On this day 250 years ago, two British sloops and an armed schooner with about 100 soldiers sailed out of Boston to Grape Island on the southern end of Boston Bay to gather hay from the farm of the Loyalist who owned the island. Nearly 2000 militia from Hingham and surrounding towns, including John Adams’ brothers from Braintree, gathered on the mainland shore across from the island. Although they were at the edge of the range of muskets, they began firing at the British. When the tide came in the Americans crossed to the island on small boats and British boarded their ships to depart with the hay they had gathered. While sailing away the British ships exchanged fire with the militia. Despite a lot of gunfire over several hours the British reportedly had only three men wounded and the Americans none. The Americans did, however, burn about eighty tons of hay that the British had not been able to remove, as well as the Loyalist’s barn, and removed his livestock from the island.

Following this skirmish, the Patriots began raiding the islands in Boston Harbor in the “Provision War” to remove livestock and hay needed by the British Army in Boston.

Sources: https://www.patriotledger.com/story/opinion/columns/2008/05/17/a-forgotten-battle/40205911007/; https://www.nps.gov/places/grape-island.htm; https://www.bpl.org/blogs/post/before-bunker-hill/; https://guides.bpl.org/c.php?g=800717&p=10418669; https://revolutionarywar.us/year-1775/

Last weekend the Town of Hingham commemorated the 250th anniversary of “Battle of Grape Island” https://hinghamhistorical.org/battle-of-grape-island/. But next weekend in Boston there will be commemorations of the next, and much more significant, engagements in the Provision War. https://www.revolution250.org/; https://www.revolution250.org/; https://www.revolution250.org/; https://www.revolution250.org/