British and Loyalists Evacuate Boston
With American artillery now on Dorchester Heights, within easy range of Boston, it was no longer safe for the British army to stay in Boston. British General William Howe decided to evacuate immediately, and the soldiers and sailors began frantically preparing to leave. They packed military supplies and equipment aboard the Royal Navy ships in the harbor; most of what they couldn’t fit on the ships, they destroyed, so as not to help the rebel army. Those of the townspeople who sided with the British were given the opportunity to leave with the troops, and about 1,100 did so. On the morning of Sunday, March 17, the British finally moved out of Charlestown and Boston, and the Americans moved in. It was another 10 days before the British fleet actually left Boston harbor; during that time, they destroyed the fortifications on Castle Island and finished preparing to sail to Halifax, Nova Scotia, there to await reinforcements from England.
Captain Archibald Robertson, an engineer in the British army, wrote in his diary on March 17:
This morning at 4 the Troops were under Arms at 1/4 past 6 All the Regiments but the Rear Guard were embark’d. The wind tho’ fair was very faint, and the Rear Guards did not receive orders to move till near 8. At 9 all were on board with the Guard from Charles Town. At the same time, Captain Montresor and I Staid with 3 Corps and Shut the Chevaux de frises on the long Wharff and to fire some houses if there had appeared any Enemy in our rear, but none appeared and we went all off in the greatest order. Got to Castle William about 10 and in an hour saw the Rebels on the heights of Charles Town and making a great Parade on the heights of dorchester. All the fleet came to an anchor at King Road and Captain Montresor and I came on board our Transport at Nantasket at 1/2 past 12, the finest day in the world, and fair Breeze.
Timothy Newell was a selectman — an elected official — of Boston, as well as being a deacon of the Brattle Street Church in Boston. The British commanders had compelled him and the other selectmen to remain in town to help keep order among the townspeople, and Newell was glad when the British finally left. He wrote in his diary:
This morning at 3 o’clock, the troops began to move — Guards Chevaux de freze, Crow feet strewed in the streets to prevent being pursued. They all embarked at about 9 oclock and the whole fleet came to sail. Every vessel which they did not carry off, they rendered unfit for use. Not even a boat left to cross the River. — Thus was this unhappy distressed town (thro’ a manifest interposition of divine providence) relieved from a set of men, whose unparralled [unparalleled] wickedness, profanity, debauchery and cruelty is inexpressible, enduring a siege from the 19th April 1775 to the 17th March 1776.
Some interesting facts: The British were understandably worried that the Americans might try to attack them while they were evacuating Charlestown and Boston; but as it turned out, the British left so quietly that even many of the townspeople didn’t notice until after they were gone. Smallpox and other diseases had been prevalent in Boston during the siege, so the first American troops to re-enter Boston were men who had already had smallpox and were thus immune. They were led by Major General Artemas Ward of Massachusetts.
Sources
Archibald Robertson: His Diaries and Sketches in America, 1762-1780, pp. 79-80.
Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Series 4, 1:275-76.