Winter 1775

The British fleet lay at anchor in Boston harbor. The city of Boston was occupied by the British army. The new Continental Army under George Washington had the British bottled up on the Shawmut peninsula. With the British fleet to protect and supply the redcoats, there was no practical way to drive the British out. Feelings were still raw after the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. The British soldiers didn't like this duty as they were placed in a very hostile environment. It was a kind of stalemate that could not go on indefinitely. Enter Henry Knox. In November 1775 Knox and a detachment of intrepid colonials traveled in the dead of winter to Fort Ticonderoga, in far upstate New York, near Lake George. They confiscated the big cannons, hooked them up to horses and oxen, and dragged them all the way to Boston - 300 miles - across very difficult terrain. The largest cannon weighed 5000 pounds. The entire operation took 3 months. Beginning on the night of March 4, 1776 Knox began placing the cannons on Dorchester Heights, overlooking the city of Boston and, crucially, the British fleet. The big guns could now fire down on the British ships, which were now vulnerable to fearsome fire and destruction. British General Howe at first planned an assault on the Heights but a New England snowstorm intervened. So, on March 17, the British army and Loyalists boarded the ships and sailed away to Halifax, Nova Scotia.