“Good-Bye… and Good Riddance!”

I always thought it was kinda unfair that only Suffolk County got Evacuation Day day off – until Norfolk County was founded in 1793, Needham was part of Suffolk. And yes, of course we were involved.

This past Tuesday was Evacuation Day in Boston – all the more special because it was the 250th anniversary of the Evacuation. Evacuation Day, March 17, is actually a public holiday in Suffolk County, and schools and government offices are closed (Noooo – it’s just a coincidence that it also falls on St. Patrick’s Day). I always thought it was kinda unfair that only Suffolk County got the day off – until Norfolk County was founded in 1793, Needham was part of Suffolk. And yes, of course we were involved.

You may have seen the recent commercials posted by Sec. State William Galvin about Henry Knox’s cannons and the fortification of Dorchester Heights. This is one of the most amazing stories of the early years of the Revolutionary War.

Following the battles of Lexington and Concord, the patriot militias blockaded the routes into Boston, cutting off access by land for the British. They also harassed British shipping in the harbor, impeding resupply by sea. Although the British were not able to break the siege, the Continental Army was not able to dislodge the British either.

At the start of the war, George Washington’s Continental Army was both outmanned and outgunned. Especially problematic was the lack of heavy artillery, which prevented the American forces from mounting large offensive operations. However, they were opportunistic, and tried to make inroads into some of Britain’s less-defended positions.  One of these was Fort Ticonderoga, on the shores of Lake Champlain in New York.  The fort was remote and poorly defended, so Benedict Arnold and his Connecticut militia joined forces with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys to attack the fort on May 10, 1775. The British garrison surrendered without a fight, and the next day Arnold’s and Allen’s men took the nearby Fort Crown Point. They went on that week to capture other small garrisons toward the Canadian border, and also a British warship on Lake Champlain.

These skirmishes were not large and the forts were not strategically important, but they had a major asset – cannon, which Washington desperately needed. There was some idea once the forts were captured to bring the cannon to Boston, but lacking manpower, Arnold abandoned the plan.

In the meantime, Washington was looking for an opportunity to end his siege of Boston. Col. Henry Knox suggested bringing the cannon down from Ticonderoga and fortifying the heights around the city.  Henry Knox was only 26 at the time and was a bookseller in Boston. He would later become Washington’s chief of artillery, and later the nation’s first Secretary of War.

Both sides knew that the heights overlooking Boston Harbor (Lechmere, Roxbury, and Dorchester) could be strategically important, but had not been able to fortify them. Washington agreed to the plan and sent Knox to Fort Ticonderoga to fetch the cannon. This exploit, the “noble train of artillery,” is considered to be one of the outstanding logistical feats of the war.

Knox left Boston on November 17, reaching Ticonderoga on December 10. He selected 60 pieces of artillery, weighing a total of about 60 tons – from small guns and mortars to the large 24-pounders, which were more than 10 feet long and weighed 5000 pounds. The guns were loaded onto barges to get them to the southern tip of Lake Chaplain, and then were moved onto a train of 42 sleds, pulled by horses and oxen.

Knox followed an old military trail that took him from Lake Champlain, south along the Hudson River, and then eastward across the Berkshires to Cambridge – a distance of roughly 300 miles. Needless to say, the journey was slow and difficult. The frozen rivers at the outset were a benefit, but as the train moved south down the Hudson, the ice grew thinner and cannon crashed through on several occasions and had to be recovered.  By Christmas there was also more than two feet of snow on the ground in New York, which slowed the progress. Then a lack of snow as they crossed into the Berkshires impeded the sleds as well, forcing Knox to take on more animals and crew. The train finally arrived in Cambridge on January 27. Knox had thought that the whole round trip would take about two weeks, but it took eleven.

By the end of February, Washington had acquired the necessary supplies of powder and ammunition, and was ready to deploy his cannon. The plan was to move them to Dorchester Heights, overlooking the British positions in the Harbor. As a diversion, he placed some of them in Cambridge at Lechmere and Cobble Hill, and others in Roxbury. During the nights of March 2 and 3, they lobbed cannonballs into Boston, and the British returned fire. There was not much damage on ither side, but the action kept British attention focused to the west.

In the meantime, Washington went forward with the fortification of Dorchester Heights. The usual method of building a rampart was to dig a ditch and build the earth into a wall, but the ground was too frozen. So instead they built segments of walls out of heavy timbers, in the nearby woods out of sight of the British. Throughout the night on March 4, they moved the artillery and the prefabricated timber ramparts into place on the Heights. Hay bales muffled the sounds of transportation and activity.

British General Howe awoke to find ramparts overlooking the city and long guns trained on his fleet. “The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in a month,” he declared. He knew his fleet was now in danger, so he decided to send 2400 men to attack the fort that night, under the cover of darkness. Washington found out about this plan and increased his garrison to 6000 men. But Howe’s plan was foiled by an untimely snowstorm that night that lasted for several days.  By time the weather had cleared, Howe had decided that holding Boston was no longer worth the effort. On March 8, he delivered an unsigned letter to Washington, offering that the British would make no attempt to burn Boston to the ground if they were allowed to leave without hindrance. They boarded ships and left, accompanied by around 1000 civilian Loyalists, to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The British evacuated from Boston, and the year-long Siege of Boston was over. This was the first major victory of the war.

So why did I tell you all this? Because, yes Friends, this road does lead to Needham.

Among the 2000 men who labored on that long night to construct the Dorchester fortifications was Capt. Robert Smith’s East Needham militia company, serving under Col. William McIntosh’s First Suffolk regiment. Robert Smith’s company was also at the battle of Menotomy (Arlington) on April 19th, and lost two men in the fight.  Capt. Smith saw other action throughout the course of the war, and he was also Needham’s first member (1775) of its Committee of Correspondence, which aided the Sons of Liberty. 

William McIntosh gained the rank of Lieutenant in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). After that war, he moved his family to Needham, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was made Colonel in February 1776, and given command of the First Suffolk Regiment, some 350 men made up of militias from Dedham, Needham, Roxbury and Brookline. The First Suffolk fought at Dorchester Heights, Castle Island, Fishkill, and beside Washington in other parts of the NY campaign. McIntosh also served Needham as Delegate to the Third Provincial Congress (1775), and as a Representative in General Court (five years between 1775-1783); locally, he served as Selectman for twelve years between 1767 and 1792.

The Evacuation of Boston had other local repercussions. Some Loyalists did stay here. Capt. William Faris remained in Needham. He was an argumentative soul who enjoyed tweaking his neighbors as ‘traitors.’  He served as a Justice of the Peace from 1775-1789. Others took the opportunity to leave, including Gregory Townsend, youngest son of Needham’s first Minister, the Rev. Jonathan Townsend. Townsend departed to Halifax with the Loyalist exiles. In May 1783, as the war ended, Town Meeting took up the question of allowing the exiled Loyalists to return to town – and the article was rejected. “Absentees” such as Gregory Townsend were no longer welcome here, and their property was confiscated. Townsend lived in Halifax for the remainder of his life.

There were also a small number of “Refugees” – presumably people who had escaped occupied Boston, though there is no specific explanation of their presence. The town’s (male) census of January 1777 list four – Capt. David Phelps of Boston, Thomas Neal, Walter Logan, Esq. of Roxbury, and James Miller from Charlestown. The further histories of David Phelps and Thomas Neal are unknown. James Miller stayed in Needham with his family. Walter Logan re-enters the historic record again in November 1785, when his goods and chattels were sold at public auction. The sale was overseen by Col. McIntosh, and was probably held at his son’s tavern. It is not known why Logan had fallen on hard times, but the sale included both household goods and personal items. That it is described as “articles sold for Mr. Walter Logan, Esq.” rather than “the estate of…” suggests that it was not a probate sale.

The evacuation of Boston was Washington’s first major victory, and a bright spot in the difficult early years of the Revolutionary War. Extraordinary labor and planning were needed to pull it off – and that took guts, grit, and dedication. Small towns like Needham get overshadowed by the more dramatic events – Lexington! Concord! Dorchester! So it is important for us to remember that we were a part of these events, even if our name is not on them, and that they could not have happened without the toil and sacrifice of the men and women of Needham.