Tag: Chelsea

Over the past few episodes, we’ve seen how Massachusetts troops drove the British back from Concord and Lexington to Boston, then created elaborate siege lines that kept the redcoats bottled up in the city, while the Americans controlled the surrounding countryside. 250 years ago this week, the focus of the war shifted from land to sea, with the British leveraging the immense tactical advantage that their navy gave them in projecting power on the ocean and along the coast. To try to offset the hardship of the American siege, the British used their naval power to find food in the Boston Harbor Islands, first on Grape Island, near today’s Weymouth and Hingham, then at Noddles and Hog Islands, which form most of today’s East Boston. At Grape Island, the Americans put up a spirited but largely ineffective defense, but the skirmish we remember as the battle of Chelsea Creek became an important turning point for the Americans. This was the first operation where soldiers from different colonies worked together in a coordinated effort; the first time the rebellious New Englanders used artillery in battle; and the first time Americans engaged and actually captured a British warship.

Continue reading Boston’s Forage War (episode 327)