The Siege of Boston

What's she gonna do? Brother? When Jeff Townsend media runs wild on you America Stories. Alright, alright, alright, this is Jeff Townsend. Welcome to another story, another America Story. I said, I'm Jeff and joining me as Luke. I'm going to share with you another Mark story right now. Thank you, Luke. And that's that's how you do it. I'm doing good. Yeah, did it. I'm just kidding him. You guys. Uh. Last week, Okay, let's just started off the proper way. I guess. So this is America Stories. We are covering American history in a light, fun I guess I got that backwards. We're covering America Street in a fun, lighthearted manner, but yet educational in short form. It's nothing that's necessarily going to be hours and hours, but every week we try to bring you another event in American history. We're kind of moving along at a timeline here. So last week we did a little bit of a deep dive. It was a short one, but an educational one, fun one into George w and the hell That's saw George w Bush. George Washington. We talked about his backstory and then as we ended the episode, we segged way where he was joining the efforts in the war. Did I sum that up all right? Where we left off. Yeah, so we're excited to kind of connect the dots and where he goes from there. So yeah, like I just said, we just left off he was joining the efforts to help fight the war, and man, I'm excited to get into this one. Actions about stuff's about to pick up it is. Actually. Yeah. One of the major things is, for most part, his staff officers were chosen for him by Congress. Was the exception of if you're going to go to like build a team, right you like it's ideal if you're going to go build a team that you have, you're appointing these people on your team leadership. Not the case you're saying, oh no, no. For the most part, all but two were appointed to him too. He picked what was a bookkeeper and his name was Henry Knox and uh, but he had an exceptional amount of knowledge of ordinance like cannons and stuff like that. They called him hard knocks that a leaf, yeah, very much. Because he was promoted to colonel and a chief of Washington's artillery. That's from a bookkeeper to chief of artillery. That's uh, that's pretty So this is this is one that Okay, so I guess I wasn't paid attention. Sorry, is this one that he appointed or was already appointed? This is one that he got to appoint. Okay, So he personally had faith in this guy, even though he wasn't a decorated military officer. He thought that he would be adequate to be behind the effort that George Washington was going to and still so up up to this point they appointed like his major generals and assistants and everything. So Knox was like the first one that he got to pick himself. And then he picked another colonel who had helped John brightter on. No, I'm just kid. It wasn't John Brook No, but we were talking about him just before you rang us up. Or he's definitely gonna come up eventually, maybe not today. But the other he promoted to colonel was Alexander Hamilton, who would later become president and he became his chief aid, his CEA. Okay, yeah, yeah, exactly. So he then began his march to Boston. This was, you know, kind of a big deal. Everyone saw him immediately as a symbol of the cause. He was, you know, celebrated as he went from place to place and greeted by anyone. That's all because this was they hoped would be the man to lead them to victory in Boston. How are they feeling right about now? I know, like they just had a battle that they kind of held their own, didn't. It's not gonna go down as a win. But it probably also was a quick realization that they're not necessarily manned or experience enough at this point to completely defeat the British. Yeah, so there's two things. Two different groups of people had different thoughts. The people who weren't fighting, they were excited because they thought, all right, this guy's gonna come in and immediately turned the tide. We're gonna win this whole thing. The people who were fighting, they were extremely wore out. They didn't want to do anymore. And actually when he arrived, he got there two weeks after the Battle of Bunker Hill, they were a completely undisciplined mess. By a time he got there. What were they doing? What do you mean by that? Do you mean by that everyone was kind of just like slacking off. Things weren't being built, like new fortifications, weren't being built and weren't being maintained. The officers themselves in charge of the militia, they were just kind of not doing their jobs. In fact, at this point, the officers of the militia were elected from the rank and file soldiers. They elected their officers, so it's usually their friends and stuff that they got elected. He then went through and fired all those officers and picked men that he could see that could do the job better to run his under the lower level officers. That's a way to make a statement. Yeah. He then he came up with a way of doing drills. This was partially Benjamin Franklin's idea. But what he did is he wanted the officers to identify special skills in the privates and regular soldiers. If they could find skills these recruits had, he would then yeah, I'll be able to use them more effectively. But on top of that, he find out which officers were completely incompetent and couldn't identify gills, and this was a huge change in how the army was being ran at this point. What exactly how did he feel when he took over, Like, obviously he's he's from a decorated background of fact, participating and not. I guess he wasn't in the British Army directly, but it had to be different for what he's witnessing. Yeah, so he was definitely used to be working with the more professional organizations and so he comes into this and it's kind of like, Okay, I gotta try to get this you know, rabble back into a fighting force. They were a fighting force for a little bit, but then after their you know, losses, they kind of disintegrated a bit. A lot of people. Yeah, there was desertions some people. Actually it was a big problem is these were short term assignments, so a lot of their their terms are coming at the end of the year, and so they're just we're saying, well, we could just ride out the next few months. We're not getting paid very well, if at all anymore because of the lack of funds. So they were kind of all shirking their duties and he had to get them back into the line. This is like the movie The Replacement, So you're seeing that movie, but yeah, it's a wonderful movie. Kind of it's kind of like set in the scene here of that. So just to Diamens a little bit more We've talked about this on the previous episodes. These guys that are doing this war have left their livelihood, him himself included, right, George Washington, have left their livelihood behind. They've left their work, maybe their farm, their family, and it's getting to the point where their term of agreement, which is like what a year, is up. And so he's also not only is he taking over having to build his own entire team and get things he wants and kind of organized when he sees things are a little bit of an unorganized mess, he also has to deal at this thing and hanging over his head of how do I deal with all these expiring let's just say contracts. It was quite the predicament to be in and this was like a no win situation. He had to in a very short period of time get the army turned around and make a big stride to get the morale backup. Was this sorry to cut you off in the movie The Patriot, right, it all seems like I don't know somehow, like Mel Gibson was George Washington too. He was like everybody in that he made, like the decision he would be like if they didn't want to be there, he didn't make them or for they wanted to go home, he would let them. Was that actually the case with mister Washington. He was a little more strict about that. Yeah, if your urn or service wasn't up, you still were you work for him? Yeah, and he was going to make you work. In fact, one of the first days he did after he got the officers replaced and got guys that he lower ranks filled out, because that was one thing. They just didn't have a very good hierarchy. There wasn't you know, lieutenants and then you know second lieutenants or stuff like that. He instituted that. And so first eight is he made to get back to work, and that was building new trenches, new fortifications, so that you know, what had kind of fallen into disrepair over the few last few months was being rebuilt. What do you got our researcher, our researcher, Lieutenant Jack. It's hard at work searching something on his screen. Yeah, getting ready. We're we be talking about like some of the privateers that were involved with kind of like dealing with British mercantile ships and things like that, British Navy. What one character one privateier I wanted to bring up. Was a person by the name of Abraham Whipple. He was a you know, kind of like a privateer part of Eventually, I think he even became part of the Continental Navy. Did his family to have a patent on the whiffle ball or that? Well, No, but interesting he mentioned his family is that he's kind of like a distant relative to HP Lovecrab. So if you're familiar with his with the Cthulhu, yeah, books and things like that. As a little a little nugget of information there, because he's he got his start and like privateering earlier in the war at the seventeen seventy two he captured and burned some British ships and that's it, It's the way to get started. He he was. He was immediately jumped on. I was as soon as there was like the American cause were against the of the acts early on there, he was just like, okay, let's let's do it now, let's do it now. And he started like one of the ships. His name was a gas beat. James Wallace sent him a letter I said that he was going to hang him for capturing and burning that ship, and the Whipple sent him the letter back says, if you need to hang me or you need to catch me, And so he was. He was. He was. He was a wirey one. Not I wouldn't guess that by checking out of his picture. Yeah, he was one of the one of the more prevalent privateers during this time. He was ahead of his time. He was ahead of his time. The fact there's actually a song that was written about specifically him, The wild Thing, right he was. That's a more modern redition of it. You know, I think you can picture that song playing every time he rides up on the ships before the ships were being burned. Well, yeah, he was definitely ahead of his time. That's a heck of a thing to just get into you, right, I'm gonna burn some ships, gonna burn some ships. I mean, if you make that decision, you know, you kind of know what you're doing. There's no going back. If you're pointing it out, that's true. He definitely not back. He had no choice. He had to join the effort. Actually, is about this point that they did approve more private teers. Like Jack was saying, they gave privateering contracts to twelve ships, and over the next few months they capture and destroy fifty five British cars containing what food, mostly food, and so this was part of Washington's plan to starve the British out. He had to do it because his side was also starving. Both sides at this point, facing hunger, desertion, scurvy, smallpox. It was a rough site forever. What time of the year was this when Washington did join in those first couple of months, I don't remember. Was this full out winter he at or is that later on and we it's it's it's getting to winter at this point because he's there. He starts there in July. But getting everything turned around, getting them in back in line, and then starting the privateering. It took a few months. It was mid to lay October or something like that. At this point, the Thomas Gage, the British military governor of in Boston, is actually relieved of command and his underlying general house. He forced man too though, yeah, because he didn't break the siege. So like they were like were on getting results such a slow moving thing too, like this didn't this happened over at length to time, right this this this phase we're talking about right here, like it makes sure what they're doing while Washington and his men are they're building these trenches. He's they're working on some training and stuff, like, what the heck are the British doing. So there's actually the reason why they weren't able to do much to stop them. At this point, two thousand long rifle hunters had shown up and they were keeping the British away from sabotaging and the earthworks and stuff. So every time they were trying to come out, these riflemen would be firing at long range. The British we're not used to exactly. Yeah, this whole like way of doing war was almost entirely like this. It was like subrofuge. After subrofuge, it was by work. It was a totally different type of about The British also know that they have to fight on more than one front now, and General Henry Clinton sails out of Boston with eleven hundred men to join up incoming recruits coming to the Carolinas where they're planning pushing the war from another flank to try to disrupt the Patriot Army, which was going to be a big deal later on in the war. So they're splitting their forces out of Boston. They know this siege is just like going on and on, and they're hoping they'll eventually just wear out. But in case it doesn't, they have to start a new plan of attack, and so that's where all these men are going. Washington desperately wants to attack during this winter. He knows that the contract they're actually the inlistments are almost up. The rivers will freeze, and they figured that they could cross the frozen rivers. But his command staff, which was beholden to Congress, the people that were appointed for him, Tom, don't go across the rivers, don't do that. They suggested a different plan of attack, which he eventually relented to because he saw it as a means to gain ground, but it was safe. And what they decided to do is there's what's called the Dorchester Heights. It's about a hundred feet above Boston, just the side of it, and from there they believe they have even better shooting range than what they had previously on Breeds and Bunker Hill. The long awaited guns from Taykonderoga are coming. It's like the dragons and pants. The people delivering these guns presumable. It's still it for debate. I want to not It's like it's conflicting stories. One person says this, and then literally everyone else says they were in advance. So the guns are coming. So they've been waiting for these guns, just like you said the Game a Thrones with the dragons. So they're waiting for these guns. So they do take the Dorchester Heights. It was a relatively small fight. I believe it was like six British soldiers died, and because it wasn't like a ton of people up there. Once they have that section, the guns show up finally in March of seventeen seventy six. These guns were captured in May of seventeen seventy five, and they didn't make it down to Boston until there. Wow. So Knox was y'all put in charge of those guns, and his mathematical capabilities allowed him to triangulate and target a bunch of the ships in the harbor, and he began shelling them for days, blowing them up. This caused an absolute chaotic evacuation of Boston by the British army. And these were like the guns and I realized, are they big guns? Yeah? Yeah, that's I kind of run a. Guns were apparently far far more powerful than I originally realized when we first talked about them. These were like coastal battery guns. These were designed for destroying shippings. Were the British evacuating two They were escaping towards the Carolinas and stuff like that and surrounding territories they were going to. Uh so nin where the term came pull out the big guns came from. I mean, if you could come, I can't come up with a better reason, way, a better example of it. So I think this has to be it. All right. Took them ten days to evacuate, and that whole time they're under fire. Knoxes uh is fantastic artilleryman. Then after that ten days escape, Washington walked into Boston with five hundred men and captured it completely, ending the siege of Boston back. This was, you know, something that everyone was just elated to have happened, and like it was like this is what they needed to get the men back into the fight. Morales up and no longer are we worried that we can't win, except for like, you know, people who are really high up and people who have you know, knowledge of what's going on in the Carolina as they know this is still far from one, but it's the first step in a long road that takes a long time to get things there. Yeah, I was gonna say it does take a long time. We're talking about that throughout this episode. And when we get to the part where it's it's ten days to evacuate, you know, when you think it was like a battle, it seems so constantly hacked it. So I'm I mean, ten days of constant chaos seems like a long time. Yeah, that's a long siege right there. Sounds exhausting. Well, I mean it really was. One thing that happened, or some things that happened after the colonial army was they were kind of in like a war mood and they wanted to loot all the loyalist houses and stuff and destroy them in Boston. Washington managed to clamp down on that and prevented any looting or rioting, and he then got all the local police, kept them in line, who made sure that they kept doing their job even though they've been working for the britishest whole time. He made sure that everything kept working in town and kept his men from had a bunch of lilians. You know, it's something that happens with almost every army at any time you marching into a city that you just take and there's just something that switches off, and the human brain kind of a fascinating thing to study and research what different it happens. To see that now with evasion of Ukraine on both sides, right, it's like both sides just kind of both sides runner all the guns doing things that you normally wouldn't. We also saw that with the Green Mountain Boys when they captured they for your email boys. I was also gonna I was I was going to bring up, you know what war. You know, it's difficult to talking about war without some you know, some terrible stuff popping up. But I was going to just bring up the fact that they may have fixed some locks. I don't know if we're going to do a throwback to the the tea Boston Tea Party, but they broke a lot of stuff when they fixed some locks. I'm sure was there some additional locks fixed, Luke, I would actually probably not something about the Boston Tea Party. Yeah, So, like Yo, we were talking about how they were they were kind of doing hooligan actions. Bernie throwing a t over and port. But they didn't burn those shifts like that crazy Whipple guys. That's true. That would have been a statement, just light all the tea on fire. He's highly by the way. It broke the law. I made that up. I don't know he's flammable at all. But yeah, yeah, for sure, but try it to me. I don't know. Maybe maybe, yeah, the bags themselves did be They broke one lot, they fixed it. This guy's out there, Bernie ships, he didn't fix them either. He didn't fix that, didn't fix the shifts. For sure. It makes you wonder if you could like a nummixed wonder makes you like think about being in there, like being able to actually be like a fly on the wall and see all this happening, this siege that took ten days, and to see what some of the like the leaders were doing during this interesting to think about. Yeah, there's I kind of want to know, like what the like the regular council people in Boston and we're going now like just your ranking fu say about this. They were thank you peacekeeping mission exactly. So you talked about how some of the I guess i'll say founding fathers, but the people in Congress. I believe you worded it, were not did not want to be very aggressive, and it kind of reminded me of him. We'll talk about it later. But like the Civil War, Ulsis Grant, before he really got going and took over, it was like very slow moving and almost to the point where strategically was a disadvantage because they played it so safe. So it sounds like it goes back to here too. It's kind of what they were thinking. It does feel very similar to that actually, and uh, and you can also draw parallels with some of the people who were quick to action and did more crazy things like Sherman went in the Civil War. Yeah, he set out to destroy the supply lines of the South very quickly. And then if you compare that to say, like Francis Marion, who was ahead of guerrilla tactics in the South and during the Revolutionary War, very similar tactics. Yew. They were you know, cutthroat kind of people. They were going hard at them as opposed to like the traditional slow moving a slog of war that these others have practiced. So I mentioned that Gage was replaced by General Howe just before all this went down, well, because he lost Boston. How was replaced by Clinton, who had went down to the Carolinas and he blamed they fall of Boston entirely on how said, how was it building up? And he wasn't going after the hills. He let them get the Dorchester Heights and he said that was why. Technically, that is why they lost. You lose the sights. But it's kind of funny to see them immediately throw another one under the bus. Some things haven't changed they had. It sounds like we had a very good strategy though to take over Boston, and we kind of played to our weaknesses. Yeah, definitely a good strategy to take that hill and use those guns that we spent so much time getting down there in order to secure the victory. It was just funny, though, how long what if the even every would have came, that would have been so bad. It's like they just would have some about wandered off or got recaptured or whatever. But it's funny though that. Yeah, if it wasn't for the fact that Benedict Arnold ran so hard to get up there to get to those guns, they would have never broke to see thinking like Benny, Benny d Now that's what they call them Minny d b D for short, and what would have happened then, you know, if they didn't take Boston and all those peo will Dessert at the end of their listen should not come back. You know, definitely this up too. But the importance of that fort Yeah, that was like six episodes. So they the gun guns finally came out. Those guns. Yes, so well go ahead, Jacko Lanard. I was just gonna say that, you know, because you know, this is like a big victory by itself, but it's also you know, yeah, because you're like yelling, you're so excited. So those of you that are listening, uh, we we we we work on the audio and quite great length because some reason when we call him Samuel L. Jackson, because he just yells into his microphone. Anyways, you're excited. I'm excited. I was excited about it was almost excited about when I were John Bracketts. But yeah, you know it not only is it's like a big win just in general, it's a very symbolic win by getting Boston kind of it's like a come full circle here at this point, and it was what was the year long siege? Is that right? It started April nineteenth, seventeen seventy five March seventeenth, seventeen seventy six, so ten months and some odd change there. Yeah, long siege and a very important location. So yeah, really really important battle. So what do we have any other interesting things to bring up on this topic or any other side debts or anything. I will say this was, you know, a beyond being a big victory just for the cause, it was also proof in Congress's ability to pick their leadership for this, picking Washington to lead and hither his staff and then you know, trusting Washington's ability to pick his understaff at lower officers. They This was big for both Washington himself because he got to prove himself in battle as a cape well leader of the full army, like he had always believed himself to be. And then it was also a major thing for Congress because now they could point to how their new commander in chief can actually beat the British. And so this was a big boon for everyone's like egos is like kind of a weird way of saying it, but really their ego was pumped up from all this, and so this was this was big for everyone. How everything starts to really change now because everyone believes that. No longer do they believe that they're pretty sure invincible. They've proven that they're not invincible. About the British are they feeling right now? Obviously they decided to evacuate Boston. They're bad. They feeling real bad. They're really looking forward to trying to take the South, the shift their focus. Yeah, they're preparing a grand military coming back in the South. They're also going to be doing more combat in the North, but for now they're they're focusing there. They're most of their generals, most of their men to the southern stay colonies, preparing to undercut what just happened. They're truly picking their battles with this. Now they're all going to get hung up on Boston for the moment. No, not for long, but for a little bit. They are mostly just throwing each other under the bus. A little bit and a little update on what Abraham Whipples up to during this During this whole siege, he went from in June seventy seventy five, he went from capturing a frigate from the British and heading on down to Bermuda to pick up some gunpowder from various places and just kind of transporting that around. Then by the time the siege was over, Boston was taken. He was, he was he was commissioned as a captain in the Continental Navy. Where he is. Uh, well, we'll do some updates on Abraham Whipple throughout the coming years, because he keeps he keeps up his h his Shenanigans, because he's gone to the Bahamas again and he's fighting some British garrisons and capturing some more British ships. He's take a pyromaniac. He I guess he's kind of like those like American pirate kind of guy. I don't know what's up, Okay, I like, yeah, Abraham Whipple, it's like Kid Rocks, American badass, but he's aired American pire. Okay, what else would you get anything? Any other you guess pictures you're looking at, Jack, besides the guns, the massive guns, the guns show is he realized Abraham Whipple. Yeah, I know, I figured that it was muted. Okay, all right, let's take a quick describe him to us. You'll have to get a share a picture of this, but described he is heavier man with a big hat, with a very very big hat like a top hats like no tricorner and okay, yeah, he kind of looks like I guess he's almost like a Napoleon. It's a little a little bit picture of the Quaker. Oh you know what, he actually just look a little a little more like that. Now they mentioned it to do a side best side at the Quaker. Oh guy, okay, yeah, Jack, Jack was over this, I say it up in the corner okay, okay, oh man, does he not have hands? So it's in his jacket? What's he up to you? And his hands in his pockets or jacket or he's gonna hand in his jacket. And I think that is a pistol? Is he holding that pistol style? All? He actually got up on the barrel area. It's quite it's gotta saber. But it was no slides, I guess it. I don't know he is. You can't see, but yeah, I'll definitely uh I'll put a picture on both that makes to the quicker and we'll see you you know what would make this The people listening can't can't see this, but in the background you see some ships. You know, that might be more It might make more sense. That's kind of like his thing. Yeah, ship has to be in there. He's gonna go He's gonna go blow that thing up. The only problem with him is he just blew up every ship, whether it was the American or British not I made that part be well. Well. I like the fact that he's doing the hand and the shirt like Napoleon did in this picture, because this is before Napoleon. So like, what do you think another gun or box of matches? Maybe? Yeah, I think it's matches. That's a guy that summer sausage yourself. That seems like he likes summer sausage. He's yeah, that's actually not a gun. It's a roll of summer sausage. What a great ending to this. This is a great picture. Jack will have to share this thirdbody. Definitely eat anything else, Luke, or do you let me start seguating towards the end here, I think we're going to segue. So sum it all up. We sees Boston and now we are getting ready for what's next. So we got the guns. It took forever, the big guns. Get a pictures of the guns too. You can share on social media on the website. Have you updated website. Yeah, Jack, what is that website? Yack the website. It is America Stories dot us and you can contact us our mention just and speak with us on Twitter at America story Pod or you can send us an email America Stories Pod at gmail dot com. Smooth. I like that. Good job, Cheats. Yeah, I encourage everybody to go back through and listen to the back episodes because we're actually moving in order here through the timeline and we're building up to this and we've done a pretty good job. So make sure you catch the previous episodes and follow along. They're all available. Yeah, basically wherever you listen to our watch podcasts. It's probably the most overused term error during a podcast. But it's the truth, Luke, It's true. So sorry, Luke, that's true. It's true. It's true. It's dam' true. Any words of advice, Luke to leave us on before I go with my catchphrase and I hit the stop button. I guess the best word advice is to always hold out hope that the big guns are coming. I'm holding u hope right now and life, Wow's life's just as can just be as simple as big guns. Yeah, Well, on that day. I've got to end it with my catchphrase, and that's keep being you and keep being great, and don't blow up any ships. That's just dangerous. As everybody knows. Brother around there, fluent schools go into jo Are you like you find Negle Road? Did you do it's wrong? People got a think for the dangers, find any side? The best of us take you what day wrong? Like you said to some of us, do good best we can. Some of us do the best we can. Say Jeff Townsend, media sees you good night. And the question is do I stay here? Will you be back? Are you gonna come back? Will you be back? Are you coming back