George Washington

14 Arlington St

(Note video is of a different location than this) Son of a prosperous planter, George Washington was raised in colonial Virginia and worked as a surveyor and fought in the French and Indian war. During the American Revolution he was commander in chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Washington proved to be a better General than Military Strategist. His strength lay not in his genius on the battlefield but in his ability to keep the struggling colonial army together. His troops were poorly trained and lacked food, ammunition, and other supplies (soldiers sometimes even went without boots or proper supplies in miserable winter conditions). However, Washington was able to give them direction and motivation.

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By the late 1760s, Washington had experienced firsthand the effects of rising taxes imposed on American colonists by the British and came to believe that it was in the best interests of the colonists to declare independence from England. Over the course of the grueling eight-year war, the colonial forces won few battles but consistently held their own against the British. He arrived in Cambridge 3 weeks after the Battle of Breeds Hill (Bunker Hill). In conjunction with Colonel Henry Knox he fortified Dorchester Heights with 60 tons of weapons captured from NY’s Fort Ticonderoga all moved during a brutal blizzard. For 2 days they bombarded the British from Cambridge to distract them and then at night several thousand men quietly moved heavy artillery into position on Dorchester heights overlooking Boston and its harbor. Logs painted to look like cannon made it seem as if they had even more firepower than they did. British General William Howe is quoted as rising the next morning and exclaiming in amazement “The rebels did more in one night than my whole army would have done in one month”. He realized his troops could not defend the town against the Continental Army’s elevated position and began the evacuation of Boston on March 17th 1776. All in all, George Washington spent very little time in Boston, but what he did had a lot of impact.

-Source Links-

https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/george-washington

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/siege-of-boston

https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/henry-knox-brings-cannon-to-boston/submoment/fortification-of-dorchester-heights.html

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/siege-of-boston-map.htm (Interactive Map of modern bos, colonial bos, and fortifications)