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Dorchester Heights Monument

Dorchester Heights is the central area of South Boston. It is the highest area in the neighborhood and commands a view of both Boston Harbor and downtown.

After the battles of Lexington and Concord, Revolutionary sentiment within New England reached a new high, and thousands of militiamen from the Northern colonies converged on Boston, pushing the British back within the city limits. In June of 1775 British soldiers under General Howe attacked and seized Bunker Hill, but in the process sustained many losses. Following this encounter, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia gave George Washington the title of Commander in Chief and sent him to oversee the efforts outside of Boston.

The stalemate in Boston lasted for months, only breaking when Colonel Henry Knox returned from Fort Ticonderoga in New York, having lead a team of sleds from the fort across hundreds of miles with tens of thousands of pounds of artillery to Boston. This added artillery gave Washington and his military council the firepower they needed to make a drastic move. Over the night of March 4, 1776, as 800 American soldiers stood guard along the river of Dorchester shores, 1200 American soldiers took Dorchester Heights uninhibited. They began working through the night to build structures suitable to defend against the British Army. A large portion of the artillery, pulled by oxen, was moved and installed without notice by the British command at Dorchester Heights, a point of strategic importance due to its elevation and commanding view of all of Boston and Boston Harbor.

In response, Howe planned on mounting a counter offensive against the fortified positions on the Heights, but bad weather forced him to rethink his plan. In the end he fell back from the city, and the British Navy evacuated both the British army stationed there and many Loyalists.

The battle is commemorated as part of Boston National Historical Park.

Note: Although the Americans had cannons they did not have ammunition, and if the British had known this, the end result may well have been completely different.

• National Park Service: Dorchester Heights

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