The Siege of Boston

Taken from https://s3.amazonaws.com/somervillema-live/s3fs-public/flag-raising-2024-program.pdf

Siege of Boston Following the battles of Lexington & Concord, the British Army retreated to Boston. Militia units and men throughout New England besieged the town. The posting of the guards and the fortification of Union Square and Roxbury convinced the British a siege was on. General William Burgoyne described Somerville's part this way: "…Invested by a rabble in arms, who, flushed with success and insolence had advanced their sentries to pistol shots of our outguards, the ships in the harbor exposed to, and expecting a cannonade or bombardment.”

On June 17, 1775, the greatest battle during the siege was fought at Bunker Hill. After the battle, the New England troops retreated to Somerville, then known as “Charlestown beyond the neck.” They increased the strength of their fortifications around the central and strongest positions possible, on Winter Hill and on Prospect Hill. These fortifications defined the 8 miles of defensive positions from the Mystic River, through Cambridge to Roxbury, including all Somerville land within. General Washington assigned two of his best commanders to defend these key positions: Winter Hill under the command of Brigadier General John Sullivan, and Prospect Hill under Brigadier General Nathaniel Greene.

On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress authorized the formation of 2 sharpshooter militia units from PA and MD, and subsequently appointed General George Washington as its Commander. He transformed armed civilians in the militia coming from throughout New England and beyond into soldiers and an Army. General Israel Putnam, commander of Prospect Hill at the time, directed a 76-foot mast to be erected as a flagpole on top of Prospect Hill, the highest point of the fortification.

Throughout the siege in 1775, the increasing number of fortifications in Somerville (Ploughed Hill in September; Cobble Hill in November; and Lechmere Point in December) played a pivotal role in directing and supporting military operations against the British. This was accomplished despite strong opposition and harassing fire by the British, as well as famine and smallpox plaguing the region. By December 1775 the soldiers of the Cobble Hill fort were successful in driving away menacing British ships in the harbor. Later that month, Winter Hill troops made a daring attempt to capture English pickets in adjacent Charlestown. Unfortunately, an accidental musket discharge during the crossing alarmed the British and the mission was abandoned.

Prospect Hill History From “A History of the Hill” by William Preble Jones

Few spots throughout the length and breadth of this country have as many incidents in their history as Prospect Hill. In its connection with the American Revolution chiefly lies the fame of Prospect Hill. Close to its foot the British marched on their way to Concord and Lexington on the night of April 18, 1775, and again they skirted its base late in the afternoon of the following day, when they received the hottest fire during their disastrous retreat. A month later Col. Paterson's regiment occupied an unfortified breastwork at the foot of the Hill. On the evening of June 16, 1775, Col. Prescott marched from Cambridge, with one thousand men, along the foot of the hill to fortify Bunker Hill, and during the memorable struggle of the seventeenth the hill was occupied by the American reserves. Retreating from Bunker Hill, the Americans took a defiant stand on Prospect Hill, and immediately began to fortify it, under the orders of Gen. Israel Putnam, who superintended the work in person. From then till the British were driven out of Boston, March 17, 1776, it was the strongest and most important fortification in the American lines and a constant menace to the enemy. Nearly four thousand American troops, under the immediate command of General Nathaniel Greene, were encamped here during the Siege of Boston. At a later period two thousand three hundred British Troops from General Burgoyne's surrendered army were quartered in the barracks on the hill for about a year.