Hot Siege Summer (episode 334)

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Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to Hub History, where we go far beyond the freedom trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the hub of the universe.

Introduction to Hot Siege Summer

Jake:
[0:14] This is episode 334, Hot Siege Summer. Hi, I’m Jake. Rather than focusing on one big event in Boston’s revolutionary-era history, this week I’m going to take a step back and talk about how the Siege of Boston unfolded during the summer of 1775, 250 years ago. After the Battle of Bunker Hill in June, the Siege of Boston reverted to a stalemate. While Benedict Arnold led some of the Continentals north from Cambridge into Canada, and Henry Knox tried to wrestle Fort Ticonderoga’s cannons south from upstate New York into Cambridge, there wasn’t a lot of action around Boston. There were some raids and skirmishes back and forth across the front lines as each side tried to extend their defenses, but no pitched battles were fought for the rest of the summer.

Jake:
[1:08] Instead, as we’ll see this week, the focus shifted to preparation. With riflemen from the far western frontier in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland joining the lines, with Continentals building new forts to consolidate their siege lines, and with the Redcoats venting their frustrations on Boston’s Liberty Tree. We’ll also see how the new Continental Commander-in-Chief, George Washington, could barely be restrained from ordering a direct frontal assault on the superior British force in Boston. even though there wasn’t enough ammunition in the Continental camp to go around.

Thank You to Our Supporters

Jake:
[1:45] But before we talk about Boston’s hot siege summer, I just want to pause and say thank you to everyone who supports Hub History financially.

Jake:
[1:55] After almost nine years of making this show, as it’s evolved, lost our co-host Emerita Nikki, and gone through a few rounds of format changes, I’m always amazed when I run into an actual listener out there in the real world. Obviously, I know you’re there. I look at our download numbers, I imagine you’re listening to my voice while you fold the laundry or ride the tee to work or try to fall asleep at night, but it’s still always a surprise.

Jake:
[2:24] I’m also incredibly humbled that some of you not only listen, but you actually like the show enough to use your hard-earned American dollars to help me make the show. An average episode of Hub History takes a pretty significant investment of time, between deciding on a topic, tracking down sources, and then writing a script, recording it, and editing the result down into something you’d like to hear. I’m happy to invest that time, but unfortunately it also takes cash to make a podcast. Our listener supporters cover the cost of web hosting and security, online audio processing tools, research databases, AI tools, of course our podcast media host, and I appreciate each of you. To everybody who’s already supporting the show, thank you. And if you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start, it’s easy. Just go to patreon.com slash hubhistory, or visit hubhistory.com and click on the support us link. And thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

Main Topic: The Siege of Boston

Jake:
[3:28] And now it’s time for this week’s main topic. I’ve kind of been rushing to put this episode together because I’m supposed to be on vacation during the week leading up to its release, and I’m really hoping to take a vacation from podcast work as well as my real job. In the meantime, I’m also editing episode 333 while I’m writing this, and I’m trying to put together the finishing touches on a talk about the song John Brown’s Body for History Camp. And so I’m going to sprinkle in a few stories and details from the siege of Boston as it unfolded 250 years ago this month, at the height of the siege in August 1775.

The Arrival of Frontier Riflemen

Jake:
[4:05] In the last episode, we talked about the controversy over recruiting black troops. And in the next one, we’re going to talk about the Rifleman’s Mutiny. This week, let’s just take stock of how the siege of Boston was going 250 years ago this month. You might not have heard about this in your history classes, but on September 12th, 1775, the London Public Advertiser published a letter from a British officer in occupied Boston, reporting on the total defeat of the Americans on August 7th.

Jake:
[4:37] I shall give you some account of a most glorious victory obtained by the King’s troops over the rebel army on the seventh instant. Early in the morning, General Gage detached 5,000 chosen men under the command of General Howe. It being dark when we began our march, and the carelessness of the enemy’s advanced guard favoring our design, we were close at the enemy’s lines before they had the least knowledge of our motion. The consternation that ensued upon the discovery is not easily described, nor shall I attempt it. That through the bravery of our officers and the intrepidity of our soldiers, we force the enemy’s entrenchments with a slaughter dreadful to think of.

Jake:
[5:20] I was surprised not to have ever heard of this decisive battle, since it was fought on a similar scale to Bunker Hill, and ended with the resounding defeat of the Americans. Then I realized that the battle was imaginary. It was a London publisher who was hungry for news, who decided to print a letter without fact-checking the bombshell within. It’s a good thing, too, because the imaginary outcome of this fight was rough on the Americans, and it seems to have broken the siege of Boston. The number of the enemy killed is not exactly known, but we have made 2,500 prisoners, amongst whom are General Putnam, General Lee, and several other officers of rank in the rebel army, who, in general, behaved with great resolution during the engagement. Our loss is very considerable, as the manner in which we attacked them into such immediate confusion on all sides that they were unable to make any great resistance. We have about 150 men killed and as many wounded. We have taken a considerable quantity of ammunition in military stores, as well as their cannon, and everything in the camp. What will be the consequence of this overthrow is not yet known, but it has so far disabled the rebels that it will be impossible for them to again take the field for some time.

Jake:
[6:40] Back in the real world, the American Revolution was basically a local squabble until late July or early August 1775, with Massachusetts militia forming the core of the New Continental Army and some reinforcements coming in from neighboring New England colonies. The first troops to come to Boston’s aid from outside New England were frontier rifle companies from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Pennsylvania would send six, and Maryland and Virginia would each send two.

Jake:
[7:09] The Virginians would have to cover the most ground, and the two companies would end up racing each other to have the honor of being first to the Continental Camp in Cambridge.

Jake:
[7:19] The first company to depart Virginia was commanded by Daniel Morgan, a veteran of the Seven Years’ War who’d survived both a bullet wound in combat and the 500 lashes that he’d received from his British commanding officer for insubordination. Later in the war, he’d rise to the rank of Brigadier General, but when Virginia agreed to contribute troops to the siege of Boston, they commissioned Morgan as a captain of infantry. A 19th century biographer wrote, Morgan, burning with ardor, lost no time in delay. In less than 10 days after the receipt of his commission, he raised a company of 96 young, hardy woodsmen, full of spirit and enthusiasm, and practiced marksmen with the rifle. On July 15th, his company marched out of Winchester, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. They arrived in Cambridge 21 days later, having maintained a remarkable pace of 28 miles per day, covering about 484 miles on foot. They beat the other Virginia company to Cambridge, but they also left earlier. While Morgan’s riflemen were already heading north, Captain Hugh Stevenson was organizing his company in what’s now Shepherdstown, West Virginia. In an article published in April, Historic Shepherdstown writes.

Jake:
[8:42] On July 17th, they rallied at Morgan’s Spring, not far from the area near Shepherdstown, now known as Morgan’s Grove Park, and began their march to Massachusetts. Covering the 600-mile distance in just 25 days, they arrived at Cambridge on August 11th. This remarkable feat became known as the Beeline March.

Jake:
[9:04] In the show notes this week, I’ll link to a very cool story map created by Historic Shepherdstown. It tracks the Beeline March from the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, across Maryland, near the Civil War battlefield of Antietam, through nearly all of eastern Pennsylvania, across New Jersey, and into New York at New Windsor, where the Continentals would make their last camp eight years later, and finally through Connecticut to Cambridge. At each stop, the story map includes historic images and a passage from the wartime diary of 22-year-old Sergeant Henry Bettinger. Arriving at the Continental Camp in Cambridge on August 11th, Sergeant Bettinger writes, Friday, 11th August, was viewed by Generals Washington, Gates, and a number of other gentlemen, was prevailed upon to breakfast with the Commissary General, Trumbull. Thince went to see the fort’s prospect and winter hills. Saw many curiosities. Every place was full of people, most of them in tents.

Jake:
[10:12] Our next episode is going to be all about the trouble that these riflemen caused in the Continental Camp when they started getting bored. So it seemed like a good idea to include the story of their beeline march in this episode. Now, the other secret reason I included all these details of the Beeline March is that I’m rushing to put this episode together because I’ll be spending the week that it comes out in West Virginia, just a couple hours from Shepardstown, so it seems very appropriate.

Fortifications and Strategies

Jake:
[10:42] By August of 1775, the lines that these frontier riflemen were joining consisted of a pretty sophisticated series of hilltop fortifications that were linked by trenches and other obstacles, sweeping in a rough arc from Prospect Hill, just outside Union Square in today’s Somerville, through Harvard Square, across the Charles River, and down to the Roxbury High Fort on a hill near Jackson Square in today’s Jamaica Plain. On August 9th, a visitor from Pennsylvania toured the Patriot Lines and gave this description. We viewed the lines and were truly amazed at the extent and grandeur of the works, considering the short time in which they had been erected. The whole works, from Winter Hill to Dorchester Neck, form a kind of semicircle around Boston. Winter Hill being the northernmost, next comes Prospect Hill, very properly named for the fine prospect it affords from its summit of the towns of Boston and Charlestown, the latter now in ashes, and nothing to be seen of that fine town but chimneys and rubbish, having been burnt, as you know, about the 20th of June by the British barbarians.

Jake:
[11:55] It affords also a distinct view of Bunkers Hill, about one mile distant therefrom. To the southward of this hill is a chain of breastworks and redoubts till you come to Cambridge River, from whence it is continued along by Roxbury and Dorchester Neck, being in the whole extent, as near as I can judge, about eight miles. The two hills appear to me almost impregnable, having forts within breastworks strongly picketed, and in many places planted with heavy cannon. Add to these their natural strength from their great elevation.

Jake:
[12:29] In a letter to John Adams, dated September 11, 1775, James Warren gives an update on military affairs around Boston, including the difficulties of commanding riflemen, which we’ll dig into in the next episode. He also describes the strength of the Continental lines after one more hilltop fort was completed to extend the Patriot perimeter to the banks of the Mystic River. The works on Plowed Hill are thought to be impregnable. They’ve fired at them and Roxbury till they tired themselves, and have now in a manner ceased. We seldom hear a cannon, though the natural effusions of resentment and disappointment now and then give us an instance, harmless enough for they never injure us.

Jake:
[13:14] The works on Ploughed Hill are this new fort. Describing where Ploughed Hill was in Charlestown can be more than a little bit confusing. In the 1820s, the name of the hill was changed to Mount Benedict in honor of the Ursuline Convent that was built on its summit. You can hear more about the convent and the wildly anti-Catholic riot that burned it to the ground in episode 122. Then in 1842, Somerville split off from Charlestown, leaving Mount Benedict in East Somerville. And then finally, most of the hilltop was cut down in the late 19th century and used to fill in the salt marshes along the banks of the Mystic. That’s actually probably the best landmark, because those salt marshes are now the Assembly Square Mall. Right across I-93 from Assembly Square is a narrow triangle, bounded by the Interstate and Mystic Ave on the northeast, Broadway to the southwest, and the McGrath Highway on the narrow west side.

Jake:
[14:17] In 1775, the hill had a clear view of the river below, so putting a few cannons in this new fort could deter any British attempt to sail up the Mystic River. It was also basically within range of the British trenches on Bunker Hill, so it could reinforce the continental garrison on Prospect Hill and keeping the British contained in Charlestown. Most of the work to fortify this riverside overlook was done overnight on the night of August 26th and during the day on the 27th. When the Boston Gazette was published on the 28th, it already carried news of this development, which is a much faster turnaround than you’d see in most newspapers at the time. I guess it helps that the action was taking place just a few blocks from the newsroom in Cambridge.

Jake:
[15:02] Last Saturday night, about 2,000 of the United Troops of this continent entrenched on what’s called Plowed Hill, within point-blank shot of the enemy. And notwithstanding a continual fire from them almost all yesterday, we had only two killed and two wounded. Vis-a-vis, Adjutant Mumford of Rhode Island and another man killed. Mr. William Simpson, a volunteer of Pennsylvania, lost a leg, and another man wounded. Neither dangerous.

Jake:
[15:31] We have not heard how many the enemy lost, though tis said one officer and several men were seen to fall. That article appeared right under coverage of the imprisonment of the well-known Caesar Marion, which was the topic of our last episode, and right above notice that another company of the riflemen, who will prove so troublesome in our next episode, had arrived in Cambridge. This one from Maryland under Michael Cresop. At the time of publication, William Simpson was not considered in danger of death, but that could change quickly in the era before modern medicine. The major who commanded Simpson’s Pennsylvania Rifle Company adds this detail of the work on Plowed Hill. Poor Billy Simpson was the only person who suffered of hours. He had his foot and ankle shot off by a cannonball as he lay behind a large apple tree, watching for an opportunity to fire at the enemy’s advanced guard. There appears no danger of his recovery.

Jake:
[16:32] In a 2019 article about the effort to fortify Ploughed Hill, J.L. Bell points out that after Private Simpson died, he had the honor of being the first soldier from outside New England to give his life in the American Revolution. One of the 2,000 United troops of this continent who was ordered onto Ploughed Hill on the night of August 26th was Caleb Haskell. Private Haskell enlisted in Newburyport on May 5th for a term of one year. By the time he returned home at the end of May 1776, he was a grizzled veteran of Benedict Arnold’s doomed march through the Maine and Quebec wilderness to the St. Lawrence, of the frontal assault on Quebec City on New Year’s Day, and of the bitter siege that followed the failed attack. In August 1775, however, he was still learning to be a soldier. His company had stood sentry duty many times, but they had not been engaged at Chelsea Creek or Bunker Hill or any of the other battles that we remember.

Jake:
[17:34] On Saturday, August 26th, he got noticed to be ready to march to Plowed Hill that night to dig trenches, while a covering party defended the laborers. His diary entry the next day says, August 27th, Sunday. At sunrise, the covering party marched off. The fatigue men were relieved. Meaning the ones who had worked all night, continue entrenching, and not in the least disturbed, till three o’clock, when the enemy began to cannonade us from Bunker Hill and floating batteries, which continued all day. The sentries engaged with small arms most of the day. We sunk a floating battery belonging to the enemy and disabled another with our cannon at Temple’s Wharf. Our sentries, riflemen and Indians, killed and wounded a number of the enemy today.

Jake:
[18:28] The next day, Haskell was ordered back onto Ploughed Hill to stand guard, and the next couple of weeks seemed to be fairly evenly divided between standing guard on Ploughed Hill, digging on Ploughed Hill, and sitting around the camp in Cambridge, bored. On September 9th, he was ordered to stand guard on Ploughed Hill overnight, and then the next morning he was put on fatigue duty, digging trenches on the hill. That might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, because that afternoon he volunteered for the expedition to Quebec with Arnold.

The Fate of Boston’s Liberty Tree

Jake:
[19:00] Around the last week of August 1775, Boston lost its liberty tree. For a decade, the old elm that spread its branches over Deacon John Elliott’s yard, what’s now the corner of Washington and Essex streets, right in front of the Chinatown Tea Station, where the Chinatown Registry used to be, had been the focal point for protests in Boston. That’s where radicals had hung the stamp agents in effigy in 1765, and where they returned to celebrate after the repeal of the Stamp Act. It’s where a customs commissioner’s boat was burned during the Liberty Affair in 1768, and where popular sentiment demanded that the tea consignees should resign their positions in 1773. It’s where the South End Gang and the North End Gang would meet and brawl and burn effigies of the Pope in honor of Guy Fawkes’ Day. And by 1775, it was commonly used as a landmark, with even some British companies ordered to rally, quote, between the General’s House and the Liberty Tree in case of a general attack by the Patriots.

Jake:
[20:11] This ancient elm tree was reported to have been planted in 1646, and it had long been a focal point for protest before it even got its name. When the Boston Newsletter reported on celebrations in Boston in September 1765, after George Mazurve announced that he no longer planned to act as an agent for the hated stamp tax, the story included this detail of the rally held at the Old Elm. On the body of the largest tree was fixed with large deck nails that it might last, as a poet said, like the oaken bench to perpetuity, a copper plate with these words stamped thereon in golden letters, the Tree of Liberty, August 14th, 1765. A report of these decorations collected a great many of the inhabitants who were at leisure, where they were saluted with the firing of a number of chambers and regaled with a plenty of liquor.

Jake:
[21:08] Loyalists in Boston didn’t have such warm feelings about Liberty Tree. It represented the general triumph of the Whigs in the political sphere, and with an unmistakable air of impending doom hanging over the besieged redcoats, the tree became a reminder of a coming catastrophe.

Jake:
[21:26] Sometime around the 20th to the 30th of August 1775, they took out their aggressions with axes. Right below a brief story about how strong the entrenchments on Ploughed Hill were, and how the frontier riflemen can now fire on the British lines at Charlestown Neck with impunity, the New England Chronicle of August 31st relates that the enemies to liberty in America, headed by Tom Gage, lately gave a notable specimen of their hatred to the very name of Liberty. A party of them, of whom when Job Williams was the ringleader a few days since, repaired to a tree at the south end of Boston known by the name of Liberty Tree, and armed with axes, made a furious attack upon it. After a long spell of laughing and grinning, sweating, swearing and foaming with malice diabolical, they cut down a tree because it bore the name of Liberty. But be it known to this infamous band of traitors that the Grand American Tree of Liberty, planted in the center of the United Colonies of North America, now flourishes with unrivaled, increasing beauty, and bids fair, in a short time, to afford under its widespreading branches a safe and happy retreat for all the Sons of Liberty, however numerous and dispersed.

Jake:
[22:49] A week later, the next edition of the same paper added that, A soldier, in attempting to dismantle one of its branches, fell on the pavements, by which he was instantly killed.

Jake:
[23:02] Merely chopping down Boston’s Liberty Tree was not enough to drain its symbolic power. And as the story I just quoted makes clear, its destruction became a propaganda coup for the Patriots. Long after the Redcoats had evacuated Boston, the corner of Essex and what was then Orange Street remained a rallying point for patriots. Now, though, they would direct friends to meet at the Liberty Stump, and not at Liberty Tree. Even a half-century later, when Lafayette paraded through Boston during his 1825 American tour, he venerated the stump of Liberty Tree as he passed it.

Jake:
[23:43] Here’s an example of why I love scanning through the old newspapers in the Harbottle Door collection. Right under the story about the Redcoat getting killed when he tried to chop up the Liberty Tree is a notice that John Hancock of Boston had married Dorothy Quincy of Braintree. There’s also a story about some British deserters who wandered into the continental camp at Roxbury in hopes of switching sides, and another story about a British sergeant who went duck hunting in Malden and managed to get himself captured. In his diary, British Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s Own Regiment reports on an aborted attack that, if it had been carried out, had the potential to turn the outcome of the war.

Plans for an Assault on Boston

Jake:
[24:26] Six months later, the siege of Boston would be broken when the Continentals hauled the cannons that Henry Knox brought down from Fort Ticonderoga to the top of Dorchester Heights, where they could easily fire on the city or on the British ships in the harbor. If things had gone ever so slightly differently, that might never have been possible, as the British had plans to take these same heights. As we learned about in my conversation with Mike Troy about Bunker Hill back in June, the Patriots took over Bunker Hill on an attempt to deny the high point to the British. But the Redcoats had planned to take both Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights in June of 1775.

Jake:
[25:08] Lt. Barker’s diary shows that they didn’t give up on that plan easily. In an entry that seems to be dated August 24, 1775, though it’s not 100% clear and might actually be from July, the officer writes, The expedition to attack Dorchester Hill was to have been today at 6 o’clock in the morning. All the troops on this side were drawn out and paraded on the hill, and some marched into the road. This was to alarm the rebels on this side and keep off their attention. But soon after, we heard it was put off. The general hearing they had got intelligence and had reinforced that place with 4,000 men. General George Washington was also considering an attack that, had it been carried out, could have turned the tide of war, but probably not in the direction that the general wanted it to. By late August and early September, summer was nearing its end, and the Continentals had to decide what they would do when this season turned to fall and then a long New England winter. Their intelligence said that the British weren’t planning a general offensive to try to break the siege until they received reinforcements from London, which probably meant spring by the time messages and troops could pass back and forth across the Atlantic.

Jake:
[26:27] Most of the Continentals had enlisted for a term that would expire at the end of the calendar year, and recruiting new troops was not keeping up. Even if he could keep his soldiers in camp, General Washington didn’t know how he would provide them with blankets and warm clothes, how he would feed them, and whether there would be any warm barracks for them to sleep in or whether they’d have to shiver in tents through the winter.

Winter Approaches: A Council of War

Jake:
[26:53] Washington called his generals together for a council of war on September 11, 1775. This was one of his favorite leadership techniques, especially early in the war, as he was learning to trust his officers and advisors. He would gather his officers, present them with a few options that he was mulling over, and get them to vote on it. The first one was held on July 9th, just a few days after he officially took command of the Continental Army. At that one, he took stock of the relative troop strength of his army and general gauges, evaluated the defensive positions the Continentals were holding, and considered whether to extend the lines to Dorchester Heights, which they decided they were not strong enough to pull off just quite yet. The Council of War on September 11th was mostly concerned with how to handle the approaching winter. Washington sent a letter on September 8th laying out the questions he wanted to consider or some of the pro and con arguments for each one. I wish more of my customers would send me such a detailed agenda before I actually get into the meeting. Good job, George.

Jake:
[28:03] The primary purpose of the September Council of War, according to this letter, was, To know whether, in your judgments, we cannot make a successful attack upon the troops in Boston by means of boats, cooperated by an attempt upon their lines at Roxbury. The success of such an enterprise depends, I well know, upon the all-wise disposer of events, and is not within the reach of human wisdom to foretell the issue. But if the prospect is fair, the undertaking is justifiable, under the following, among other reasons which may be assigned.

Jake:
[28:39] Then, the reasons he listed are largely what I already mentioned. He didn’t know where they’d get barracks for the men, and he anticipated that the firewood costs would be extravagant, while the soldiers would still probably destroy fences, forests, orchards, and possibly even houses to get wood to keep themselves warm. He worried about whether they’d be able to recruit troops to stay beyond the end of the year, and if they could, how the Continental Congress would manage to pay for uniforms and blankets for both sets of troops. His letter noted that the troops under his command were quickly using up all the remaining gunpowder, and he didn’t know where more was going to come from. But he also did not believe that an amphibious assault on a fortified city would exhaust the remaining reserve of ammunition. After laying out the prose, the latter doesn’t really elaborate on a list of cons, but he does conclude, These, among many other reasons which might be assigned, induced me to wish a speedy finish of the dispute. But, to avoid these evils, we are not to lose sight of the difficulties, the hazard, and the loss that may accompany the attempt, nor what will be the probable consequences of a failure.

Jake:
[29:53] On Monday, September 11th, 1775, General Washington called his council to order. In attendance were Major Generals Israel Putnam, Artemis Ward, and Charles Lee, and Brigadier Generals John Thomas, William Heath, John Sullivan, Joseph Spencer, and Nathaniel Green. As an astute leader, Washington deliberately asked his aides not to keep detailed minutes of the debates that occurred in these councils of war, just the eventual outcome. The official record of the September 11th Council says, After duly weighing the above proposition, considering the state of the enemy’s lines and the expectation of soon receiving some important advices from England, it was unanimously agreed that it was not expedient to make the attempt, at present at least.

Jake:
[30:46] One can imagine that the officers who’d been present for the Battle of Bunker Hill weren’t as sanguine as Washington about the likelihood of carrying out a successful attack by boat on a fortified city defended by one of the most powerful militaries in the world, with only limited ammunition. The shortage of arms and ammunition was so severe that soon, much of the continental garrison would be reduced to drilling with pikes, essentially just long spears, in case of a British attack on the lines. I think there’s a pretty good chance that we’d all be bowing to King Charles today if the generals hadn’t been able to talk Washington down from his idea for an amphibious assault on Boston.

Jake:
[31:28] That still left a lot of details to work out, though. A few weeks later, on October 8th, the general called another council of war. At this one, the officers debated enlistment periods, pay, clothing, rations, and, as we discussed in the last episode, whether to allow black recruits to enlist in the new army. The idea of an assault on Boston just wouldn’t go away, though. In another council of war on October 18th, the officers considered and rejected a request from the Continental Congress that an attack upon Boston, if practicable, was much desired. The subject returned again in the mid-January council of war with the officers, agreeing unanimously that a vigorous attempt ought to be made upon the ministerial army in Boston as soon as practicable, all concurring circumstances favoring the wished-for success. Just, you know, not right now, because they didn’t really have enough people or guns.

Jake:
[32:33] February 1776, the tide was turning. Washington and his generals knew that a windfall of cannons was on its way down from Fort Ticonderoga, and they were racing against the clock. Certainly redcoat reinforcements would arrive in Boston Harbor as soon as the dangers of a wintertime crossing subsided.

Jake:
[32:53] Then the harbor froze over solid, and George saw an opportunity. He called yet another council of war on February 16th to consider the proposition that a stroke well aimed at this critical juncture might put a final end to the war and restore peace and tranquility so much to be wished for. And as a part of Cambridge and Roxbury bays were so frozen as to admit an easier entry into the town of Boston than could be obtained by either water or through the lines at the neck, the general desired to know the sentiments of the general officers respecting a general assault upon the town. He estimated the British strength in Boston at about 5,000 men under arms, and the Continental roster stood at almost 8,800 troops, though his generals thought they had fewer combat-effective troops and that the British had more. The Continental still didn’t have enough gunpowder to equip the troops for an effective assault, and they didn’t have enough cannons or powder to bombard the British lines to soften them up ahead of an attack across the ice.

Jake:
[33:57] Even if they could get Fort Ticonderoga’s cannons set up ahead of the assault, the British could always fall back onto their transport ships in the harbor and stay out of range while the Continentals bombarded Boston into oblivion and then simply come back on shore when the Patriots ran out of ammunition. In the end, the council voted that an assault upon the town of Boston in the present circumstances of the Continental Army is judged improper.

Jake:
[34:27] However, their decision also contained the kernel of an idea that would lead to the British evacuation of Boston in March 1776, and the effective independence of New England months ahead of the rest of the colonies.

Preparing for Dorchester Heights

Jake:
[34:40] The minutes of this Council of War conclude, In the meantime, preparations should be made to take possession of Dorchester Hill, with a view of drawing out the enemy. That’s a topic that we’ll certainly return to in March next year, as a recounting of the revolution in Boston nears its conclusion with Evacuation Day.

Conclusion and Show Notes

Jake:
[35:02] To learn more about Boston’s hot siege summer, check out this week’s show notes at hubhistory.com slash 334. I’ll have a link to that really cool story map from historic Shepherdstown showing the route that Virginia Rifleman took on their beeline march to the Continental Camp at Cambridge, as well as an article from Smithsonian Magazine about the same march. I’ll link to the fake news of the total defeat of the Continentals in Boston that ran out of London newspaper in September, as well as to British Lieutenant John Barker’s diary entry describing the attack on Dorchester Heights that never happened. I’ll also have links to letters and news stories about the new fort on Plowed Hill, and a link to Caleb Haskell’s diary where he describes the work of building it. Finally, I’ll link to news about the destruction of Boston’s Liberty Tree and the minutes of George Washington’s councils of war in July, September, and October 1775 and January and February 1776. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hubhistory.com. You can reach out to at hubhistory on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or to at hubhistoryatbetter.bostononmastodon.

Jake:
[36:24] The best place to look for an active social engagement is Blue Sky, where you can find me as hubhistory.com. Social media aside, the very best way to get in touch with us is to go to hubhistory.com and click on the Contact Us link. While you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do, drop me a line, and I’ll send you a Hub History sticker as a token of appreciation. That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.