A Year With George Washington
On February 16, 1776, George Washington, having called a Council of War, met with his generals outside of Boston in Cambridge.
Washington, along with his generals, concluded that, for both an offensive and a defensive strategy against the British forces encamped in Boston to be successful, 20,000 men fit for duty would be required. As their present force was barely one-half that in number, and of those, 2000 did not possess arms and ammunition, the war council resolved that a “Cannonade & Bombardment” was the only course of action. They had already occupied Bunker Hill to the north of the city; now they resolved to occupy Dorchester Heights to the south.
Washington had been keen to occupy Dorchester “Hill”, as he called it, for some time, but the maneuver presented several intractable problems. One, for example, was that it had been a hard winter, and the frozen ground of the heights made digging out fortifications extremely difficult and time-consuming, thereby exposing the forifiers to extreme hazard.
Two, what made Dorchester Heights so desirable to occupy also made it dangerous to do so. Though the crest of the heights was safe enough owing to its steep angle, making cannon ineffective from below, the approach itself was well within the striking capability of British Artillery on the Boston Neck. Moving men and equipment while under such an onslaught could be disastrous.
Three, Washington had previously lacked the artillery to place on the heights, even if he had been able to get it there. Colonel Henry Knox had since mended that deficiency by procuring cannon and ammunition from Fort Ticonderoga, some 300 miles away over the Berkshire Mountains.
Washington, wth the aid of his generals, had made his decision and solved one of the three problems to carry ot out. Now he had to conceive of a way to occupy Dorchester Heights and install defensive fortifications, without triggering the guns of British-held Boston. In two weeks’ time, he and his advisors would solve his two remaining problems by devising a brilliant solution to each.
What he and his men would soon do would both astonish and stun the enemy.
