Events Near Boston

At about this time the Congress was putting forth its energies for the establishment of a Continental Navy. The separate colonies were doing the same thing. A Marine Committee was appointed, and in December (1775) the Congress ordered the construction of thirteen armed vessels. Meanwhile Washington, under instructions, had caused floating batteries to be built in the Charles River, from one of which shells were thrown into Boston late in October, producing much alarm and some injury.

Six months had passed away since the battle of Bunker's Hill, and yet the relative position of the belligerent troops had changed very little. The people murmured; Congress fretted, and Washington was impatient to begin a vigorous siege. But he was almost powerless. At the beginning of December his old army began to dissolve, and not more than five thousand new recruits were enrolled. There seemed to be a fatal flagging of spirits. The cold was increasing; many of the soldiers lacked comfortable clothing; it was difficult to procure wood for fuel, and whole regiments were compelled to eat their provisions raw for the want of it to cook them. Fences and fruit trees around the camp were seized for use, and groups of shivering soldiers were often seen hovering around smouldering embers. The Connecticut troops demanded a bounty, and when it was refused, because Congress had not authorized it, they resolved to leave camp in a body on the 6th of December. Many did go and never came back. These untoward circumstances filled the mind of Washington with the keenest anxiety; when suddenly a salutary change was visible. Within the space of a fortnight new hopes and renewed patriotism seemed to fill the bosoms of the people, and at the close of the year the regiments were nearly all full, and ten thousand Minute-men, chiefly in Massachusetts, were ready to swell the ranks when called upon. The camp was well supplied with provisions; order was generally preserved; the commander-in-chief was more hopeful than at any time since his arrival, and general cheerfulness prevailed. The wives of several of the officers had arrived in camp. Mrs. Washington, with her son John Parke Custis and his young spouse, came on the 11th of December, and the Christmas holidays were spent at Cambridge quite agreeably.

The new Continental army was organized on the first of January, 1776, when it consisted of almost ten thousand men, of whom more than a thousand were absent on furlough which it had been necessary to grant as a condition of re-enlistment. The event was signalled by the raising of a new flag composed of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, emblematic of the union of the thirteen colonies (for Georgia had lately sent delegates to the Congress), and in the dexter corner, the British Union--the combined crosses of St. George and St. Andrew on a blue ground as indicative of the loyalty of the colonies to the British crown. As it fluttered in the keen winter wind on that clear morning, shouts from a thousand voices greeted it, and in token of their feelings many of the soldiers threw their hats high in air. This incident produced erroneous impressions upon the British officers in Boston. On that day printed copies of the king's speech on the opening of Parliament late in October were received by General Howe, and he sent a package of them to General Washington. The king, after declaring his intention to enforce obedience in the colonies, proposed the appointment of Commissioners to offer the olive branch of peace and pardon to all individual offenders in America, as well as whole communities or provinces that might sue for forgiveness. The hoisting of the Union flag--the flag with the British Union--was regarded with joy in Boston as a token of the deep impression the "gracious speech" had made upon the Americans, and as a signal of submission! The Union flag had been raised before the speech was received, and the latter was burned with contempt by a party of Massachusetts soldiers.

The British troops in Boston, at this time, numbered about eight thousand, exclusive of marines on the ships-of-war in the harbor. They were well supplied with provisions from Barbadoes and Great Britain, and having been promised ample reinforcements the coming season, they were prepared to sit quietly in Boston and wait for them. They had converted the Old South Meeting-house into a riding-school, and Faneuil Hall into a theatre, and were whiling away the winter quite pleasantly, while Washington was chafing with impatience to "break up the nest." He had received a temporary reinforcement of five thousand militia, and he waited for the ice in the rivers to become strong enough to bear his troops to make an assault upon the town. But the winter was exceedingly mild and no opportunity of that kind offered until February, when a council of his officers deemed the undertaking too hazardous. The temporary militia had retired, and Washington was compelled to call upon the New England colonies to furnish thirteen regiments more.