Before Clinton had left Boston, Washington, under Lee's urgency, had decided to possess New York, and the plan, which was submitted to John Adams, as representing the Congress, met with that gentleman's approval.[457] Lee was accordingly sent into Connecticut to organize such a force as he could for advancing on that city.[458] He kept Washington informed of his success in these preliminaries, and finally reached New York himself on February 4,[459] and here he remained till it was ascertained that Clinton was proceeding to the South, where he was instructed to follow that general and confront him as best he could, as we shall presently see.[460]
The chief event of February, 1776, was the arrival of the cannon captured at Ticonderoga, and the placing them in the siege batteries along the American lines, for Washington had dispatched Knox to bring these much needed cannon to him. John Adams records meeting them on their way at Framingham, January 25;[461] and when the train of fifty pieces and other munitions reached the lines, there was something less of anxiety than there had been before.[462] The army, however, was still deficient in small arms, and Washington wrote urgently to the New York authorities for assistance of that kind.[463]
By the first of March powder had been obtained in considerable quantities, and Washington opened a bombardment from all parts of his lines, which was deemed necessary to conceal a projected movement. During the night of March 4-5, General Thomas, from the Roxbury lines,[464] with 2,500 men, took possession of Dorchester Heights.[465] It was moonlight, but the men worked on without discovery, and by morning had thrown up a cover. Both armies now laid plans for battle.
BOSTON.
After a photograph of a view in the British Museum. Cf. similar views in Moore's Diary of the Amer. Rev., i. 97; Mem. Hist. Boston, iii. p. 156; Lossing's Field-Book; Grant's British Battles, ii. 138. The house in the left foreground is the house built by Governor Shirley. It is still standing, but much changed. See a view of it in the frontispiece of Mem. Hist. Boston, vol. ii.
There is a view of the town and harbor in the Pennsylvania Mag., June, 1773; and others of a later date are in the Columbian Mag., Dec., 1787; Mass. Mag., June, 1791. Cf. Winsor's Readers' Handbook of the Amer. Rev., p. 66, for other views and descriptions.