Siege of Boston
Smith's conduct was highly praised by Gage in his despatches to London reporting the outbreak of fighting. He was promoted to full Colonel at the years end and later promoted to Brigadier General. On the night of 4 March 1776, during a snow storm, British sentries on duty near the Boston Neck heard digging across the bay on Dorchester Heights. This was reported to Smith, who did not report this to his own superiors at the Province House. By dawn on 5 March, the Americans now had a full breastworks constructed on the heights. This resulted in the British choosing to evacuate Boston and sail to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Read more about this topic: Francis Smith (British Army Officer)
Famous quotes containing the words siege of, siege and/or boston:
“One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)