This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Evacuation Day (Massachusetts) is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
In Suffolk County, Massachusetts, March 17 is Evacuation Day, an official holiday commemorating the evacuation of the city of Boston by British forces during the American Revolutionary War. Schools and government offices are closed. If March 17 falls on a weekend, schools and government offices are closed on the following Monday in observance. Coincidentally, it is the same day as St. Patrick's Day.
Historical background
The 11-month siege of Boston ended when the Continental Army, under George Washington, fortified Dorchester Heights in early March 1776 with cannons captured at Ticonderoga. General William Howe, whose garrison and navy were threated by these positions, was forced to decide between attack and retreat. To prevent what could have been a repeat of the battle of Bunker Hill, Howe decided to retreat, withdrawing from Boston to Nova Scotia on March 17.
Boston was one of the most important ports in the New World, and one of the most defensible (there is only a single channel into Boston Harbor which is ringed with islands). That the Americans were able to drive off several thousand hardened troops and 1,100 loyalists with only a few warning shots fired and no loss of life or property was a major accomplishment and was Washington's first victory of the war. It was also a huge morale boost for the new country, as the city where the rebellion against England started was the first to be liberated. Boston was never attacked again.
Many of the soldiers who volunteered to serve under General George Washington to break the yoke of British colonialism were Irish Catholic. These soldiers and their families experienced first hand British occupation and suppression. Many of their sacrifices during the War of Independence were critical in bringing about the establishment of the United States of America. After a failed movement in 1876, the holiday was finally proclaimed on the 125th anniversary in 1901.
See also
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 16 December 2008, at 19:23.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Evacuation Day (Massachusetts)".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.