Siege of Boston

Examples of Siege of Boston in the following topics:

• Fort Ticonderoga

  • The capture of Fort Ticonderoga allowed colonial forces to transport much-needed artillery to Boston and eventually break Britain's year-long siege.
  • Cannons and other armaments from the fort were transported to Boston and used to fortify Dorchester Heights, breaking the standoff at the Siege of Boston.
  • En route to Boston following news of the events of April 19, Arnold mentioned the fort and its condition to members of Silas Deane's militia.
  • On March 17, 1776, the British evacuated their troops to Halifax, Nova Scotia, ending the nearly year-long siege.
  • Detail of a 1775 map of Boston, with Dorchester Heights at the bottom right: "A plan of the town and harbour of Boston and the country adjacent with the road from Boston to Concord, shewing the place of the late engagement between the King's troops & the provincials, together with the several encampments of both armies in & about Boston.

• The Battle of Bunker Hill

  • The Battle of Bunker Hill took place mostly on and around Breed's Hill during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War.
  • On June 13, 1775, the leaders of the colonial forces besieging British-occupied Boston learned that the British generals were planning to send troops out from the city to the surrounding unoccupied hills.
  • The battle is seen as an example of a Pyrrhic victory because the immediate gain (the capture of Bunker Hill) was modest and did not significantly change the state of the siege, while the cost (the loss of nearly a third of the deployed British forces) was high.
  • George Washington, who was on his way to Boston as the new commander of the Continental Army, received news of the battle while in New York City.
  • Discuss the significance of the Battle of Bunker Hill for the future course of the Revolutionary War

• The Loyalists

  • During the American Revolutionary War, British Loyalists made up approximately 15-20 percent of the population of the 13 colonies.
  • There was not unanimous support among members of the 13 colonies for the Patriot Siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 - March 17, 1776).
  • Loyalism was particularly strong in the Province of Quebec.
  • New York City and Long Island were the British military and political bases of operations in North America from 1776 to 1783 and maintained a large concentration of Loyalists, many of whom were refugees from other states.
  • Key members of the elite families that owned and controlled much of the commerce and industry in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston left the United States, undermining the cohesion of the old upper class and transforming the social structure of the colonies.

• Smallpox

  • It is not known how or where the outbreak began, but by 1775, it was raging through British-occupied Boston.
  • During Washington's siege of the city, the disease broke out among both Continental and British camps.
  • By 1779, the disease had spread to Mexico, where it would cause the deaths of tens of thousands.
  • By its end, the smallpox epidemic had reached as far west as the Pacific Coast and as far north as Alaska, infecting virtually every part of the vast continent of North America.
  • In 1775, American militias surrounded Boston, forcing British troops to evacuate the city.

• Fighting for Liberty

  • Prior to the revolution, many free African Americans supported the anti-British cause, most famously Crispus Attucks, believed to be the first person killed at the Boston Massacre .
  • They were under orders to become activated if the British troops in Boston took the offensive.
  • During the course of the war, about one fifth of the northern army consisted of black males.
  • At the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, Baron Closen, a German officer in the French Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment, estimated the American army to be comprised of about one quarter black males.
  • This picture depicts the death of African-American Crispus Attucks, who was believed to be the first person killed at the Boston Massacre.

• The American Military Forces

  • On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army, raising 22,000 troops from the Boston area and 5,000 from New York.
  • As the Continental Congress increasingly adopted the responsibilities and posture of a legislature for a sovereign state, the role of the Continental Army was the subject of considerable debate.
  • Recruitment depended on the voluntary enlistment of Patriots from each of the 13 states.
  • Two major mutinies late in the war drastically diminished the reliability of two of the main units, and officers were faced with constant discipline problems.
  • The main goal of naval operations was to intercept shipments of British supplies and disrupt British maritime commerce.

• European Wars in the Colonies

  • Its conflicts included a siege of St.
  • Having to reckon with Quebec's formidable natural defenses, its superior number of soldiers, and the coming of winter, Phips sailed back to Boston with his hungry, smallpox-ridden, and demoralized force.
  • The expedition never materialized, but the British did supply their allies with firearms, which the Tallapoosas used in their siege of Pensacola.
  • In 1745, naval and ground forces from Massachusetts in the Siege of Louisbourg captured the strategic French base on Cape Breton Island.
  • This last of the wars for empire, however, also sowed the seeds of trouble.

• The Boston Tea Party

  • In response to the British Tea Act of 1773, the Sons of Liberty took action in what would later be known as the Boston Tea Party.
  • Upon hearing word of the details in the British Tea Act of 1773, the Sons of Liberty took action after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain.
  • South of Boston, protesters successfully compelled the tea consignees to resign.
  • "Americans throwing Cargoes of the Tea Ships into the River, at Boston"
  • 1789 engraving of the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor.

• Tax Protests

  • A series of taxing legislation during the colonial era set off a series of actions between colonists and Great Britain.
  • This also began the rise of the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, who staged public protests over the taxes.
  • The Boston Tea Party of 1773, the most popular example, dumped British tea into Boston Harbor because it contained a hidden tax Americans refused to pay.
  • In response to the Boston Tea Party Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts: the Second Quartering Act (1774), the Quebec Act (1774), the Massachusetts Government Act (1774), the Administration of Justice Act (1774), the Boston Port Act (1774), and the Prohibitory Act (1775).
  • During the Boston Tea Party of 1773, Americans dumped British tea into Boston Harbor in protest of a hidden tax.

• The Boston Massacre and Military Occupation

  • The Boston Massacre was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which nine British Army soldiers killed five colonial civilian men.
  • The bloodshed illustrated the level of hostility that had developed as a result of Boston’s occupation by British troops, the competition for scarce jobs between Bostonians and the British soldiers stationed in the city, and the larger question of Parliament’s efforts to tax the colonies.
  • In the days and weeks following the incident, a propaganda battle was waged between Boston's radicals and supporters of the government.
  • The Boston Massacre is considered one of the most important events that turned colonial sentiment against King George III and British parliamentary authority.
  • A sensationalized portrayal of the skirmish, later to become known as the "Boston Massacre," between British soldiers and citizens of Boston on March 5, 1770.