Siege of Boston – 1775, Winner & Summary

The Siege of Boston (April 1775 – March 1776) was the opening military campaign of the American Revolutionary War, a nearly eleven-month standoff in which colonial militiamen — soon reorganized as the Continental Army — encircled British-held Boston and ultimately forced its evacuation. Yet the siege cannot be understood in isolation from the broader world of Native & Indigenous history. The same continent that hosted this confrontation was still fundamentally Indigenous ground: the Massachusett, Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Pennacook peoples of the Northeast, alongside the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to the west and the Abenaki to the north, all watched the British–colonial rupture with their own diplomatic calculations. The siege, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the fortification of Dorchester Heights were not merely events in a colonial rebellion — they were moments that reshaped the political landscape in which Native nations had to navigate sovereignty, alliance, and survival.

Indigenous Boston: The Ground Beneath the Siege

Long before colonial militiamen dug entrenchments on Dorchester Heights, that same elevated land lay within the ancestral territory of the Massachusett people, whose name — often translated as “people of the great hills” — derives from the Blue Hills to the south of Boston Harbor. The peninsula the English called Boston was known to its Indigenous inhabitants as Shawmut, a place of fresh water springs and fishing weirs. The harbor, the Charles River, and the surrounding marshlands had sustained Wampanoag and Massachusett communities for millennia through seasonal fishing, planting, and shellfish harvesting — including the quahog and whelk shells later central to wampum and its diplomatic uses among Northeastern nations.

By 1775, epidemic disease, colonial expansion, and the aftermath of King Philip’s War (1675–1676) had drastically reduced Indigenous presence in the immediate Boston area. Yet Native nations were never passive observers of the Revolution. The Continental Congress actively courted — and feared — Native allegiance. In July 1775, just as George Washington arrived to take command at Cambridge, Congress established a Standing Committee on Indian Affairs, and Washington himself issued directives about securing neutrality or alliance with the Stockbridge Mahican, the Penobscot, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The siege was thus a military campaign in a land whose political future Indigenous nations intended to shape.

From Boston Massacre to Open Rebellion

The road to the siege began more than a decade earlier, as Britain’s attempts to tax the colonies met heated protest from colonists who resented their lack of representation in Parliament. Colonial resistance turned deadly on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on a Boston crowd, killing five men — an event remembered as the Boston Massacre. Among the dead was Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Native American (Nantucket Wampanoag) descent, whose ancestry underscores the often-overlooked Indigenous presence within Revolutionary-era Boston itself.

After December 1773, when a band of Bostonians boarded British ships and dumped hundreds of chests of tea into Boston Harbor, an outraged Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, designed to reassert imperial authority over Massachusetts. In September 1774, colonial delegates — including George Washington of Virginia, John and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, Patrick Henry of Virginia, and John Jay of New York — met in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress. That body did not yet demand independence, but it denounced taxation without representation, objected to a standing British army maintained without colonial consent, and issued a declaration of rights including life, liberty, property, assembly, and trial by jury.

The Congress agreed to reconvene in May 1775, but violence arrived first. On April 19, 1775, local militiamen clashed with British soldiers at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts — the first shots of the Revolutionary War.

The Siege Begins and the Battle of Bunker Hill

Following Lexington and Concord, colonial militiamen surrounded Boston to contain the British troops garrisoned there. Because the British retained control of Boston Harbor, however, they could still receive reinforcements and supplies by sea. The resulting standoff became a siege in the classical sense: a land blockade against a sea-supplied garrison.

On June 16, 1775, having learned that the British planned to occupy the hills surrounding the town, colonial militiamen under Colonel William Prescott (1726–1795) built fortifications atop Breed’s Hill, overlooking Boston from the Charlestown Peninsula. The men originally had been ordered to fortify Bunker Hill but instead chose the smaller Breed’s Hill, closer to Boston. The next day, British troops under Major General William Howe (1729–1814) and Brigadier General Robert Pigot (1720–1796) attacked at Breed’s Hill. The British won what became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill, taking Breed’s Hill and the Charlestown Peninsula — but at devastating cost. More than 1,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded. The inexperienced, outnumbered colonial force inflicted casualties at a ratio that stunned the British command and gave the Patriot cause a vital confidence boost.

Though the battle is named for Bunker Hill, it was fought primarily on Breed’s Hill — a distinction historians continue to stress in order to correct popular memory.

Washington Takes Command — and Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery

In early July 1775, General George Washington (1732–1799) arrived in the Boston area to take command of the newly established Continental Army. His objective was to drive the British from Boston, but his army lacked sufficient artillery. That winter, Colonel Henry Knox (1750–1806) oversaw an extraordinary expedition to transport more than 60 tons of captured military supplies from New York’s Fort Ticonderoga to Boston.

Fort Ticonderoga and nearby Fort Crown Point had been seized in May 1775 by colonial forces under Benedict Arnold (1741–1801) and Ethan Allen (1738–1789). The captured cannon — including more than 50 pieces of artillery — were hauled across snowy terrain, over frozen rivers, and through the Berkshire Mountains in what became known as the “noble train of artillery.” The armaments reached the Boston area in late January 1776, a logistical feat that effectively decided the campaign.

Fortification of Dorchester Heights and the British Evacuation

Some of the Ticonderoga cannon were placed in fortifications around Boston and, beginning on March 2, 1776, used to bombard the British for two days straight. On the night of March 4, 1776, several thousand of Washington’s men moved additional cannon into position atop Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston and its harbor. The operation was conducted in silence, using hay bales to muffle the sound of wagons, and the earthworks were largely complete before dawn.

British General William Howe recognized that his troops could not defend the town against Continental artillery emplaced on the high ground. A British assault on the heights was contemplated but abandoned — famously, Howe reportedly remarked that the rebels had done more work in one night than his army could accomplish in months. On March 17, 1776, the eight-year British occupation of Boston ended as British troops evacuated the town and sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Since 1901, Bostonians have observed the anniversary as Evacuation Day, an official holiday celebrated every March 17.

Native Nations and the Wider Revolutionary War

The evacuation of Boston did not end the war — it continued for seven more years. The conflict placed Native nations in an impossible position: the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a centuries-old alliance of Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations, split under pressure from both sides. The Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca largely aligned with Britain, while the Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the American colonies — a division that fractured the Confederacy’s historic unity of purpose.

The Revolutionary War’s final major land battle came at Yorktown in October 1781, when British forces under Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis (1738–1805) surrendered to a combined American and French force. The war formally ended with the September 1783 signing of the Treaty of Paris, in which Britain recognized the independence of the United States — without consulting the Native nations whose lands lay between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. That omission set the stage for decades of dispossession, treaty-making, and resistance.

Historical Context & Key Cultural Takeaways

• The siege was fought on Indigenous ground: Boston and its harbor lie within the ancestral territory of the Massachusett people, whose seasonal fishing, planting, and shell-gathering traditions long predated European settlement.
• Indigenous participation in the Revolution was significant and strategic: From Stockbridge Mahican scouts to Oneida and Tuscarora allies of the Americans, Native nations entered the conflict to protect sovereignty, land, and diplomatic standing — not as bystanders.
• Bunker Hill was a tactical British victory and a strategic colonial win: More than 1,000 British casualties against roughly 450 colonial losses demonstrated that militia could stand against regulars.
• Henry Knox’s artillery transport was decisive: Over 60 tons of guns hauled from Fort Ticonderoga in winter made Dorchester Heights possible.
• March 17, 1776, ended eight years of British occupation: The evacuation preserved Boston without the urban destruction that later sieges inflicted on other cities.
• The Treaty of Paris (1783) excluded Native nations: Britain ceded territory it did not control, a diplomatic betrayal that reshaped Indigenous–U.S. relations for generations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the Siege of Boston?

The colonial militia — by then organized as the Continental Army under General George Washington — won the siege. The British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, ending an eight-year occupation of the town. The Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775) was a British tactical victory, but the overall siege ended in American success.

Why did the British abandon Boston so easily?

Once Washington’s forces fortified Dorchester Heights with cannon brought from Fort Ticonderoga, the British position became indefensible. The high ground overlooked both the town and Boston Harbor, threatening the Royal Navy’s anchorage. General William Howe chose evacuation rather than attempt a costly assault on fortified heights, particularly after the heavy casualties his army suffered at Bunker Hill.

Were Native Americans involved in the Siege of Boston or the surrounding campaigns?

Direct Indigenous participation in the siege itself was limited, but Native nations were deeply engaged in the broader Revolutionary conflict. The Continental Congress created a Standing Committee on Indian Affairs in 1775, and Washington personally sought the neutrality or alliance of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Stockbridge Mahican. Mohawk, Oneida, Tuscarora, Seneca, and other nations later fought on both sides of the war, with consequences for their sovereignty and land base.

What role did Fort Ticonderoga’s cannon play in the siege?

Captured in May 1775 by forces under Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen, the guns at Fort Ticonderoga were hauled to Boston by Colonel Henry Knox’s expedition in the winter of 1775–1776. More than 50 cannon and 60 tons of supplies crossed snow-covered terrain, arriving in late January 1776. Their emplacement on Dorchester Heights on the night of March 4, 1776, forced the British evacuation.

What was the Treaty of Paris, and how did it affect Native nations?

The Treaty of Paris, signed in September 1783, formally ended the Revolutionary War and recognized United States independence. It drew boundaries that ignored Native sovereignty, ceding vast Indigenous territories to the new American republic without consultation. This exclusion directly enabled subsequent federal policies of removal, treaty negotiation under duress, and land dispossession that defined Native–U.S. relations for the next century.

Cultural Legacy and Modern Preservation

The Siege of Boston is remembered today as the campaign that saved the town and demonstrated that colonial forces could match British regulars. But a complete historical accounting must also acknowledge the Indigenous landscape upon which it unfolded — the Massachusett homeland of Shawmut, the seasonal fisheries of Boston Harbor, and the wider Northeastern diplomatic web that included the Haudenosaunee and Wampanoag. Evacuation Day, celebrated each March 17 since 1901, marks the British withdrawal; it is also a reminder that the Revolution redrew not only colonial boundaries but the political map of Native North America.

Contemporary preservation efforts — by the National Park Service at sites such as Dorchester Heights and Bunker Hill, by tribal historical departments, and by museums including the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian — increasingly incorporate Indigenous perspectives into Revolutionary-era interpretation. Understanding the siege in this fuller context honors both the colonial participants and the sovereign Native nations whose lands, treaties, and histories remain central to how we remember 1775–1776.