Siege of Boston

19 April 1775 to 17 March 1776

American Victory

Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, New England militia units surrounded Boston, Massachusetts, trapping 6,000 British troops and thousands of Loyalists. The siege of Boston had begun. On 14 June 1775, the Continental Congress voted to take on the New England Army of Observation as a Continental Army. They sent General George Washington to take command of the militia forces around the city on 3 July 1775. Continental troops blocked the Charlestown Neck, the only land access to Charlestown and Boston. American control of the land route forced the British to resupply their forces by sea. This was not difficult because the rebellious colonies lacked a navy. Col. Henry Knox conducted a hazardous winter mission to bring cannon from Fort Ticonderoga, New York to Boston. Knox provided Washington’s Army with crucial artillery to reinforce Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston harbor in early March 1776. General William Howe realized that his position in Boston was untenable, and withdrew to Halifax, Nova Scotia on 17 March 1776. In their haste to leave the city, the British left behind stores of cannons and ammunition for the American arsenal.

The creation of a truly American Army on 14 June 1775 was highly significant to the history of our emerging nation. The colonial militias and volunteer Minutemen were invaluable in controlling population and resources in the countryside. Unfortunately, they often melted away as fast as they were raised. In addition, those forces often identified with their own state or region. However, the first ten companies of Continental Army Soldiers were a national force even before the nation was fully formed. The first continentals were recruited from several states and were sent from one end of the thirteen colonies and then states to another. In time a nation would grow out of the seeds planted by each continental Soldier as he signed up not as a "summer Soldier" or "sunshine patriot," to use the immortal words of Thomas Paine, but as an American Soldier in service to his nation whenever and wherever needed.

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