Revolutionary War 250

Overnight, one brigade of the Continental Army have, in secrecy, erected two forts (one facing Boston and the other Castle William) with six gun emplacements.

“I was prodigiously Surprised to find the Vast works that had been carried on in so little Time the Men having worked as we relieved them and they got off without being discovered by the Enemy.”

5 MARCH 1776, DORCHESTER HEIGHTS: At three a.m., the two thousand men who have spent the night fortifying the heights are relieved by reinforcements. Isaac Bangs is amazed to see how much has been accomplished in only six or seven hours:

“The ratling of the windows, the jar of the house and the continual roar of 24 pounders, the Bursting of shells give us such Ideas, and realize a scene to us of which we could scarcly form any conception.”

Founders Online: Abigail Adams to John Adams, 2 March 1776 Abigail Adams to John Adams, 2 March 1776

5 MARCH 1776, BRAINTREE, MASSACHUSETTS: “I went to bed about 12 and rose again a little after one,” records Abigail Adams. The continual cannonfire wakes her. “I could no more sleep than if I had been in the ingagement.” founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

The chandeliers can be positioned in lines along the ground, and then the gaps in between them filled with fascines—bundles of wood—and rocks and dirt, creating basic walls of wood and earth.

The ground is hard frozen, making it tough to break up. In order to throw up fortifications as quickly as possible, the Continentals have prepared by, essentially, building them in advance: they have constructed “chandeliers,” heavy timber frames.

(The Continentals are spotted by at least one observer in Boston: at ten o’clock, Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Campbell reports what’s happening to Brigadier Francis Smith, who led the night march to Lexington & Concord eleven months ago, but Smith, inexplicably, takes no action.)

“It was hazy below so that our people could not be seen, though it was a bright moonlight night above the hills.” More than one commentator will attribute the ideal conditions to divine providence.

DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS: A mist blocks the view from Boston of the Continental Army soldiers fortifying Dorchester Heights, but on the hill’s slopes conditions are clear, allowing the soldiers to work under a bright, full moon:

“The whole procession moved on in solemn silence, and with perfect order and regularity; while the continued roar of cannon serves to engage the attention and divert the enemy from the main object.”

“Next in the martial procession are a train of carts, loaded with fascines and hay, screwed into large bundles of seven or eight hundred weight.

“The covering party of eight hundred men advance in front. Then follow the carts with the intrenching tools; after which, the working party of twelve hundred, commanded by General Thomas, of Kingston.

“On passing Dorchester neck I observed a vast number of large bundles of screwed hay, arranged in a line next to the enemy, to protect our troops from a raking fire, to which we should have been greatly exposed, while passing and repassing. …

4 MARCH 1776, DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS: As the Continental cannon continue firing to distract the redcoats, the main party moves across Dorchester Neck to occupy the Heights, hidden by a wall of hay bales lining the Neck and with their wheels wrapped in straw to muffle them.

“The inhabitants were in a horrid situation, particularly the women,” redcoat Captain Charles Stuart records, “who were several times drove from their houses by shot, and crying for protection.”

Continental artillery fires into Boston from Roxbury (to the south), Cambridge (west) and Charlestown (north). “Our shells raked the houses and the cries of the poor women and children frequently reached our ears,” says Continental Lieutenant Samuel Webb.

Continental officer Isaac Bangs “could see 4 & sometimes 5 of their Boms flying in the Air at a Time.” In Cambridge, Obadiah Brown “Stood Sentry where ye balls and shots flew like hailstones.”

The operation begins with the opening of dueling cannon barrages for the third night running, though tonight’s cannonades are “a more Furious Fire … than ever and returned by the Enemy with eaqual Vigour chiefly upon Roxbury.”

Dorchester Heights - Boston National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) An official website of the United States government

4 MARCH 1776, BOSTON SIEGE LINES: “The object in view is now generally understood to be the occupying and fortifying of the advantageous heights of Dorchester”: the Continental Army learn the object of their great operation as they spring into action. www.nps.gov/bost/learn/h...

The Continental forces are dismayed to find that the royal governor, Montfort Browne, was able to ship away much of the island’s gunpowder in the night, and they arrest Browne in retaliation. Still, between the two forts, they have captured eighty-eight cannon.

4 MARCH 1776, NASSAU, BAHAMAS: From Fort Montagu, captured yesterday, the Continental Marines capture the Bahamian capital and Fort Nassau—today, as yesterday, achieved without bloodshed.

“He ought, for his own Security and Honour, and for the public good to punish those who injure him, unless they repent, and then he should forgive, having Satisfaction and Compensation. Revenge is unlawfull. It is the same with Communities. They ought to resent and to punish.”

“A Man may have the Faculty of concealing his Resentment, or suppressing it, but he must and ought to feel it. Nay he ought to indulge it, to cultivate it. It is a Duty. His Person, his Property, his Liberty, his Reputation are not safe without it.

“Injustice, Wrong, Injury excites the Feeling of Resentment, as naturally and necessarily as Frost and Ice excite the feeling of cold, as fire excites heat, and as both excite Pain.

Founders Online: Monday March 4. 1776. Monday March 4. 1776.

4 MARCH 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “Resentment is a Passion, implanted by Nature for the Preservation of the Individual. Injury is the Object which excites it,” John Adams writes in a famous diary entry. founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

This bursting mortar put Lt. Col. David Mason, third-in-command in the Continental artillery, out of combat for the rest of the war. Crucial to building up the supply of cannon before the war, he’ll spend the rest of the conflict overseeing the Laboratory at Springfield, Massachusetts.

“as becomes men, fighting for every thing that is dear, and valuable to Freemen; remembering at the same time what disgraceful punishment will attend a contrary behaviour. … It is not unlikely but a contest may soon be brought on, between the ministerial Troops, and this Army.”

By now, all the Continental Army is aware that the cannonades are in preparation for some grand offensive movement: Washington orders the army “that every Officer, and Soldier, will endeavour to give, such distinguish’d proofs of his conduct, and good behaviour,

Henry Knox, painted by Charles Willson Peale

The high attrition they’re suffering appears to be the fault of the Continental Army’s inexperienced artillerymen under Henry Knox, who have been unable to bed the mortars in properly in the hard-frozen ground.