On this day 250 years ago the British Army evacuated Boston. Including Loyalist families as well as British soldiers, 11,000 people boarded 120 ships in Boston Harbor that morning. Major General Artemis Ward of Massachusetts, second in command to General Washington, led 500 men of the Continental Army who were immune to smallpox into Boston. Because of the smallpox epidemic that had been raging in Boston, and the British troops were onboard ships anchored in Boston Harbor, the remainder of the Continental Army and the former inhabitants who had fled the British stayed outside the city for several days. The Patriots were relieved that they did not have to assault the city recording that they found “Boston was almost impregnable, every avenue fortified.” The were also shocked that the British had left behind material valued at 30,000 pounds sterling, including 3000 blankets, 100 spiked cannons (the Americans were able to salvage 69 of them), four large sea mortars, ordnance, and extensive medical supplies.
With the evacuation of Boston the Continental Army and General Washington had won the Siege of Boston, their greatest strategic victory to that point, with the loss of fewer than 20 men in combat after Washington assumed command. The British would never again control any part of mainland Massachusetts (but would raid Nantucket and Martha Vineyard Islands). Moreover, with the evacuation of Boston the British had lost control of all of the thirteen original United States.
By March 1776 the colonial governors had already lost authority in all the other states. The royal governor had been driven out of New Hampshire in early 1775. The last royal governor of Rhode Island was elected by the Rhode Island and deposed and replaced by the lieutenant governor when he proved insufficiently committed to the Patriot cause. Royal Governor Trumbull of Connecticut had also been elected by the legislature, and he was firmly committed by the Patriot cause and branded the “rebel governor” by the Crown. The governors of New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia had all fled to British warships anchored off their coasts and exercised no authority onshore except when British raiding parties landed. In order to avoid confiscation of his extensive land holdings, the royal governor of Pennsylvania (and Delaware) had issued no decrees or convened any meetings for the last year while the elected assemblies governed those states. The royal governor of New Jersey was under house arrest. The well-liked royal governor of Maryland theoretically remained in office, but all power was exercised by the Patriot-controlled Assembly. The British governed nowhere except Forts Niagara and Oswego in New York, and islands temporarily under the guns of British warships.
In some respects March 17, 1776 was the highwater mark of the Revolutionary War. The Revolution had spread to Canada and most of the other English colonies in America. The Continental Army occupied much of Quebec Province although not Quebec city itself, and its control was fading fast. There were numerous Patriot sympathizers in Nova Scotia vying for control of that colony. The Patriots had raided and captured the governor of St. John’s Island (now called Prince Edward Island) although the raid did more to antagonize the population than help the American cause. The Continental Congress had invited East Florida to send delegates and planned an invasion when the colony adhered to the Crown. The Patriots had captured the capital and governor of the Bahamas, although they would depart with their prisoners that same day. Bermuda was filled with Patriot sympathizers trading with America. In Jamaica the American cries of liberty and freedom would soon inspire rebellion, even though that rebellion was not invited or welcomed by the Continental Congress.
Sources: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/fortifying-dorchester-heights.htm#_ftn3;
Today the people of Massachusetts and the United States celebrated Evacuation Day with the commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the British departure from Boston
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/evacuation-day-250.htm; https://apnews.com/article/evacuation-day-250-america-boston-3ce7c78ba0b1b949954e2751a351c658
On this day 250 years ago, the American fleet under Commodore Esek Hopkins that had captured Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, sailed for Rhode Island, with Royal Governor Browne and other officials as prisoners, as well as cannon and materiel for the Continental Army.
On This Day In The Revolution 