege of Boston 33 33 42 Battle of Chelsea Creek 56 Noble train of artillery 61 Fortification of 66 References Article Sources and Contributors 70 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 72 Article Licenses License 74 1

Introduction

Boston campaign

The Boston campaign was the opening campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The campaign was primarily concerned with the formation of American colonial irregular units, and their transformation into a unified . The campaign's military conflicts started with the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, in which colonial militias mustered to defend against the seizure of military stores in Concord, by British Army regulars. Some British units were defeated in a confrontation at Concord's North Bridge, and the entire British expedition suffered significant casualties during a running battle back to Charlestown against an ever-growing number of colonial militia. The accumulated militia surrounded the city of Boston, beginning the Siege of Boston. The main action during the siege, the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, was one of the bloodiest encounters of the entire war.[1] There were also numerous skirmishes near Boston and the coastal areas of Boston, resulting in either loss of life, military supplies, or both. In July 1775, took command of the assembled militia and transformed them into a more coherent army. On March 4, 1776, the colonial army fortified Dorchester Heights with cannon capable of reaching Boston and British ships in the harbor. The siege (and the campaign) ended on March 17, 1776, with the withdrawal of British forces from Boston.

Background In 1767, the British Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which imposed import duties on paper, glass, paint, and other common items imported into the American colonies. The and other Patriot organizations responded with a variety of protest actions. They organized boycotts of the goods subject to the duty, and they harassed and threatened the customs personnel who collected the duties, many of whom were either corrupt or related to Provincial leaders. Francis Bernard, then Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, requested military forces to protect the King's personnel. In October 1768, British troops arrived in the city of Boston and occupied the city.[2] Tensions led to the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, and the on December 16, 1773.[3] In response to the Tea Party and other protests, Parliament enacted the to punish the colonies. With the Massachusetts Government Act of 1774 it effectively abolished the provincial government of Massachusetts. General , already the commander-in-chief of British troops in North America, was also appointed governor of Massachusetts and was instructed by King George's government to enforce royal authority in the troublesome colony.[4] However, popular resistance compelled the newly appointed royal officials in Massachusetts to resign or to seek refuge in Boston. Gage commanded four regiments of British regulars (about 4,000 men) from his headquarters in Boston,[5] but the countryside was largely controlled by Patriot sympathizers.[6] Boston campaign 2

War begins

On September 1, 1774, British soldiers removed gunpowder and other military supplies in a surprise raid on a powder magazine near Boston. This expedition alarmed the countryside, and thousands of American Patriots sprang into action, amid rumors that war was at hand.[7] Although it proved to be a false alarm, this event—known as the Powder Alarm—caused all concerned to proceed more carefully in the days ahead, and essentially provided a "dress rehearsal" for events seven months later. Partly in response to this action, the colonists A 1775 Amos Doolittle engraving depicting a bit carried off military supplies from several forts in New and of the action at the North Bridge in Concord distributed them among the local militias.[8]

On the night of April 18, 1775, General Gage sent 700 men to seize munitions stored by the colonial militia at Concord. Several riders — including — alerted the countryside, and when the British troops entered Lexington on the morning of April 19, they found about 80 formed up on the village common. Shots were exchanged, eight Minutemen were killed, the outnumbered colonial militia dispersed, and the British moved on to Concord. At Concord, the troops searched for military supplies, but found relatively little, as the colonists, having received warnings that such an expedition might happen, had taken steps to hide many of the supplies. During the search, there was a confrontation at the North Bridge. A small company of British troops fired on a much larger column of colonial militia, which returned fire, and eventually routed those troops, which returned to the village center and rejoined the other troops there. By the time the "redcoats" or "lobster backs" (as the British soldiers were called) began the return march to Boston, several thousand militiamen had gathered along the road. A running fight ensued, and the British detachment suffered heavily before reaching Charlestown.[9] With the Battle of Lexington and Concord — the "shot heard 'round the world" — the war had begun.

Siege of Boston

In the aftermath of the failed Concord expedition, the thousands of militiamen that had converged on Boston remained. Over the next few days, more arrived from further afield, including companies from New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Under the command of , they surrounded the city, blocking its land approaches and putting the occupied city under siege. The British regulars fortified the high points in the city.[10]

Need for supplies

While the British were able to resupply the city by sea, supplies in Boston were short. Troops were sent out to some of the islands in Boston Harbor to raid farmers for supplies. In response, the colonials began clearing those islands of supplies useful to the British. One of these actions was contested by the British in the Battle of Chelsea Creek, but it resulted in the loss of two British soldiers and the British [11] ship Diana. The need for building materials and other supplies led A map showing a British tactical evaluation of to authorize a Loyalist () Boston in 1775. Boston campaign 3

merchant to send his ships from Boston to Machias in the District of Maine, accompanied by a schooner. The Machias townspeople rose up, seizing the merchant vessels and then the schooner after a short battle in which its commander was killed. Their resistance and that of other coastal communities led Graves to authorize an expedition of reprisal in October whose sole significant act was the .[12] The outrage in the colonies over this action contributed to the passing of legislation by the Second that established the .[13] The colonial army also had issues with supply, and with command. Its diverse militias needed to be organized, fed, clothed, and armed, and command needed to be coordinated, as each militia leader was responsible to his province's congress.[14]

Bunker Hill Late in May, General Gage received by sea about 2,000 reinforcements and a trio of generals who would play a vital role in the war: William Howe, , and Henry Clinton. They formulated a plan to break out of the city, which was finalized on June 12. Reports of these plans made their way to the commanders of the besieging forces,[15] who decided that additional defensive steps were necessary.[16] On the night of June 16–17, 1775, a detachment of the colonial army stealthily marched onto the Charlestown peninsula, which the British had abandoned in April, and fortified Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill.[17] On June 17, British forces under General Howe attacked and seized the Charlestown peninsula in the Battle of Bunker Hill. This battle was technically a British victory, but losses (about 1/2 the attacking forces killed or wounded, including a significant fraction of the entire British officer corps in all of North America) were so heavy that the attack was not followed up.[18] The siege was not broken, and General Gage was recalled to England in September and replaced by General Howe as the British commander-in-chief.[19]

Formation of the Continental Army The Second Continental Congress, meeting in , had received reports of the situation outside Boston when it began to meet in May 1775. In response to the confusion over command in the camps there, and in response to the May 10 capture of , the need for unified military organization became clear.[20] [21] Congress officially adopted the forces outside Boston as the Continental Army on May 26,[22] and named George Washington its commander-in-chief on June 15. Washington left Philadelphia for Boston on June 21, but did not learn of the action at Bunker Hill until he reached City.[23]

Stalemate

Following the Battle of Bunker Hill, the siege was effectively stalemated, as neither side had either a clearly dominant position, or the will and materiel to significantly alter its position. When Washington took command of the army in July, he determined that its size had reduced from 20,000 to about 13,000 men fit for duty. He also established that the battle had severely depleted the army's powder stock, which was eventually alleviated by powder shipments from Philadelphia.[24] The British were also busy bringing in A Currier and Ives print depicting George reinforcements; by the time of Washington's arrival the British had Washington accepting the role of [] Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army more than 10,000 men in the city. from Congress. Boston campaign 4

Throughout the summer and fall of 1775, both sides dug in, with occasional skirmishes, but neither side chose to take any significant action.[25] Congress, seeking to take some initiative and to capitalize on the capture of Ticonderoga, authorized an invasion of Canada, after several letters to the inhabitants of Canada were rejected by the French-speaking and British colonists there. In September, led 1,100 troops on an expedition through the wilderness of Maine, which was drawn from the army assembled outside Boston.[26] Washington faced a personnel crisis toward the end of 1775, as most of the troops in the army had enlistments that expired at the end of 1775. He introduced a number of recruitment incentives and was able to keep the army sufficiently large to maintain the siege, although it was by then smaller than the besieged forces.[27]

Siege ends By early March 1776, heavy cannons that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga were moved to Boston, a difficult feat engineered by .[28] When the guns were placed on Dorchester Heights in the course of one day, overlooking the British positions, the British situation became untenable. While General Howe planned an attack to reclaim the high ground, a snowstorm prevented its execution.[29] The British, after threatening to burn the city if their departure was hindered,[29] evacuated the city on March 17, 1776 and sailed for temporary refuge in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The local militias dispersed and, in April, General Washington took most of the Continental Army to fortify and the start of the New York and New Jersey campaign.[30]

Legacy

The British were essentially driven from as a result of this campaign, although there (as elsewhere in the colonies) they continued to receive support from local Loyalists, especially in Newport, Rhode Island, from which they drove most of the local Patriots.[31] The campaign, as well as the final result of the war as a whole, were a significant blow to British prestige and confidence in its military. The senior military leaders of the campaign were criticized for their actions (Clinton, for example, while he went on to command the British forces in North America, would take much of the blame for 's Surrender of General Burgoyne the British loss of the war),[32] and others either saw no more action in the war (Gage),[33] or were ultimately disgraced (Burgoyne, who surrendered his army at Saratoga).[34] While the British continued to control the seas, and had military successes on the ground (notably in New York, New Jersey, and ), their actions that led to these conflicts had the effect of uniting the in opposition to the crown.[35] As a result, they were never able to marshal enough support from Loyalists to regain meaningful political control of the colonies.[36]

The colonies, in spite of their differences, united themselves as a consequence of these events, granting the Second Continental Congress (predecessor to the modern U.S. Congress) sufficient authority and funding to conduct the revolution as a unified whole, including funding and outfitting the military forces that formed as a result of this campaign.[37] Boston campaign 5

Notes [1] Brooks (1999), p. 237 [2] Fischer (1994), p. 22 [3] Fischer (1994), pp. 23–26 [4] Fischer (1994) pp. 38–42 [5] French (1911), p. 161 [6] See e.g. Cushing (1896), p. 58, where Gage describes Crown appointees being harassed out of several towns. [7] Brooks (1999), pp. 16–18 [8] Fischer (1994) pp. 52–64 [9] See Fischer (1994) for a comprehensive treatment of Lexington and Concord. [10] French (1911), pp. 219, 234–237 [11] Brooks (1999), p. 108 [12] Leamon (1995), pp. 67–72 [13] Miller (1974), p. 49 [14] Brooks (1999), pp. 104–106 [15] Brooks (1999), p. 119 [16] French (1911), p. 254 [17] Brooks (1999), pp. 122–125 [18] Brooks (1999), pp. 183–184 [19] French (1911), pp. 355–357 [20] Frothingham (1886), pp. 420–430 [21] Frothingham (1851), pp. 98–101 [22] Frothingham (1886), p. 429 [23] Frothingham (1851), pp. 213–214 [24] Brooks (1999), pp. 194–195 [25] French (1911), pp. 331–359 [26] See Arnold's expedition to Quebec for details on the forces Arnold took on this expedition, and its outcome. [27] Brooks (1999), pp. 208–209 [28] Brooks (1999) pp. 211–214 [29] Brooks (1999), pp. 230–231 [30] Frothingham (1851), p. 312 [31] Rhode Island (1977), p. 207 [32] Stephen (1886), p. 550 [33] Wise [34] Stephen (1886), pp. 340–341 [35] Frothingham (1886), pp. 395–419, in which colonial assemblies defer responses to a Parliamentary olive branch to a united response from the Continental Congress. [36] See, e.g. the Southern campaign by the British, in which they assumed (or were misled to believe) Loyalists would rise to support their military actions, something that did not happen to the degree needed. [37] Johnson (1912), pp. 40–42

References

• Federal Writers' Project (1977). Rhode Island: A Guide to the Smallest State (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=bKHQOOx1eGEC). US History Publishers. ISBN 9781603540384. • Brooks, Victor (1999). The Boston Campaign. Combined Publishing. ISBN 1580970079. • Cushing, Harry Alonzo (1896). History of the Transition from Provincial to Commonwealth Government in

Massachusetts (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=lWNh3JjkbYAC). Columbia University. OCLC 4297135. • Fischer, David Hackett (1994). Paul Revere's Ride. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508847-6.

• French, Allen (1911). The Siege of Boston (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=PqZcY9z3Vn4C). McMillan. OCLC 3927532. • Frothingham, Jr, Richard (1851). History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and

Bunker Hill (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Cu9BAAAAIAAJ). Little, Brown. OCLC 221368703.

• Frothingham, Jr, Richard (1886). The Rise of the Republic of the (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=-bUoAAAAYAAJ). Little, Brown. OCLC 2081524. Boston campaign 6

• Johnson, Allen (1912). Readings in American Constitutional History, 1776-1876 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=DMk9AAAAIAAJ). Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 40–42. OCLC 502220. • Leamon, James S (1995). Revolution Downeast: The War for American Independence in Maine. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 9780870239595. • Miller, Nathan (1974). Sea of Glory: The Continental Navy fights for Independence 1775-1783. New York: David McKay. ISBN 9780679503927. OCLC 844299. • Raphael, Ray (2002). The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord. New York: The New Press. ISBN 9781565848153. • Stephen, Leslie; Smith, George;Lee, Sidney (1886). Dictionary of National Biography: From The earliest Times

to 1900 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=cisJAAAAIAAJ). Smith, Elder. OCLC 2763972.

• Wise, S.F. "Biography of Thomas Gage" (http:/ / www. biographi. ca/ 009004-119. 01-e. php?& id_nbr=1895). Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved 2008-10-22.

Further reading • Chidsey, Donald Barr (1966). The Siege of Boston: An on-the-scene Account of the Beginning of the American Revolution. New York: Crown. OCLC 890813. 7

Start of the campaign

Powder Alarm

The Powder Alarm was a massive popular reaction to the removal of gunpowder from a magazine by British soldiers under orders from General Thomas Gage, royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, on September 1, 1774. In response to this action, amid rumors that blood had been shed, alarm spread through the countryside as far as Connecticut and beyond, and American Patriots sprang into action, fearing that war was at hand. Although it proved to be a false alarm, the Powder Alarm caused political and military leaders to proceed more carefully in the days ahead, and essentially provided a "dress rehearsal" for the Battles of Lexington and Concord seven and a half months later. Furthermore, actions on both sides to control weaponry, gunpowder, and other military supplies became more contentious, as the British sought to bring military stores more directly under their control, and the Patriot colonists sought to acquire them for their own use.

Background In 1772, many of the thirteen British colonies, in response to the Gaspee Affair and other unpopular British actions, elected to form Committees of Correspondence. These allowed communities to formally communicate with each other, raise awareness of incidents occurring elsewhere, and to coordinate actions;[1] as such, they became instrumental in managing the colonial response to enforcement of the , the Intolerable Acts, and other unpopular British colonial legislation. The colonists of Massachusetts had not yet taken concerted action to organize themselves militarily against actions of the British regulars, although statements were made about supporting Boston (whose port had been closed earlier in 1774 under the ) "at the risque of our lives and fortunes."[2] General Thomas Gage, who had become the military governor of Massachusetts in May 1774, was charged with enforcement of the highly unpopular Intolerable Acts, which British Parliament had passed in response to the Boston Tea Party. Seeking to prevent the outbreak of war and to keep the peace between the American Patriot (Whig) majority and the Loyalist (Tory) minority, he believed that the best way to accomplish this was by secretly removing military stores from storehouses and arsenals in New England.[3] [4] The secrecy of these missions was paramount, as Gage feared that leakage of any plans would result in the seizure or concealment of the stores by Patriot sympathizers before his men got there.[5] There were several places throughout the colonies where the British army had stockpiled supplies. Some of these places were fortifications that were manned by small garrisons; others were merely locked magazines. Most of the powder in these was under the control of the provincial government, though some was the property of individual towns. One locked storehouse near Boston, in what was then part of Charlestown, now in Somerville, was controlled by , the leader of the provincial militia and an appointee of the governor. Brattle, who had not obviously sided with either Loyalists or Patriots, notified Governor Gage in a letter dated August 27 that the provincial ("King's") powder was the only supply remaining in that storehouse, as the towns had removed all of theirs.[6] Gage decided that this powder had to be brought to Boston for safekeeping.[3] Powder Alarm 8

Expedition

On August 31, Gage sent Middlesex County sheriff David Phips to Brattle with orders to remove the provincial powder; Brattle turned the key to the powderhouse over to Phips. Gage also gave orders to ready a force of troops for action the next day, something that did not go unnoticed by the local population.[7] At some point that day, General Gage, whether by his intent, accident, or theft by a messenger, lost possession of William Brattle's letter; the widely held story is that it was dropped. News of its content eventually spread rapidly, and many considered it to be a warning to Gage to remove the provincial powder before Patriots could seize it.[8] The Powder House ("Magazine") is near the Early in the morning of September 1, a force of roughly 260 British northern edge of this detail from a 1775 map of the Siege of Boston. regulars from the 4th Regiment, under the command of George Maddison, were rowed in secrecy up the from Boston to a landing point near Winter Hill in modern-day Somerville. From there they marched about a mile to the Powder House, a gunpowder magazine that held the largest supply of gunpowder in Massachusetts. Phips gave the King's Troops the keys to the building, and after sunrise they removed all of the gunpowder. Most of the regulars then returned to Boston the way they had come, but a small contingent marched to Cambridge, removed two field pieces, and took them to Boston by foot over the Great Bridge and up .[5] The field pieces and powder were then taken from Boston to the British stronghold on Castle Island, then known as Castle William (renamed Fort Independence in 1779).[9]

Response to the raid Rumors flew throughout the day across the countryside about the British troop movements. The regulars were marching; provincial powder had been seized; war was at hand; people had been killed; Boston was being bombarded by His Majesty's warships. The alarm spread as far as Connecticut. From all over the region, people took up arms and began streaming toward Boston. One traveler in Shrewsbury reported that in the space of 15 minutes, 50 men had gathered, equipped themselves, sent out messengers to surrounding towns, and left for Boston.[10] On the 2nd, several thousand men bent on violence gathered in Cambridge, where they forced several notable Loyalists, including William Brattle, to flee to Boston and the protection of the military. Sheriff Phips was forced, in writing, to dissociate himself from any and all government actions.[11] Eventually facts caught up with the rumors, and militia units (some of which were still heading toward Boston) returned home.[12] Also on the 2nd, Boston newspapers published a letter from William Brattle in which he protested that he had not warned Gage to remove the powder; Gage had requested from him an accounting of the storehouse's contents, and he had complied. The content of his letter to Gage would be published on the 5th. Brattle remained on Castle Island through the siege of Boston, leaving when the British evacuated the city in March 1776. He died in Halifax, Nova Scotia in October 1776 at the age of 70.[13] When the horrid news was brought here of the bombardment of Boston, which made us completely miserable for two days, we saw proofs of both the sympathy and the resolution of the continent. War! war! war! was the cry, and it was pronounced in a tone which would have done honor to the oratory of a Briton or a Roman. If it had proved true, you would have heard the thunder of an American Congress. — , reporting on the reaction of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia[14] Powder Alarm 9

British reaction Gage, surprised by the size and scope of the colonial reaction, delayed and eventually cancelled a second planned expedition to the storehouse in Worcester.[15] He concentrated his troops in Boston, and called for reinforcements from London, writing "if you think ten thousand men sufficient, send twenty; if one million is thought enough, give two; you save both blood and treasure in the end."[16] However, Gage's request was seen by some in London as absurd, as there were only 12,000 troops in Britain at the time, but he did eventually receive an additional 400 Marines in response to these requests.[16] He later began planning and executing seizures again,[17] and he further fortified the Boston peninsula.[14]

Colonial reaction After the Powder Alarm, militia forces throughout New England were more cautious with their supplies and more intent on gaining information about Gage's plans and troop movements. Paul Revere played a significant role in distributing this information due to his geographical position in Boston, his social position as a middle-class craftsman in contact with all social classes, and his political position as a well-known Patriot propagandist and organizer.[18]

The colonists organize

On September 21, 1774, Patriot leaders met in Worcester and urged town meetings to organize a third of the militias into special companies of minutemen in constant readiness to march.[19] They also instituted the system of express riders and alarms that would prove to be critical at Lexington and Concord.[18] In October, the former legislature of Massachusetts met in defiance of the Massachusetts Government Act and declared itself to be the First . It created a Committee of Safety modeled after a body with the same name during the English Civil War and it recommended that a quarter of the militia be designated as minutemen.[16] Military stores were to be stockpiled away from the coast (more than a convenient day's march), to make attempts to seize them more difficult. The largest stockpiles were located at Concord and Worcester.[20]

A 2007 photograph of the Old Powder House in Nathan Tufts Park, Somerville, Massachusetts

Portsmouth Alarm Early in December, British military command voted to prohibit the export of arms and powder to North America, and to secure all remaining stores. On December 12, intelligence received by Paul Revere indicated that a seizure of stores at in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was imminent. He rode from Boston to Portsmouth the next day to notify the local Patriots, who quickly raided the fort on the 14th and removed its supplies. Revere's intelligence had been incorrect; while a British operation had been contemplated, it had not been ordered. The British did eventually send ships carrying troops to Portsmouth, but they arrived long after the event. The first arrived on the 17th, and was directed into shallows at high tide by a local Patriot pilot, much to the captain's anger.[17] Stores of gunpowder—typically referred to by Loyalists as "the King's powder" and by Patriots as "the militia's powder"—were also carried off from forts in Newport, Rhode Island, Providence, Rhode Island, and New London, Connecticut and distributed to the militias in towns away from the coast.[21] Cannon and other supplies were Powder Alarm 10

smuggled out of Boston and Charlestown.[22]

Salem confrontation On February 27, 1775, HMS Lively brought a force of about 240 British regulars from the 64th Regiment under Colonel Alexander Leslie to confiscate weapons in Salem, Massachusetts. They were stopped by a small crowd that raised a drawbridge in their path and taunted them while others moved the cannon to safety and sent for help from nearby towns. Eventually, the drawbridge was lowered and the regulars were permitted to search the forge where the cannon had once been. They returned to their ship while being mocked by a growing force of irregulars marching along in lock-step next to them. There were minor scuffles, but no shots were fired.[23]

Notes [1] Tagney, pp. 65–67 [2] Tagney, pp. 68–75 (emphasis in original) [3] Frothingham, p. 13 [4] Fischer, p. 43 [5] Fischer, pp. 44–45 [6] Richmond, p. 5 [7] Richmond, p. 6 [8] Richmond, pp. 52–56 [9] Richmond, p. 7 [10] Fischer, p. 46 [11] Fischer pp. 47–48 [12] French, pp. 122–125 [13] Richmond, pp. 57–58 [14] French, pp. 125–126 [15] French, pp. 126–141 [16] Fischer, p. 51 [17] Fischer, pp. 52–57 [18] French, p. 170 [19] Provincial Congress Journals, pp. 642–644 [20] French, p. 160 [21] Bancroft, pp. 183–184 [22] Tagney, p. 130 [23] Tagney, pp. 140–142

References • Bancroft, George (1860). History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Volume 7

(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=fFUQAAAAYAAJ). Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. • Fischer, David Hackett (1994). Paul Revere's Ride. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508847-6. OCLC 263430392.

• French, Allen (1911). The Siege of Boston (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=PqZcY9z3Vn4C). New York: McMillan. OCLC 3927532. • Frothingham, Jr, Richard (1851). History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and

Bunker Hill (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Cu9BAAAAIAAJ). Boston: Little and Brown. OCLC 11529241. • Massachusetts Provincial Congress (1774). The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774

and 1775 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iFVMkRsFQh4C). Dutton and Wentworth, Printers to the state. • Raphael, Ray (2002). The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord. New York: The New Press. ISBN 9781565848153. OCLC 1571226. • Richmond, Robert P (1971). Powder Alarm 1774. Princeton, NJ: Auerbach. ISBN 9780877690733. OCLC 162197. Powder Alarm 11

• Tagney, Ronald N (1976). A County in Revolution: Essex County at the dawning of independence. Manchester, MA: The Cricket Press. OCLC 3423404. • Volo, Dorothy Denneen; Volo, James M (2003). Daily Life During the American Revolution. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313318443. OCLC 473265703.

External links

• John Rowe's Diary, September 1–4, 1774 (http:/ / www. masshist. org/ revolution/ image-viewer.

php?item_id=495& mode=small& nmask=8& img_step=1& tpc=#page1) at the Massachusetts Historical Society

• Abigail Adams letter to John Adams describing the events (http:/ / www. familytales. org/ dbDisplay. php?id=ltr_aba1707)

• Article on theft of cannon from Boston in the wake of the Alarm (http:/ / www. concordma. com/ magazine/

spring05/ cannons. html)

• Leslie's Retreat (http:/ / www. salemhistoryonline. com/ PowderAlarm. html) (a recounting of the Salem confrontation)

• Portsmouth Alarm exhibit (http:/ / www. library. unh. edu/ special/ index. php/ exhibits/

capture-of-fort-william-and-mary/ ) at the University of New Hampshire

Battles of Lexington and Concord

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War.[1] [2] They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the and its thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America. About 700 British Army regulars, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, were given secret orders to capture and destroy military supplies that were reportedly stored by the Massachusetts militia at Concord. Through effective intelligence gathering, Patriot colonials had received word weeks before the expedition that their supplies might be at risk and had moved most of them to other locations. They also received details about British plans on the night before the battle and were able to rapidly notify the area militias of the enemy movement. The first shots were fired just as the sun was rising at Lexington. The militia were outnumbered and fell back, and the regulars proceeded on to Concord, where they searched for the supplies. At the North Bridge in Concord, approximately 500 militiamen fought and defeated three companies of the King's troops. The outnumbered regulars fell back from the minutemen after a pitched battle in open territory. More militiamen arrived soon thereafter and inflicted heavy damage on the regulars as they marched back towards Boston. Upon returning to Lexington, Smith's expedition was rescued by reinforcements under Brigadier General Hugh Percy. The combined force, now of about 1,700 men, marched back to Boston under heavy fire in a tactical withdrawal and eventually reached the safety of Charlestown. The accumulated militias blockaded the narrow land accesses to Charlestown and Boston, starting the Siege of Boston. , in his "", described the first shot fired by the Patriots at the North Bridge as the "shot heard 'round the world."[3] Battles of Lexington and Concord 12

Background

Further information: Minutemen and Boston campaign The British Army's infantry, nicknamed "redcoats" and sometimes "devils" by the colonists, had occupied Boston since 1768 and had been augmented by naval forces and marines to enforce the Intolerable Acts, which had been passed by the British Parliament to punish the Province of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party and other acts of protest. General Thomas Gage, the military governor of Massachusetts and commander-in-chief of the roughly 3,000 British military forces garrisoned in Boston, had no control over Massachusetts outside of Boston, where implementation of the Acts had increased tensions between the Patriot Whig majority and the Tory minority. Gage's plan was to avoid conflict by removing military supplies from the Whig militias using small, secret and rapid strikes. This struggle for supplies led to one British success and then to several Thomas Gage Patriot successes in a series of nearly bloodless conflicts known as the Powder Alarms. Gage considered himself to be a friend of liberty and attempted to separate his duties as Governor of the colony and as General of an occupying force. Edmund Burke described Gage's conflicted relationship with Massachusetts by saying in Parliament, "An Englishman is the unfittest person on Earth to argue another Englishman into slavery."[4]

The colonists had been forming militias of various sorts since the 17th century, at first primarily for defense against local native attacks. These forces were also mustered to action in the in the 1750s and 1760s. They were generally local militias, nominally under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.[5] When the political situation began to deteriorate, in particular when Gage effectively dissolved the Provincial government under the terms of the Massachusetts Government Act, these existing connections were employed by the colonists under the Massachusetts Provincial Congress for the purpose of resistance to the perceived military threat.[6]

British preparations

On April 14, 1775, Gage received instructions from Secretary of State William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, to disarm the rebels, who were known to have hidden weapons in Concord, among other locations, and to imprison the rebellion's leaders, especially Samuel Adams and . Dartmouth gave Gage considerable discretion in his commands.[7] [8]

On the morning of April 18, Gage ordered a mounted patrol of about 20 men under the command of Major Mitchell of the 5th Regiment of Foot into the surrounding country to intercept messengers who might be out on horseback.[9] This patrol behaved differently from patrols sent out from Boston in the past, staying out after dark and asking travelers about the location of Adams and Hancock. This had the unintended effect of alarming many residents and increasing their preparedness. The Lexington militia in particular began to muster early Francis Smith, commander of the military that evening, hours before receiving any word from Boston. A well expedition, in a 1763 portrait Battles of Lexington and Concord 13

known story alleges that after nightfall one farmer, Josiah Nelson, mistook the British patrol for the colonists and asked them, "Have you heard anything about when the regulars are coming out?", upon which he was slashed on his scalp with a sword. However, the story of this incident was not published until over a century later, which suggests that it may be little more than a family myth.[10] Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith received orders from Gage on the afternoon of April 18 with instructions that he was not to read them until his troops were underway. He was to proceed from Boston "with utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and destroy... all Military stores... But you will take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property." Gage used his discretion and did not issue written orders for the arrest of rebel leaders, as he feared doing so might spark an uprising.[11]

American preparations

The rebellion's ringleaders—with the exception of Paul Revere and —had all left Boston by April 8. They had received word of Dartmouth's secret instructions to General Gage from sources in London well before they reached Gage himself.[12] Adams and Hancock had fled Boston to the home of one of Hancock's relatives in Lexington where they thought they would be safe from the immediate threat of arrest.[13]

The Massachusetts militias had indeed been gathering a stock of weapons, powder, and supplies at Concord, as well as an even greater amount much further west in Worcester, but word reached the rebel leaders that British officers had been observed examining the roads to Concord.[14] On April 8, Paul Revere rode to Concord to warn the inhabitants that the British appeared to be planning an Margaret Kemble Gage may have given military intelligence to the expedition. The townspeople decided to remove the stores and distribute them rebels among other towns nearby.[15]

The colonists were also aware of the upcoming mission on April 19, despite it having been hidden from all the British rank and file and even from all the officers on the mission. There is reasonable speculation, although not proven, that the confidential source of this intelligence was Margaret Gage, General Gage's New Jersey-born wife, who had sympathies with the Colonial cause and a friendly relationship with Warren.[16] Between 9 and 10 pm on the night of April 18, 1775, Joseph Warren told William Dawes and Paul Revere that the King's troops were about to embark in boats from Boston bound for Cambridge and the road to Lexington and Concord. Warren's intelligence suggested that the most likely objectives of the regulars' movements later that night would be the capture of Adams and Hancock. They did not worry about the possibility of regulars marching to Concord, since the supplies at Concord were safe, but they did think their leaders in Lexington were unaware of the potential danger that night. Revere and Dawes were sent out to warn them and to alert colonial militias in nearby towns.[17]

Militia forces Further information: Old North Church Dawes covered the southern land route by horseback across Boston Neck and over the Great Bridge to Lexington.[18] Revere first gave instructions to send a signal to Charlestown and then he traveled the northern water route. He crossed the Charles River by rowboat, slipping past the British warship HMS Somerset at anchor. Crossings were banned at that hour, but Revere safely landed in Charlestown and rode to Lexington, avoiding a British patrol and later warning almost every house along the route. The Charlestown colonists dispatched additional riders to the north.[19] Battles of Lexington and Concord 14

After they arrived in Lexington, Revere, Dawes, Hancock, and Adams discussed the situation with the militia assembling there. They believed that the forces leaving the city were too large for the sole task of arresting two men and that Concord was the main target. The Lexington men dispatched riders to the surrounding towns, and Revere and Dawes continued along the road to Concord accompanied by . In Lincoln, they ran into the British patrol led by Major Mitchell. Revere was captured, Dawes was thrown from his horse, and only Prescott escaped to reach Concord.[20] Additional riders were sent out from Concord. The ride of Revere, Dawes, and Prescott triggered a flexible system of "alarm and muster" that had been carefully developed months before, in reaction to the colonists' impotent response to the Powder Alarm. This system was an improved version of an old network of widespread notification and fast deployment of local militia forces in times of emergency. The colonists had periodically used this system all the way back to the early years of Indian wars in the colony, before it fell into disuse in the French and Indian War. In addition to other express riders delivering messages, bells, drums, alarm guns, bonfires and a trumpet were used for rapid communication from town to town, notifying the rebels in dozens of eastern Massachusetts villages that they should muster their militias because the regulars in numbers greater than 500 were leaving Boston, with possible hostile intentions. This system was so effective that people in towns 25 miles (40 km) from Boston were aware of the army's movements while they were still unloading boats in Cambridge.[21] These early warnings played a crucial role in assembling a sufficient number of colonial militia to inflict heavy damage on the British regulars later in the day. Adams and Hancock were eventually moved to safety, first to what is now Burlington and later to Billerica.[22]

A map showing the routes of the initial Patriot messengers and of the British expedition

British advance Around dusk, General Gage called a meeting of his senior officers at the Province House. He informed them that orders from Lord Dartmouth had arrived, ordering him to take action against the colonials. He also told them that the senior colonel of his regiments, Lieutenant Colonel Smith, would command, with Major John Pitcairn as his executive officer. The meeting adjourned around 8:30 pm, after which Lord Percy mingled with town folk on Boston Common. According to one account, the discussion among people there turned to the unusual movement of the British soldiers in the town. When Percy questioned one man further, the man replied, "Well, the regulars will miss their aim". "What aim?" asked Percy. "Why, the cannon at Concord" was the reply.[16] Upon hearing this, Percy quickly returned to Province House and relayed this information to General Gage. Stunned, Gage issued orders to prevent messengers from getting out of Boston, but these were too late to prevent Dawes and Revere from leaving.[23] Battles of Lexington and Concord 15

The British regulars, around 700 infantry, were drawn from 11 of Gage's 13 occupying infantry regiments. For this expedition, Major John Pitcairn commanded ten elite light infantry companies, and Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Bernard commanded 11 grenadier companies, under the overall command of Lieutenant Colonel Smith.[24]

Of the troops assigned to the expedition, 350 were from grenadier companies drawn from the 4th (King's Own), 5th, 10th, 18th (Royal Irish), 23rd, 38th, 43rd, 47th, 52nd and 59th Regiments of Foot, and the 1st Battalion of His Majesty's Marine Forces. Protecting the 1775 map of the battles and of the Siege of Boston grenadier companies were about 320 light infantry from the 4th, 5th, 10th, 23rd, 38th, 43rd, 47th, 52nd and 59th Regiments, and the 1st Battalion of the Marines. Each company had its own lieutenant, but the majority of the captains commanding them were volunteers attached to them at the last minute, drawn from all of the regiments stationed in Boston. This lack of bond between commander and company would turn out to be problematic.[25]

The British began to awaken their troops at 9 pm on the night of April 18 and assembled them on the water's edge on the western end of Boston Common by 10 pm. The British march to and from Concord was a disorganized experience from start to finish. Colonel Smith was late in arriving, and there was no organized boat-loading operation, resulting in confusion at the staging area. The boats used were naval barges that were packed so tightly that there was no room to sit down. When they disembarked at Phipps Farm in Cambridge, it was into waist-deep water at midnight. After a lengthy halt to unload their gear, the regulars began their 17 miles (27 km) march to Concord at about 2 am.[24] During the wait they were provided with extra ammunition, cold salt pork, and hard sea biscuits. They did not carry knapsacks, since they would not be encamped. They carried their haversacks (food bags), canteens, muskets, and accoutrements, and marched off in wet, muddy shoes and soggy uniforms. As they marched through Menotomy, sounds of the colonial alarms throughout the countryside caused the few officers who were aware of their mission to realize they had lost the element of surprise.[26] One of the regulars recorded in his journal, “We got all over the bay and landed on the opposite shore betwixt twelve and one OClock and was on our March by one, which was at first through some swamps and slips of the Sea till we got into the Road leading to Lexington soon after which the Country people begun to fire their alarm guns light their Beacons, to raise the Country. ... To the best of my recollection about 4 oClock in the morning being the 19th of April the 5 front Compys. was ordered to Load which we did.”[27] At about 3 am, Colonel Smith sent Major Pitcairn ahead with six companies of light infantry under orders to quick march to Concord. At about 4 am he made the wise but belated decision to send a messenger back to Boston asking for reinforcements.[28] Battles of Lexington and Concord 16

The Battles

Lexington Though often styled a battle, in reality the engagement at Lexington was a minor brush or skirmish.[29] As the regulars' advance guard under Pitcairn entered Lexington at sunrise on April 19, 1775, about 80 Lexington militiamen emerged from Buckman Tavern and stood in ranks on the village common watching them, and between 40 and 100 spectators watched from along the side of the road.[] [] [30] Their leader was Captain , a veteran of the French and Indian War, who was suffering from tuberculosis and was at times difficult to hear. Of the militiamen who lined up, nine had the surname Harrington, seven Munroe (including the company's orderly sergeant, William Munroe), four Parker, three Tidd, three Locke, and three Reed; fully one quarter of them were related to Captain Parker in some way.[31] This group of militiamen was part of Lexington's "training band", a way of organizing local militias dating back to the Puritans, and not what was styled a minuteman company.[32] After having waited most of the night with no sign of any British troops (and wondering if Paul Revere's warning was true), at about 4:15 a.m., Parker got his confirmation.[33] Thaddeus Bowman, the last scout that Parker had sent out, rode up at a gallop and told him that they were not only coming, but coming in force and they were close.[34] Captain Parker was clearly aware that he was outmatched in the confrontation and was not prepared to sacrifice his men for no purpose. He knew that most of the colonists' powder and military supplies at Concord had already been hidden. No war had been declared. (The Declaration of Independence would not even be written for another year). He also knew the British Army had gone on such expeditions before in Massachusetts, found nothing, and marched back to Boston.[35] Parker had every reason to expect that to occur again. The Regulars would march to Concord, find nothing, and return to Boston, tired but empty-handed. He positioned his company carefully. He placed them in parade-ground formation, on Lexington Green. They were in plain sight (not hiding behind walls), but not blocking the road to Concord. They made a show of political and military determination, but no effort to prevent the march of the Regulars.[36] Many years later, one of the participants recalled Parker's words as being what is now engraved in stone at the site of the battle: "Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."[37] According to his sworn deposition taken after the battle: “I ... ordered our Militia to meet on the Common in said Lexington to consult what to do, and concluded not to be discovered, nor meddle or make with said Regular Troops (if they should approach) unless they should insult or molest us; and, upon their sudden Approach, I immediately ordered our Militia to disperse, and not to fire:—Immediately said Troops made their appearance and rushed furiously, fired upon, and killed eight of our Party without receiving any Provocation therefor from us.”[38] [39] — John Parker Rather than turn left towards Concord, Marine Lieutenant Jesse Adair, who was at the head of the advance guard, decided on his own to protect the flank of the troops by first turning right and then leading the companies down the common itself in a confused effort to surround and disarm the militia. These men ran towards the Lexington militia loudly crying "Huzzah!" to rouse themselves and to confuse the militia, as they formed a battle line on the common.[40] Major Pitcairn arrived from the rear of the advance force and led his three companies to the left and halted them. The remaining companies under Colonel Smith lay further down the road toward Boston.[41]

First shot A British officer, probably Pitcairn, but accounts are uncertain, as it may also have been Lieutenant William Sutherland, then rode forward, waving his sword, and called out for the assembled throng to disperse, and may also have ordered them to "lay down your arms, you damned rebels!"[42] Captain Parker told his men instead to disperse and go home, but, because of the confusion, the yelling all around, and due to the raspiness of Parker's tubercular voice, some did not hear him, some left very slowly, and none laid down their arms. Both Parker and Pitcairn Battles of Lexington and Concord 17

ordered their men to hold fire, but a shot was fired from an unknown source.[42] ”[A]t 5 o’clock we arrived [in Lexington], and saw a number of people, I believe between 200 and 300, formed in a common in the middle of town; we still continued advancing, keeping prepared against an attack through without intending to attack them; but on our coming near them they fired on us two shots, upon which our men without any orders, rushed upon them, fired and put them to flight; several of them were killed, we could not tell how many, because they were behind walls and into the

woods. We had a man of the 10th light Infantry The first of four engravings by Amos Doolittle from 1775. wounded, nobody else was hurt. We then formed Doolittle visited the battle sites and interviewed soldiers and on the Common, but with some difficulty, the men witnesses. Contains controversial elements, possibly inaccuracies. Fire from the militia may have occurred but is not depicted. were so wild they could hear no orders; we waited a considerable time there, and at length proceeded our way to Concord.”[43]

— Lieutenant John Barker, 4th Regiment of Foot According to one member of Parker's militia none of the Americans had discharged their muskets as they faced the oncoming British troops. The British did suffer one casualty, a slight wound, the particulars of which were corroborated by a deposition made by Corporal John Munroe. Munroe stated that: "After the first fire of the regulars, I thought, and so stated to Ebenezer Munroe ...who stood next to me on the left, that they had fired nothing but powder; but on the second firing, Munroe stated they had fired something more than powder, for he had received a wound in his arm; and now, said he, to use his own words, 'I'll give them the guts of my gun.' We then both took aim at the main body of British troops the smoke preventing our seeing anything but the heads of some of their horses and discharged our pieces."[44] Some witnesses among the regulars reported the first shot was fired by a colonial onlooker from behind a hedge or around the corner of a tavern. Some observers reported a mounted British officer firing first. Both sides generally agreed that the initial shot did not come from the men on the ground immediately facing each other.[45] Speculation arose later in Lexington that a man named Solomon Brown fired the first shot from inside the tavern or from behind a wall, but this has been discredited.[46] Some witnesses (on each side) claimed that someone on the other side fired first; however, many more witnesses claimed to not know. Yet another theory is that the first shot was one fired by the British, that killed Asahel Porter, their prisoner who was running away (he had been told to walk away and he would be let go, though he panicked and began to run). Historian David Hackett Fischer has proposed that there may actually have been multiple near-simultaneous shots.[47] Historian Mark Urban claims the British surged forward with bayonets ready in an undisciplined way, provoking a few scattered shots from the militia. In response the British troops, without orders, fired a devastating volley. This lack of discipline among the British troops had a key role in the escalation of violence.[48] Nobody except the person responsible ever knew with certainty, who fired the first shot of the American Revolutionary War. Witnesses at the scene described several intermittent shots fired from both sides before the lines of regulars began to fire volleys without receiving orders to do so. A few of the militiamen believed at first that the regulars were only firing powder with no ball, but when they realized the truth, few if any of the militia managed to load and return fire. The rest wisely ran for their lives.[49] Battles of Lexington and Concord 18

“We Nathaniel Mulliken, Philip Russell, [and 32 other men ...] do testify and declare, that on the nineteenth in the morning, being informed that... a body of regulars were marching from Boston towards Concord. ... About five o’clock in the morning, hearing our drum beat, we proceeded towards the parade, and soon found that a large body of troops were marching towards us, some of our company were coming to the parade, and others had reached it, at which time, the company began to disperse, whilst our backs were turned on the troops, we were fired on by them, and a number of our men were instantly killed and wounded, not a gun was fired by any person in our company on the regulars to our knowledge before they fired on us, and continued firing until we had all made our escape.”[38] The regulars then charged forward with bayonets. Captain Parker's cousin Jonas was run through. Eight Massachusetts men were killed and ten were wounded; only one British soldier of the 10th Foot wounded. The eight colonists killed were John Brown, Samuel Hadley, Caleb Harrington, Jonathon Harrington, Robert Munroe, Isaac Muzzey, Asahel Porter, and Jonas Parker. Jonathon Harrington, fatally wounded by a British musket ball, managed to crawl back to his home, and died on his own doorstep. One wounded man, Prince Estabrook, was a black slave who was serving in the militia.[50] The companies under Pitcairn's command got beyond their officers' control in part because they were unaware of the actual purpose of the day's mission. They fired in different directions and prepared to enter private homes. Colonel Smith, who was just arriving with the remainder of the regulars, heard the musket fire and rode forward from the grenadier column to see the action. He quickly found a drummer and ordered him to beat assembly. The grenadiers arrived shortly thereafter, and once order was restored the light infantry were permitted to fire a victory volley, after which the column was reformed and marched on toward Concord.[51]

Concord

The militiamen of Concord and Lincoln, in response to the raised alarm, had mustered in Concord. They received reports of firing at Lexington, and were not sure whether to wait until they could be reinforced by troops from towns nearby, or to stay and defend the town, or to move east and greet the British Army from superior terrain. A column of militia marched down the road toward Lexington to meet the British, traveling about 1.5 miles (2 km) until they met the approaching column of regulars. As the regulars numbered about 700 and the militia at this The second of four engravings by Amos Doolittle from 1775, time only numbered about 250, the militia column turned depicting the British entering Concord around and marched back into Concord, preceding the regulars by a distance of about 500 yards (457 m).[52] The militia retreated to a ridge overlooking the town and the command discussed what to do next. Caution prevailed, and Colonel surrendered the town of Concord and led the men across the North Bridge to a hill about a mile north of town, where they could continue to watch the troop movements of the British and the activities in the center of town. This step proved fortuitous, as the ranks of the militia continued to grow as minuteman companies arriving from the western towns joined them there.[53] Battles of Lexington and Concord 19

The search for militia supplies When the troops arrived in the village of Concord, Smith divided them to carry out Gage's orders. The 10th Regiment's company of grenadiers secured South Bridge under Captain Mundy Pole, while seven companies of light infantry under Captain Parsons, numbering about 100, secured the North Bridge near Barrett's force. Captain Parsons took four companies from the 5th, 23rd, 38th and 52nd Regiments up the road 2 miles (3.2 km) beyond the North Bridge to search Barrett's Farm, where intelligence indicated supplies would be found.[54] Two companies from the 4th and 10th were stationed to guard their return route, and one company from the 43rd remained guarding the bridge itself. These companies, which were under the relatively inexperienced command of Captain Walter Laurie, were aware that they were significantly outnumbered by the 400-plus militia men that were only a few hundred yards away. The concerned Captain Laurie sent a messenger to Smith requesting reinforcements.[55] Using detailed information provided by Loyalist spies, the grenadier companies searched the small town for military supplies. When they arrived at Ephraim Jones's tavern, by the jail on the South Bridge road, they found the door barred shut, and Jones refused them entry. According to reports provided by local Tories, Pitcairn knew cannon had been buried on the property. Jones was ordered at gunpoint to show where the guns were buried. These turned out to be three massive pieces, firing 24-pound shot, that were much too heavy to use defensively, but very effective against fortifications, with sufficient range to bombard the city of Boston from other parts of nearby mainland.[56] The grenadiers smashed the trunnions of these three guns so they could not be mounted. They also burned some gun carriages found in the village meetinghouse, and when the fire spread to the meetinghouse itself, local resident Martha Moulton persuaded the soldiers to help in a bucket brigade to save the building.[57] Nearly a hundred barrels of flour and salted food were thrown into the millpond, as were 550 pounds of musket balls. Of the damage done, only that done to the cannon was significant. All of the shot and much of the food was recovered after the British left. During the search, the regulars were generally scrupulous in their treatment of the locals, including paying for food and drink consumed. This excessive politeness was used to advantage by the locals, who were able to misdirect searches from several smaller caches of militia supplies.[58] Barrett's Farm had been an arsenal weeks before but few weapons remained now, and these were, according to family legend, quickly buried in furrows to look like a crop had been planted. The troops sent there did not find any supplies of consequence.[59]

The North Bridge

Colonel Barrett's troops, upon seeing smoke rising from the village square, and seeing only a few companies directly below them, decided to march back toward the town from their vantage point on Punkatasset Hill to a lower, closer flat hilltop about 300 yards (274 m) from the North Bridge. As the militia advanced, the two British companies from the 4th and 10th that held the position near the road retreated to the bridge and yielded the hill to Barrett's men.[60]

Five full companies of Minutemen and five more of militia from Acton, Concord, Bedford and Lincoln occupied this hill as more The reconstructed North Bridge in Minute Man groups of men streamed in, totaling at least 400 against Captain National Historical Park, Concord Laurie's light infantry companies, a force totaling 90–95 men. Barrett ordered the Massachusetts men to form one long line two deep on the highway leading down to the bridge, and then he called for another consultation. While overlooking North Bridge from the top of the hill, Barrett, Lt. Col. John Robinson of Westford and the other Captains discussed possible courses of action. Captain of Acton, whose troops had arrived late, declared his willingness to defend a town not their own by saying, "I'm not afraid to go, and I haven't a man that's afraid to go."[61] Battles of Lexington and Concord 20

Barrett told the men to load their weapons but not to fire unless fired upon, and then ordered them to advance. Laurie ordered the British companies guarding the bridge to retreat across it. One officer then tried to pull up the loose planks of the bridge to impede the colonial advance, but Major Buttrick began to yell at the regulars to stop harming the bridge. The Minutemen and militia advanced in column formation on the light infantry, keeping to the road, since it was surrounded by the spring floodwaters of the .[62] Captain Laurie then made a poor tactical decision. Since his summons for help had not produced any results, he ordered his men to form positions for "street firing" behind the bridge in a column running perpendicular to the river. This formation was appropriate for sending a large volume of fire into a narrow alley between the buildings of a city, but not for an open path behind a bridge. Confusion reigned as regulars retreating over the bridge tried to form up in the street-firing position of the other troops. Lieutenant Sutherland, who was in the rear of the formation, saw Laurie's mistake and ordered flankers to be sent out. But as he was from a company different from the men under his command, only three soldiers obeyed him. The remainder tried as best they could in the confusion to follow the orders of the superior officer.[63] A shot rang out, and this time there is certainty from depositions taken from men on both sides afterwards that it came from the Army's ranks. It was likely a warning shot fired by a panicked, exhausted British soldier from the 43rd, according to Laurie's letter to his commander after the fight. Two other regulars then fired immediately after that, shots splashing in the river, and then the narrow group up front, possibly thinking the order to fire had been given, fired a ragged volley before Laurie could stop them.[64]

Two of the Acton Minutemen, Private Abner Hosmer and The third of four engravings by Amos Doolittle from 1775, depicting the engagement at the North Bridge Captain Isaac Davis, who were at the head of the line marching to the bridge, were hit and killed instantly. Four more men were wounded, but the militia only halted when Major Buttrick yelled "Fire, for God's sake, fellow soldiers, fire!"[64] [65] At this point the lines were separated by the Concord River and the bridge, and were only 50 yards (46 m) apart. The few front rows of colonists, bound by the road, and blocked from forming a line of fire, managed to fire over each others' heads and shoulders at the regulars massed across the bridge. Four of the eight British officers and sergeants, who were leading from the front of their troops, were wounded by the volley of musket fire. At least three privates (Thomas Smith, Patrick Gray and James Hall, all from the 4th) were killed or mortally wounded, and nine were wounded.[66]

The regulars found themselves trapped in a situation where they were both outnumbered and outmaneuvered. Lacking effective leadership and terrified at the superior numbers of the enemy, with their spirit broken, and likely not having experienced combat before, they abandoned their wounded, and fled to the safety of the approaching grenadier companies coming from the town center, isolating Captain Parsons and the companies searching for arms at Barrett's Farm.[65] Battles of Lexington and Concord 21

After the fight

The colonists were stunned by their success. No one had actually believed either side would shoot to kill the other. Some advanced; many more retreated; and some went home to see to the safety of their homes and families. Colonel Barrett eventually began to recover control. He moved some of the militia back to the hilltop 300 yards (274 m) away and sent Major Buttrick with others across the bridge to a defensive position on a hill behind a stone wall.[66]

Lieutenant Colonel Smith heard the exchange of fire from his position in the town moments after he received the request for reinforcements from Laurie. He quickly assembled two companies of grenadiers to lead toward the North Bridge himself. As these troops marched, they met the shattered remnants of the three light infantry companies running towards them. Smith was concerned about the four companies that had been at Barrett's, since their route to town was now unprotected. When he saw the Minutemen in the distance behind their wall, he Statue memorializing the battle at the North Bridge, inscribed with verse halted his two companies and moved forward with only his officers to take a from Emerson's "Concord Hymn" closer look. One of the Minutemen behind that wall observed, "If we had fired, I believe we could have killed almost every officer there was in the front, but we had no orders to fire and there wasn't a gun fired."[67] During a tense standoff lasting about 10 minutes, a mentally ill local man named Elias Brown wandered through both sides selling hard cider.[67]

At this point, the detachment of regulars sent to Barrett's farm marched back from their fruitless search of that area. They passed through the now mostly-deserted battlefield, and saw dead and wounded comrades lying on the bridge. There was one who looked to them as if he had been scalped, which angered and shocked the British soldiers. They crossed the bridge and returned to the town by 11:30 am, under the watchful eyes of the colonists, who continued to maintain defensive positions. The regulars continued to search for and destroy colonial military supplies in the town, ate lunch, reassembled for marching, and left Concord after noon. This delay in departure gave colonial militiamen from outlying towns additional time to reach the road back to Boston.[68]

Return march

An interactive mural describing this stage of the battle may be found at the National Park Service site [69] for National Historical Park.

Concord to Lexington

Lieutenant Colonel Smith, concerned about the safety of his men, sent A National Park Service map showing the retreat from Concord and Percy's rescue flankers to follow a ridge and protect his forces from the roughly 1,000 colonials now in the field as they marched east out of Concord. This ridge ended near Meriam's Corner, a crossroads and a small bridge about a mile (2 km) outside the village of Concord. To cross the narrow bridge, the army column had to stop, dress its line, and close its rank to a mere three soldiers abreast. Colonial militia companies arriving from the north and east had converged at this point, and presented a clear numerical advantage over the regulars. As the

last of the army column marched over the bridge, colonial militiamen from the Reading militia fired, the regulars turned and fired a volley, and the colonists returned fire. Two regulars were killed and perhaps six wounded, with no Battles of Lexington and Concord 22

colonial casualties. Smith sent out his flanking troops again after crossing the small bridge.[70] Nearly 500 militiamen from Chelmsford had assembled in the woods on Brooks Hill about 1 mile (1.6 km) past Meriam's Corner. Smith's leading forces charged up the hill to drive them off, but the colonists did not withdraw, inflicting significant casualties on the attackers. The bulk of Smith's force proceeded along the road until it reached Brooks Tavern, where they engaged a single militia company from Framingham, killing and wounding several of them. Smith withdrew his men from Brooks Hill and moved across another small bridge into Lincoln.[70] The regulars soon reached a point in the road where there was a rise and a curve through a wooded area. At this point, now known as the "Bloody Angle", 200 men, mostly from the towns of Bedford and Lincoln, had positioned themselves behind trees and walls in a rocky, tree-filled pasture for an ambush. Additional militia joined in from the other side of the road, catching the British in a crossfire in the wooded swamp, while the Concord militia closed from behind to attack. Thirty soldiers and four colonial militia were killed.[71] The soldiers escaped by Statue depicting John Parker, captain of the Lexington militia breaking into a trot, a pace that the colonials could not maintain through the woods and swampy terrain. Colonial forces on the road itself behind the British were too densely packed and disorganized to mount an attack.[71]

Militia forces by this time had risen to about 2,000, and Smith sent out flankers again. When three companies of militia ambushed the head of his main force near either Ephraim Hartwell's or (more likely) Joseph Mason's Farm, the flankers closed in and trapped the militia from behind. Flankers also trapped the Bedford militia after a successful ambush near the Lincoln–Lexington border, but British casualties were mounting from these engagements and from persistent long-range fire, and the exhausted British were running out of ammunition.[71] On the Lexington side of the border, Captain Parker, according to only one uncorroborated source (Ebenezer Munroe's memoir of 1824), waited on a hill with the reassembled Lexington Training Band, some of them bandaged up from the encounter in Lexington earlier in the day. These men, according to this account written only many years later, did not begin the ambush until Colonel Smith himself came into view. Smith was wounded in the thigh sometime on the way back to Lexington, and the entire British column was halted in this ambush now known as "Parker's Revenge". Major Pitcairn sent light infantry companies up the hill to clear out any militia sniping at them.[72] The light infantry cleared two additional hills—"The Bluff" and "Fiske Hill"— and took casualties from ambushes. Pitcairn fell from his horse, which was injured by colonists firing from Fiske Hill. Now both principal leaders of the expedition were injured or unhorsed, and their men were tired and thirsty. A few surrendered; most now broke formation and ran forward in a mob. Their organized, planned withdrawal had turned into a rout. "Concord Hill" remained before Lexington Center, and a few uninjured officers turned and supposedly threatened their own men with their swords if they would not reform in good order.[72] Only one British officer remained uninjured in the leading three companies. He was considering surrendering his men when he heard cheering further ahead. A full brigade, about 1,000 men with artillery under the command of Earl Percy, had arrived to rescue them. It was about 2:30 pm.[73] During this part of the march, the colonists fought where possible in large ordered formations (using short-range, smoothbore muskets) at least eight times. This is contrary to the widely-held myth of scattered individuals firing with longer-range rifles from behind walls and fences. Although scattered fire had also occurred on this march, these long-range tactics proved useful later in the war. Nobody at Lexington or Concord—indeed, anywhere along the Battle Road or later at Bunker Hill—had a rifle, according to the historical records.[74] Battles of Lexington and Concord 23

Percy's rescue General Gage had left orders for reinforcements to assemble in Boston at 4 am, but in his obsession for secrecy, he had sent only one copy of the orders to the adjutant of the 1st Brigade, whose servant left the envelope on a table. At about 5 am, Smith's request for reinforcements was finally received, and orders were sent for 1st Brigade consisting of the line companies of infantry (the 4th, 23rd, and 47th) and a battalion of British Marines to assemble. Unfortunately, once again only one copy of the orders were sent to each commander, and the order for the Marines was delivered to the desk of Major Pitcairn, who was on the Lexington Common at the time. After these delays, Percy's brigade, about 1,000 strong, left Boston at about 8:45 am. His troops marched out toward Lexington. Along the way they marched to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" to taunt the inhabitants of the area.[1] [75] By the Battle of Bunker Hill less than two months later, the song had become a popular anthem for the colonial forces.[76] Percy took the land route across Boston Neck and over the Great Bridge, which some enterprising colonists had stripped of its planking to delay their way.[77] His men then came upon an absent-minded tutor at Harvard College and asked him which road would take them to Lexington. The Harvard man, apparently oblivious to the reality of what was happening around him, showed him the proper road without thinking. (He was later compelled to leave the country for inadvertently supporting the enemy.)[78] Percy's troops arrived in Lexington at about 2:00 pm. They could hear gunfire in the distance as they The fourth of four engravings by Amos Doolittle from 1775, set up their cannon and lines of regulars on high ground showing Percy's rescue in Lexington. with commanding views of the town. Colonel Smith's men approached like a fleeing mob with the full complement of colonial militia in close formation pursuing them. Percy ordered his artillery to open fire at extreme range, dispersing the colonial militiamen. Smith's men collapsed with exhaustion once they reached the safety of Percy's lines.[79]

Against the advice of his Master of Ordnance, Percy had left Boston without spare ammunition for his men or for the two artillery pieces they brought with them, thinking the extra wagons would slow him down. Each man in Percy's brigade had only 36 rounds, and each artillery piece was supplied with only a few rounds carried in side-boxes.[80] [81] After Percy had left the city, Gage directed two ammunition wagons guarded by one officer and thirteen men to follow. This convoy was intercepted by a small party of older, former militiamen, still on the "alarm list" who could not join their militia companies because they were well over 60. These men rose up in ambush and demanded the surrender of the wagons, but the regulars ignored them and drove their horses on. The old men opened fire, shot the lead horses, killed two sergeants, and wounded the officer.[80] The survivors ran, and six of them threw their weapons into a pond before they surrendered.[81]

Lexington to Menotomy

Percy assumed control of the combined forces of about 1,700 men and let them rest, eat, drink, and have their wounds tended at field headquarters (Munroe Tavern) before resuming the march. They set out from Lexington at about 3:30 pm, in a formation that emphasized defense along the sides and rear of the column.[82] Wounded regulars rode on the cannon and were forced to hop off when they were fired at Percy's return to Charlestown (detail from 1775 by gatherings of militia. Percy's men were often surrounded, but they map of the battle). Battles of Lexington and Concord 24

had the tactical advantage of interior lines. Percy could shift his units more easily to where they were needed, while the colonial militia were required to move around the outside of his formation. Percy placed Smith's men in the middle of the column, while the 23rd Regiment's line companies made up the column's rear guard. Because of information provided by Smith and Pitcairn about how the Americans were attacking, Percy ordered the rear guard to be rotated every mile or so, to allow some of his troops to rest briefly. Flanking companies were sent to both sides of the road, and a powerful force of Marines acted as the vanguard to clear the road ahead.[82] During the respite at Lexington, Brigadier General William Heath arrived and took command of the militia. Earlier in the day, he had traveled first to Watertown to discuss tactics with Joseph Warren, who had left Boston that morning, and other members of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. Heath and Warren reacted to Percy's artillery and flankers by ordering the militias to avoid close formations that would attract cannon fire. Instead, they surrounded Percy's marching square with a moving ring of skirmishers at a distance to inflict maximum casualties at minimum risk to individual militiamen.[83] A few mounted militiamen on the road would dismount, fire muskets at the approaching regulars, then remount and gallop ahead to repeat the tactic. Unmounted militia would often fire from long range, in the hope of hitting somebody in the main column of soldiers on the road and surviving, since both British and colonials used muskets with an effective combat range of about 50 yards (46 m). Infantry units would apply pressure to the sides of the British column. When it moved out of range, those units would move around and forward to re-engage the column further down the road. Heath sent messengers out to intercept arriving militia units, directing them to appropriate places along the road to engage the regulars. Some towns sent supply wagons to assist in feeding and rearming the militia. Heath and Warren did lead skirmishers in small actions into battle themselves, but it was the presence of effective leadership that probably had the greatest impact on the success of these tactics.[83] Percy wrote of the colonial tactics, "The rebels attacked us in a very scattered, irregular manner, but with perseverance and resolution, nor did they ever dare to form into any regular body. Indeed, they knew too well what was proper, to do so. Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob, will find himself very much mistaken."[84] The fighting grew more intense as Percy's forces crossed from Lexington into Menotomy. Fresh militia poured gunfire into the British ranks from a distance, and individual homeowners began to fight from their own property. Some homes were also used as sniper positions, turning the situation into a soldier's nightmare: house-to-house fighting. Jason Russell pleaded for his friends to fight alongside him to defend his house by saying, "An Englishman's home is his castle."[85] He stayed and was killed in his doorway. His friends, depending on which account is to be believed, either hid in the cellar, or died in the The Jason Russell House in Arlington. house from bullets and bayonets after shooting at the soldiers who followed them in. The Jason Russell House still stands and contains bullet holes from this fight. A militia unit that attempted an ambush from Russell's orchard was caught by flankers, and eleven men were killed, some allegedly after they had surrendered.[85]

Percy lost control of his men, and British soldiers began to commit atrocities to repay for the supposed scalping at the North Bridge and for their own casualties at the hands of a distant, often unseen enemy. Based on the word of Pitcairn and other wounded officers from Smith's command, Percy had learned that the Minutemen were using stone walls, trees and buildings in these more thickly settled towns closer to Boston to hide behind and shoot at the column. He ordered the flank companies to clear the colonial militiamen out of such places.[86] Many of the junior officers in the flank parties had difficulty stopping their exhausted, enraged men from killing everyone they found inside these buildings. For example, two innocent drunks who refused to hide in the basement of a tavern in Menotomy were killed only because they were suspected of being involved with the day's events.[87] Although many of the accounts of ransacking and burnings were exaggerated later by the colonists for propaganda Battles of Lexington and Concord 25

value (and to get financial compensation from the colonial government), it is certainly true that taverns along the road were ransacked and the liquor stolen by the troops, who in some cases became drunk themselves. One church's communion silver was stolen but was later recovered after it was sold in Boston.[86] Aged Menotomy resident Samuel Whittemore killed three regulars before he was attacked by a British contingent and left for dead. (He recovered from his wounds and later died in 1793 at age 98.)[88] All told, far more blood was shed in Menotomy and Cambridge than elsewhere that day. The colonists lost 25 men killed and nine wounded there, and the British lost 40 killed and 80 wounded, with the 47th Foot and the Marines suffering the highest casualties. Each was about half the day's fatalities.[89]

Menotomy to Charlestown The British troops crossed the Menotomy River (today known as Alewife Brook) into Cambridge, and the fight grew more intense. Fresh militia arrived in close array instead of in a scattered formation, and Percy used his two artillery pieces and flankers at a crossroads called Watson's Corner to inflict heavy damage on them.[86] Earlier in the day, Heath had ordered the Great Bridge to be dismantled. Percy's brigade was about to approach the broken-down bridge and a riverbank filled with militia when Percy directed his troops down a narrow track (near present-day Porter Square) and onto the road to Charlestown. The militia (now numbering about 4,000) were unprepared for this movement, and the circle of fire was broken. An American force moved to occupy Prospect Hill (in modern-day Somerville), which dominated the road, but Percy moved his cannon to the front and dispersed them with his last rounds of ammunition.[86] A large militia force arrived from Salem and Marblehead. They might have cut off Percy's route to Charlestown, but these men halted on nearby Winter Hill and allowed the British to escape. Some accused the commander of this force, Colonel Timothy Pickering, of permitting the troops to pass because he still hoped to avoid war by preventing a total defeat of the regulars. Pickering later claimed that he had stopped on Heath's orders, but Heath denied this.[86] It was nearly dark when Pitcairn's Marines defended a final attack on Percy's rear as they entered Charlestown. The regulars took up strong positions on the hills of Charlestown. Some of them had been without sleep for two days and had marched 40 miles (64 km) in 21 hours, eight hours of which had been spent under fire. But now they held high ground protected by heavy guns from the HMS Somerset. Gage quickly sent over line companies of two fresh regiments—the 10th and 64th—to occupy the high ground in Charlestown and build fortifications. Although they were begun, the fortifications were never completed and would later be a starting point for the militia works built two months later in June before the Battle of Bunker Hill. General Heath studied the position of the British Army and decided to withdraw the militia to Cambridge.[90]

Aftermath In the morning, Boston was surrounded by a huge militia army, numbering over 15,000, which had marched from throughout New England.[91] Unlike the Powder Alarm, the rumors of spilled blood were true, and the Revolutionary War had begun. The militia army continued to grow as surrounding colonies sent men and supplies. The Second Continental Congress adopted these men into the beginnings of the Continental Army. Even now, after open warfare had started, Gage still refused to impose martial law in Boston. He persuaded the town's selectmen to surrender all private weapons in return for promising that any inhabitant could leave town.[92] The battle was not a major one in terms of tactics or casualties. However, in terms of supporting the British political strategy behind the Intolerable Acts and the military strategy behind the Powder Alarms, the battle was a significant failure because the expedition contributed to the fighting it was intended to prevent, and because few weapons were actually seized.[84] The battle was followed by a war for British political opinion. Within four days of the battle, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress had collected scores of sworn testimonies from militiamen and from British prisoners. When word leaked out a week after the battle that Gage was sending his official description of events to London, the Battles of Lexington and Concord 26

Provincial Congress sent over 100 of these detailed depositions on a faster ship. They were presented to a sympathetic official and printed by the London newspapers two weeks before Gage's report arrived.[91] Gage's official report was too vague on particulars to influence anyone's opinion. George Germain, no friend of the colonists, wrote, "the Bostonians are in the right to make the King's troops the aggressors and claim a victory."[93] Politicians in London tended to blame Gage for the conflict instead of their own policies and instructions. The British troops in Boston variously blamed General Gage and Colonel Smith for the failures at Lexington and Concord.[94] The day after the battle, John Adams left his home in Braintree to ride along the battlefields. He became convinced that "the Die was cast, the Rubicon crossed."[95] Thomas Paine in Philadelphia had previously thought of the argument between the colonies and the Home Country as "a kind of law-suit", but after news of the battle reached him, he "rejected the hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh of England forever."[96] George Washington received the news at Mount Vernon and wrote to a friend, "the once-happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched in blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?"[96] A group of hunters on the frontier named their campsite Lexington when they heard news of the battle in June. It eventually became the city of Lexington, Kentucky.[97]

Legacy It was important to the early American government that an image of British fault and American innocence be maintained for this first battle of the war. The history of Patriot preparations, intelligence, warning signals, and uncertainty about the first shot was rarely discussed in the public sphere for decades. The story of the wounded British soldier at the North Bridge, hors de combat, struck down on the head by a Minuteman using a hatchet, the purported "scalping", was strongly suppressed. Depositions mentioning some of these activities were not published and were returned to the participants (this notably happened to Paul Revere[98] ). Paintings portrayed the Lexington fight as an unjustified slaughter.[98] The issue of which side was to blame grew during the early nineteenth century. For example, older participants' testimony in later life about Lexington and Concord differed greatly from their depositions taken under oath in 1775. All now said the British fired first at Lexington, whereas fifty or so years before, they weren't sure. All now said they fired back, but in 1775, they said few were able to. The "Battle" took on an almost mythical quality in the American consciousness. Legend became more important than truth. A complete shift occurred, and the Patriots were portrayed as actively fighting for their cause, rather than as suffering innocents. Paintings of the Lexington skirmish began to portray the militia standing and fighting back in defiance.[99] By the rude bridge that arched the flood Their flag to April's breeze unfurled Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.

a verse from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" Ralph Waldo Emerson immortalized the events at the North Bridge in his 1837 "Concord Hymn". "Concord Hymn" became important because it commemorated the beginning of the American Revolution, and that for much of the 19th century it was a means by which Americans learned about the Revolution, helping to forge the identity of the nation.[100] After 1860, several generations of schoolchildren memorized Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Paul Revere's Ride". Historically it is inaccurate (for example, Paul Revere never made it to Concord), but it captures the idea that an individual can change the course of history.[101] In the 20th century, popular and historical opinion varied about the events of the historic day, often reflecting the political mood of the time. Isolationist anti-war sentiments before the World Wars bred skepticism about the nature Battles of Lexington and Concord 27

of Paul Revere's contribution (if any) to the efforts to rouse the militia. Anglophilia in the United States after the turn of the twentieth century led to more balanced approaches to the history of the battle. During World War I, a film about Paul Revere's ride was seized under the Espionage Act of 1917 for promoting discord between the United States and Britain.[102] During the Cold War, Revere was used not only as a patriotic symbol, but also as a capitalist one. In 1961, novelist Howard Fast published April Morning, an account of the battle from a fictional 15-year-old's perspective, and reading of the book has been frequently assigned in American secondary schools. A film version was produced for television in 1987, starring Chad Lowe and Tommy Lee Jones. In the 1990s, parallels were drawn between American tactics in the Vietnam War and those of the British Army at Lexington and Concord.[103] The site of the battle in Lexington is now known as the Lexington Battle Green, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a National Historic Landmark. Several memorials commemorating the battle have been established there. The lands surrounding the North Bridge in Concord, as well as approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) of the road along with surrounding lands and period buildings between Merriam's Corner and western Lexington are part of Minuteman National Historical Park. There are walking trails with interpretive displays along routes that the colonists might have used that skirted the road, and the Park Service often has personnel (usually dressed in period dress) offering descriptions of the area and explanations of the events of the day.[104] A bronze bas relief of Major Buttrick, designed by and executed by Edmond Thomas Quinn in 1915, is in the park, along with French's Minute Man statue.[105]

Commemorations

Patriots' Day is celebrated annually in honor of the battle in Massachusetts, Maine, and by the Wisconsin public schools, on the third Monday in April.[106] [107] [108] Re-enactments of Paul Revere's ride are staged, as are the battle on the Lexington Green, and ceremonies and firings are held at the North Bridge.

Centennial commemoration

On April 19, 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant and members of his cabinet joined 50,000 people to mark the 100th anniversary of the battles. The sculpture by Daniel Chester French, The Minute Man, located at the North Bridge, was unveiled on that day. A formal ball took place in the evening at the Agricultural Hall in Concord.[109]

Sesquicentennial commemoration

In April 1925 the United States Post Office issued three stamps commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battles at Lexington and Concord. The Lexington—Concord Daniel Chester French's Minute Man commemoratives were the first of many commemoratives issued to honor the 150th anniversaries of events that surrounded America's War of Independence. The three stamps were first placed on sale in Washington, D.C. and in five Massachusetts cities and towns that played major roles in the Lexington and Concord story: Battles of Lexington and Concord 28

Lexington, Concord, Boston, Cambridge, and Concord Junction (as West Concord was then known).[110] This is not to say that other locations were not involved in the battles.

George WashingtonWashington at Shot heard round the WorldBirth of Libertyissue The Minute Manby Daniel Chester Frenchissue Cambridgeissue of 1925. of 1925 of 1925

Bicentennial commemoration The Town of Concord invited 700 prominent U.S. citizens and leaders from the worlds of government, the military, the diplomatic corps, the arts, sciences, and humanities to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battles. On April 19, 1975, as a crowd estimated at 110,000 gathered to view a parade and celebrate the Bicentennial in Concord, President delivered a major speech near the North Bridge, which was televised to the nation.[111] Freedom was nourished in American soil because the principles of the Declaration of Independence flourished in our land. These principles, when enunciated 200 years ago, were a dream, not a reality. Today, they are real. Equality has matured in America. Our inalienable rights have become even more sacred. There is no government in our land without consent of the governed. Many other lands have freely accepted the principles of liberty and freedom in the Declaration of Independence and fashioned their own independent republics. It is these principles, freely taken and freely shared, that have revolutionized the world. The volley fired here at Concord two centuries ago, 'the shot heard round the world', still echoes today on this anniversary.[112] — President Gerald R. Ford

Notes [1] French, pp. 2, 272-273 [2] A controversial interpretation holds that the Battle of Point Pleasant, six months earlier, was the initial military engagement of the Revolutionary War. Despite a 1908 United States Senate resolution designating it as such, few, if any, historians subscribe to this

interpretation. (http:/ / www. wvculture. org/ history/ journal_wvh/ wvh56-5. html) [3] Emerson's Concord Hymn [4] Fischer, p. 30 [5] Brooks, pp. 30–31 [6] Fischer, p. 51 [7] Fischer, pp. 75–76 [8] Brooks, pp. 37–38 [9] Fischer, p. 89 [10] Hafner discusses this incident in detail. [11] Fischer, p. 85 [12] Tourtellot, pp. 71–72 (colonists have intelligence in late March) & p. 87 (Gage receives instructions April 16) [13] Tourtellot, p. 70 [14] Fischer, pp. 80–85 [15] Fischer, p. 87 [16] Fischer, p. 96 [17] Brooks, pp.41–42 Battles of Lexington and Concord 29

[18] Fischer, p. 97 [19] Brooks, pp. 42–44 [20] Brooks, p. 50 [21] Fischer, pp. 138–145 [22] Frothingham, p. 60 [23] Frothingham, p. 58 [24] Tourtellot, pp. 105–107 [25] Fischer, pp. 70, 121 [26] Tourtellot, pp. 109–115 [27] Jeremy Lister's Journal [28] Fischer, pp. 127–128 [29] The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army (1994) p. 122 [30] Fischer, p. 400 [31] Fischer, p. 158 [32] Fischer, p. 153 [33] Fischer, David Hackett, Paul Revere's Ride, p. 151, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1994. [34] Tourtellot, Arthur Bernon, William Diamond's Drum: The Beginning of the War of the American Revolution, pp. 116-126, Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, New York, 1959. [35] Fischer, David Hackett, Paul Revere's Ride, pp. 43, 75-86, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1994. [36] Galvin, Gen. John R., US Army, The Minutemen - The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution, 2nd edition, pp. 120-124, Pergamon-Brassey's International Defense Publishers, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1989. [37] Coburn, p. 63 [38] Isaiah Thomas deposition [39] Tourtellot, p. 123 [40] Brooks pp. 52–53 [41] Fischer, pp. 189–190 [42] Fischer, pp.190–191 [43] John Barker's Diary, p. 32

[44] http:/ / www. motherbedford. com/ Chronology06. htm [45] Fischer, p. 193 [46] Fischer, p. 402 [47] Fischer discusses the shot on pp. 193–194, with detailed footnotes on pp. 399–403, in which he discusses some of the testimony in detail. [48] Urban, pp. 19–20 [49] Fischer, pp. 194–195 [50] Brooks, pp. 55–56 [51] Fischer, pp. 198–200 [52] Tourtellot, p. 152 [53] Tourtellot, p. 154 [54] Frothingham, p. 67 [55] Fischer, p. 215 [56] Fischer p.207 [57] Martha Moulton deposition [58] Tourtellot, pp. 155–158 [59] French, p. 197 [60] Fischer, p. 208 [61] Fischer, p. 209 [62] Fischer, pp. 209–212 [63] Fischer, p. 212 [64] Brooks, p. 67 [65] Tourtellot, pp. 165–166 [66] Fischer, p. 214 [67] Fischer, p. 216 [68] Tourtellot, pp. 166–168

[69] http:/ / www. nps. gov/ mima/ brvc/ mural. htm [70] Brooks, p. 71 [71] Fischer, pp. 226–227 [72] Brooks, pp. 72–73 [73] Fischer, p. 232 [74] Fischer, p. 161 Battles of Lexington and Concord 30

[75] Brooks, p. 79 [76] Frothingham, p. 178 [77] Tourtellot, pp. 184–185 [78] Tourtellot, p. 185 [79] Fischer, pp. 241–242 [80] Brooks, pp. 81–82 [81] Fischer, pp. 243–244 [82] Fischer, pp. 245–246 [83] Fischer, pp. 250–251 [84] Tourtellot, p. 203 [85] Fischer, p. 256 [86] Fischer, p. 258 [87] Tourtellot, p. 197 [88] Fischer, p. 257 [89] Hurd, p. 181 [90] Fischer, p. 261 [91] Brooks, p. 96 [92] Fischer, p. 265 [93] Fischer, pp. 275–276 [94] Fischer, p. 263 [95] Fischer, p. 279 [96] Fischer, p. 280 [97] Fischer, p. 271 [98] Fischer, pp. 327-328 [99] Fischer, p. 329 [100] Napierkowski [101] Fischer, pp. 331–333 [102] Fischer, pp. 336–338 [103] Fischer, pp. 340–342 [104] Minuteman National Historical Park Things To Do

[105] " Memorial" (http:/ / siris-artinventories. si. edu/ ipac20/ ipac. jsp?session=1W80430D191F9. 6618& profile=ariall&

source=~!siartinventories& view=subscriptionsummary& uri=full=3100001~!340743~!0& ri=5& aspect=Browse& menu=search& ipp=20&

spp=20& staffonly=& term=Quinn,+ Edmond+ Thomas,+ 1868-1929,+ sculptor. & index=AUTHOR& uindex=& aspect=Browse&

menu=search& ri=5). Smithsonian Institution. . Retrieved 2010-08-12. [106] Massachusetts Legal Holidays [107] Maine Legal Holidays [108] Wisconsin School Observance Days [109] Concord Centennial Celebration Report [110] Scott's United States Stamp Catalog: First Day Covers [111] Time Magazine, April 25, 1974 [112] New York Times on Ford's appearance

References

• Bradford, Charles H (1996). The Battle Road: Expedition to Lexington and Concord (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=EGdIAAAACAAJ). Eastern National. ISBN 1-888213-01-9. • Brooks, Victor (1999). The Boston Campaign. Combined Publishing. ISBN 9780585234533. • Chidsey, Donald Barr (1966). The Siege of Boston: An on-the-scene Account of the Beginning of the American Revolution. New York: Crown. OCLC 890813. • Coburn, Frank Warren (1922). The Battle of April 19, 1775: In Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Arlington,

Cambridge, Somerville, and Charlestown, Massachusetts (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Cv1IIopyP-kC). The Lexington historical society. OCLC 2494350. • Dana, Elizabeth Ellery (1924). The British in Boston: Being the Diary of Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s Own Regiment from November 15, 1774 to May 31, 1776. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. OCLC 3235993. • Davis, Kenneth C. (2009). America's Hidden History. London: Collins. ISBN 0061118192. Battles of Lexington and Concord 31

• Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1837). "Emerson's Concord Hymn" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ archive/ mima/ hymn. htm). National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-10-02. • Emerson, Ralph Waldo; Curtis, George William (1875). Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration of Concord

Fight, April 19, 1875 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=hXGkkYf3vQQC). Town of Concord. OCLC 4363293.

• Fischer, David Hackett (1994). Paul Revere's Ride (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=knC-kTFI9_gC). Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-508847-6. This book is extensively footnoted, and contains a voluminous list of primary resources concerning all aspects of these events.

• Ford, Gerald R. (April 19, 1975). "Remarks at the , Concord, Massachusetts" (http:/ / www.

presidency. ucsb. edu/ ws/ index. php?pid=4847). The American Presidency Project. Retrieved 2008-09-22.

• French, Allen (1925). The Day of Concord and Lexington (http:/ / books. google. com/

books?id=LdorAAAAIAAJ& pg=PR3#v=onepage& q=& f=false). Boston: Little, Brown & Co. • Frothingham, Jr, Richard (1903). History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and

Bunker Hill (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Cu9BAAAAIAAJ). Little and Brown. OCLC 221368703.

• Hafner, Donald L. (2006). "The First Blood Shed in the Revolution" (http:/ / escholarship. bc. edu/ cgi/

viewcontent. cgi?article=1006& context=hrij_facp). Boston College. Retrieved 2007-12-21. • Hurd, Duane Hamilton (1890). History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume 1: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. J. W. Lewis & co. OCLC 2155461. • Kifner, John, Special to the New York Times (1975-04-20). "160,000 Mark Two 1775 Battles; Concord Protesters Jeer Ford :President Greeted Warmly in Lexington 160,000 Observe Date of Battles in 1775 at

Lexington and Concord" (http:/ / www. proquest. com/ ). New York Times (1857-Current file). p. 1. Proquest Document ID=1045581292. Retrieved 2008-11-04. • Lister, Jeremy (1931). Concord Fight. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 1430477520. • Massachusetts Provincial Congress (1775). A Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops.

Worcester: Isaiah Thomas. OCLC http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=XyIcOgAACAAJ.

• Morrissey, Brendan (1995). Boston 1775 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=dJlAdSPLi5MC). Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-85532-362-1.

• Moulton, Martha. "Martha Moulton's testimony and reward, 4 Feb 1776" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ mima/

forteachers/ upload/ Martha Moulton. pdf) (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-12-21. • Napierkowski, Marie Rose; Ruby, Mary K (1998). Poetry for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context and Criticism on Commonly Studied Poetry. Gale Research. ISBN 9780787627249.

• Tourtellot, Arthur B (1959). Lexington and Concord (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=6WB5HgAACAAJ). New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-00194-6. • Urban, Mark (2007). Fusiliers: Eight Years with the Red Coats in America. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 9780571224869. OCLC 153556036.

• "Maine Legal Holidays" (http:/ / www. maine. gov/ bhr/ rules_policies/ policy_manual/ 12_5. htm). Human Resources Policy and Practices Manual. Maine Bureau of Human Resources. Retrieved 2009-02-25.

• "Massachusetts Legal Holidays" (http:/ / www. sec. state. ma. us/ cis/ cishol/ holidx. htm). Citizen Information Service. Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2009-02-25.

• "Minute Man NHP Things To Do" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ mima/ planyourvisit/ placestogo. htm). National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-11-03.

• "NPS Museum Collections "American Revolutionary War": Riflemen" (http:/ / www. cr. nps. gov/ museum/

exhibits/ revwar/ vafo/ vaforifle. html). National Historical Park. National Park Service Museum Collections. Retrieved 2007-04-19.

• "Time Magazine, April 25, 1975" (http:/ / www. time. com/ time/ magazine/ article/ 0,9171,917381,00. html). Time Magazine. 1975-04-25. Retrieved 2008-11-04. Battles of Lexington and Concord 32

• "Wisconsin Public School Observance Days" (http:/ / dpi. wi. gov/ eis/ observe. html). Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Retrieved 2009-02-25.

External links

• National Park Service site for Minute Man National Historical Park (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ mima/ )

• Why We Remember Lexington and Concord and the 19th of April (http:/ / rjohara. net/ gen/ wars/ minuteman)

• Rescued cannon returns to Concord (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ mima/ My Webs/ myweb/ The Hancock Returns. htm)

• Battles of Lexington and Concord (http:/ / www. generalatomic. com/ AmericanHistory/ lexington. html)

• Articles about the Concord Fight in Concord Magazine (http:/ / www. concordma. com/ concordfight/ toc. html)

• Animated History of the Battles of Lexington and Concord (http:/ / www. revolutionarywaranimated. com/ lex)

• Concord Massachusetts (http:/ / www. revolutionaryday. com/ usroute20/ concord/ default. htm)

• Merriam's Corner (http:/ / www. justice101us. com/ merriam. htm)

• "Colonial towns, by the numbers" (http:/ / www. wickedlocal. com/ lexington/ fun/ entertainment/ arts/ x1605763724). Retrieved 2010-04-25. Facts and figures on Acton, Bedford, Concord and Lexington of the period, including the rosters of the towns' Minute Men and Militia

• Statements of American combatants at Lexington and Concord (http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ files/ 20636/

20636-8. txt) contained in supplement “Official Papers Concerning the Skirmishes at Lexington and Concord” to The Military Journals of Private Soldiers, 1758-1775, by Abraham Tomlinson for the Poughkeepsie, NY museum, 1855.

• Teach this article at the Wikischool (http:/ / www. wikischool. us/ instructor_pages/ vol_1_files/ Page315. htm) 33

Siege of Boston

Siege of Boston

The Siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within. The Americans, led by George Washington, eventually forced the British to withdraw from the town after an 11-month siege. The siege began on April 19 after the battles of Lexington and Concord, when the militia from many Massachusetts communities surrounded Boston and blocked land access to the then-peninsular town, limiting British resupply to naval operations. The Continental Congress chose to adopt the militia and form the Continental Army, and unanimously elected George Washington as its Commander in Chief. In June 1775, the British seized Bunker and Breeds Hills, but the casualties they suffered were so heavy that they could not break the siege. For the rest of the siege, there was little action other than occasional raids, minor skirmishes, and sniper fire. Both sides had to deal with resource supply and personnel issues over the course of the siege. In November 1775, Washington sent a 25 year-old bookseller-turned-soldier named Henry Knox to bring heavy artillery that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. In a technically complex and demanding operation, Knox brought many cannons to the Boston area in January 1776. In March 1776, these artillery were used to fortify Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston and its harbor and threatening the British naval supply lifeline. The British commander William Howe, realizing he could no longer hold the town, chose to evacuate it. He withdrew the British forces, departing on March 17 (celebrated today as Evacuation Day) for Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Background Prior to 1775, the British had imposed taxes and import duties on the American colonies, to which the colonists objected, since they lacked representation in the British Parliament. In response to the Boston Tea Party and other acts of protest, 4,000 British troops under the leadership of General Thomas Gage were sent to occupy the city of Boston and to pacify the restive Province of Massachusetts Bay.[1] Gage, among other actions authorized by the British parliament in the so-called Intolerable Acts, disbanded the local provincial government (led by John Hancock and Samuel Adams), which reformed itself into a Provincial Congress, and continued to meet. The Provincial Congress called for the organization of local militias and coordinated the accumulation of weapons and other military supplies.[2] Under the terms of the Boston Port Act, Gage closed the Boston port, which caused much unemployment and discontent.[3] When British forces were sent to take military supplies from the town of Concord on April 19, 1775, militia companies from surrounding towns opposed them in the Battles of Lexington and Concord.[4] At Concord, some of the British forces were routed in a confrontation at the North Bridge. The British troops were again attacked in a running battle on their return to Boston, suffering heavy casualties.[5] All of the New England colonies (and later colonies further south) raised militias in response to this alarm, and sent them to Boston.[6] Siege of Boston 34

Siege

1775 map of the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the Siege of Boston.

Digging in

In the immediate aftermath of the battles of the 19th, the Massachusetts militia, under the loose leadership of William Heath, who was superseded by General Artemas Ward late on the 20th,[7] formed a siege line extending from Chelsea, around the peninsulas of Boston and Charlestown, to Roxbury, effectively surrounding Boston on three sides. They particularly blocked the Charlestown Neck (the only land access to Charlestown), and the Boston Neck (the only land access to Boston, which was then a peninsula), leaving only the harbor and sea access under British control. In the days immediately following, the size of the colonial forces grew, as militias from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut arrived on the scene.[6] General Gage wrote of his surprise of the number of rebels surrounding the city: "The rebels are not the despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be....In all their wars against the French they never showed such conduct, attention, and perseverance as they do now."[8]

In the surrounded city of Boston, Gage turned his attention to fortifying easily defensible positions. In The Siege of Boston 1775-1776 the south, at Roxbury, Gage ordered lines of defenses with 10 twenty-four pound guns. On the peninsula of Boston itself, four hills were quickly fortified. They were to be the main defense of the city.[9] Over time, each of these hills were strengthened.[10] Gage also decided to abandon Charlestown, removing the beleaguered forces (that had retreated from Concord) to Boston. The town of Charlestown itself was entirely vacant, and the high lands of Charlestown (Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill) were left undefended, as were the heights of Dorchester, which had a commanding view of the harbor and the city.[11]

The British at first greatly restricted movement in and out of the city, fearing infiltration of weapons. Besieged and besiegers eventually reached an informal agreement allowing traffic on the Boston Neck, provided no firearms were carried. Residents of Boston turned in almost 2,000 muskets, and most of the Patriot residents left the city.[12] Many Siege of Boston 35

Loyalists who lived outside the city of Boston left their homes and fled into the city. Most of them felt that it was not safe to live outside of the city, because the Patriots were now in control of the countryside.[13] Some of the men, after arriving in Boston, joined Loyalist regiments attached to the British army.[14] Since the siege did not blockade the harbor, the city remained open for the Royal Navy under Vice Admiral Samuel Graves to sail in supplies from Nova Scotia and other places. Colonial forces could do little to stop these shipments due to the naval supremacy of the British fleet and the complete absence of a Continental Navy in the spring of 1775. Nevertheless, the town and the British forces were on short rations, and prices rose quickly. In addition, the American forces generally had information about what was happening in the city, but General Gage had no effective intelligence of rebel activities.[15]

Early skirmishes On May 3, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress authorized Benedict Arnold to raise forces for taking Fort Ticonderoga near the southern end of in the , which was known to have heavy weapons, and to be only lightly defended. Arnold arrived in Castleton (in what is now , but was then disputed territory between New York and New Hampshire) on the 9th, where he joined with and a militia company from Connecticut, all of whom had independently arrived at the idea of taking Ticonderoga. This company, under the joint leadership of Arnold and Allen, captured Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point. They also captured the one large military vessel on Lake Champlain in a raid on Fort Saint-Jean.[16] They recovered over 180 cannons, as well as other weaponry and supplies that the nascent Continental Army would find useful in tightening their grip on Boston.[17] In Boston, there was no regular supply of fresh meat, and many horses needed hay. On May 21, Gage ordered a party to go to Grape Island, in the outer harbor, and bring hay to Boston.[18] When the Continentals on the mainland noticed this, they took alarm, and the militia were called out. As the British party arrived, they came under fire from the militia. The militia set fire to a barn on the island, destroying 80 tons of hay, and prevented the British from taking more than 3 tons.[18] Engraving depicting Ethan Allen demanding the Continental forces, partly in response to the Grape Island incident, surrender of Fort Ticonderoga worked to clear the harbor islands of livestock and supplies useful to the British. On May 27, in the Battle of Chelsea Creek, the British Marines attempted to stop removal of livestock from some of the islands. The Americans resisted, and, in the course of the action, the British schooner Diana ran aground and was destroyed, but not before the Continentals recovered its weaponry.[19] In an attempt to help quell the rebellion, Gage issued a proclamation on June 12 offering to pardon all of those who would lay down their arms, with the exception of John Hancock and Samuel Adams.[20] Instead of quelling the rebellion, it ignited anger among the Patriots, and more people began to take up arms.[20] Siege of Boston 36

Breed's Hill

Throughought May, the British had been receiving reinforcements, until they reached a strength of about 6,000 men. On May 25, three Generals arrived on HMS Cerberus: William Howe, John Burgoyne, and Henry Clinton. Gage began planning to break out of the city.[19] The plan decided on by the British command was to fortify both Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights. They fixed the date for taking Dorchester Heights at June 18. On June 15, the colonists' Committee of Safety learned of the British plans. In response, they sent instructions The Battle of Bunker Hill, Howard Pyle, 1897 to General Ward to fortify Bunker Hill and the heights of Charlestown; he assigned Colonel the task. On the night of June 16, Prescott led 1200 men over the Charlestown Neck, and constructed fortifications on Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill.[21]

On June 17, in the Battle of Bunker Hill, British forces under General Howe took the Charlestown peninsula.[22] The British succeeded in their tactical objective of taking the high ground on the Charlestown peninsula, but they suffered significant losses. With some 1,000 men killed or wounded, including 92 officers killed, the British losses were so heavy that there were no further direct attacks on American forces.[23] The Americans, while ultimately losing the battle, had again stood against the British regulars with some success, as they had successfully repelled two assaults on Breed's Hill during the engagement.[24] From this point, the siege essentially became a stalemate.

Stalemate On July 3, George Washington arrived to take charge of the new Continental Army. He set up his headquarters at a house in Cambridge that would later also become well known as the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. By this time forces and supplies were arriving, including companies of riflemen from as far away as Maryland and Virginia.[25] Washington began the work of molding the militias into something more closely resembling an army, appointing senior officers (where the militias had typically elected their leaders), and introducing more organization and disciplinary measures to the encamped militias.[26] He required officers of different ranks to wear differentiating apparel, so that they might be distinguished from their underlings and superiors.[27] Toward the end of July, about 2,000 riflemen arrived in units raised in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The accuracy of the rifle was previously unknown in New England, and these forces were used to harass the besieged forces.[28] Washington also ordered the defenses to be improved. Trenches were dug on the Boston Neck, and then extended toward Boston. However, these activities had little effect on the British occupation.[29] The working parties, the soldiers who worked on the fortifications on the front lines, were fired on from time to time, as were sentries guarding the works. On July 30, in retaliation for an American attack, the British pushed back an American advanced guard, and burned a few houses in George Washington taking command of the Roxbury.[30] Four days later, on August 2, an American rifleman was Army. killed, and his body hung up by the neck. In retaliation, other American riflemen marched to the lines and began to attack the British troops. They continued their sharp shooting all day, killing or wounding many of the British, and losing only one man.[31] On August 30, the British made a surprise breakout from the Boston Neck, set fire to a tavern, and withdrew to their defenses.[31] On the same night, 300 Americans attacked Lighthouse Island and burned the lighthouse, killing several British soldiers and capturing 23 at the loss of one life.[31] On another August night, Washington sent 1,200 men to dig entrenchments on a hill near the Charlestown Neck. Despite a British bombardment, the Americans successfully dug the trenches.[32] Siege of Boston 37

In early September, Washington began drawing up plans for two moves; first, to dispatch 1,000 men from Boston and invade Quebec, and second, to launch an attack on Boston.[33] Washington felt that he could afford to send some troops to Quebec, as he had received intelligence from British deserters and American spies that the British had no intention of launching an attack from Boston until they were reinforced.[34] On September 11, about 1,100 troops under the command of Benedict Arnold left for Quebec.[35] Washington summoned a council of war, and made a case for an all out amphibious assault on Boston, by sending troops across Back Bay in flat-bottomed boats which could hold 50 men each.[36] Washington believed it would be extremely difficult to keep the men together when winter came. After discussion, the plan was unanimously rejected, and the decision was not to attack "for the present at least."[36] September also saw the beginning of the Continental Navy, when on the 2nd Washington authorized the appropriation and outfitting of local fishing vessels for intelligence-gathering and interdiction of supplies to the British, to the extent possible. This authorization was in addition to authorizations of privateering activities by the provincial Congresses of Connecticut and Rhode Island.[37]

In early November, 400 British soldiers went to Lechmere's Point on a raiding expedition to acquire some livestock. They made off with 10 head of cattle, but lost two lives in the skirmish with colonial troops sent to defend the point.[38] [39] On November 29, colonial Captain John Manley, commanding the schooner Lee, captured one of the most valuable prizes of the siege, the British brigantine Nancy, just outside Boston Harbor. She was carrying a large supply of ordnance and military stores intended for the British troops in Boston.[40] On November 11, 1775, Washington wrote to Congress of an incident during the siege, in which Col. Woodbridge and part of his 25th The British defenses in Boston, 1775. Regiment (Massachusetts) joined with Col. William Thompson’s Pennsylvania Regiment, defending against a British landing at Lechmere’s Point, and “gallantly waded through the water, and soon obliged the enemy to embark under cover of a man-of-war…”[41]

As winter approached, both sides faced their own problems. The Americans were so short on gunpowder that soldiers were given spears to fight with in the event of a British attack.[42] Many of the American troops remained unpaid and many of their enlistments would be up at the end of the year. On the British side Howe, who had replaced Gage as commander in October, was faced with different problems. Wood was so scarce that they began cutting down trees and tearing down old houses. To add to this, supplying the city had become increasingly difficult because of winter storms and American patrolling the waters outside of Boston.[42] The British troops were so hungry that many were ready to desert as soon as they could. Worse, scurvy and smallpox had broken out in the city.[43] Washington again proposed to assault Boston in October, but his officers thought it best to wait until the harbor had frozen over.[44] In February, when the water had frozen between Roxbury and Boston Common, Washington thought that in spite of his shortage in powder he would try an assault by rushing across the ice; but his officers again advised against it. Washington's desire to launch an attack on Boston arose from his fear that his army would desert in the winter, and how easily he knew that Howe could break the lines of his army in its present condition. He had not yet learned how completely he could trust in Howe's inactivity; he abandoned an attack across the ice with great reluctance in exchange for a more cautious plan, to fortify Dorchester Heights using cannon arrived from Fort Ticonderoga.[45] [46] Siege of Boston 38

In mid-January, on orders from London, British Major General Henry Clinton and a small fleet set sail for the Carolinas with 1,500 men. Their objective was to take a port in the southern colonies for further military operations in the Southern theater[47] In early February a British raiding party crossed the ice and burned several farmhouses in Dorchester.[48]

End of the siege

Between November 1775 and February 1776, Henry Knox and a team of engineers used sledges to retrieve 60 tons of heavy artillery that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga. Bringing them across the frozen Hudson and Connecticut rivers in a technically challenging and complex operation, they arrived back at Cambridge on January 24, 1776.[49]

Fortification of Dorchester Heights

Some of the Ticonderoga cannons, which were of a size and range not Henry Knox bringing his "noble train" of artillery previously available to the Americans, were emplaced in fortifications to Cambridge. around the city, and on the night of March 2, the Americans began to bombard the city with those cannon, to which the British responded with cannonades of their own.[50] The American guns, under the direction of Colonel Knox, continued to exchange fire with the British until March 4. The exchange of fire did little damage to either side, although it did damage houses and kill some British soldiers in Boston.[51] On March 5, Washington moved more of the Ticonderoga cannon and several thousand men overnight to occupy Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston. Since it was winter and the continental army was unable to dig into the frozen ground on Dorchester Heights, rather than entrenching themselves, Washington's men used logs, branches and anything else available to fortify the position overnight. General Howe is said to have exclaimed, "My God, these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months."[52] The British fleet was within range of the American guns on Dorchester Heights, putting it and the troops in the city at risk.[53]

The immediate response of the British was a two hour cannon barrage at the heights, which had no effect because the British guns could not reach the American guns at such height.[54] After the failure of the barrage, Howe and his officers agreed that the colonists must be removed from the heights if they were to hold Boston. They planned an assault on the heights; however, due to a storm the attack never took place, and the British elected instead to withdraw.[55] On March 8, some prominent Bostonians sent a letter to Washington, stating that the British would not destroy the town if they were allowed to depart unmolested. Washington was given the letter, but formally rejected it, as it was not addressed to him by either name or title.[56] However, the letter had the intended effect: when the evacuation began, there was no American fire to hinder the British departure. On March 9, after seeing movement on Nook's Hill on Dorchester, the British opened a massive fire barrage that lasted all night. It killed four men with one cannonball, but that was all the damage that was done.[57] The next day, the colonists went out and collected the 700 cannonballs that had been fired at them.[57]

Evacuation On March 10, General Howe issued a proclamation ordering the inhabitants to give up all linen and woolen goods that could be used by the colonists to continue the war. A Loyalist, Crean Brush, was authorized to receive these goods, in return for which he gave certificates that were effectively worthless.[58] Over the next week, the British fleet sat in Boston harbor waiting for favorable winds, while loyalists and the remaining British soldiers were loaded onto the ships. During this time, American naval activities outside the harbor successfully captured and diverted to Siege of Boston 39

ports under colonial control several British supply ships.[59] On March 15, the wind became favorable, but before they could leave, it turned against them. On March 17 the wind once again turned favorable. The troops, who were authorized to burn the town if there were any disturbances while they were marching to their ships,[58] began to move out at 4:00 a.m. By 9:00 a.m., all ships were underway.[60] The fleet departing from Boston included 120 ships, with more than 11,000 people aboard. Of those, 9,906 were British troops, 667 were women, and 553 were children.[61]

Aftermath

Americans clean up Once the British fleet sailed away, the Americans moved to reclaim Boston and Charlestown. At first, they thought that the British were still on Bunker Hill, but it turned out that the British had left dummies in place.[61] Due to the risk of smallpox, at first only men picked for their prior exposure to the disease entered Boston under the command of Artemas Ward. More of the colonial army entered on March 20, once the risk of disease was judged low.[62] While Washington had essentially acceded to the British threat to burn Boston, and had not hindered their departure from the city, he did not make their escape from the outer harbor entirely easy. He directed Captain Manley to harass the departing British fleet, in which he had some success, capturing among other prizes the ship carrying Crean Brush and his plunder.[63] General Howe, when his fleet finally left the outer harbor, left in his wake a small contingent of vessels whose primary purpose was to intercept any arriving British vessels. While they successfully redirected to Halifax numerous ships carrying British troops originally destined for Boston, some unsuspecting British troop ships landed in Boston, only to fall into American hands.[64] The British departure ended major military activities in the New England colonies. Washington, fearing that the British were going to attack New York City, departed on April 4 with his army for Manhattan, which would begin the New York and New Jersey campaign.[65]

Fate of the British Generals

General Howe would be severely criticized in the British press and Parliament for his failures in the Boston campaign. General Gage was never given another command. General Burgoyne would see action in the , a disaster that saw his capture, as well as that of 7,500 troops under his command. General Clinton would command the British forces in America for four years (1778–1782), only to be recalled.[66] Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, by John Trumbull Fate of the Loyalists

Many Massachusetts Loyalists left with the British when they evacuated Boston. Some returned to England to rebuild lives there, and some returned to America after the war. Many stayed in Nova Scotia, settling in places like Saint John, and many became active in the future development of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.[67] Siege of Boston 40

Fate of the City of Boston Boston effectively ceased to be a military target. It continued to be a focal point for revolutionary activities, with its port acting as an important point for fitting ships of war and privateers. Its leading citizens would have important roles in the development of the future United States.[68] Boston and other area communities mark the March 17 end of the siege as Evacuation Day.

Footnotes [1] Chidsey, p. 5 [2] Frothingham, pp. 35, 54 [3] Frothingham, p. 7 [4] McCullough, p. 7 [5] See Battles of Lexington and Concord for the full story. [6] Frothingham, pp. 100-101 [7] McCullough, p. 35 [8] Harvey, p. 1 [9] French, p. 236 [10] French, p. 237 [11] French, pp. 126-128,220 [12] Chidsey, p. 53 [13] French, p. 228 [14] French, p. 234 [15] McCullough, p. 118 [16] Fisher, pp. 318-321 [17] Chidsey, p. 60 [18] French, p. 248 [19] French, p. 249 [20] French, p. 251 [21] French, pp. 255-258 [22] French, p. 288 [23] French, p. 284 [24] French, pp. 272-273 [25] Chidsey, p. 117 [26] Chidsey, p. 113 [27] Chidsey, p. 112 [28] Frothingham, pp. 227-228 [29] McCullough, p. 10 [30] French, p. 337 [31] McCullough, p. 39 [32] French, p. 311 [33] McCullough, p. 50 [34] McCullough, p. 51 [35] Smith, pp. 57-58 [36] McCullough, p. 53 [37] French, pp. 319-320 [38] French, p. 338 [39] Frothingham, p. 267 [40] Chidsey, p. 133 [41] Sparks, Jared: The Writings of George Washington, Vol III, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston (1855) p. 157. [42] McCullough, p. 60 [43] McCullough, p. 61 [44] French, p. 330 [45] Fisher, p. 1 [46] Frothingham, pp. 295-296 [47] McCullough, p. 78 [48] McCullough, p. 86 [49] McCullough, p. 84 Siege of Boston 41

[50] McCullough, p. 91 [51] McCullough, p. 92 [52] McCullough, p. 93 [53] Frothingham, pp. 298-299 [54] McCullough, p. 94 [55] McCullough, p. 95 [56] Frothingham, pp. 303-304 [57] McCullough, p. 99 [58] McCullough, p. 104 [59] Frothingham, p. 308 [60] Frothingham, p. 309 [61] McCullough, p. 105 [62] Frothingham, pp. 310-311 [63] French, p. 429 [64] French, p. 436 [65] McCullough, p. 112 [66] French, pp. 437-438 [67] French, pp. 438-439 [68] French, pp. 441-443

References • Boatner, Mark (1966). The Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. McKay. ISBN 0811705781.

• Chidsey, Donald Barr (1966). The Siege of Boston (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=r8yRAAAAIAAJ& pgis=1). New York: Crown Publishers.

• Fisher, Sydney George (1908). The Struggle for American Independence (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=rDQSAAAAYAAJ). J.B. Lippincott Company.

• French, Allen (1911). The Siege of Boston (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=PqZcY9z3Vn4C). McMillan. • Frothingham, Jr, Richard (1851). History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and

Bunker Hill (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Cu9BAAAAIAAJ). Little and Brown. • Harvey, Robert (2002). A Few Bloody Noses: The Realities and Mythologies of the American Revolution. Overlook Press. pp. 160. ISBN 1585672734. • McCullough, David (2005). 1776. Simon and Schuster Paperback. ISBN 0743226720.

• Smith, Justin H (1903). Arnold's March from Cambridge to Quebec (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=vlU06ifA9ZEC). New York: G. P. Putnams Sons. Battle of Bunker Hill 42 Battle of Bunker Hill

The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, mostly on and around Breed's Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after the adjacent Bunker Hill, which was peripherally involved in the battle and was the original objective of both colonial and British troops, and is occasionally referred to as the "Battle of Breed's Hill." On June 13, 1775, the leaders of the colonial forces besieging Boston learned that the British generals were planning to send troops out from the city to occupy the unoccupied hills surrounding the city. In response to this intelligence, 1,200 colonial troops under the command of William Prescott stealthily occupied Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill, constructed an earthen redoubt on Breed's Hill, and built lightly fortified lines across most of the Charlestown Peninsula. When the British were alerted to the presence of the new position the next day, they mounted an attack against them. After two assaults on the colonial lines were repulsed with significant British casualties, the British finally captured the positions on the third assault, after the defenders in the redoubt ran out of ammunition. The colonial forces retreated to Cambridge over Bunker Hill, suffering their most significant losses on Bunker Hill. While the result was a victory for the British, they suffered heavy losses: over 800 wounded and 226 killed, including a notably large number of officers. The battle is seen as an example of a Pyrrhic victory, because the immediate gain (the capture of Bunker Hill) was modest and did not significantly change the state of the siege, while the cost (the loss of nearly a third of the deployed forces) was high. Meanwhile, colonial forces were able to retreat and regroup in good order having suffered few casualties. Furthermore, the battle demonstrated that relatively inexperienced colonial forces were willing and able to stand up to regular army troops in a pitched battle.

Geography Boston, situated on a peninsula,[1] was largely protected from close approach by the expanses of water surrounding it, which were dominated by British warships. In the aftermath of the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, the colonial militia, a force of about 15,000 men[2] had surrounded the town, and effectively besieged it. Under the command of Artemas Ward, they controlled the only land access to Boston itself (the Roxbury Neck), but, lacking a navy, were unable to control or even contest British domination of the waters of the harbor. The British troops, a force of about 6,000 under the command of General Thomas Gage, occupied the city, and were able to be resupplied and reinforced by sea.[3] They were thus able to remain in Boston indefinitely. However, the land across the water from Boston contained a number of hills, which could be used to advantage.[4] If the militia could obtain enough artillery pieces, these could be placed on the hills and used to bombard the city until the occupying army evacuated it or surrendered. It was with this in mind that the Knox Expedition, led by Henry Knox, later transported cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to the Boston area.[5] The Charlestown Peninsula, lying to the north of Boston, started from a short, narrow isthmus (known as the Charlestown Neck) at its northwest, extending about 1 mile (1.6 km) southeastward into Boston Harbor. Bunker Hill, with an elevation of 110 feet (34 m), lay at the northern end of the peninsula. Breed's Hill, at a height of 62 feet (19 m), was more southerly and nearer to Boston.[6] The town of Charlestown occupied flats at the southern end of the peninsula. At its closest approach, less than 1000 feet (305 m) separated the Charlestown Peninsula from the Boston Peninsula, where Copp's Hill was at about the same height as Breed's Hill. While the British retreat from Concord had ended in Charlestown, General Gage, rather than immediately fortifying the hills on the peninsula, had withdrawn those troops to Boston the day after that battle, turning the entire Charlestown Peninsula into a no man's land.[7] Battle of Bunker Hill 43

British planning

Throughout May, in response to orders from Gage requesting support, the British received reinforcements, until they reached a strength of about 6,000 men. On May 25, three Generals arrived on HMS Cerberus: William Howe, John Burgoyne, and Henry Clinton. Gage began planning with them to break out of the city,[8] finalizing a plan on June 12.[9] This plan began with the taking of the Dorchester Neck, fortifying the Dorchester Heights, and then marching on the colonial forces stationed in Roxbury. Once the southern flank had been secured, the Charlestown heights would be taken, and the forces in The Battle of Bunker Hill, by Howard Pyle, 1897. Cambridge driven away. The attack was set for June 18.[10]

On June 13, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress was notified, by express messenger from the Committee of Safety in Exeter, New Hampshire, that a New Hampshire gentleman "of undoubted veracity" had, while visiting Boston, overheard the British commanders making plans to capture Dorchester and Charlestown.[11] On June 15, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety decided that additional defenses needed to be erected.[12] General Ward directed General to set up defenses on the Charlestown Peninsula, specifically on Bunker Hill.[13]

Prelude to battle

Fortification of Breed's Hill

On the night of June 16, colonial Colonel William Prescott led about 1,200 men onto the peninsula in order to set up positions from which artillery fire could be directed into Boston.[14] This force was made up of men from the regiments of Prescott, Putnam (the unit was commanded by Thomas Knowlton), James Frye, and Ebenezer Bridge.[15] At first, Putnam, Prescott, and their engineer, Captain , disagreed as to where they should locate their defense. Some work was performed on Bunker Hill, but Breed's Hill was closer to Boston and viewed as being more defensible. Arguably against orders, they decided to build their primary redoubt there.[16] Prescott and his men, using Gridley's outline, began digging a square fortification about 130 feet (40 m) on a side with ditches and earthen walls. The walls of the redoubt were about 6 feet (1.8 m) high, with a The first British attack on Bunker Hill. Shaded wooden platform inside on which men could stand and fire over the areas are hills. walls.[17]

The works on Breed's Hill did not go unnoticed by the British. General Clinton, out on reconnaissance that night, was aware of them, and tried to convince Gage and Howe that they needed to prepare to attack the position at daylight. British sentries were also aware of the activity, but most apparently did not think it cause for alarm.[18] Then, in the early predawn, around 4:00 am, a sentry on board HMS Lively spotted the new fortification, and notified her captain. Lively opened fire, temporarily halting the colonists' work. Aboard his flagship HMS Somerset, Admiral Samuel Graves awoke, irritated by the gunfire that he had not ordered.[19] He stopped it, only to have General Gage countermand his decision when he became fully aware of the situation in the morning. He ordered all 128 guns in the harbor, as well as batteries atop Copp's Hill in Boston, to fire on the colonial position, which had relatively little effect.[20] The rising sun also alerted Prescott to a significant problem with the location of the redoubt – it could Battle of Bunker Hill 44

easily be flanked on either side.[18] He promptly ordered his men to begin constructing a breastwork running down the hill to the east, deciding he did not have the manpower to also build additional defenses to the west of the redoubt.[21]

British preparations

When the British generals met to discuss their options, General Clinton, who had urged an attack as early as possible, recommended an attack beginning from the Charlestown Neck that would cut off the colonists' retreat, reducing the process of capturing the new redoubt to one of starving out its occupants. However, he was outvoted by the other three generals. Howe, who was the senior officer present and would lead the assault, was of the opinion that the hill was "open and easy of ascent and in short would be easily carried".[22] Orders were 1775 map of the Boston area (contains some [23] inaccuracies) then issued to prepare the expedition.

When General Gage surveyed the works from Boston with his staff, Loyalist Abijah Willard recognized his brother-in-law Colonel Prescott. "Will he fight?" asked Gage. "[A]s to his men, I cannot answer for them;" replied Willard, "but Colonel Prescott will fight you to the gates of hell."[24] Prescott lived up to Willard's word, but his men were not so resolute. When the colonists suffered their first casualty, Asa Pollard of Billerica,[25] a young private killed by cannon fire, Prescott gave orders to bury the man quickly and quietly, but a large group of men gave him a solemn funeral instead, with several deserting shortly thereafter.[24] It took almost six hours for the British to organize an infantry force and to gather up and inspect the men on parade. General Howe was to lead the major assault, drive around the colonial left flank, and take them from the rear. Brigadier General Robert Pigot on the British left flank would lead the direct assault on the redoubt, and Major John Pitcairn led the flank or reserve force. It took several trips in longboats to transport Howe's initial forces (consisting of about 1,500 men) to the eastern corner of the peninsula, known as Moulton's Point.[26] [27] By 2 pm, Howe's chosen force had landed.[26] However, while crossing the river, Howe noted the large number of colonial troops on top of Bunker Hill. Believing these to be reinforcements, he immediately sent a message to Gage, requesting additional troops. He then ordered some of the light infantry to take a forward position along the eastern side of the peninsula, alerting the colonists to his intended course of action. The troops then sat down to eat while they waited for the reinforcements.[27] Battle of Bunker Hill 45

Colonists reinforce their positions

Prescott, seeing the British preparations, called for reinforcements. Among the reinforcements were Joseph Warren, the popular young leader of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, and Seth Pomeroy, an aging Massachusetts militia leader. Both of these men held commissions of rank, but chose to serve as infantry.[26] Prescott ordered the Connecticut men under Captain Knowlton to defend the left flank, where they used a crude dirt wall as a breastwork, and topped it with fence rails and hay. They also constructed three small v-shaped trenches between this dirt wall and Prescott's breastwork. Troops that arrived to reinforce this flank position included about 200 men from the 1st and 3rd New Hampshire regiments, under Colonels and James Reed. Stark's men, who did not arrive until after Howe landed his forces (and thus filled a gap in the defense that Howe could have taken advantage of, had he pressed his attack sooner),[28] The second British attack on Bunker Hill. took positions along the breastwork on the northern end of the colonial position. When low tide opened a gap along the Mystic River to the north, they quickly extended the fence with a short stone wall to the water's edge.[28] [29] Colonel Stark placed a stake about 100 feet (30 m) in front of the fence and ordered that no one fire until the regulars passed it.[30] Just prior to the action, further reinforcements arrived, including portions of Massachusetts regiments of Colonels Brewer, Nixon, Woodbridge, Little, and Major Moore, as well as Callender's company of artillery.[31]

Behind the colonial lines, confusion reigned. Many units sent toward the action stopped before crossing the Charlestown Neck from Cambridge, which was under constant fire from gun batteries to the south. Others reached Bunker Hill, but then, uncertain about where to go from there, milled around. One commentator wrote of the scene that "it appears to me there never was more confusion and less command".[32] While General Putnam was on the scene attempting to direct affairs, unit commanders often misunderstood or disobeyed orders.[32]

Assault By 3 pm, the British reinforcements, which included the 47th Foot and the 1st Marines, had arrived, and the British were ready to march.[33] Brigadier General Pigot's force, gathering just south of Charlestown village, were taking casualties from sniper fire, and Howe asked Admiral Graves for assistance in clearing out the snipers. Graves, who had planned for such a possibility, ordered incendiary shot fired into the village, and then sent a landing party to set fire to the town.[34] The smoke billowing from Charlestown lent an almost surreal backdrop to the fighting, as the winds were such that the smoke was kept from the field of battle.[35] Pigot, commanding the 5th, 38th, 43rd, 47th, and 52nd regiments, as well as Major Pitcairn's Marines, were to feint an assault on the redoubt. However, they continued to be harried by snipers in Charlestown, and Pigot, when he saw what happened to Howe's advance, ordered a retreat.[36] General Howe led the light infantry companies and grenadiers in the assault on the American left flank, expecting an easy effort against Stark's recently arrived troops.[37] His light infantry were set along the narrow beach, in column, in order to turn the far left flank of the colonial position.[38] The grenadiers were deployed in the middle. They lined up four deep and several hundred across. As the regulars closed, John Simpson, a New Hampshire man, prematurely fired, drawing an ineffective volley of return fire from the regulars. When the regulars finally closed within range, both sides opened fire. The colonists inflicted heavy casualties on the regulars, using the fence to steady and aim their muskets, and benefit from a modicum of cover. With this devastating barrage of musket fire, the regulars retreated in disarray, and the militia held their ground.[39] Battle of Bunker Hill 46

The regulars reformed on the field and marched out again. This time, Pigot was not to feint; he was to assault the redoubt, possibly without the assistance of Howe's force. Howe, instead of marching against Stark's position along the beach, marched instead against Knowlton's position along the rail fence. The outcome of the second attack was much the same as the first. One British observer wrote, "Most of our Grenadiers and Light-infantry, the moment of presenting themselves lost three-fourths, and many nine-tenths, of their men. Some had only eight or nine men a company left ..."[40] Pigot did not fare any better in his attack on the redoubt, and again ordered a retreat.[41] Meanwhile, in the rear of the colonial forces, confusion continued to reign. General Putnam tried, with only limited success, to send additional troops from Bunker Hill to Breed's Hill to support the men in the redoubt and along the defensive lines.[42] The third and final British attack on Bunker Hill The British rear was also in some disarray. Wounded soldiers that were mobile had made their way to the landing areas, and were being ferried back to Boston, and the wounded lying on the field of battle were the source of moans and cries of pain.[43] General Howe, deciding that he would try again, sent word to General Clinton in Boston for additional troops. Clinton, who had watched the first two attacks, sent about 400 men from the 2nd Marines and the 63rd Foot, and then followed himself to help rally the troops. In addition to the new reserves, he also convinced about 200 of the wounded to form up for the third attack.[44] During the interval between the second and third assaults, General Putnam continued trying to direct troops toward the action. Some companies, and leaderless groups of men, moved toward the action; others retreated. John Chester, a Connecticut captain, seeing an entire company in retreat, ordered his company to aim muskets at that company to halt its retreat; they turned about and headed back to the battlefield.[45]

The third assault, concentrated on the redoubt (with only a feint on the colonists' flank), was successful, although the colonists again poured musket fire into the British ranks, and it cost the life of Major Pitcairn.[46] The defenders had run out of ammunition, reducing the battle to close combat. The British had the advantage once they entered the redoubt, as their troops were equipped with bayonets on their muskets while most of the colonists were not. Colonel Prescott, one of the last colonists to leave the redoubt, parried bayonet thrusts with his normally ceremonial sabre.[47] It is during the retreat from the redoubt that Joseph Warren was killed.[48] The retreat of much of the colonial forces from the peninsula was made possible in part by the controlled retreat of the forces along the rail fence, led by John Stark and Thomas Knowlton, which prevented the encirclement of the hill. Their disciplined retreat, described by Burgoyne as "no flight; it was even covered with bravery and military skill", was so effective that most of the wounded were saved;[49] most of the prisoners taken by the British were mortally wounded.[49] General Putnam attempted to reform the troops on Bunker Hill; however the flight of the colonial forces was so rapid that artillery pieces and entrenching tools had to be abandoned. The colonists suffered most of their casualties during the retreat on Bunker Hill. By 5 pm, the colonists had retreated over the Charlestown Neck to fortified positions in Cambridge, and the British were in control of the peninsula.[48] Battle of Bunker Hill 47

Aftermath

The British had taken the ground but at a great loss; they suffered 1,054 casualties (226 dead and 828 wounded), with a disproportionate number of these officers. The casualty count was the highest suffered by the British in any single encounter during the entire war.[50] General Clinton, echoing Pyrrhus of Epirus, remarked in his diary that "A few more such victories would have shortly put an end to British dominion in America."[51] British dead and wounded included 100 commissioned officers, a significant portion of the British officer corps in North America.[52] Much of General Howe's field staff was among the casualties.[53] Major Pitcairn had been killed, and Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie fatally wounded. General Gage, in his report after the battle, reported the following officer casualties (listing lieutenants and above by name):[54]

• 1 lieutenant colonel killed The • 2 majors killed, 3 wounded • 7 captains killed, 27 wounded • 9 lieutenants killed, 32 wounded • 15 sergeants killed, 42 wounded • 1 drummer killed, 12 wounded The colonial losses were about 450, of whom 140 were killed. Most of the colonial losses came during the withdrawal. Major Andrew McClary was technically the highest ranking colonial officer to die in the battle; he was hit by cannon fire on Charlestown neck, the last person to be killed in the battle. He was later commemorated by the dedication of Fort McClary in Kittery, Maine.[55] A serious loss to the Patriot cause, however, was the death of Dr. Joseph Warren. He was the President of Massachusetts' Provincial Congress, and he had been appointed a Major General on June 14. His commission had not yet taken effect when he served as a volunteer private three days later at Bunker Hill.[56] Only thirty men were captured by the British, most of them with grievous wounds; twenty died while held prisoner. The colonials also lost numerous shovels and other entrenching tools, as well as 5 out of the 6 cannon they had brought to the peninsula.[57]

Political consequences When news of the battle spread through the colonies, it was reported as a colonial loss, as the ground had been taken by the enemy, and significant casualties were incurred. George Washington, who was on his way to Boston as the new commander of the Continental Army, received news of the battle while in New York City. The report, which included casualty figures that were somewhat inaccurate, gave Washington hope that his army might prevail in the conflict.[58] "We have ... learned one melancholy truth, which is, that the Americans, if they were equally well commanded, are full as good [59] soldiers as ours."

A British officer in Boston, after the battle The Massachusetts Committee of Safety, seeking to repeat the sort of propaganda victory it won following the battles at Lexington and Concord, commissioned a report of the battle to send to England. Their report, however, did not reach England before Gage's official account arrived on July 20. His report unsurprisingly caused friction and argument between the Tories and the Whigs, but the casualty counts alarmed the military establishment, and forced many to rethink their views of colonial military capability.[60] King George's attitude toward the colonies hardened, and the news may have contributed to his rejection of the Continental Congress' Olive Branch Petition, the last substantive political attempt at reconciliation. Sir James Adolphus Oughton, part of the Tory majority, wrote to Lord Battle of Bunker Hill 48

Dartmouth of the colonies, "the sooner they are made to Taste Distress the sooner will [Crown control over them] be produced, and the Effusion of Blood be put a stop to."[61] This hardening of the British position also led to a hardening of previously weak support for the rebellion, especially in the southern colonies, in favor of independence.[61] Gage's report had a more direct effect on his own career. His dismissal from office was decided just three days after his report was received, although General Howe did not replace him until October 1775.[62] Gage wrote another report to the British Cabinet, in which he repeated earlier warnings that "a large army must at length be employed to reduce these people", that would require "the hiring of foreign troops."[63]

Analysis Much has been written in the wake of this battle over how it was conducted. Both sides made strategic and tactical missteps which could have altered the outcome of the battle. While hindsight often gives a biased view, some things seem to be apparent after the battle that might reasonably have been within the reach of the command of the day.

Colonial faults The colonial forces, while nominally under the overall command of General Ward, with General Putnam leading in the field, often acted quite independently. This was evident in the opening page of the drama, when a tactical decision was made that had strategic implications. Colonel Prescott and his staff, apparently in contravention of orders, decided to fortify Breed's Hill rather than Bunker Hill.[16] The fortification of Breed's Hill was more provocative; it would have put offensive artillery closer to Boston. It also exposed the forces there to the possibility of being trapped, as they probably could not properly defend against attempts by the British to land troops and take control of Charlestown Neck. If the British had taken that step, they might have had a victory with many fewer casualties.[64] While the front lines of the colonial forces were generally well managed, the scene behind them, especially once the action began, was significantly disorganized, due at least in part to a poor chain of command. Only some of the militias operated directly under Ward's and Putnam's authority,[65] and some commanders also disobeyed orders, staying at Bunker Hill rather than joining in the defense on the third British assault. Several officers were subjected to court martial and cashiered.[66] Colonel Prescott was of the opinion that the third

A historic map of Bunker Hill featuring military assault would have been repulsed, had his forces in the redoubt been notes reinforced with either more men, or more supplies of ammunition and powder.[67]

British faults The British leadership, for its part, was slow to act once the works on Breed's Hill were spotted. It was 2 pm when the troops were ready for the assault, roughly ten hours after the Lively first opened fire. This leisurely pace gave the colonial forces time to reinforce the flanking positions that had been poorly defended.[68] Gage and Howe decided that a frontal assault on the works would be a simple matter, when an encircling move (gaining control of Charlestown Neck), would have given them a more resounding victory.[64] (This move would not have been without risks of its own, as the colonists could have made holding the Neck expensive with fire from the high ground in Cambridge.) But the British leadership was excessively optimistic, believing that "two regiments were sufficient to beat the strength of the province".[69] Battle of Bunker Hill 49

Once in the field, Howe, rather than focusing on the redoubt, opted (twice) to dilute the force attacking the redoubt with a flanking maneuver against the colonial left. It was only with the third attack, when the flank attack was merely a feint,[70] and the main force (now also reinforced with additional reserves) was squarely targeted at the redoubt, that the attack succeeded.[71]

Following the taking of the peninsula, the British arguably had a tactical advantage that they could have used to press into Cambridge. "View of the Attack on Bunker's Hill with the General Clinton proposed this to Howe; having just led three assaults Burning of Charlestown" by Lodge with grievous casualties, he declined the idea.[72] Howe was eventually recognized by the colonial military leaders to be a tentative decision-maker, to his detriment; in the aftermath of the , he again had tactical advantages that might have delivered Washington's army into his hands, but again refused to act.[73]

"The whites of their eyes" The famous order "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" was popularized in stories about the battle of Bunker Hill. It is uncertain as to who said it there, since various histories, including eyewitness accounts,[74] attribute it to Putnam, Stark, Prescott or Gridley, and it may have been said first by one, and repeated by the others. It was also not an original statement. It was used by General James Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham, when his troops defeated Montcalm's army on September 13, 1759.[75] The earliest similar quote came from the Battle of Dettingen on June 27, 1743, where Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw warned his Regiment, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, not to fire until they could "see the white's of their e'en."[76] The phrase was also used by Prince Charles of Prussia in 1745, and repeated in 1755 by Frederick the Great, and may have been mentioned in histories the colonial military leaders were familiar with.[77] Whether or not it was actually said in this battle, it was clear that the colonial military leadership were regularly reminding their troops to hold their fire until the moment when it would have the greatest effect, especially in situations where their ammunition would be limited.[78]

Notable participants

- According to the John Trumbull painting, this flag of New England was carried by

the colonists during the battle. - This flag, known as the Bunker Hill flag, is also associated with the battle. A significant number of notable people fought in this battle. Henry Dearborn and William Eustis, for example, went on to distinguished military and political careers; both served in Congress, the Cabinet, and in diplomatic posts. Others, like , Henry Burbeck, Christian Febiger, Thomas Knowlton, and John Stark, became well known for later actions in the war.[79] [80] Stark became known as the "Hero of Bennington" for his role in the 1777 . Free African-Americans also fought in the battle, notable examples include Barzillai Lew, , and [81] [82] (the leadership would not allow slaves to fight, as this was anathema to the very idea of the freedom for which they were fighting). Another notable participant was Daniel Battle of Bunker Hill 50

Shays, who later became famous for his army of protest in Shays' Rebellion.[83] Israel Potter was immortalized in Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, a novel by Herman Melville.[84] [85] Colonel John Patterson (New York), commanded the Massachusetts First Militia, served in Shay's Rebellion, and became a US Congressman from New York.[86] Lt. Col. , who served under John Patterson at Bunker Hill, went on to settle Geneva, New York and Erie, Pennsylvania, and was said to have been instrumental in the phrase being added to US Coins.[87] [88] [89] [90] [91]

Commemorations John Trumbull's painting, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill (pictured above), while an idealized and inaccurate depiction of Warren's death, shows a number of participants in the battle. John Small, a British officer who was among those storming the redoubt, was a friend of Israel Putnam's and an acquaintance of Trumbull. He is depicted holding Warren and preventing a redcoat from bayoneting him.[92] The Bunker Hill Monument is an obelisk that stands 221 feet (67 m) high on Breed's Hill. On June 17, 1825, the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, the cornerstone of the monument was laid by the Marquis de Lafayette and an address delivered by Daniel Webster.[93] (When Lafayette died, he was buried next to his wife at the Cimetière de Picpus under soil from Bunker Hill, which his son Georges sprinkled upon him.)[94] The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge was specifically designed to evoke this monument.[95] There is also a statue of William Prescott showing him calming his men down. The National Park Service operates a museum dedicated to the battle near the monument, which is part of the Boston National Historical Park.[96] A cyclorama of the battle was added in 2007 when the museum was renovated.[97] Bunker Hill Day, observed every June 17, is a legal holiday in Suffolk County, Massachusetts (which includes the city of Boston), as well as Somerville in Middlesex County. Prospect Hill, site of colonial fortifications overlooking the Charlestown neck, is now located in Somerville, which was previously part of Charlestown.[98] [99] State institutions in Massachusetts (such as public institutions of higher) located in Boston also celebrate the holiday.[100] [101] However, the state's FY2011 budget requires all state and municipal offices in Bunker Hill clipper ship Suffolk County be open on Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day.[102]

On June 16 and 17, 1875, the centennial of the battle was celebrated with a military parade and a reception featuring notable speakers, among them General William Tecumseh Sherman and Vice President Henry Wilson. It was attended by dignitaries from across the country.[103] Celebratory events also marked the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) in 1925 and the bicentennial in 1975.[104] [105] Battle of Bunker Hill 51

References

[1] 18th century Boston was a peninsula. Primarily in the 19th century, much land around the peninsula was filled, giving the modern city its present geography. See the history of Boston for details. [2] Chidsey, p. 72 New Hampshire 1,200, Rhode Island 1,000, Connecticut 2,300, Massachusetts 11,500 [3] Alden, p. 178 [4] Visitors to Boston, upon seeing the nearby hills, may conclude that they are too low. The hills were once higher, but were lowered by excavations to obtain landfill used to expand Boston in the 19th century. [5] Martin, James Kirby (1997). Benedict Arnold: Revolutionary Hero. New York: New York University Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780814755600. OCLC 36343341. [6] Chidsey p. 91 has an historic map showing elevations. [7] French, p. 220 [8] French, p. 249 [9] Brooks, p. 119 Statue of William Prescott in [10] Ketchum, pp. 45–46 Charlestown, Massachusetts [11] Ketchum, p. 47 [12] Ketchum, pp. 74–75 [13] French, p. 255 [14] Frothingham, pp. 122–123 [15] Ketchum, pp. 102, 245 [16] Frothingham, pp. 123–124 [17] Frothingham, p. 135 [18] Ketchum, p. 115 [19] Frothingham, p. 125 [20] Brooks, p. 127 [21] Ketchum, p. 117 [22] Ketchum, pp. 120–121 [23] Ketchum, p. 122 [24] Graydon, p. 424 [25] Chidsey, p. 84 [26] Frothingham, p. 133 [27] Ketchum, p. 139 [28] Ketchum, p 143 [29] Chidsey p. 93 [30] Chidsey p. 96 [31] Frothingham, p. 136 [32] Ketchum, p. 147 [33] Ketchum, pp. 152–153 [34] Ketchum, pp. 151–152 [35] Frothingham, pp. 144–145 [36] Ketchum, p. 160 [37] Ketchum, p. 152 [38] Fusillers, Mark Urban p38 [39] Frothingham, pp. 141–142 [40] Ketchum, p. 161 [41] Ketchum, p. 162 [42] Frothingham, p. 146 [43] Ketchum, p. 163 [44] Ketchum, p. 164 [45] Ketchum, pp. 165–166 [46] Chidsey p. 99 [47] Frothingham, p. 150 [48] Frothingham, p. 151 [49] Ketchum, p. 181 [50] Brooks, p. 237 Battle of Bunker Hill 52

[51] Clinton, p. 19. General Clinton's remark is an echoing of Pyrrhus of Epirus's original sentiment after the Battle of Heraclea, "one more such victory and the cause is lost". [52] Brooks, pp. 183–184 [53] Frothingham, pp. 145, 196 [54] Frothingham, pp. 387–389 lists the officer casualties by name, as well as this summary [55] Bardwell, p. 76 [56] Ketchum, p. 150 [57] Ketchum, p. 255 [58] Ketchum, pp. 207–208 [59] Ketchum, p. 209 [60] Ketchum, pp. 208–209 [61] Ketchum, p. 211 [62] Ketchum, p. 213 [63] Scheer, p. 64 [64] Frothingham, p. 155 [65] Frothingham, pp. 158–159 [66] French, pp. 274–276 [67] Frothingham, p. 153 [68] French, pp. 263–265 [69] Frothingham, p. 156 [70] French, p. 277 [71] Frothingham, p. 148 [72] Frothingham pp. 152–153 [73] Jackson, p. 20 [74] Lewis, John E., ed. The Mammoth Book of How it Happened. London: Robinson, 1998. Print. P. 179 [75] R. Reilly, "The Rest to Fortune: The Life of Major-General James Wolfe" (1960) [76] Anderson, p. 679 [77] Winsor, p. 85 [78] French, pp. 269–270 [79] Abbatt, p. 252 [80] Ketchum, pp. 132,165 [81] Woodson, p. 204 [82] Ketchum, p. 260 [83] Richards, p. 95 [84] Ketchum, p. 257 [85] Melville

[86] Congressional bio of John Patterson (http:/ / bioguide. congress. gov/ scripts/ biodisplay. pl?index=P000101) [87] Buford, Mary Hunter (1895). Seth Read, Lieut.-Col.Continental Army; Pioneer at Geneva, New York, 1787, and at Erie, Penn., June, 1795.

His Ancestors and Descendants. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ABlMAAAAMAAJ& pg=PA5& lpg=PA5& dq=buford+ mary+

hunter+ 1895+ "seth+ read"& source=web& ots=_540EB_Xa8& sig=L2OHCI7kvzQ2l582XuF0fvFBMUk). Boston, Mass.. pp. 167 Pages on CD in PDF Format.. . [88] Marvin, p. 425, 436

[89] "Massachusetts Coppers 1787-1788: Introduction" (http:/ / www. coins. nd. edu/ ColCoin/ ColCoinIntros/ MA-Copper. intro. html). University of Notre Dame. . Retrieved 2007-10-09.

[90] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=qJUUAAAAYAAJ& pg=RA1-PA107& lpg=RA1-PA107& dq=Seth+ Reed-+ petition+ to+ mint+

coins+ in+ Massachusetts& source=web& ots=qDWGjJDk6o& sig=aicPPy3A917xqvyTcIGUvuhdbPk& hl=en& sa=X& oi=book_result&

resnum=5& ct=result#PRA1-PA107,M1

[91] "e pluribus unum FAQ #7" (http:/ / 205. 168. 45. 71/ education/ faq/ coins/ portraits. shtml). www.treas.gov. . Retrieved 2007-09-29. [92] Bunce, p. 336 [93] Hayward, p. 322 [94] Clary [95] MTA Bridges [96] Bunker Hill Museum [97] McKenna [98] MA List of legal holidays [99] Somerville Environmental Services Guide [100] University of Massachusetts, Boston, observed holidays [101] Bunker Hill Day closings Battle of Bunker Hill 53

[102] "Commonwealth of Massachusetts FY2011 Budget, Outside Section 5" (http:/ / www. mass. gov/ bb/ gaa/ fy2011/ os_11/ h5. htm). July 14, 2010. . Retrieved August 6, 2010. [103] See the Centennial Book for a complete description of the events. [104] Sesquicentennial celebration [105] New York Times, June 15, 1975

Major sources Most of the information about the battle itself in this article comes from the following sources. • Brooks, Victor (1999). The Boston Campaign. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Publishing. ISBN 1-58097-007-9. OCLC 42581510. • Chidsey, Donald Barr (1966). The Siege of Boston. Boston, MA: Crown. OCLC 890813. • Frothingham, Jr, Richard (1851). History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and

Bunker Hill, Second Edition (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=xl4sAAAAMAAJ). Boston, MA: Charles C. Little and James Brown. OCLC 2138693.

• French, Allen (1911). The Siege of Boston (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=PqZcY9z3Vn4C). New York: McMillan. OCLC 3927532. • Ketchum, Richard (1999). Decisive Day: The Battle of Bunker Hill. New York: Owl Books. ISBN 0-385-41897-3. OCLC 24147566. (Paperback: ISBN 0-8050-6099-5)

Minor sources Specific facts not necessarily covered by the major sources come from the following sources. • Bunce, Oliver Bell (1870). The romance of the revolution: being true stories of the adventures, romantic

incidents, hairbreath escapes, and heroic exploits of the days of '76 (http:/ / books. google. com/

?id=s7ZEAAAAIAAJ& lpg=PA336& dq="John Small" "Bunker Hill"& pg=PA337#v=onepage& q="John Small" "Bunker Hill"). Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. OCLC 3714510.

• Abbatt, William (ed) (1883). The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries, volume 8 (http:/ / books.

google. com/ ?id=k34FAAAAQAAJ). A.S. Barnes. OCLC 1590082. • Alden, John R (1989). A History of the American Revolution. Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-80366-6. • Anderson, William (1863). The Scottish Nation: Or, The Surnames, Families, Literature, Honours, and

Biographical History of the People of , volume 2 (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=otxpAAAAMAAJ&

pg=PA679& dq=Agnew+ cavalry+ Dettingen). Fullarton. OCLC 1290413. • Bardwell, John D (2005). Old Kittery. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-2476-4. • Clinton, Henry; Willcox, William B. (ed) (1954). The American Rebellion: Sir Henry Clinton's Narrative of His

Campaigns, 1775–1782 (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=H2AsAAAAMAAJ). Press. OCLC 1305132. • Graydon, Alexander; Littell, John Stockton (ed) (1846). Memoirs of His Own Time: With Reminiscences of the

Men and Events of the Revolution (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=wvQEAAAAYAAJ). Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. OCLC 1557096.

• Hayward, John (1854). A Gazetteer of the United States of America (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=hlJ_1U2IaAIC). self published. OCLC 68756962. • Jackson, Kenneth T; Dunbar, David S (2005). Empire City: New York Through the Centuries. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-10909-3.

• Melville, Herman (1855). Israel Potter: his fifty years of exile: his fifty years of exile (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=oK4BAAAAQAAJ). G. Routledge. OCLC 13065897. • Richards, Leonard L (2003). Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1870-1. Battle of Bunker Hill 54

• Scheer, George F; Rankin, Hugh F (1987). Rebels and Redcoats: The American Revolution Through the Eyes of Those Who Fought and Lived It. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80307-9. • Winsor, Justin; Jewett, Clarence F (1882). The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County,

Massachusetts, 1630–1880, Volume 3 (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=z64TAAAAYAAJ). James R. Osgood. OCLC 4952179.

• Woodson, Carter Godwin; Logan, Rayford Whittingham (1917). The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2 (http:/ /

books. google. com/ ?id=AECdAAAAMAAJ). Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. OCLC 1782257.

Commemorations Various commemorations of the battle are described in the following sources.

• "Charles River Bridges" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20070928042628/ http:/ / www. masspike. com/ bigdig/

background/ crb. html). Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. Archived from the original (http:/ / www. masspike.

com/ bigdig/ background/ crb. html) on September 28, 2007. Retrieved November 26, 2008.

• "Massachusetts List of Legal Holidays" (http:/ / www. sec. state. ma. us/ cis/ cishol/ holidx. htm). Massachusetts Secretary of State. Retrieved December 16, 2008.

• "Environmental Guide 2008" (http:/ / www. somervillema. gov/ CoS_Content/ documents/

EnvironmentalGuide2008. pdf) (pdf). City of Somerville, Massachusetts. Retrieved February 26, 2009.

• "UMass Boston Holidays observed" (http:/ / www. umb. edu/ faculty_staff/ administration_finance/

Human_Resources/ Benefits/ holidays. html). University of Massachusetts, Boston. Retrieved March 16, 2009.

• "Bunker Hill Day Closings" (http:/ / www. boston. com/ news/ local/ articles/ 2007/ 06/ 18/

bunker_hill_day_closings/ ). Boston Globe. June 18, 2007. Retrieved March 16, 2009. • ), Boston (Mass; Winsor, Justin (1875). Celebration of the centennial anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill

(http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=Z9V3AAAAMAAJ). Boston, MA: Boston City Council. OCLC 2776599. • Celebration of the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1925. Boston, MA: City of Boston. 1925. OCLC 235594934.

• "Bunker Hill Museum" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ bost/ historyculture/ bhmuseum. htm). National Park Service. Retrieved March 17, 2009.

• Clary, David (2007). Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution (http:/ /

books. google. com/ ?id=cgGgAAAACAAJ& dq=adopted+ son). New York City: Bantam Books. pp. 443–448. ISBN 9780553804355. OCLC 70407848.

• Kifner, John (July 15, 1975). "Not Unusual Occurrence: British Take Bunker Hill" (http:/ / proquest. umi. com/

pqdweb?did=118450359& sid=1& Fmt=2& clientId=67991& RQT=309& VName=HNP). New York Times. Retrieved March 17, 2009. (ProQuest document number: 118450359)

• McKenna, Kathleen (June 10, 2007). "On Bunker Hill, a boost in La Fayette profile" (http:/ / www. boston. com/

news/ local/ articles/ 2007/ 06/ 10/ on_bunker_hill_a_boost_in_lafayette_profile/ ). Boston Globe. Retrieved March 17, 2009. Battle of Bunker Hill 55

Further reading • Doyle, Peter (1998). Bunker Hill. Charlottesville, VA: Providence Foundation. ISBN 1-887456-08-2. OCLC 42421560. • Drake, Samuel Adams (1875). Bunker Hill: the story told in letters from the battle field by British Officers

Engaged (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=7jVCAAAAIAAJ& printsec=frontcover). Boston: Nichols and Hall. • Elting, John R. (1975). The Battle of Bunker's Hill. Monmouth Beach, NJ: Phillip Freneau Press. ISBN 0-912480-11-4. OCLC 2867199. • Fast, Howard (2001). Bunker Hill. New York: ibooks inc. ISBN 0-7434-2384-4. OCLC 248511443.

• Swett, S (1826). History of Bunker Hill Battle, With a Plan, Second Edition (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=QM3KyrZKnZAC). Boston, MA: Munroe and Francis. OCLC 3554078. This book contains printings of both Gage's official account and that of the Massachusetts Congress.

External links

Pages about the battle

• Library of Congress page about the battle (http:/ / memory. loc. gov/ ammem/ today/ jun17. html)

• Bunker Hill Web Exhibit (http:/ / www. masshist. org/ bh) of the Massachusetts Historical Society

• SAR Sons of Liberty Chapter list of colonial fallen at Bunker Hill (http:/ / revolutionarywararchives. org/

bunkerfallen. html)

• SAR Sons of Liberty Chapter description of the battle (http:/ / revolutionarywararchives. org/ bunkerhillbattle. html) • The Battle of Bunker Hill: Now We Are at War, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP)

lesson plan (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ history/ NR/ twhp/ wwwlps/ lessons/ 42bunker/ 42bunker. htm)

• TheAmericanRevolution.org description of the battle (http:/ / theamericanrevolution. org/ battles/ bat_bhil. asp)

• BritishBattles.com description of the battle (http:/ / www. britishbattles. com/ bunker-hill. htm)

• Animated History of the Battle of Bunker Hill (http:/ / www. revolutionarywaranimated. com/ bunnker-hill)

Pages about people in the battle

• WGBH Forum Network-Patriots of Color:Revolutionary Heroes (http:/ / www. forum-network. org/ wgbh/

forum. php?lecture_id=1251& state=afn)

• Israel Putnam Website (http:/ / www. israelputnam. com/ index. html)

• Genealogy of Captain Samuel Cherry, who fought at Bunker Hill (http:/ / www. jhowell. com/ tng/ getperson.

php?personID=I1956& tree=1) • Dr. John Hart, Regimental Surgeon of Col Prescott's Regiment who treated the wounded at Bunker Hill

Other external pages

• Boston National Historical Park Official Website (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ bost/ ) Battle of Chelsea Creek 56 Battle of Chelsea Creek

The Battle of Chelsea Creek was the second military engagement of the Boston campaign of the American Revolutionary War. It is also known as the Battle of Noddle's Island, Battle of Hog Island and the Battle of the Chelsea Estuary. This battle was fought on May 27 and 28, 1775, on Chelsea Creek and on salt marshes, mudflats, and islands of Boston Harbor, northeast of the Boston peninsula.[1] Most of these areas have since been united with the mainland by land reclamation and are now part of East Boston, Chelsea, Winthrop, and Revere. The British colonists met their goal of strengthening the siege of Boston by removing livestock and hay on those islands from the reach of the British regulars. The British armed schooner Diana was also destroyed and its weaponry was appropriated by the Colonial side. This was the first naval capture of the war, and it was a significant boost to the morale of the Colonial forces.

Background The Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 drew thousands of militia forces from throughout New England to the towns surrounding Boston. These men remained in the area and their numbers grew, placing the British forces in Boston under siege when they blocked all land access to the peninsula. The British were still able to sail in supplies from Nova Scotia, Providence, and other places because the harbor side of the city remained under British naval control.[2] Colonial forces could do little to stop these shipments due to the naval supremacy of the British fleet and the complete absence of a Continental Navy in the spring of 1775.[3] However, there was one remaining local area that continued to supply the British forces in Boston after the war began. Farmers to the east of the city in coastal areas and on the Boston Harbor islands found themselves vulnerable once the siege began because they were exposed to British influence from the sea. If they continued to sell livestock to the regulars they would be viewed as Loyalists in the eyes of the Patriots, but if they refused to sell then the British would consider them rebels and raiding parties would simply take what they wanted.[4] On May 14, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety under Joseph Warren issued the following order: Resolved, as their opinion, that all the live stock be taken from Noddle's Island, Hog Island, Snake Island, and from that part of Chelsea near the sea coast, and be driven back; and that the execution of this business be committed to the committees of correspondence and selectmen of the towns of Medford, Malden, Chelsea, and Lynn, and that they be supplied with such a number of men, as they shall need, from the regiment now at Medford.[4] A few days before the battle, Warren and General Artemas Ward, commander of the besieging forces, inspected Noddle's Island and Hog Island, which lay to the northeast of Boston, and east of Charlestown. They found no British troops there but plenty of livestock. The animals in other coastal areas had been moved inland by their owners.[2] On May 21, the British had sailed troops to Grape Island in the outer harbor near Weymouth to get hay and livestock, and had been driven off by militia mustered from the nearby towns, which then removed the livestock and burned the hay on the island.[5] The British Navy around occupied Boston was under the command of Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves. The were under the command of Major John Pitcairn. The British forces as a whole were led by Governor General Thomas Gage.[6] Graves had, in addition to hay and livestock, hired storage on Noddle's Island for a variety of important naval supplies, which he felt were important to preserve, owing to the "almost impossibility of replacing them at this Juncture."[7] Battle of Chelsea Creek 57

Prelude to Battle

Vice-Admiral Graves, apparently acting on intelligence that the Colonials might make attempts on the islands, posted guard boats near Noddle's Island. These were longboats that included detachments of Marines.[7] Sources disagree as to whether or not any regulars or marines were stationed on Noddle's Island to protect the naval supplies.[8] The "regiment now at Medford" mentioned by the Committee of Safety was Colonel John Stark's 1st New Hampshire Regiment of about 300 men stationed near Winter Hill with its headquarters in Medford.[9] [10] Taking his instructions from General Ward, Stark and his regiment crossed the bridge over the Mystic River just after midnight on May 27. Their route took them far to the north of Chelsea Creek through Malden and parts of what are now the towns of Everett and Revere. Additional local men most likely Colonel John Stark led the Colonial [9] expedition. joined them during their march. Hog Island was accessible at low tide from the east by fording Belle Isle Creek near the current location of Belle Isle Marsh Reservation.[2] This crossing was effected without Graves' guard boats taking notice.[7]

Stark began to move his force to Hog Island at about 10 am and directed most of his men to round up livestock there while he forded Crooked Creek to Noddle's Island with a group of thirty men. Stark's small contingent on Noddle's Island scattered into small groups, killed the animals they could find, and set fire to haystacks and barns.[2]

Battle

Islands The British first took notice when they spotted the smoke from the burning hay. Vice-Admiral Graves on his flagship, HMS Preston saw smoke from the burning hay at about 2 pm, and signaled for the guard marines to land on Noddle's island, which they did, engaging Stark's scattered forces. Graves also ordered the schooner Diana, under the command of his nephew Lieutenant Thomas Graves, to sail up Chelsea Creek to support the operation and cut off the colonists' escape.[7] Eventually, a combined force of roughly 400 marines was landed, formed ranks and began to systematically drive Stark's men back to the east. The colonists fled without fighting until they reached Crooked Creek. There they dropped into marshy ditches and fired on their pursuers from strong defensive positions.[2] A pitched battle followed, in which the colonists "Squat[t]ed down in a Ditch on the ma[r]sh" and engaged in "a hot fiar untill the Regulars retreated".[11] The Marines withdrew from their positions to the interior of Noddle's Island, and Stark's men left Crooked Creek to join the main body of his forces on Hog Island. Diana and the other vessels continued northeast up Chelsea Creek in pursuit. By sunset, hundreds of cattle, sheep, and horses had been driven from Hog Island to the mainland.[2] Also around sunset, Diana turned about in an attempt to avoid being trapped in the shallows of the creek. However, Lieutenant Graves realized he would require assistance, and raised a signal. Vice-Admiral Graves ordered barges manned by marines into the creek to tow Diana out, along with the sloop Britannia, tender of HMS Somerset (under the command of another of Graves nephews, Lieutenant John Graves) to assist and provide additional firepower.[11] It must be noted that sources disagree on the timing of the dispatching of the various vessels. A number of sources (Frothingham and A Documentary History of Chelsea among them) claim that Diana, Britannia, and the barges were all dispatched together;[12] [13] Nelson and Ketchum, possibly on the basis of more recent research, claim the account as told above.[11] [14] Battle of Chelsea Creek 58

Mainland coast

Some of Stark's men were engaged in driving the livestock further up the coast. Others noticed that Diana was in trouble, and called for reinforcements.[11] General Putnam and as many as 1000 troops (including Joseph Warren) came up on the shore near Diana, a place at the mouth of Chelsea Creek, in the modern Chelsea neighborhood by the McArdle bridge to East Boston.[15] Putnam waded out into the harbor up to his waist and offered quarter to the sailors of Diana if they would surrender, but its cannon continued to fire, and attempts to tow her into deeper water continued. Colonial forces continued firing on the ship, supported by two field pieces positioned on the shore. Britannia and field pieces the British had landed on Noddle's Island also joined the cannonade.[16] At about 10 pm, the British rowers were forced to abandon the rescue of Diana due to the heavy fire. Diana drifted and ran aground again on the Mystic River side of the Chelsea Thomas Graves, who commanded Diana, went coast, tipping onto one side. Lieutenant Graves abandoned Diana and on to become an admiral in the Royal Navy. transferred his men to Britannia, which was successfully towed to deeper water.[2]

American forces boarded Diana and rapidly removed everything of value, including guns, rigging, sails, clothing, and money. They laid hay under the stern to serve as kindling, and the vessel was set on fire at about 3 am to prevent it from falling back into British hands.[17] The guns recovered were probably used in the American positions during the Battle of Bunker Hill.[18]

Aftermath This skirmish was apparently the first use of field pieces by the Colonists in the American Revolution. They suffered no fatalities, with only a small number of wounded, and their morale was greatly boosted by the successful capture and destruction of Diana. The action was also a boost to Israel Putnam, whose appointment by the Second Continental Congress as a General in the Continental Army was unanimously approved, in part due to reports of this skirmish.[19] General Gage was understated in his casualty report to London: "Two men were killed and a few wounded."[] Others, however, apparently exaggerated, reporting large casualties: "The regulars were said to have suffered very much, not to have had less than two hundred killed and wounded. The loss was probably greatly exaggerated; that, however, had a good effect on the provincials. The affair was a matter of no small triumph to them and they felt upon the occasion more courageous than ever."[] Gage ordered cannon mounted on Copp's Hill in Boston, and Vice-Admiral Graves moved the Somerset, which had been stationed in the shallow waters between Boston and Charlestown, into deeper waters to the east of Boston, where it would have improved maneuverability if fired upon from land.[] He also belatedly sent a detachment of regulars to secure Noddle's Island; the Colonists had long before removed or destroyed anything of value on the island.[20] Battle of Chelsea Creek 59

Geographic changes

In the years since the American Revolution, the geography of the Boston area has undergone significant expansion, and the islands named Hog and Noddle's are no longer islands. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the channel that separated Noddle's and Hog was filled in,[21] and that between Hog Island and the mainland was filled in over the first half of the 20th century.[22] In terms of modern geography, the Orient Heights neighborhood of East Boston is the present location of Hog Island,[23] and much of the remainder of East Boston is what was then Noddle's Island.[24] A satellite image of East Boston. The narrow neck visible in the upper left is the boundary While occasional attempts have been made to locate the remains of the between Noddle's and Hog Island. The boundary Diana in Chelsea Creek, which has been extensively dredged and between Hog Island and the mainland is out of industrialized in the years since the battle, no wrecks found in that shot to the north. body have been identified as hers. In 2009, the National Park Service gave funds for an state-led effort to locate the wreck.[25]

Notes [1] In 1775, unlike today, Boston was a peninsula. Much land was filled around the Boston peninsula, primarily in the 19th century. See the history of Boston for details. [2] McKay [3] Callo, pp. 22–23. Formal naval organization did not begin until Washington took command in June 1775. [4] A Documentary History of Chelsea, p. 431 [5] Frothingham, p. 108 [6] Beatson, p. 61 [7] Nelson, p. 18 [8] Nelson, p. 18 claims that no troops were stationed on Noddle's. Ketchum, p. 69, implies as much. A Documentary History of Chelsea states (in testimony from British General Charles Sumner) that marines were present on the island. [9] A Documentary History of Chelsea, pp. 442–443

[10] "Chelsea Historical Society page about the battle" (http:/ / www. olgp. net/ chs/ war/ second. htm). . Retrieved 2007-08-15. [11] Ketchum, p. 69 (spelling in original) [12] Frothingham, p. 109 [13] A Documentary History of Chelsea, p. 443 [14] Nelson, p. 19 [15] Kales, p. 88 [16] Ketchum, p. 72 [17] A Documentary History of Chelsea, p. 438 [18] Ketchum, p. 91 [19] A Documentary History of Chelsea, p. 437 [20] Morrissey, p. 50 [21] Seasholes, p. 367 [22] Seasholes, pp. 364, 379 [23] Register of Old Suffolk Chapter, p. 24 [24] Shurtleff, p. 440 [25] LeBlanc (2009) Battle of Chelsea Creek 60

References • Beatson, Robert;Lygon Beauchamp, William (1804). Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to

1783 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=EZwFAAAAIAAJ). 4. Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme. ISBN 9780839801894. • Callo, Joseph F (2006). : America's First Sea Warrior. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781591141020. • Chamberlain, Mellen; Watts, Jenny C.; Cutter, William, R.; Massachusetts Historical Society (1908). A Documentary History of Chelsea: Including the Boston Precincts of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen

Point 1624-1824 Volume II (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=sJclBFtbTqgC& pg=PA442). University Press. OCLC 1172330.

• French, Allen (1911). The Siege of Boston (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=PqZcY9z3Vn4C). McMillan. OCLC 3927532. • Frothingham, Jr, Richard (1851). History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and

Bunker Hill (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Cu9BAAAAIAAJ). Little and Brown. OCLC 221368703. • Kales, David (2004). The Phantom Pirate: Tales of the Irish Mafia and the Boston Harbor Islands. AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781418459987. • Ketchum, Richard M (1999). Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill. Macmillan. ISBN 9780805060997.

• LeBlanc, Steve (July 20, 2009). "In Chelsea, hunt is on for remains of lost Revolutionary War ship" (http:/ /

www. boston. com/ news/ local/ massachusetts/ articles/ 2009/ 07/ 20/

in_chelsea_hunt_is_on_for_remains_of_lost_revolutionary_war_ship/ ). Associated Press/Boston.com. Retrieved 2009-07-20. • McKay, Robert D (1928). The Battle of Chelsea Creek: An account of the second engagement of the American Revolution, May 27, 1775. Chelsea Evening Record. • Morrissey, Brendan (1995). Boston 1775: The Shot Heard Around the World. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781855323629. • Nelson, James L (2008). George Washington's Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 9780071493895. • Sons of the American Revolution Massachusetts society, Old Suffolk chapter (1901). Register of Old Suffolk Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, 1900 ... Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop, Massachusetts: Chelsea,

Revere and Winthrop, Massachusetts (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=yrBYAAAAMAAJ). W. Spooner. • Seasholes, Karen (2003). Gaining Ground. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-19494-5.

• Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet (1871). A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston (http:/ / books.

google. com/ books?id=UWkUAAAAYAAJ). Boston City Council.

Further reading • The above-cited Documentary History of Chelsea, in addition to the analysis and recounting of this action based

on reliable accounts, contains in an appendix (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=sJclBFtbTqgC& pg=PA442#PPA643,M1) a variety of first-person accounts that vary considerably in their quality and reliability. • Henry Harrison Metcalf, John Norris McClintock (eds), Oris Grant Hammond (compiler) (1918). The Granite

State Monthly, volumes 50-51 (1918-1919) (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=mstYAAAAMAAJ& pg=PA120). Granite Monthly Co. This bound periodical contains an account of the action. Noble train of artillery 61 Noble train of artillery

Noble train of artillery

An ox team hauling Ticonderoga's guns Participants Henry Knox

Location British provinces of New York and Massachusetts Bay

Date November 17, 1775– January 25, 1776

Result Fortification of Dorchester Heights

The noble train of artillery, also known as the Knox Expedition, was an expedition led by Continental Army Colonel Henry Knox to transport heavy weaponry that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga to the Continental Army camps outside Boston, Massachusetts during the winter of 1775–1776. Knox went to Ticonderoga in November 1775, and, over the course of 3 winter months, moved 60 tons[1] of cannons and other armaments by boat, horse and ox-drawn sledges, and manpower, along poor-quality roads, across two semi-frozen rivers, and through the forests and swamps of the lightly inhabited Berkshires to the Boston area.[2] [3] Historian Victor Brooks has called Knox's feat "one of the most stupendous feats of logistics" of the entire American Revolutionary War.[4] The route by which Knox moved the weaponry is now known as the Henry Knox Trail, and the states of New York and Massachusetts have erected markers along the route.

Background Shortly after the American Revolutionary War broke out with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, Benedict Arnold, a militia leader from Connecticut who arrived with his unit in support of the Siege of Boston, proposed to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety that Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain in the Province of New York, be captured from its small British garrison. One reason he gave to justify the move was the presence at Ticonderoga of heavy weaponry. On May 3, the committee gave Arnold a Massachusetts colonel's commission and authorized the operation.[5] The idea to capture Ticonderoga had also been raised to Ethan Allen and the in the disputed territory (present-day Vermont).[6] Allen and Arnold joined forces, and on May 10 a force of 83 men captured the fort without a fight. The next day a detachment of men captured the nearby Fort Crown Point, again without combat.[7] Arnold began to inventory the two forts for usable military equipment.[8] Hampered by a lack of resources and conflict over command of the forts first with Allen, and later with a Connecticut militia company sent to hold the fort in June, Arnold eventually abandoned the idea of transporting the armaments to Boston and resigned his commission.[9] Noble train of artillery 62

Expedition planning In July 1775 George Washington assumed command of the forces outside Boston.[10] One of the significant problems he identified in the nascent Continental Army there was a lack of heavy weaponry, which made offensive operations virtually impossible. While it is uncertain exactly who proposed the operation to retrieve the Ticonderoga cannon (biographers tend to credit either Knox or Arnold with the giving Washington the idea), Washington eventually chose the young Henry Knox for the job.[11] Knox, a 25-year-old bookseller with an interest in military matters, served in the Massachusetts militia, and become good friends with Washington on his arrival at Boston. When Washington gave Knox the assignment, he wrote that "no trouble or expense must be spared to obtain them."[12] On November 16 Washington issued orders to Knox to retrieve the cannon (and authorized £1000 for the purpose), and wrote to General asking him to assist Knox in the endeavour.[13] Washington's call for the weapons was echoed by the Second Continental Congress, which issued Knox a colonel's commission in November that did not reach him until he returned from the expedition.[14]

Knox departed Washington's camp on November 17, and after traveling to New York City for supplies, reached Ticonderoga on December 5. The night before Henry Knox later in life his arrival, at Fort George at the southern end of Lake George, he shared a cabin with a young British prisoner named John André. André had been taken prisoner during the Siege of Fort St. Jean and was on his way south to a prison camp. The two were of a similar age and temperament, and found much common ground to talk about.[15] It was not to be their last meeting; the next time they met Knox presided over the court martial that convicted and sentenced André to death for his role in Benedict Arnold's treasonous behavior.[16]

Sources

The primary sources for much of the daily activity in this journey are Knox's diary and letters. While his description of some of the events and dates is detailed, there are significant gaps, and significant portions of the journey, especially much of the Massachusetts section, are poorly documented. Some of these gaps occur because Knox did not write about them, and others because pages are missing from the diary.[17] While there are other sources that confirm some of Knox's details or report additional details, parts of the route are not known with certainty, and modern descriptions (including the placement of markers for the Henry Knox Trail) of those The apparent route of the expedition, overlaid on a 1779 map parts are based on what is known about roads across Massachusetts at the time.[18] Noble train of artillery 63

Albany Knox arrived at Ticonderoga on December 5, and immediately set about identifying the equipment to take, and organize its transport.[19] He selected 59 pieces of equipment include cannons ranging in size from four to twenty-four pound, mortars, and howitzers. He estimated the total weight to be transported at 119,000 pounds (about 60 tons, or 54 metric tons). The largest pieces, the twenty-four pound "Big Berthas", were 11 feet (3.4 m) long and estimated to weigh over 5000 pounds (2300 kg).[12] The equipment was first carried overland from Ticonderoga to the northern end of Lake George, where most of the train was loaded onto a scow-like ship called a gundalow.[12] On December 6, the gundalow set sail for the southern end of the lake, with Knox sailing ahead in a small boat. Ice was already beginning to cover the lake, but the gundalow, after grounding once on a submerged rock, reached Sabbath Day Point. The next day they sailed on, again with Knox sailing ahead. While he reached Fort George in good time, the gundalow did not appear when expected. A boat sent to check on its progress reported that the gundalow had foundered and sunk not far from Sabbath Day Point. While this at first appeared to be a serious setback, Knox's brother William, captain of the gundalow, reported that she had foundered, but that her gunnels were above the water line, and that she could be bailed out. This was done, the ship was refloated, and two days later the gundalow arrived at the southern end of the lake.[20] On December 17 Knox wrote to Washington that he had built "42 exceeding strong sleds, and have provided 80 yoke of oxen to drag them as far as Springfield",[21] and that he hoped "in 16 or 17 days to be able to present your Excellency a noble train of artillery".[19] Knox then set out toward Albany ahead of the train. At Glens Falls, he crossed the frozen Hudson River, and proceeded on through Saratoga, reaching New City (present-day Lansingburg), just north of Albany, on Christmas Day. Two feet (0.6 m) of snow fell that day, slowing his progress as the snow-covered route needed to be broken open. The next day, again slowed by significant snow in the ground, he finally reached Albany. There he met with General Philip Schuyler, and the two of them worked over the next few days to locate and send north equipment and personnel to assist in moving the train south from Lake George. While the snowfall was sufficient for the use of sleds to move the train overland, the river ice was still too thin to move it over the Hudson. Knox and his men tried to accelerate the process of thickening General Philip Schuyler the river ice by pouring additional water on top of existing ice. By January 4, the first of the cannon had arrived at Albany. On the route toward Albany, and again on crossing the Hudson heading east from there toward Massachusetts, cannons crashed through the ice and fell into the river. In every instance the cannon was recovered. On January 9 the last of cannons had crossed the Hudson, and Knox rode ahead to oversee the next stage of the journey.[22] Noble train of artillery 64

Crossing the Berkshires

Details of the remaining journey are sketchy, as Knox's journal ends on January 12. He reached the vicinity of Claverack, New York on January 9, and proceeded through the Berkshires, reaching Blandford, Massachusetts two days later.[23] There the lead crew refused to continue owing to a lack of snow and the upcoming steep descent to the valley. Knox hired additional oxen and persuaded the recalcitrant crew to continue. As the train moved further east, news of its travel spread, and people from area towns came out to watch it pass. In Westfield, Knox loaded one of the big guns with powder and fired it to the applause of the assembled crowd.[24]

At Springfield Knox had to hire new work crews, as his New York-based crews wanted to return home.[25] John Adams reported seeing the artillery train pass through Framingham on January 25. Two days later, Knox arrived in Cambridge and personally reported to 19th-century drawing depicting the arrival of the Washington that the artillery train had arrived. According to Knox's weapons. accounting he spent £521 on an operation he had hoped would take two weeks, that instead took ten weeks to complete.[26]

Arrival Further information: Fortification of Dorchester Heights When the equipment began to arrive in the Boston area, Washington, seeking to end the siege, formulated a plan to draw at least some of the British out of Boston, at which point he would launch an invasion of the city across the Charles River. Pursuing this plan, he placed cannon from Ticonderoga at Lechmere's Point and Cobble Hill in Cambridge, and on Lamb's Dam in Roxbury.[27] These batteries opened fire on Boston on the night of March 2, while preparations were made to fortify the Dorchester Heights, from which cannon could threaten both the city and the British fleet in the harbor. On the night of March 4 Continental Army troops occupied this high ground.[28] [29] British General William Howe first planned to contest this move by assaulting the position, but a snowstorm prevented its execution. After further consideration, he decided instead to withdraw from the city. On March 17, British troops and Loyalist colonists boarded ships and sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia.[30] Henry Knox went on to become the chief artillery officer of the Continental Army, and later served as the first United States Secretary of War.[31] An engraving depicting the evacuation of British troops from Boston Noble train of artillery 65

Legacy To commemorate Knox's achievement, at the time of its sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) the states of New York and Massachusetts both placed historical markers along the route he was believed to have taken at the time. In 1972 markers in New York were moved when new information surfaced about the train's movements between Albany and the state boundary. Most of the markers in Massachusetts are along a route the train was assumed to take, given the sparsity of documentation and what was known about roads in Massachusetts at the time.[32]

Notes [1] Ware (2000), p. 18 [2] Ware (2000), pp. 19–24 [3] N. Brooks (1900), p. 38 [4] V. Brooks (1999), p. 210 [5] Martin (1997), pp. 63–65 [6] Martin (1997), p. 67 [7] Martin (1997), pp. 70–73 [8] Martin (1997), p. 76 [9] Martin (1997), pp. 80–95 [10] N. Brooks (1900), p. 32 [11] See for example: N. Brooks, p. 38, and Martin, p. 106. This trend is visible in other biographies of Knox and Arnold, although Knox is more likely to be explicitly credited. [12] Ware (200), p. 19 [13] N. Brooks (1900), pp. 38–39 [14] N. Brooks (1900), p. 34 [15] Callahan (1958), p. 39 [16] Callahan (1958), p. 40 [17] See the diary contents at Knox (1876), pp. 322-326 [18] See e.g. the inventory record for marker 21 on the trail. [19] N. Brooks (1900), p. 40 [20] Ware (200), p. 20 [21] Ware (2000), pp. 21-22 [22] Knox (1867), pp. 323-324. Callahan (1958), pp. 46-50 [23] Knox (1867), p. 325 [24] Ware (2000), p. 24 [25] Callahan (1958), p. 54 [26] Drake (1873), p. 23 [27] V. Brooks (1999), p. 224 [28] French (1911), p. 406 [29] V. Brooks (1999), p. 225 [30] V. Brooks (1999), pp. 228–230 [31] Drake (1873), pp. 21, 127 [32] Knox Trail official New York site

References • Brooks, Noah (1900). Henry Knox, a Soldier of the Revolution: Major-general in the Continental Army, Washington's Chief of Artillery, First Secretary of War Under the Constitution, Founder of the Society of the

Cincinnati; 1750–1806 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=S5wcAAAAMAAJ). New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC 77547631. • Brooks, Victor (1999). The Boston Campaign. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Publishing. ISBN 1-58097-007-9. OCLC 42581510. • Callahan, North (1958). Henry Knox: General Washington's General. New York: Rinehart.

• Drake, Francis Samuel (1873). Life and correspondence of Henry Knox (http:/ / books. google. com/

books?id=qkRsqkHRcO0C& pg=PA21#v=onepage). S. G. Drake. OCLC 2358685. Noble train of artillery 66

• French, Allen (1911). The Siege of Boston (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=PqZcY9z3Vn4C). New York: Macmillan. OCLC 3927532. • Martin, James Kirby (1997). Benedict Arnold: Revolutionary Hero (An American Warrior Reconsidered). New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-5560-7. (This book is primarily about Arnold's service on the American side in the Revolution, giving overviews of the periods before the war and after he changes sides.)

• Knox, Henry; Waters, Henry Fitz-Gilbert (ed) (1876). Henry Knox's Diary (http:/ / books. google. com/

books?id=nS_5UjIFfJ0C& dq=Henry Knox diary& lr=& pg=RA1-PA321#v=onepage& q=Henry Knox diary& f=false). New England Historical and Genealogical Register. • Ware, Susan (2000). Forgotten Heroes: Inspiring American Portraits from Our Leading Historians. Portland, OR: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780684868721. OCLC 45179918.

• "Knox Trail official New York site" (http:/ / www. nysm. nysed. gov/ services/ KnoxTrail/ ). New York State Museum. Retrieved 2010-01-08.

• "Knox Trail marker 21" (http:/ / www. nysm. nysed. gov/ services/ KnoxTrail/ ktsignm21. html). New York state Museum. Retrieved 2010-01-08.

External links

• HMDB listing of commemorative markers (http:/ / www. hmdb. org/ results. asp?SeriesID=92)

Fortification of Dorchester Heights

The Fortification of Dorchester Heights was a decisive action early in the American Revolutionary War that precipitated the end of the siege of Boston and the withdrawal of British troops from that city. On March 4, 1776, troops from the Continental Army under George Washington's command occupied Dorchester Heights, a series of low hills with a commanding view of Boston and its harbor, and mounted powerful cannons there. General William Howe, commander of the British forces occupying the city, considered contesting this act, as the cannon threatened the town and the military ships in the harbor. After a snowstorm prevented execution of his plans, Howe decided instead to withdraw from the city. The British forces, accompanied by Loyalists who had fled to the city during the siege, left the city on March 17 and sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Background The siege of Boston began on April 19, 1775, when, in the aftermath of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Colonial militia surrounded the city of Boston.[1] Benedict Arnold, who arrived with Connecticut militia to support the siege, told the Massachusetts Committee of Safety that cannons and other valuable military stores were stored at the lightly defended Fort Ticonderoga, and proposed its capture. On May 3, the Committee gave Arnold a colonel's commission and authorized him to raise troops and lead a mission to capture the fort.[2] Arnold, in conjunction with Ethan Allen, his Green Mountain Boys, and militia forces from Connecticut and western Massachusetts, captured the fort and all of its armaments on May 10.[3] After George Washington took command of the army outside Boston in July 1775, the idea of bringing the cannons from Ticonderoga to the siege was raised by Colonel Henry Knox. Knox was eventually given the assignment to transport weapons from Ticonderoga to Cambridge. Knox went to Ticonderoga in November 1775, and, over the course of 3 winter months, moved 60 tons[4] of cannons and other armaments by boat, horse and ox-drawn sledges, and manpower, along poor-quality roads, across two semi-frozen rivers, and through the forests and swamps of the lightly inhabited Berkshires to the Boston area.[5] [6] Historian Victor Brooks has called Knox's feat "one of the most stupendous feats of logistics" of the entire war.[7] Fortification of Dorchester Heights 67

Geography and strategy The British military leadership, headed by General William Howe, had long been aware of the importance of the Dorchester Heights, which, along with the heights of Charlestown, had commanding views of Boston and its outer harbor. The harbor was vital to the British, as the Royal Navy, at first under Admiral Samuel Graves, and later under Admiral Molyneux Shuldham,[8] provided protection for the troops in Boston, as well as transportation of supplies to the besieged city. Early in the siege, the British planned to seize both of these heights, beginning with those in Dorchester, which had a better view of the harbor than the Charlestown hills. It was the leaking of this plan that precipitated events leading to the Battle of Bunker Hill.[9] When Washington took command of the siege in July 1775, he considered taking the unoccupied Dorchester Heights, but rejected the idea, feeling the army was not ready to deal with the likely British attack on the position.[10] The subject of an attempt on the heights was again discussed in early February 1776, but the local Council of Safety believed the British troop strength too high, and important military supplies like gunpowder too low, to warrant action at that time.[11] By the end of February, Knox had arrived with the cannon from Ticonderoga, as had additional supplies of powder and shells.[12] Washington decided the time was right to act.

Fortification

Washington first placed some of the heavy cannons from Ticonderoga at George Washington at Dorchester Lechmere's Point and Cobble Hill in Cambridge, and on Lamb's Dam in Heights by Gilbert Stuart, 1806 Roxbury.[13] As a diversion against the planned move on the Dorchester Heights, he ordered these batteries to open fire on the town on the night of March 2, which fire the British returned, without significant casualties on either side. These cannonades were repeated on the night of March 3, while preparations for the taking of the heights continued.[14]

On the night of March 4, 1776, the batteries opened fire again, but this time the fire was accompanied by action.[15] General John Thomas and about 2,000 troops quietly marched to the top of Dorchester Heights, hauling entrenching tools and cannon placements. Hay bales were placed between the path taken by the troops and the harbor in order to muffle the sounds of the activity. Throughout the night, these troops and their relief labored at hauling cannon and building earthworks overlooking the town and the harbor. General Washington was present to provide moral support and encouragement, reminding them that March 5 was the sixth anniversary of the Boston Massacre.[16] By 4 am, they had constructed fortifications that were proof against small arms and grapeshot. Work continued on the positions, with troops cutting down trees and constructing abbatis to impede any British assault on the works.[15] The outside of the works also included rock-filled barrels that, while appearing to be a part of the defensive structure, could be rolled down the hill at attacking troops.[17]

"The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in a month." [18] General Howe, March 5, 1776 Washington anticipated that General Howe and his troops would either flee or try to take the hill,[19] an action that would have probably been reminiscent of the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was a disaster for the British.[20] If Howe decided to launch an attack on the heights, Washington planned to launch an attack against the city from Cambridge. As part of the preparations, he readied two floating batteries and boats sufficient to carry almost 3,000 troops.[21] Washington's judgment of Howe's options was accurate; they were exactly the options Howe considered. Fortification of Dorchester Heights 68

British reaction Admiral Shuldham, commander of the British fleet, declared that the fleet was in danger unless the position on the heights was taken. Howe and his staff then determined to contest the occupation of the heights, and made plans for an assault, preparing to send 2,400 men under cover of darkness to attack the position.[22] Washington, notified of British movements, increased the forces on the heights until there were nearly 6,000 men on the Dorchester lines.[23] However, a snow storm began late on March 5 and halted any chance of a battle for several days.[24] By the time the storm subsided, Howe reconsidered launching an attack, reasoning that preserving the army for battle elsewhere was of higher value than attempting to hold Boston.[25] Howe, through intermediaries, informed Washington that the city would not be burned to the ground if his troops were allowed to leave unmolested.[26] After several days of activity, and several more of bad weather, the British forces departed Boston by sea on March 17 and sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, taking with them more than 1,000 Loyalist civilians.[27]

Legacy

The fortifications on the Heights were maintained through the end of the war, and then abandoned. During the War of 1812, the Heights were refortified and occupied against potential British invasion. Following that war, the fortifications were completely abandoned, and, in the later years of the 19th century, the Dorchester hills were used as a source of fill for Boston's expanding coastline.[28]

In 1902, following revived interest in the local history, a monument was constructed on the (remaining) high ground in what is now .[28] The large Irish population in the area was also instrumental in having March 17 (which is also Saint Patrick's Day) named as the Evacuation Day holiday in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, which includes the city of Boston.[29] [30] The Dorchester Heights Monument, completed in The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, 1902 and in 1978 came under the administration of the National Park Service as part of Boston National Historical Park.[28]

Notes [1] Frothingham (1903), pp. 91–93 [2] Palmer (2006), pp. 84–85 [3] Palmer (2006), pp. 88–90 [4] Ware (2000), p. 18 [5] Ware (2000), pp. 19–24 [6] N. Brooks (1900), p. 38 [7] V. Brooks (1999), p. 210 [8] Frothingham (1903), p. 292 [9] French (1911), p. 254 [10] Frothingham (1903), p. 218 [11] Frothingham (1903), pp. 290–291 [12] Frothingham (1903), p. 295 [13] V. Brooks (1999), p. 224 [14] French (1911), p. 406 [15] V. Brooks (1999), p. 225 [16] Gilman (1876), p. 59 [17] V. Brooks (1999), p. 226 Fortification of Dorchester Heights 69

[18] Frothingham (1903), p. 298 [19] Frothingham (1903), p. 296 [20] Frothingham (1903), p. 194. British win, but suffer over 1,000 casualties. [21] French (1911), p. 390 [22] French (1911), p. 412 [23] V. Brooks (1999), p. 229 [24] Frothingham (1903), pp. 298–300 [25] V. Brooks (1999), p. 231 [26] Frothingham (1903), pp. 303–305 [27] Frothingham (1903), p. 311 [28] National Park Service [29] O'Connor, p. 124 [30] MA List of legal holidays

References • Brooks, Noah (1900). Henry Knox, a Soldier of the Revolution: Major-general in the Continental Army, Washington's Chief of Artillery, First Secretary of War Under the Constitution, Founder of the Society of the

Cincinnati; 1750–1806 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=S5wcAAAAMAAJ). New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. OCLC 77547631. • Brooks, Victor (1999). The Boston Campaign. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Publishing. ISBN 1-58097-007-9. OCLC 42581510.

• French, Allen (1911). The Siege of Boston (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=PqZcY9z3Vn4C). New York: Macmillan. OCLC 3927532. • Frothingham, Richard (1903). History of the Siege of Boston, and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and

Bunker Hill: Also an Account of the Bunker Hill Monument (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Cu9BAAAAIAAJ). Boston: Little, Brown. OCLC 221368703. • Gilman, Arthur; Dudley, Dorothy; Greely, Mary Williams (1876). Theatrum Majorum: The Cambridge of 1776

(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=CYQUAAAAYAAJ). Cambridge, MA: Lockwood, Brooks. OCLC 4073105. • O'Connor, Thomas H. (1994). South Boston, My Home Town: The History of an Ethnic Neighborhood. Boston: UPNE. ISBN 9781555531881. OCLC 29387180. • Palmer, Dave Richard (2006). George Washington and Benedict Arnold: A Tale of Two Patriots. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 9781596980204. OCLC 69027634. • Ware, Susan (2000). Forgotten Heroes: Inspiring American Portraits from Our Leading Historians. Portland, OR: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780684868721. OCLC 45179918.

• "Massachusetts List of Legal Holidays" (http:/ / www. sec. state. ma. us/ cis/ cishol/ holidx. htm). Massachusetts Secretary of State. Retrieved 2008-12-16.

• "NPS page for Dorchester Heights" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ bost/ historyculture/ dohe. htm). National Park Service. Retrieved 2009-01-12. Article Sources and Contributors 70 Article Sources and Contributors

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Siege of Boston Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=461964822 Contributors: AlexiusHoratius, Andrwsc, Antandrus, Assawyer, Az81964444, Barts1a, Beland, Bender235, Biruitorul, Bluemoose, Bongwarrior, Bped1985, Bree123, Caltas, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Centrx, Civil Engineer III, ColWilliam, Condem, Conrad Dorku, CrabCakesX, Czmtzc, Debivort, Dick Kimball, Driftwood87, Dukeofomnium, Falcon8765, FartSniffer, Fingers-of-Pyrex, Flux.books, Flyerhell, Flying Jazz, Galoubet, Gdr, GreenReaper, Harland1, Historybuff483s, Hmains, Ilikepie2221, Intothewoods29, J.delanoy, J04n, Jabamula, Jaraalbe, Jeff G., Jojhutton, Jp347, Jubbie13, JustAGal, Kaiba, Kalki, Ken Gallager, Kevin Myers, Kieran4, Kingpin13, Koavf, Ktalon, Leandrod, Lockesdonkey, Lord Cornwallis, LouI, M2545, Magicpiano, Mandarax, Marc29th, Marco polo, Markhamman, Mboverload, Meeeeeeeeee123, Mentifisto, Midnightdreary, MisfitToys, Mkoyle, Nehrams2020, Nick C, Nick Number, North Shoreman, Num1dgen, Paweł ze Szczecina, Peloneous, Peruvianllama, Philip Baird Shearer, Piledhigheranddeeper, Pinkadelica, Postdlf, Profitoftruth85, PurpleHz, RHB, Rawling, Red4tribe, Rjwilmsi, Rklisowski, Roy Al Blue, Ryuhaku, Seba5618, Shadowjams, Shauni, Shoreranger, Slinga, Spellcast, Synergy, Syrthiss, Tabletop, Tide rolls, Tim!, Tirronan, Tony1, Trevor MacInnis, Trip Johnson, WikiParker, Wild Wolf, WilliamKF, Wittyname, Yankee529, YellowTurban, Zengar Zombolt, Zurishaddai, 154 anonymous edits

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Battle of Chelsea Creek Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=442171491 Contributors: Andrwsc, CommonsDelinker, Emeraude, Flying Jazz, Frietjes, JustAGal, Koavf, MJ94, Magicpiano, Micah taylor, Mìthrandir, Natl1, Red4tribe, Rjwilmsi, Ryuhaku, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, Sewnmouthsecret, Swampyank, Tabletop, The Thing That Should Not Be, The ed17, Tim!, Trip Johnson, Wwoods, 24 anonymous edits Article Sources and Contributors 71

Noble train of artillery Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=431120554 Contributors: Az81964444, Chris the speller, John of Reading, Koavf, Lowellian, Magicpiano, 3 anonymous edits

Fortification of Dorchester Heights Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=456997593 Contributors: Alansohn, Andrwsc, BlueMoonlet, Bobblehead, Chris the speller, Civil Engineer III, Danwild6, Frietjes, GraemeL, Greatdane1995, HansHermans, Historybuff483s, Hmains, Jabamula, Jackyd101, John254, Joshua Scott, Kbandy, Kevin Myers, Kieran4, KyraVixen, Magicpiano, Mandarax, Megapixie, Metarhyme, Neutrality, Nixeagle, Oneiros, Raime, Reach Out to the Truth, Red4tribe, Shell Kinney, Storm Rider, Tim!, Trevor MacInnis, Trip Johnson, WikiParker, WilliamKF, Wittyname, 53 anonymous edits Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 72 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:North Bridge Fight Detail.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:North_Bridge_Fight_Detail.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Amos Doolittle (engraver) and Ralph Earl.. Original uploader was Flying Jazz at en.wikipedia. Later version(s) were uploaded by Dumarest at en.wikipedia. File:Boston, 1775bsmall1.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Boston,_1775bsmall1.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Sir Thomas Hyde Page File:Washingtoncongress.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Washingtoncongress.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Currier & Ives File:Surrender of General Burgoyne.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Surrender_of_General_Burgoyne.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Davepape, Dspark76, Huntj, Jappalang, Magicpiano, Mbdortmund, Michael Devore, Neutrality, PericlesofAthens, Rcbutcher, Teofilo, UpstateNYer, 9 anonymous edits File:Boston_1775.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Boston_1775.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: J. DeCosta File:Powder House 2.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Powder_House_2.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Erik Edson File:Thomas Gage.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Thomas_Gage.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: not specified File:Francis Smith.jpeg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Francis_Smith.jpeg License: Public Domain Contributors: FalconL, Magicpiano, Man vyi, Sebastian Wallroth, 2 anonymous edits File:Margaret Kemble Gage.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Margaret_Kemble_Gage.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Ardfern, Frank C. Müller, Infrogmation, Kilom691, Léna, Magicpiano, Mattes, Sebastian Wallroth, Shakko, TFCforever, Thorvaldsson File:Concord Expedition and Patriot Messengers.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Concord_Expedition_and_Patriot_Messengers.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: United States National Park Service. Original uploader was Flying Jazz at en.wikipedia File:Lexington Concord Siege of Boston.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lexington_Concord_Siege_of_Boston.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Clindberg, Flying Jazz, Gaius Cornelius, Jeff G., M2545, Magicpiano, Nonenmac, Urban, 3 anonymous edits File:Battle of Lexington Detail.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Battle_of_Lexington_Detail.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Amos Doolittle (engraver), Ralph Earl. Original uploader was Flying Jazz at en.wikipedia. Later version(s) were uploaded by Dumarest at en.wikipedia. File:British Army in Concord Detail.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:British_Army_in_Concord_Detail.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Amada44, Magicpiano, Sfan00 IMG, Smooth O, Verica Atrebatum, 4 anonymous edits File:Old North Bridge, Concord, Massachusetts, July 2005.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Old_North_Bridge,_Concord,_Massachusetts,_July_2005.JPG License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Daderot at en.wikipedia File:Minuteman statue 3 - Old North Bridge.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Minuteman_statue_3_-_Old_North_Bridge.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Dave Pape File:Concord Retreat.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Concord_Retreat.png License: Public Domain Contributors: National Park Service. Original uploader was Irayo at en.wikipedia File:Minute Man Statue Lexington Massachusetts.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Minute_Man_Statue_Lexington_Massachusetts.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Magicpiano, Man vyi, Postdlf, Urban, Wst File:Percy's Rescue at Lexington Detail.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Percy's_Rescue_at_Lexington_Detail.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Amos Doolittle (engraver) and Ralph Earl.. Original uploader was Flying Jazz at en.wikipedia. Later version(s) were uploaded by Dumarest at en.wikipedia. File:Percys return.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Percys_return.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: J. De Costa. Original uploader was Flying Jazz at en.wikipedia File:Jason Russell House - Arlington, Massachusetts.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jason_Russell_House_-_Arlington,_Massachusetts.JPG License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: Daderot File:Minuteman statue 1 - Old North Bridge.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Minuteman_statue_1_-_Old_North_Bridge.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Dave Pape File:Washington at Cambridge 1925 Issue-2c.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Washington_at_Cambridge_1925_Issue-2c.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: US Post Office File:Lexington and Concord-2c.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lexington_and_Concord-2c.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: US Post Office File:Lexington Concord-5c.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lexington_Concord-5c.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Gwillhickers File:Siege of Boston.Dean.USMA.edu.history.gif Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Siege_of_Boston.Dean.USMA.edu.history.gif License: Public Domain Contributors: History Department, United States Military Academy File:Fort Ticonderoga 1775.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Fort_Ticonderoga_1775.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Heppenheimer & Maurer File:Bunker Hill by Pyle.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bunker_Hill_by_Pyle.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Bukk, Cecil, Concord, Howcheng, Krinkle, Magicpiano, Man vyi, Mattes, Quibik, Shauni, 4 anonymous edits File:Washingtoncommandarmy.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Washingtoncommandarmy.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: C. Rogers File:Siegeofbostonartillery.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Siegeofbostonartillery.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: M.A. Wageman File:Bunker hill first attack.gif Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bunker_hill_first_attack.gif License: Public Domain Contributors: ILoveFuturama, J Clear, Magicpiano, Will Pittenger, 1 anonymous edits File:Bunker hill second attack.gif Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bunker_hill_second_attack.gif License: Public Domain Contributors: ILoveFuturama, Magicpiano File:Bunker hill final attack.gif Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bunker_hill_final_attack.gif License: Public Domain Contributors: ILoveFuturama, Magicpiano, 5 anonymous edits File:Bunker Hill Monument 2005.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bunker_Hill_Monument_2005.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5 Contributors: MECU (self) File:Map of the Battle of Bunker Hill area.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Map_of_the_Battle_of_Bunker_Hill_area.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: George E Ellis File:AttackBunkerHill.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:AttackBunkerHill.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Engraving by Lodge after the drawing by Millar Image:New England pine flag.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:New_England_pine_flag.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was IMeowbot at en.wikipedia Image:Bunker Hill Flag.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bunker_Hill_Flag.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was DevinCook at en.wikipedia (Original text : DevinCook (talk)) File:bunkerhillclipper.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bunkerhillclipper.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Contributors: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pantufla/ File:Statue of william prescott in charlestown massachusetts.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Statue_of_william_prescott_in_charlestown_massachusetts.jpg License: unknown Contributors: Unknown; Sculptor: William Wetmore Story (1819–1895) File:John stark.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:John_stark.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: CommonsDelinker, Daderot, Kilom691, Sebastian Wallroth, Wknight94 File:ThomasGravesBHC2722 700.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:ThomasGravesBHC2722_700.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: w:James NorthcoteJames Northcote File:KBOS Aerial NGS.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:KBOS_Aerial_NGS.jpg License: unknown Contributors: Original uploader was Cleared as filed at en.wikipedia Image:HenryKnox.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:HenryKnox.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Connormah, Magicpiano, Sadads, Signaleer, Spellcast, WikiParker, 3 anonymous edits Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 73

Image:HenryKnoxTrail.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:HenryKnoxTrail.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Contributors: Claude Sauthier, User:Magicpiano, authors of File:Blank US Map.svg Image:Schuyler.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Schuyler.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Mirror-image copy of a portrait of Philip Schuyler. Painted by Jacob H. Lazarus (1822-91) from a miniature painted by John Trumbull Image:Henry Knox entering camp with artillery cph.3g09060.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Henry_Knox_entering_camp_with_artillery_cph.3g09060.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: William H. van Ingen, b. Image:SiegeBoston.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:SiegeBoston.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: J. Godfrey after M.A. Wageman File:WashingtonAtDorchesterHeightsByStuart.jpeg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:WashingtonAtDorchesterHeightsByStuart.jpeg License: Public Domain Contributors: Docu, Jacklee, Magicpiano, Mogelzahn, Pitke, Teofilo File:Dorchester Heights Monument (Boston, MA) - general view.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Dorchester_Heights_Monument_(Boston,_MA)_-_general_view.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Jet Lowe. License 74 License

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