Cannon Dedication in Dorchester Heights

COME CELEBRATE WITH THE SOUTH BOSTON COMMUNITY--ALL WELCOME 

Congressman Stephen Lynch! Lexington Minutemen! Patriotic Band Music! The cannon will be unveiled by WWII veteran Mr. Ed Hamilton and local 5th-grade historian Andrew Lee. A model of the Monument will be on display. Incredible views--dress for pictures!

Through the harsh winter of 1775/6, Colonel Henry Knox, a native Bostonian, led an effort to transport 59 pieces of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to the siege lines of Boston. Teamsters with 80 yoke of oxen pulled the cannon a distance of over 300 miles, along icy roads and frozen rivers. Deploying the guns from Cambridge to Roxbury, a three-day cannonade acted as a diversion to the west of Boston. On the night of the final bombardment, March 4, 1776, 3,000 men under command of General John Thomas stealthily ascended Dorchester Heights. Throughout the night, the men tirelessly fortified the hills. They used hay on the road from Roxbury to deaden the noise of the oxen and wagons, and they capped the hills with a handful of the deadly cannon. At dawn, the astonishing sight of this unexpected fortification was revealed. General William Howe, commander of British forces, believed it was the work of some twelve thousand men to accomplish such a feat. The heights being so commanding, Howe chose to vacate his forces from Boston. On March 17, 1776, the entirety of the British military, and 1000 loyalists evacuated Boston. The event ended the eleven month Siege of Boston. It had begun with Lexington and Concord, became a stalemate with the Battle of Bunker Hill, and became a victory for the Continental Army atop Dorchester Heights. 

Today the National Park Service joins the community to dedicate a replica cannon on this site, commemorating the ingenuity, perseverance, and bravery of the Continental soldiers who liberated Boston in 1776.

Program

• Michael Creasey, Superintendent, National Parks of Boston
• The Hon. Stephen F. Lynch, United States House of Representatives
• J.L. Bell, author, The Road to Concord, boston1775.blogspot.com
• Prof. Robert J. Allison, South Boston Historical Society
• Brian R. Mahoney, Commander-elect, Paul J. Saunders American Legion Post 383
• Waltham American Legion Band
• Lexington Minutemen
• Excel High School Jr. ROTC Color Guard

Thanks to . . .

• Boston National Historical Park
• East Boston Savings Bank
• HP Hood, LLC
• Waltham American Legion Band
• Lexington Minute Men
• Lincoln Minute Men
• Excel High School
• South Boston Historical Society
• Thanks to all the Men and Women who have served
• And to Michael Bare

Design: Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype, Inc., & Kyle Zick Landscape Architechture, Inc., Boston, Mass.

Cannon Foundry: Steen Cannon & Ordnance Works, Ashland, Kentucky

Construction: Taavi, LLC, Ludlow, Mass. & Fletcher Granite, Westford, Mass.