With
the upcoming winter of 1775-76, the outlook around Boston was discouraging for
the fledging American army. The previous
April, the Patriots had had won battles at Lexington and Concord, in May they
had sieged Fort Ticonderoga, and in June they had lost the Battle of Bunker
Hill. General Washington had arrived on July
2nd to take charge of all colonial forces but there had been many
changes in leadership with lower generals bickering and jockeying for position. General Howe and the bulk of the British Army
and Royal Navy were entrenched in and around Boston. There had been multiple scuffles and skirmishes
with the British, but no decisive battles.
As the harsh winter set in, Americans lacked the men, cannons, guns, powder
and fortifications to take Boston!
What
would happen in the next few months would show the new nation some of history’s
most dramatic interventions of divine providence. Indeed, the Master Orchestrator of the
Universe would bring all the pieces together, leaving General Howe only one
viable option….a complete retreat and withdrawal from Boston.
First
and foremost, the Continental Army lacked men.
What they had was volunteer farmers and shopkeepers. Those lacking Washington’s vision of “the
glorious cause” preferred spending the New England winter in the warmth of
their own homes rather than a freezing army tent. So many troops had one or two month
enlistments that Washington rarely knew how many men he would have from month
to month. Many of the enlisted men had
gone home and taken their army-issued rifles with them. But beginning in January, a miraculous spirit
of freedom settled over New England and thousands of men from New Hampshire and
Massachusetts began to arrive with their own muskets and powder. By February, the army had grown to over 10,000
troops. Washington now had men and guns.
During
one of many discussions about the need for artillery, someone remembered the cannons
that had been abandoned at Fort Ticonderoga the previous year. Initially, the idea of bringing the artillery
to Boston had been discarded because of the difficulty of the 300-mile
journey. Washington turned the challenge
over to bookseller and amateur engineer Henry Knox, a plump but determined
twenty-five-year-old man whose only knowledge of cannons came from a book he
had once sold in his shop.
Knox’s
task was to bring 58 pieces of artillery (three weighing 2,000 lbs. each and
one weighing 5,400 lbs.) across lakes, rivers, and mountains to Boston in the
dead of winter. What Knox lacked in
experience, he made up for in creativity and inspiration. In their 2-month trip, Knox’s bizarre little
caravan was provided with a miraculous warm thaw when their boats needed to
cross Lake George, unusually thick ice when their ox carts needed to cross the Hudson
River, fresh deep snows when their 40 sleds needed to cross the Berkshire
Mountains, fresh animals when their oxen and horses were exhausted, and
patriots in every village to feed and shelter them. Knox’s “noble train of artillery” entered
Cambridge on January 24, 1776.[1] Washington
now had cannons.
Bunker
Hill and Dorchester Heights were the only hills above Boston that had enough
elevation to offer the possibility of an effective bombardment of both city and
harbor. Washington set his sights on
Dorchester Heights. The problem was that
in the middle of a bitter New England winter, the ground was so frozen that
effective barricades could not be dug.
Without these entrenchments, the men and artillery would be fully
exposed to enemy guns. Here again, God’s
hand was seen in the solution.
On
the same night Washington presented the problem to his officers, young Rufus
Putnam happened to casually open a book on field engineering written by Professor
John Muller and noticed a diagram and description of a “chandelier” – a French
solution to their fortification problem.
The chandelier was a wooden fortification
that could be prefabricated, quickly assembled, and then filled with sticks and
twisted bales of hay. Joined with other
chandeliers, it made above-ground fortifications as effective as a trench. Construction started immediately on hundreds
of chandeliers with a slight American touch…. Hundreds of barrels, filled with earth
and rock were placed in front of the barricade which could be rolled down on advancing
troops.[2] Washington
now had fortifications.
Powder
was now the only lacking ingredient, but supplies steadily build to there were
30 loads per soldier; less than half the British combat issue; but it would
have to do. Washington ordered the
attack.
On
the night of March 3rd, Americans commenced a heavy bombardment of
British strongholds; British cannons responded.
Throughout the day and next evening, the exchange continued with little
damage being done, except that the British attention was diverted away from the
2,000 men, busily working behind the hills at Dorchester Heights.
The
book, The Light and the Glory
brilliantly describes the night of preparation.
“The Continental Army could have waited a year and not experienced more
ideal weather conditions than those that occurred on the night of March 4: a
ground mist completely covered their operations at the base of Dorchester
Heights, while the weather was perfectly clear on the top of the hill, well lit
by a nearly full moon. The final touch
was a breeze blowing inland to carry the noise of their work away from the
British. Some eight hundred soldiers
labored to place the preassembled chandeliers in position and load them with
fascines [bundles of sticks], all of which were brought up the hill by three
hundred amazingly quiet teams and drovers.
Silently these soldiers worked hour after hour through the moonlit
darkness, following plans that Knox had laid out with such precision that the
whole line fit together as if it had been set up that way many times before.”[3] Cannons were moved into place, including
several logs that were painted to look like cannons.
At
dawn, the British were amazed! Captain
Stuart wrote that the fortifications “appeared more like magic than the work of
human beings.” British Chief Engineer
Captain Robertson called it “a most astonishing night’s work that must have
employed from 15,000 to 20,000 men.
Vice-Admiral Shuldham informed General Howe that he “could not possibly
remain in the harbor under the fire of the batteries from Dorchester
Neck.” General Howe was also amazed, “These
fellows have done more work in one night than my whole army will do in three
months.” Howe ordered a suicidal attack
on the hill, but a hurricane-force storm came up out of nowhere, driving back
the assault. Howe reluctantly ordered a
complete evacuation of the city and surrounding towns. Within days, the entire British army, navy,
and many of the townspeople loyal to England had left Boston - without the loss
of a single life on either side.
Today,
many people wonder if America can still be saved. The answer lies in the miracles of the
past. God has saved America before, and He
can do it again. We don’t have to do it alone;
the God of Heaven will save this country when enough citizens recognize His
hand in the building of our nation and live worthy of the blessings of
freedom.
