Boston 1775

For one last posting on the label “Breed’s Hill,” I’ll share some thoughts on whether that label matters. These days, it’s mostly useful ...

Samuel Richards (1753–1841) came from Farmington, Connecticut . In May 1775 he marched north with his town’s company to the Boston siege li...

On 16 Mar 1776, 250 years ago today , Abigail Adams wrote from Braintree to her husband John in Philadelphia: There has been no firing s...

The National Parks of Boston reopened the Dorchester Heights monument this year and will welcome visitors to two commemorations there of th...

With hindsight, we can see that 250 years ago the siege of Boston was basically over, with the British military preparing to leave. At t...

The Rev. William Gordon ’s account of the end of the siege of Boston continues, picking up (in the present historical tense) just after Gen...

Yesterday I quoted Gen. William Howe ’s report on how he discovered and responded to the Continental Army fortifications on the heights o...

Two hundred fifty years ago this morning Gen. William Howe looked across Boston harbor and saw that the Continental Army had erected fort...

On Thursday, 26 February, I’ll return to the Acton 250 lecture series to speak about “Henry Knox’s Trek from Ticonderoga: Myths, Realities,...

In last week’s talk about the end of the siege of Boston , I recounted the story of the British army raid on the Dorchester peninsula. ...

By this date 250 years ago , Col. Henry Knox had checked in with his commander, Gen. George Washington , in Cambridge . The artillery th...

The Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies is offering a Sestercentennial tour of sites in the siege of Boston for teachers. I’ll be...

Back in January I quoted Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes on one of the impressive clergymen who came to preach in his father’s pulpit in Cambrid...

Yesterday National Parks Traveler reported that the new administration has ordered the National Park Service to rescind seasonal job offers...

Back here , in introducing a letter by Richard Lechmere , I wrote about him as leaving his country estate in Cambridge after accepting a se...

Yesterday I left Edward Rand dead on Dorchester Point. The man who had just killed him in a duel, Charles Miller, Jr. , could have been a...

As I quoted yesterday , the Constitutional Telegraphe of 17 June 1801 was the only Boston newspaper to report on the duel between Edward Ra...

While looking for more ties between Charles Miller and the Boston Patriots, I came across this story from the next generation. Boston’s C...

The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia has just unveiled a webpage displaying seventeen letters written by Continental soldi...

In my write-up of the Charlestown tea burning , I mixed up the date of the town meeting when everyone agreed to stop selling tea (28 Dec ...