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Dorchester Heights Fortification

View on map:42.332844°N 71.045758°W

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Dorchester Heights Monument
42.332916°N 71.046567°W

Dorchester Heights
42.333107°N 71.046862°W

View of Boston from Dorchester Heights.

Colonel Henry Knox (later Brigadier General and First Secretary of War) brought canons from Ticonderoga -- which had been captured by the colonials under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold -- and snuck them up on top of the heights without the British knowing it. The threat of being bombarded by cannon ended the Siege of Boston when the British gave up the city during the early part of the Revolutionary War.

On the night of March 4, 1776, under the command of General George Washington the Continental Army stealthily took control of Dorchester Heights with its spectacular view of Boston below. General William Howe and the British in Boston awoke the next morning to find heavy cannon and fortifications had been aligned against him. At first Howe wanted to attack the Heights, but the casualties incurred taking Breed’s and Bunker Hills made him eventually realize that the cost would be too high. Admiral Shuldham pointed out that he needed to move the British fleet if the Heights could not be taken, because they were in danger of being destroyed by the cannon fire. Howe sent a message to Washington informing him that Boston would not be burnt to the ground if the British were allowed to leave Boston without bombardment. On March 17, the British along with loyalists left Boston Harbor on the British fleet.

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Fortification of Dorchester Heights

The Fortification of Dorchester Heights was a decisive action early in the American Revolutionary War that precipitated the end of the siege of Boston and the withdrawal of British troops from that city.

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