EVACUATION DAY – Patriots Please !

On March 17th in 1776, by truce negotiated with Commanding General of the Continental Army of the Continental Congress of the United States – General George Washington; Lord Howe Commander of British Army & Naval forces occupying Boston  after the rebellion and battles of 1775 at Lexington & concord, and Bunker Hill, set sail on the morning tide with the armed force and warships of HM King George III; evacuating the City & Port of Boston for the remainder of the Revolutionary War. 

Under the threat of the destruction of the British warships in Boston Harbor by the cannon  placed on Dorchester Point’s fort, which cannon had been transported overland from the Yankee capture of Fort Ticonderoga in New York and mounted at Fort Point overlooking Boston Harbor from the south –virtually at the waterline.  Lord Howe, had decided not to inspect revetments the “Rebels” (Patriots) were building on the Dorchester Point with an inspecting shore party, to avert further land hostilities.  He, and the Crown, and many others also had good relations in “Tony” Dorchester and had seen the unfortunate destruction of Charlestown by British warship shelling during the Battle of Bunker Hill.

At this time in North America, after 1775, the Yankee Americans in rebellion, had marched up into Canada, and had “liberated” the city of Montreal, and were attacking Quebec; and the British were seeking the rebellion’s suppression by occupying Boston.

Lord Howe vacated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then back to England to explain the matters to the King and Ministers of the Government.  He returned with General Burgoyne in 1777 after a year’s buildup of a massive army and naval force and restored British sovereignty with an army & naval campaign up the St Lawrence River valley, relieving Quebec and recovering Montreal.  General Burgoyne’s March southward was hurt at the Vermont Battle of Bennington  when the Americans defeated a supply seeking  splintered British force.  General Burgoyne weakened by the Bennington loss, was finally defeated on the ground, Continental Army General Gates commanding, at Saratoga New York. 

The American ability and savvy at Saratoga, was well received when presented as the news by Ambassadors Benjamin Franklin & John Adams at the French Court of King Louis XVI.  King Louis recognized the American nation as independent, and signed a Treaty of military and naval alliance with the United States.

With great pride and welcome in the spirit of his American Revolutionary War ancestors of liberty and welcome, and their assertion of the free British rights and blood connection too, this Son of Patriots salutes EVACUATION DAY March 17 1776 !

America resolved and declared their separation from the British Crown through the Continental Congress in Philadelphia by Declaration of Independence proclaimed July 4 1776.

Evacuation Day has been honored ever since, and has been long established as a civil holiday in Boston and surrounding Suffolk County in Massachusetts.  Frequently celebrated with a New England Boiled Dinner or whatever!

Eve of Saint Patrick’s Day

Never in the history of the world have a conquered people, so returned the compliment of their conquest, than by mastering and surpassing their conquerors in their Conquerors’ own language.  (Time Magazine in a New York Times advertisement saluting St Patrick's Day in the 1970's.)