On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General George Washington reported to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress that
It is with the greatest pleasure I inform you that on Sunday last the 17th. Instant, about 9th O’Clock in the forenoon the Ministerial Army evacuated the Town of Boston, and that the Forces of the United Colonies are now in actual Possession thereof. I beg leave to congratulate you Sir, and the Honorable Congress on this happy event, and particularly as it was effected without endangering the Lives and property of the remaining unhappy Inhabitants.
Sources: https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw2.008/?sp=7&st=text; “George Washington to John Hancock, 19 March 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0363. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 489–491.]
On that same day, Brigadier General John Sullivan wrote a tongue-in-cheek report to Congressman John Adams of his capture of the British works on Bunker Hill:
I . . . took my horse, and rode down to Charlestown Neck, where I had a clear view of Bunker’s Hill. I saw the sentrys standing as usual with their firelocks shouldered, but finding they never moved, I soon suspected what regiment they belonged to; and upon taking a clear view with my glass, found they were only effigies set there by the flying enemy. This convinced me that they were actually fled, for if they meant to decoy us, they would have taken away every appearance of man. By this time, I was joined by Colo. Mifflin, who, with my Brigade Major agreed to go up, sending two persons round the works to examine whether there was any of them in the rear of the works, while we went up in the front. I at the same time sent for a strong party to follow us on to the hill to assist us in running away (if necessary). We found no person there and bravely took the fortress defended by lifeless sentries. I then brought on a party to secure what we had so bravely won, and went down to the other works where we found all abandoned, but the works not injured in any part.
On This Day In The Revolution 