Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gage, learned that the patriots were accu-
mulating arms and ammunition, he dis-
patched men to destroy the stockpiles.
They departed from what's now Charles
Street South, between Boston Common
and the Public Garden, to cross the
Charles River. A lantern signal soon illu-
minated the steeple of the Old North
Church, alerting Revere to their route—
the “two if by sea” made famous nearly a
century later by Cambridge resident
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
A NEW WORLD ORDER
Troops marched from Boston toward
Lexington and Concord late on April 18,
1775. On their “midnight ride,” William
Dawes and Revere alerted the colonists to
the British advance. Just north of Har-
vard Square, horseshoes embedded in the
sidewalk show part of Dawes' route. The
riders sounded the warning to mobilize
the local militia companies, or Minute-
men. The next day, some 700 British sol-
diers under Major John Pitcairn emerged
victorious from a skirmish in Lexington.
The troops and Minutemen clashed on
the town common, a public area that's
still known as the “Battle Green.” Later
that day, they were routed at Concord
near the site of what's now a replica of the
North Bridge, and forced to retreat to
Charlestown.
It took the redcoats almost an entire
day to make the trip, along the route now
marked “Battle Road.” You can cover it in
a car in about half an hour. Thanks in no
small part to Longfellow's 1861 poem
“Paul Revere's Ride” (“Listen my children
and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride
of Paul Revere”), Lexington and Concord
are closely associated with the beginning
of the Revolution. In the early stages, mili-
tary activity left its mark all over eastern
Massachusetts, particularly in Cam-
bridge. Royalist sympathizers, or Tories,
were concentrated so heavily along one
stretch of Brattle Street that it was called
“Tory Row.” When the tide began to
turn, George Washington made his head-
quarters on the same street (in the same
house later occupied by Longfellow,
which is now a National Park Service
site). On nearby Cambridge Common is
the spot where Washington took com-
mand of the Continental Army on July 3,
1775.
The British won the Battle of Bunker
Hill in Charlestown on June 17, 1775,
but at the cost of half their forces. (Win a
trivia contest by knowing that the battle
actually took place on Breed's Hill.) The
redcoats abandoned Boston the following
March 17—still a legal holiday, Evacua-
tion Day, in Suffolk County. On July 4,
1776, the Continental Congress adopted
the Declaration of Independence.
Although many Bostonians fought in the
6-year war that followed, Boston itself
saw no more battles.
COMMERCE & CULTURE
After the war, Boston again became a cen-
ter of business. Fishing, whaling, and
trade with the Far East dominated the
economy. Exotic spices and fruits, tex-
tiles, and porcelain were familiar luxuries
in Boston and nearby Salem. The influ-
ential merchant families who became
known as Boston Brahmins spearheaded
a cultural renaissance that flourished even
after the War of 1812 ravaged interna-
tional shipping, toppling Boston from its
commercial pedestal. As banking and
Impressions
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all
people are upon us. . . .
—John Winthrop, sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity” (1630)
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