One of the clowns who interrupted the playing of Taps. Photo by Jake.
There was a ceremony at Dorchester Heights this morning to commemorate the day the Americans drove the British out of Boston. Mayor Wu was there and so was her obviously jobless contingent of Covid deniers, banging drums and yelling about whatever specific Covid thing they're upset about today. Fine, but they kept right on banging their drums and yelling even as a bugler played Taps to remember the true patriots who died before the British left.
RoadTrip New England took in the Evacuation Day commemoration at Dorchester Heights this morning.
On March 17, 1776, with colonial cannon aimed at them from Dorchester Heights, the British troops occupying Boston evacuated the city. This 1776 German woodcut (from the Library of Congress) shows the British soldiers leaving for Nova Scotia, with only slight artistic license for the height of the hills surrounding Boston.
J.L. Bell quotes from the diary of a Virginia rifleman who was stationed in Roxbury at the time.
This view, from 1838, shows the rather commanding position Dorchester Heights had over the town of Boston, so when Henry Knox got his Fort Ticonderoga cannons up there, the British really had no choice but to flee.
BPL photo posted under this Creative Commons license.
Fort Hill History recounts Roxbury's role in helping to force the British out of Boston on Evacuation Day, way back when.
Meters are free tomorrow in Boston - although you still have to limit yourself to two hours.
First, top o' the Evacuation Day mornin' to ye! If you're a Boston City Hall worker or the parent of a BPS student, you're probably just now getting up, no? J.L. Bell posts an account from Gen. John Sullivan on pointing his spyglass at British fortifications in Charlestown on March 17, 1776:
MassExtra reports "Boston's Finest," a possible ABC series, is seeking Boston school kids for some filming tomorrow. Oh, they can't be afraid of snakes.
Bill would only affect public workers in Suffolk County (question: And Somerville?).
Via David Guarino.
After watching these excerpts from the Senate battle over getting rid of Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day, I can't tell who's worse: Some senator from Godknowswhere, MA, who briefly affects an Irish brogue to condemn our holidays and who defends Christmas as being "for the children," or our own Jack Hart, who says that unlike the rest of the state, "we have real history here in the city," nay, we have "a historic history" and if you strip that from our bosoms, what's next, gutting Thanksgiving?
Via Bostonist.
J.L. Bell concludes his recounting of Evacuation Day:
... Immediately upon the fleet's sailing the Select Men set off, through the lines, to Roxbury to acquaint General [George] Washington of the evacuation of the town. After sending a message Major [Joseph] Ward aid to General [Artemas] Ward, came to us at the lines and soon after the General himself, who received us in the most polite and affectionate manner, and permitted us to pass to Watertown to acquaint the Council of this happy event. ...
Jimbo brings to our attention the most recent issue of the Boston Post-Gazette, which features a front-page article by Tom Menino on the importance of Evacuation Day and St. Patrick's Day. It starts like this:
Actually, Mr. Mayor, while the British left Boston in 1776, they stayed around in the other colonies until 1783 (the colonies didn't even get around to declaring their independence until four months after Evacuation Day). In fact, a few months after Evacuation Day, the British seized control of New York City (and almost captured Washington) in the Battle of Long Island. You might also vaguely remember stories about the crossing of the Delaware and some place called Valley Forge.
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