Boston Under Siege (episode 325)

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Jake:
[0:05] 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 Boston Under Siege

Jake:
[0:15] This is Episode 325, Boston Under Siege. Hi, I’m Jake. This week, I’m going to talk about the Siege of Boston. From the moment on April 19, 1775, when the Battle of Lexington and Concord ended, and until the British gave up and evacuated the city in March of 1776, Boston was at the epicenter of the American Revolution. After 11 months of hardship, Boston was effectively independent after the British evacuation, never being under serious threat of reinvasion after March 17, 1776.

Jake:
[0:53] However, it always seems like, aside from the Battle of Bunker Hill, the siege gets mostly forgotten, for having started and ended before independence was declared in Philadelphia. For this week’s show, I want to linger on the siege to see how it came together 250 years ago this week, how colonial Bostonians decided whether they should stay in their homes or flee to the countryside, and where the battle lines were drawn upon the map of modern Boston. Over the course of the coming year, we’ll return to the siege of Boston several times to talk about battles and skirmishes, heroes and traitors, and generals and everyday Bostonians. But for right now, I want to set the stage with an episode that’s only about the very early days of that siege, in April and May of 1775.

Acknowledgments and Support

Jake:
[1:41] But before we talk about the Siege of Boston, I just want to pause and say a big thank you to everyone who supports Hub History financially. The main way we ask for support is through Patreon, where Alexander P. Just became our latest sponsor. Alexander and our other Patreon sponsors commit to a monthly payment of as little as $2, or in a few cases, as much as $20 or more, which provides a stable source of ongoing revenue for the show. As long as I don’t try to put a price tag on my time producing the podcast, this support means that Hub History pays for itself. With Patreon sponsorship underwriting costs like our podcast media hosting, website hosting and security, the tool we use to record interviews, access to research databases, and the AI tools that I use for transcriptions and summaries. There are also a number of listener supporters who make occasional payments on PayPal on a one-time basis. That money’s been useful for costs like my mics and my field recorder, buying stickers and promotional materials, and other one-time costs. No matter how you choose to support the show, thank you. 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.

The Prelude to the Siege

Jake:
[3:09] And now it’s time for this week’s main topic. In our last episode, we traced the night of Paul Revere’s famous ride by comparing the text of Longfellow’s poem to Revere’s own accounts of the adventure. By the time Revere was leaving Lexington for a second time on the morning of April 19th, 1775, British troops were forming up on the town green and firing on the Minutemen who’d assembled there. The battle that unfolded that day in Concord, Lexington, and Arlington marked the beginning of a Revolutionary War. Heeding the call of Paul Revere and the other alarm riders that night, militias from all over New England converged on the British column that was commanded by Colonel Hugh Lord Percy and pursued it all the way back to Charlestown. In describing this retreat in his book Paul Revere’s Ride, David Hackett Fisher writes, It was nearly dark when Lord Percy’s men entered Charlestown. Behind them, the sun was setting on the ruins of an empire.

Jake:
[4:13] At the time, Charlestown itself was a peninsula that was dominated by Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill, with a narrow neck of land surrounded by water on the way into town. Percy ordered his artillery to use the last of their ammunition to clear colonial militia from the road into town, and then march the men forward.

Jake:
[4:32] John R. Galvin describes this moment in his book, The Minutemen. By now it was dark, and the people remaining in Charlestown could see the flashes of musketry around the rear of Percy’s column as it approached. Pinpoints of orange flame outlined a half-circle that drew closer and closer to Charlestown Neck, and the long line of the column of regulars was sporadically illuminated by the return fire, silhouetting the figures of Percy’s men in the darkness and smoke up and down the line. When the Redcoats made it onto the high ground in Charlestown, they could finally catch their breath.

Jake:
[5:06] Many of them had been awake for almost 48 hours, and they had marched about 40 miles since midnight the night before. For half that time, they’d been in nearly constant combat, watching their comrades fall to American musket balls while the enemy kept advancing and forcing them to leave the dead and wounded behind. That night, a few hundred reinforcements crossed the river from Boston and together they dug in on the slopes of Bunker Hill, warning the residents of Charlestown that the warships on the harbor below would level the town if anyone moved against them. An officer in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers named Frederick McKenzie was among the redcoats who spent the night digging trenches on Bunker Hill, writing in his diary the next day, As soon as the troops from Boston took post on Charlestown Heights last night, they began to throw up a redoubt to command the Neck. It was in a good state of forwardness this morning, when General Gage, having determined to abandon Charlestown, gave orders for its being demolished, and the troops to be withdrawn into Boston, which was done by 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

The Siege Begins

Jake:
[6:13] And with the British withdrawal into Boston, the siege had truly begun. As alarm riders spread the 2F by sea message far and wide, militia companies marched toward the danger all day on April 19th, and for days and weeks afterward. In a classic book about the siege, Alan French writes, On the following days, men from the more distant towns came in, until before long, the Minutemen and militia from the adjoining provinces, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, were upon the ground.

Jake:
[6:46] Some of the records are striking. The men of Nottingham, New Hampshire, gathered by noon of the 20th and, after being joined by men in the neighboring towns, set out at 2 o’clock. At dusk, they reached Haverhill Ferry, a distance of 27 miles, having run rather than marched. They halted in Andover only for refreshments and, traversing 55 miles in less than 20 hours, by sunrise of the 21st, paraded on Cambridge Common. Israel Putnam, working on his farm in Brooklyn, Connecticut, received the news the morning after the fight at Concord. He left his work at once and, mounting a horse, started out to rouse the militia, who upon mustering chose him as leader. As his idea of a leader was one who went in front, he set out at once for Boston, ordering them to follow. He arrived in Cambridge at the time when the Nottingham men are reported as parading, having ridden the same horse 100 miles in 18 hours.

Jake:
[7:50] While it seemed that all of New England was on the march, reinforcements hadn’t arrived by the time the sun went down on April 19th. On that first night, the Americans weren’t strong enough or well enough organized to assault the entrenched British who had the high ground on the hills of Charlestown. But they very quickly left the British cut off.

First Days of the Siege

Jake:
[8:12] By morning on April 20th, there were various companies and regiments digging in on Prospect Hill in today’s Somerville to keep the British from marching back out of Charlestown, while more amateur soldiers gathered in Roxbury, just out of range of the British guards at Boston Neck, and any units who couldn’t find another task gathered in Harvard Square, which quickly became the de facto rebel headquarters.

Jake:
[8:36] Ensign Henry de Bernier, who had been one of Gage’s spies on the road to Concord in early March, wrapped up his description of the retreat from Concord by writing, the rebels shut up the neck, placed sentinels there, and took prisoner, an officer of the 64th Regiment, that was going to join his regiment at Castle William, so that in the course of two days, from a plentiful town, we are reduced to the disagreeable necessity of living on salt provisions, and fairly blocked up in Boston. The provincial militias could fairly block up Boston from the land side, but the British would retain freedom of the seas, so the harbor town of Boston would never be entirely cut off. With heavily armed warships dominating the inner harbor, the British Navy allowed the troops in Boston to be resupplied by sea. But as de Bernier points out, the only food that could be brought in from overseas in an era before refrigeration was salted provisions, which tended to be pretty gross.

Jake:
[9:41] Before the issue of provisions could come to a head, however, General Gage and his officers had to address their day-to-day security. At first, they had to worry about not only the threat of an attack by the militias outside the city, but also the possibility that Bostonians would rise up in the night and assassinate the British officers. Our Royal Welsh Fusilier Frederick McKenzie noted on April 21st, Orders were given this day for the officers to lay in their men’s barracks till further orders. It is conceived that in case of an alarm or sudden insurrection, the officers might be prevented from repairing to their posts. Every regiment is now ordered, in case of an alarm, to assemble at their respective barracks and not to march to the alarm posts which had been assigned to them. The troops ordered to lay dressed in their barracks this night.

Jake:
[10:33] Besides a lifeline for reinforcements and salt provisions, British naval power also provided a potent threat to the town itself. In the chaotic hours and days after the retreat from Concord, the British regulars in Boston found themselves uncharacteristically vulnerable. With 10,000 or 15,000 militias surrounding Boston, the Redcoats were outnumbered by 3 or 4 to 1, and some of their best units were barely combat effective after suffering heavy casualties on the 19th. Boston Neck had been fortified, but the officers feared that it might not hold up against a frontal assault by the enraged Americans. Only the might of the Navy ensured that this wouldn’t become a reality, as we see in an intercepted letter from a redcoat in Boston dated April 25th. The troops are in Boston and surrounded on the land side by the rebels, who are very numerous and fully determined to lose their lives and fortunes rather than be taxed by England. In case they take Boston, the troops will retire on board the men of war, and then the men of war will burn the town, and remain till more troops come from England, and then conquer them, so their estates and lives will be forfeited. There are only 4,000 soldiers, and about 50 or 60,000 of them.

Jake:
[11:55] As we’ll see, the British regulars very quickly locked Boston down, trapping civilian residents inside along with the troops and making them all effectively human shields. When the sun rose on the day after the battle, however, chaos reigned in Boston, and some civilians tried to make a break for it. On April 19th, Sarah Winslow Deming and her patriot husband John and watched wounded redcoats stack her back into Boston all day and well into the evening, not falling asleep until after midnight. In a brief diary that she kept to this period, she wrote that the next day, I was waked by Mr. Deming between six and seven o’clock informing me that I was General Gage’s prisoner, all egress and regress being cut off between the town and country. Here again, description fails. No words can paint my distress.

Civilian Struggles in Boston

Jake:
[12:52] About 9 o’clock a.m., I was told that the way over the neck was open for foot passengers, but no carriage was permitted to cross the lines. I then determined to try if my feet would support me through, though I trembled to such a degree that I could scarce keep my feet in my own chamber and had taken no sustenance for the day and very sick at my stomach. I tied up a few things in my handkerchief, put on my cloak, and was just setting out upon my march with Sally and Lucinda, who were her niece and a woman she enslaved, when I was told that carriages were allowed to pass. I therefore besought Mr. Deming to get a carriage for me and carry me off together with my frighted girls and set me down anywhere out of Boston.

Jake:
[13:39] After being interrogated by three different lines of sentries, Sarah and her party of travelers managed to get out through the city gates during this brief window of openness. Once through the lines, they realized they had nowhere to go, so they allowed their horse free rein to choose which road he wanted to take, until they happened to run into an acquaintance in Jamaica Plain. John went back into Boston to return their borrowed carriage and to watch over the house, while Sarah stayed the night in J.P., intending to move on to a friend’s house in Dedham the next morning. On April 21st, she woke to the news that she’d gotten out just in time, but John would be trapped. I had been but a few minutes below stairs when Mr. Gordon came in and told us that Boston was straightly shut up. So there were the women and children of two miserable families of us, left to shift for ourselves. To tarry upon the plane, meaning Jamaica Plain, we judged was by no means safe. Every family there that we knew anything of were moved or moving.

Life Inside the Siege

Jake:
[14:48] While Sarah Deming was finding her way out of Boston, John Rowe was inside. Rowe was an important merchant in Boston with strong Whig leanings. He supported the destruction of the T in 1773 and may have taken part himself. But with his entire livelihood in shops and warehouses in Boston, Rowe couldn’t follow Sarah Deming out of town on the day after the battle. On April 21st, he wrote in his diary, all business at an end, and all communications stopped between the town and country. No fresh provisions of any kind brought to this market so that Boston is in a most distressed condition. I’ll just interject that he had no idea how bad things would eventually get. John Rowe would remain in Boston through the entire siege. If he thought Boston was distressed on a spring morning after being besieged for less than two full days, Imagine what he experienced in the depths of the following winter, with no food, no firewood, and a bitter wind blowing off Boston Harbor.

Jake:
[15:57] The same chaos in the hours after the British retreat from Concord that made General Gage worry about an American attack on Boston made the Americans worry that the British might try to break out of Boston. On the night of April 19th, the American militias closest to the British positions at Boston Neck and Charlestown were ordered to lie upon their arms. That’s a pretty cool and distinct turn of phrase, but I had to look up what it means. Lying upon one’s arms often meant fighting from a prone position, which was certainly a challenging feat in the days of muzzle-loading firearms. arms. Regiments of British regulars have been doing this for decades, at least, casting some doubt on the myth we all grew up with about redcoats fighting in formation because they didn’t have the common sense to take cover. In this case, I think lying upon their arms means both that the Americans were taking cover along the roads leading out of Boston, but also it implies that they had been ordered to keep their clothes and boots on and sleep in their foxholes, so they’d be ready to fight in an instant.

Jake:
[17:08] In his book, The Minutemen, John R. Galvin describes how the Committee of Safety sprang into action in the early hours of the siege, attempting to create a Massachusetts army out of the independent town militias that surrounded Boston. And hopefully, do it before they could collapse into an armed mob for lack of organization. By the night of the 20th, there were an estimated 20,000 Minutemen and militia coming and going in the unit’s surrounding gauge. and not one of them knew with any certainty what his official military status was. Those who returned to take care of their affairs at home probably felt that there had been no official order for them to stay. And besides, they were already on a minute’s warning to repeat their earlier performance. In this crucial moment, the Committee of Safety acted with characteristic sureness and speed to ease the confusion in the ranks and build an army out of the remains of a battle. On the 20th, the committee drafted a circular letter to all the towns of the province, requesting them to hasten and encourage, by all possible means, the enlistment of men to form an army, and send them forward to headquarters at Cambridge with that expedition which the vast importance and instant urgency of the affair demands.

Organizing the Militia

Jake:
[18:28] On the first full day of the siege, while the Committee of Safety was starting an enlistment drive, the highest-ranking officers of the Impromptu Army met in a Council of War at Cambridge. In attendance were Generals William Heath of Roxbury, Artemis Ward of Shrewsbury, and John Wickham from what’s now Bolton, Mass., plus twelve colonels and lieutenant colonels. Ward and Wickham were both veterans of the Seven Years’ War who were nearing the ends of their military careers. While the much younger Heath would serve through the duration of the war as a major general. Their first order of business was getting the food, ammunition, and other military stores that the British raid on Concord had attempted to capture brought up to the front lines. The minutes that were kept by Colonel William Henshaw record that they sent a request to the Committees of Safety and Supplies for provision at Concord to be brought to Cambridge, Ordered that Colonel Gardner repair immediately to Roxbury and bring all the bread that can be obtained.

Jake:
[19:34] Ordered that Colonel Bond bring all the cannon at Watertown, Newton, and Waltham, together with part of the ammunition, into the camp at Cambridge. With supplies arranged for, the day’s orders came next. Companies and militia were ordered to stand guard at the road leading out of Charlestown, at Phipps Farm, where the Redcoats had landed on the night of April 18th to start their march to Concord, near the bridge in Harvard Square, and at Monotomy. The council further ordered that a captain and 50 men do immediately march to bury the dead on the field of battle, one lieutenant, two sergeants, and two corporals to attend the party. This detachment is also ordered to take care of all the wounded that may be found on the road. That every officer and soldier keep close to his quarters and be ready to turn out complete in arms at a moment’s warning and parade at the meeting house.

Jake:
[20:32] While the generals and their council of war were getting things organized on the ground, the civilian leadership was busy turning the loosely organized mob-of-town militias into an army. On April 21st, the Committee of Safety passed a resolution encouraging 8,000 of the part-time soldiers to enlist full-time until the end of the year. Resolved that there be immediately enlisted, out of the Massachusetts forces, 8,000 effective men to be formed into companies, to consist of a captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, one pfeiffer, one drummer, and 70 rank and file. Nine companies to form a regiment, to be commanded by a colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major. Each regiment to be composed of men suitable for the service, which shall be determined by a muster master or muster masters to be appointed for that purpose. Said officers and men to continue in the servants of the province for the space of seven months from the time of enlistment, unless the safety of the province will admit of their being discharged sooner. The army to be under proper rules and regulations.

Jake:
[21:43] Since General Gage dismissed the Massachusetts General Court in September 1774, Massachusetts legislators have been meeting as the Provincial Congress. This revolutionary shadow government was not recognized by the Crown, but had been functioning as the government of the colony outside Boston for over half a year.

The Provincial Congress Responds

Jake:
[22:02] Now it was time for them to step out of the shadows and assume government of the colony for real. On April 23rd, this provincial Congress passed a bill for the recovery of our undoubted rights and liberties. It provided for the enlistment of an army of 13,600 soldiers. Who would all serve through the end of December 1775, setting aside pay of £2 per month for privates, all the way up to £15 per month for colonels. It also provided for the province to buy each man a uniform coat and ask the towns that sent them to buy them each a blanket. And of course, we all know that the Revolutionary War was over on December 31st, 1775, so all these enlistments that ended at the end of the year in 1775 couldn’t possibly cause problems, right? We’ll talk about that in a future episode.

Jake:
[23:00] The thousands of militia soldiers who enlisted in this Massachusetts army would continue the siege, and they’d end up forming the backbone of the Continental Army, after the Continental Congress finally decided that we did in fact need a national army. The problem was that militia members didn’t know when they woke up on the morning of April 19th that they’d be asked to form an army. They’d turned out that morning with their arms and ammunition, the clothes they were wearing, and not much else. Now, after 10 days in the same underwear, they were effectively being asked to go on a camping trip that was expected to last 8 months, which tells me that they were going to need a bit more clothing and gear. On April 29th, the Committee of Safety sent a request to all the towns of Massachusetts, asking if they would provide some replacements, while the soldiers of this new army went home to pack.

Jake:
[23:56] Gentlemen, as many of the persons now in camp came from their respective towns without any expectation of tarrying any time, and are now under the necessity of returning, this is to desire that you would, with the utmost haste, send other persons to supply their places for a few days, until the enlistments are complete and the men sent down to us. We pray you immediately to set about this business as the most fatal consequences must follow. If we should be reduced to so weak a status that the army under General Gage may be able to issue out of the town and spread destruction through this country, and we think none can be unwilling to come for a few days to relieve their brethren who have been absent from their families.

Recruitment Challenges

Jake:
[24:39] As you might imagine, the men who did not opt to enlist in the army for the duration of the year weren’t super excited about the prospect of trekking all the way back to Cambridge and putting themselves back in harm’s way just to give somebody else a break. As a result, it took some time to cycle the recruits out of camp and back in, and the lack of replacements was the biggest bottleneck. Since everybody wanted to have a chance to go home and change their clothes, the Army’s general orders on May the 3rd prohibited them from leaving without having a neighbor there to hold the line in their place. No field officer presumed to give a pass to any person to go out of camp that came down in defense of his liberties, before that person shall have presented to the field officer a person not belonging to the camp and out of the same town to which the person that makes application belongs, who’s to tarry in camp till the person who has leave returns.

Jake:
[25:36] Sorting through that word salad, they’re just saying that you couldn’t go home to pack unless there was somebody from your hometown in Cambridge till you got back. Thank you.

Jake:
[25:46] In a reminder that the new army consisted of more than just infantry, Joseph Warren reported on April 30th on the State of the Artillery. In Cambridge, six three-pounders complete with ammunition and one six-pounder. In Watertown, 16 pieces of artillery of different sizes. The said six-pounder and 16 pieces will be taken out of the way, and the first mentioned six pieces will be used in proper way of defense. Our next episode will discuss the plan that Joseph Warren and Benedict Arnold cooked up to take over Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York in order to get control of the British artillery there. While some more cannons would turn up in the coming months, the 23 small field cannons that the Massachusetts Army could initially field made up a smaller battery than any single line of the British defense on Boston Neck, or all but the smallest Navy ship on the harbor. So you can see why they were so eager to get their hands on the guns at Fort Ty. While an army was getting organized outside the gates of Boston, the civilians inside were trying to figure out the best course of action for their families and businesses. And of course, Joseph Warren was right in the mix. As we saw from Sarah Deming’s successful escape on the day after the battle, many Bostonians were desperate to get out of a city that suddenly found itself on the front lines of a war and living under the threat of total destruction from the guns of the Royal Navy.

Jake:
[27:14] Politically, loyalists were more likely to stay, as they faced derision and possibly even bodily danger on the countryside, while Bostonians who sympathized with the Patriot cause especially wanted to get out. Before the end of the day, on April 19th, Joseph Warren wrote to Thomas Gage and asked the general for a deal that would allow residents who wanted to leave to do so peacefully. I should now be very glad to know from you, sir, how many days you desire may be allowed for such as desire to remove to Boston with their effects, and what time you will allow the people in Boston for their removal. When I have received that information, I will repair to Congress and hasten, as far as I am able, the issuing of a proclamation. If Your Excellency will be pleased to take the matter into consideration and favor me, as soon as may be, with an answer, it will lay me under a great obligation. As it so nearly concerns the welfare of my friends in Boston.

Jake:
[28:12] Meanwhile, inside the city, the selectmen of Boston appointed a committee who met with General Gage to ask him to open the gates and allow anyone to leave who wanted to. General Gage was surprisingly open to the proposal. As we heard, his officers were being ordered to sleep in the barracks alongside their soldiers, so they couldn’t be ambushed or assassinated on the way to the lines during an alarm. While there were more loyalists in the city than there were in the countryside, which, mostly because loyalists have been forced to seek the protection of the redcoats there over the past year or so, there were still plenty of patriots in Boston. Not only that, but most of them were armed, as J.L. Bell points out in a 2023 blog post.

Jake:
[28:59] Most men in Boston, as in other towns, were required by law to drill with the militia and therefore owned firelocks. General Gage didn’t want those guns used against his soldiers. He also didn’t want people to take their weapons out of town, join the besieging force, or arm fighters in that force.

Jake:
[29:18] The general and the selectmen came to a careful compromise. The firearms were private property belonging to the citizens of Boston, and they were basically required under the laws of the province. Not only that, but the Whig faction in the province had spent much of the past year or so assertively arguing that they had the right to maintain arms for their local militias, and Gage’s raid on Concord to seize some of those arms had instigated the shooting war that he now found himself in. Simply ordering the confiscation of all guns might trigger a violent uprising in Boston and the residents wouldn’t be inclined to voluntarily hand over their private property without compensation. After the Selectman’s Committee negotiated a tentative agreement with the General, the records of the Boston Town Meeting from April 22, 1775 outlined the proposal that Boston residents were asked to vote on. His Excellency finally gave for answer that upon the inhabitants in general lodging their arms in Faneuil Hall or any other convenient place under the care of the selectmen, marked with the names of the respective owners, that all such inhabitants as are inclined may depart from the town with their families and their effects, and that the arms aforesaid at a suitable time would be returned to the owners.

Jake:
[30:35] At the same time, His Excellency agreed that the inhabitants might remove from the town by land and water with their effects, and also informed the committee that he would desire the admiral to lend his boats to facilitate the removal of the effects of the inhabitants, and would allow carriages to pass and repass for that purpose, and desired that a letter might be wrote to Dr. Warren, chairman of the committee of Congress, that those persons in the country who may incline to remove into Boston with their effects may have liberty to do it without molestation. At the same time, His Excellency agreed that the inhabitants might remove from the town by land and water with their effects, and also informed the committee that he would desire the admiral to lend his boats to facilitate the removal of the effects of the inhabitants, and would allow carriages to pass and repass for that purpose, and desired that a letter might be wrote to Dr. Warren, chairman of the committee of Congress, that those persons in the country who may incline to remove into Boston with their effects may have liberty to do it without molestation. Under this agreement, Bostonians wouldn’t officially turn over their guns to the Redcoats. Instead, they would put their guns into storage at Faneuil Hall, which was very prominently owned by the town, not by the soldiers. The guns would be inventoried, marked with the owners’ names, and placed under the care of the town’s selectmen, so nobody would have to feel like they had been disarmed by the enemy.

Storage of Arms

Jake:
[32:02] J.L. Bell examined town records and found this tally of the guns that were lodged at Faneuil Hall, created by Selectman Henderson Inches.

Jake:
[32:13] 1,778 firearms, 634 pistols, 973 bayonets, and 38 blunderbusses. Now, this doesn’t necessarily align with the number of residents, because some patriots may have stashed their muskets in case an opportunity later arose for some armed resistance inside Boston, and because the town itself owned a supply of muskets that were to be used by militia members who couldn’t afford to buy their own arms. At the same time, the British promised to let residents remove with their effects, so the experience of Sarah Deming trying to get away with only the meager possessions that she could tie up in a kerchief wouldn’t be repeated. Though as we’ll see, the definition of what effects could be taken out through the lines would come into question later.

Jake:
[33:02] This was apparently acceptable to the Boston Patriots, and a majority of the town voted in favor of the deal. As requested by the town meeting, the selectmen contacted Joseph Warren and the Committee of Safety, who in turn wrote an open letter to the inhabitants of Boston that same day, encouraging residents to take the deal and escape while they could. The Committee of Safety being informed that General Gage has proposed a treaty with the inhabitants of the town of Boston, where he stipulates that the women and children, with all their effects, shall have safe conduct without the garrison, and their men also, upon condition that the male inhabitants within the town shall, on their part, solemnly engaged that they will not take up arms against the king’s troops within the town should an attack be made from without.

Jake:
[33:53] We cannot but esteem these conditions to be just and reasonable, as the inhabitants are in danger of suffering from the want of provisions, which, in this time of general confusion, cannot be conveyed into the town, are willing you should enter into and faithfully keep the engagement aforementioned, said to be required of you, and to remove yourselves, women, children, and effects as soon as may be. Reading a letter that North End Congregational Minister Andrew Elliott wrote to his son on April 23rd, describing how desperate the situation in Boston seemed to be, it’s easy to understand why so many Bostonians were eager to leave as the siege began. Poor Boston. May God sanctify our distresses which are greater than you can conceive. Such a Sabbath of melancholy and darkness I never knew. Most of the meeting houses shut up. The ministers gone. Our congregation crowded with strangers. A town meeting in the forenoon. Agreed to give up their arms in order to get leave to depart. A provincial army in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Cambridge. College dispersed and this town a garrison. Every face gathering paleness. All hurry and confusion.

Jake:
[35:10] As I feel obliged to point out with every report on the conditions in Boston at that time, he had no idea how bad it was going to get. Perhaps anticipating this, prominent merchant John Andrews wrote a letter to a friend on April 24th, announcing that he intended to sail to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Yesterday, though Sunday, we had town meetings all day, and finally concluded to deliver up all our arms to the selectmen, on condition that the governor would open the avenues to the town, which is to be complied with tomorrow.

The Great Sorting

Jake:
[35:45] When, if I can escape with the skin of my teeth, I shall be glad, as I don’t expect to be able to take more than a change of apparel with me. As much as many Bostonians were desperate to get out of the city before they starved, loyalists in the towns outside Boston were suddenly just as desperate to get in. The most vocal Tories had been driven into the safety of the British lines months before, especially those who had agreed to be mandamus counselors, tax collectors, or tea consignees. Now that the Whigs had raised an army, fought the regulars head-on, and bottled up the redcoats in Boston, even more moderate, under-the-radar loyalists felt like it was no longer safe in the countryside.

Jake:
[36:30] On April 30th, a handbill appeared tacked to walls and posts in the towns around Boston. It carried the heading of the Provincial Congress and was signed by the President Pro Tem, Joseph Warren. It outlined the agreement that had been made with the British to allow Bostonians to store their guns and leave, as well as the other half of the agreement that allowed people to come into Boston. As you might imagine, the Patriots were equally unwilling to allow those Tories to carry their firearms into Boston as the British were to let Whigs carry their firearms out. Any of the inhabitants of this colony who may incline to go into the town of Boston with their effects, firearms and ammunition accepted, have toleration for that purpose, and they are protected from any injury or insult whatsoever in their removal to Boston. So began a great sorting, with residents streaming out of Boston and refugees streaming in. The two groups divided along political lines. The sorting never went as smoothly as the agreement between General Gage and the town’s selectmen sort of indicates that it should have.

Tensions at the Lines

Jake:
[37:41] Anybody who wanted to leave had to get a pass from the British officers, who had the power to approve or reject any application based on their knowledge of the applicant, what effects the applicant was carrying out of town, or based on their whims at that moment.

Jake:
[37:57] On April 28th, John Rowe wrote in his diary, This day I applied to get a pass to go out with my effects, but could not prevail. He doesn’t give a reason, but as a merchant, it’s likely that his effects might have included the contents of his stores and warehouses, comprising more goods than the British were inclined to allow to pass through the lines. Rowe would then stick out the siege to its bitter end in protection of his goods. That is, until the British ransacked his warehouses in the final hours of the siege.

Jake:
[38:34] Merchant John Andrews, who had written on April 24th that he was going to sail for Halifax as soon as possible, ended up left behind. He’s more explicit about the reasons why he ended up left behind in a letter dated May 6th, 1775. You’ll observe by this that I’m yet in Boston, and here likely to remain. Three of us chartered a vessel a fortnight since to convey us to Halifax. The absolute refusal of the governor, meaning General Thomas Gage, to suffer any merchandise to be carried out of the town, has determined me to stay and take care of my effects. Near half the inhabitants have left the town already, and another quarter at least have been waiting for a week past, with earnest expectation of getting papers, which have been dealt out very sparingly of late. Not above two or three per curative a day, and those with the greatest difficulty. It’s a fortnight yesterday since the communication between the town and country was stopped. Of consequence, our eyes have not been blessed with either fresh vegetables or fresh provisions. How long we shall continue in this wretched state, God only knows. But that no more blood may be shed is the earnest wish and prayer of your affectionate friend, John Andrews.

Jake:
[39:57] Even those who did manage to get a pass and sorted themselves into or out of Boston according to their politics were not immune to hardship. Reverend Andrew Elliott, who’d been worried over the growing paleness in every face just days before, wrote a letter to a sympathetic Whig in England on April 25th.

Hardships of Civilians

Jake:
[40:17] In it, he describes how hopeless the future seemed for those who were able to leave Boston but unable to take much more than what they could carry on their backs. Almost all are leaving their pleasant habitations and going, they know not whither. The most are obliged to leave their furniture and effects of every kind, and indeed they’re all to the uncertain chance of war, or rather, to certain ruin and destruction. The last week I thought myself in comfortable circumstances. Had a convenient dwelling, well furnished, a fine library, attended by a large, affectionate, and generous congregation, happy in a consort, one of the best of women, and surrounded by a large number of desirable children. Now I am by a cruel necessity turned out of my house, must leave all my books and all I possess, perhaps to be destroyed by a licentious soldiery. My beloved congregation dispersed, my dear wife retreating to a distant part of the country, My children wandering, not knowing whither to go. Perhaps left to perish for want.

Jake:
[41:24] In his excellent book, Bunker Hill, A City, A Siege, A Revolution, Nathaniel Philbrick sums up the result of this great sorting that took place between April and June of 1775. Over the course of the next few months, more than 9,000 people left Boston, as the provincial army that surrounded the city grew to the point that it came close to approaching Boston’s former population of 15,000. A city had been turned inside out, flushed of its inhabitants and artificially stuffed, as if by a taxidermist, with a British army that, as military transports continued to arrive in Boston Harbor, eventually approached 9,000 men. With the armies on both sides swelling with reinforcements, the lines of defense soon hardened into the status quo of a prolonged siege. Soon after taking command in Boston in 1774, Gage had ordered improvements to the town’s defenses. Along the line of Orange Street, now Washington Street in the south end in Lower Roxbury, new walls bisected Boston Neck, with two bastions overlooking the city gate with cannons trained on the road coming in from the countryside and rows of sharpened stakes driven into the surrounding mudflats to keep anybody from attempting an end run.

Jake:
[42:44] Now that the city was at war, the general ordered the construction of additional fortifications. The line of defense was pushed forward, across Boston Neck to the Roxbury shoreline on the far side. New walls and bastions were built to overlook a ditch that was dug across the Neck, rendering Boston, temporarily, an island.

Jake:
[43:07] Trenches were dug outside the walls as a forward position, and blockhouses were built behind the walls to protect the sentries. Mortars and cannons were placed on small barges to serve as floating batteries, extending the effective range of the artillery. Another redcoat had kept a diary, Lieutenant John Barker of the King’s Own Regiment, points out that there is an Abatee in front of the left bastion, and across the road is a treble row of Chavot-de-Fri.

Jake:
[43:39] Abatee and Chavot-de-Fri were the 18th century equivalent of the vast fields of razor wire that protected the World War I trenches from frontal assault. Constructed out of bushes and trees with the branches cut off, sharpened, and fastened together facing the enemy, these obstacles would stop an infantry or cavalry charge and force the assaulters to halt and spend time disassembling these barriers while under constant fire from the guns of the bastions above. Inside Boston, Barker notes that the soldiers built a temporary fort on the top of Beacon Hill, made out of wine casks filled with soil and surrounded by roads of Shavota-free.

Fortifications and Defense

Jake:
[44:21] Soon, there would be artillery and observation posts dug in on the tops of Beacon Hill, Fort Hill, and Copse Hill in Boston.

Jake:
[44:30] Lieutenant Barker also notes that, while Gage ordered the troops to pull back from the heights of Breeds and Bunker Hill in Charlestown on the morning after the retreat, the Redcoats did not leave Charlestown completely undefended. To prevent the Americans from taking up a position on those same hills, they created a few outposts where guards would keep watch over the approaches to Charlestown. On April 24th, he wrote, A battery was began yesterday on the hill above Charlestown Ferry in order to defend the Somerset Man of War, who lays in the Channel, from any battery which might be raised against her on a hill on the Charlestown side, where she could not bring her guns to bear. Another battery is erecting for four guns, close under the blockhouse, to command the marsh to the left of the dike.

Jake:
[45:21] While the British were building fortifications to keep the Americans from forcing their way into Boston, the new Massachusetts army was busy building their own forts to make sure that the British couldn’t attempt to break out of the city. Facing the new fortifications at the foot of Boston Neck and Roxbury, two lines of trenches were dug across the low ground to prevent an easy march out through the gate. Behind these first lines of trenches, a steep hill rose up and overlooked the only road out of Boston. Under the leadership of Boston bookstore owner-turned-military engineer Henry Knox, work parties dug elaborate earthworks on this hill that commanded the road out of Boston and allowed sentries to watch British movements both in Boston and on the harbor. Known today as Roxbury’s Fort Hill, you can listen to episode 70 to learn about the neighborhood’s surprising 20th century history involving the cult-like Fort Hill community.

Jake:
[46:21] Soon, this high fort was part of an interlinked series of defenses. In his History of Roxbury, Francis Drake wrote, The Roxbury lines, considered marvels of strength in those days, grew rapidly, until at length a complete series of redoubts and batteries protected every exposed point from Dorchester to Brookline. Where the Charles River narrowed, basically near today’s BU Bridge, forts were built on each bank with cannons trained on the river to keep British sloops from trying to sail upriver toward Harvard Square in an attempt to bombard the new headquarters of the Massachusetts Army.

Jake:
[47:00] Set back from the river, out of range of the guns of these small vessels, a series of earthworks and trenches wrapped in an arc from Harvard Square to Prospect Hill, which is now in Somerville, but was then still part of Charlestown. When the militia was unable to keep up the attack in Charlestown on April 19th because the British had dug in on Bunker Hill, the Americans started digging trenches on Prospect Hill, which rose up in the Fork when the main roads leaving the Charlestown Peninsula split. You can sort of see this on a modern map, as the park at Prospect Hill, just outside Union Square, sits between Medford Street on the one side and Washington Street on the other. After the Battle of Bunker Hill in June, the Americans would fortify Prospect Hill into a strong point that rivaled Fort Hill and Roxbury. But the less elaborate earthworks that were there in April and May of 1775 were still enough to keep the British from attempting to march out over the narrow neck of land that connected Charlestown to the mainland. And so the lines on either side hardened, and the siege of Boston became a standoff. The Americans of the new Massachusetts Army controlled the land, while the Redcoats controlled the water, including the Back Bay and the Lower Charles River. At Charlestown and Roxbury, the two sides watched each other warily from behind increasingly impregnable fortifications.

Jake:
[48:29] The British troops inside Boston weren’t eating well, but, thanks to the Navy, they weren’t starving. At least not yet.

Daily Life During the Siege

Jake:
[48:38] The thousands of civilian residents who remained within the city were caught in the middle, and the Redcoats weren’t inclined to share their limited rations.

Jake:
[48:48] Abigail Adams and her children had left their home in Boston long before hostilities began, and moved the family back into their Quincy home. When the Second Continental Congress convened, John went off to Philly, relying on letters from Abigail to learn about how the siege was unfolding back home. On May 7th, she wrote to him, The distresses of the inhabitants of Boston are beyond the power of language to describe. There are but very few who are permitted to come out in a day. They delay giving passes, making them wait from hour to hour, and their councils are not two hours together alike. One day they shall come out with their effects, the next day merchandise or not effects. One day their household furniture is to come out, the next day only wearing apparel, and the next day Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, and he refuseth to hearken unto them and will not let the people go. May their deliverance be wrought out for them as it was for the children of Israel. I do not mean by miracles, but by the interposition of heaven in their favor. They have taken a list of all those who they suppose were concerned in watching the tea, and every other person who they call obnoxious, and they and their effects are to suffer destruction.

Jake:
[50:09] It once again pales in comparison to what civilians in Boston would experience as the siege dragged out into the fall and then the winter, with food and firewood almost impossible to come by. The following winter, the British would tear down fences, houses that had been left behind by Bostonians who fled to the countryside, and even a congregational church to use as firewood. Civilians would suffer near starvation, paying outrageous prices for substandard grain and even eating horse flesh. They would shiver through a Boston and winter, and they would be plagued by smallpox and dysentery. In the meantime, there were other hardships to deal with. As the first month of the siege came to a close, John Rowe reported on a rare moment of cooperation between the residents in Redcoats and his diary entry from May 17, 1775.

Jake:
[51:07] May 17th. About 8 o’clock, a terrible fire broke out in the barracks on Treats Wharf occupied by the 65th Regiment. It was occasioned by accident, or rather from great carelessness. It destroyed 33 stores on Dock Square, meaning the area around Faneuil Hall and today’s Blackstone Block. Mine was in great danger. I thought it so, and therefore removed a great part of my effects from thence, continued until half past one with progress. The officers behaved very well. The clothing of four companies belonging to the 47th Regiment was burnt, and some firearms lost. While they were able to maintain the lines at Boston Neck and Charlestown, and to help put out the fire on Treats Wharf, the Redcoats were starting to worry about their supply situation. The boat lift that would keep them barely supplied through the winter was just barely getting started. In the meantime, the soldiers were hungry, and so were their horses.

New Strategies for Survival

Jake:
[52:12] At the end of May 1775, Gage and Admiral Samuel Graves hit upon the strategy of raiding the islands and peninsulas around Boston Harbor for food, both for themselves and for their livestock, which opened a new chapter in the war. On May 21st, John Rowe reported, a party was sent under the command of Major Jarvis of the 43rd to Grape Island to bring off some cattle and hay. The country people, being very numerous, kept a brisk fire on them so that they were obliged to return without affecting their design.

Teaser for Next Episode

Jake:
[52:48] In an episode next month, we’ll pick up the story of the Grape Island Alarm when the Redcoats attempted a raid on a small island at the mouth of Weymouth’s Back River, An island that’s within sight of the Wahlburgers at today’s Hingham Shipyard, as well as the Battle of Chelsea Creek in today’s East Boston.

Jake:
[53:07] To learn more about the start of the Siege of Boston, check out this week’s show notes at hubhistory.com slash 325. Because I love maps, I’ll have links to lots of historic maps showing the fortifications on both sides of the siege, as well as some illustrations and engravings showing the town of Boston and the surrounding countryside, mostly made by British officers during the siege. I’ll link to all the primary sources that I quoted from in the episode, including transcriptions of letters, diaries, and official documents. I’ll also link to a couple of articles on J.L. Bell’s Boston 1775 blog and the books I used this week from Alan French, John R. Galvin, and Nathaniel Philbrick. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hubhistory.com. I still have profiles for Hub History on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and I’ll reply to your messages there. But lately, I’ve mostly been posting and trying to interact with listeners on Blue Sky.

Jake:
[54:12] You can find me on Blue Sky by searching hubhistory.com. I’m still not super active on Mastodon, but you can always find me and get in touch over there as at hubhistoryatbetter.boston. If you’ve managed to unplug from the social media machine, just 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.