Cambridge in the American Revolution

The city of Cambridge played an active role in the beginning of the American Revolution. As the British Parliament began placing taxes on the colonies, Cambridge citizens expressed their hatred for the new taxes as early as 1765.  At town meetings Cambridge citizens voted that the new taxes, which included The Stamp Act and the Townshend Act, were blatant violations of their natural rights as English citizens and they did not consent to them. The citizens urged their representatives to do nothing that might aid these new acts. This was a feeling shared by many towns throughout the colony. As a result many people refused to buy British goods. Eventually, in 1773, Parliament passed a bill making it possible for the East India Trading Company to sell their tea directly to America thus underselling the merchants. As a result on December 16, 1773 the Boston Tea Party took place. Two Cambridge men played a role in this protest, John Hicks and Joshua Wyeth.

Tensions continued to grow between the Massachusetts colony and the British and Cambridge continued to be an active participant. In response to the Boston Tea Party the port of Boston was officially shut down June 1, 1774. Although the closing of Boston’s port did not directly affect the people of Cambridge they reacted to help their neighbors in Boston. At a town meeting on July 28, 1774 citizens of Cambridge voted that they should give donations to the people of Boston suffering from the blocked port, clearly showing their opposition to the Port Bill imposed by Parliament. Parliament continued to impose new laws on the colonists by establishing a series of acts which became known as the Intolerable Acts. One of the most severe the Intolerable Act was the Regulatory Act which abolished Massachusetts’ elected governments and officials replacing them with officials and counsels appointed by the King of England. The new appointed counsel was known as the Mandamus Counsel of which three Cambridge citizens were appointed, Lieutenant Governor Oliver, Judge Danforth, and Judge Lee. At the first meeting of the Mandamus Counsel, the newly appointed representatives dissolved the Great Court, making itself the only governing power. The creation of the Mandamus Counsel only further infuriated the citizens of Cambridge and colonists throughout Massachusetts and it was only a matter of time before they would take matters into their own hands.

At the end of the summer of 1774 Cambridge was the location of a controversial event that could arguably be the very beginning of the Revolutionary War. On September 1, 1774 General Gage, of the British Army, seized gun powder and other military supplies from a powder house in Somerville. The gun powder and other supplies were supposed to be shared by colonists throughout Massachusetts.  Rumors of bloodshed spread throughout the colony and New England militias marched to Cambridge to protest the seizure of their gun powder. On September 2, 1774 thousands of colonists convened on Cambridge Common to protest this seizure of the gun powder and the newly appointed Mandamus Counsel.  Rumors of gunshots being fired at hated city commissioner Hallowell while he rode through the common caused people to believe the Revolution had started. The crowd on the Cambridge Common demanded that Judge Danforth, Judge Lee and Lieutenant Governor Oliver resign from the Mandamus Counsel. Judge Lee and Judge Danforth stood on the steps of the Cambridge Courthouse and resigned both citing that a great number of people were demanding their resignation. Upon the resignation of these judges the protestors marched down Tory Row (today Brattle Street) to Lieutenant Governor Oliver’s house and demanded his resignation from the Mandamus Counsel. His resignation stated that he was forced to resign due to the 4,000 protestors surrounded his house. The protest on September 2, 1774 marked a significant day in Cambridge history and as a catalyst for the American Revolution.

After the September 2, 1774 protest it was undeniable that the Revolution was coming. Tensions between the British and the American colonists continued to rise. By April 1775 the British troops wanted to seize another supply of gun powder from the colonists, this time in Concord, Massachusetts. Rumors spread throughout the colony that the powder was going to be seized and that patriots John Hancock and Samuel Adams were going to be arrested. Paul Revere and William Dawes were summoned on the night of April 18, 1775 to warn the surrounding towns that the British were coming to seize the powder.  William Dawes rode through Cambridge to warn the Cambridge citizens that the British were coming and advised them to destroy the Great Bridge, the only connection between Boston and Cambridge and the surrounding towns. By 11:30 pm the Cambridge citizens began to destroy the bridge to stop the British if they approached Concord by land. At 2:00 am on April 19th the British finally landed at Lechmere point in Cambridge after rowing across the Charles River. The Red Coats marched through Cambridge by way of Massachusetts Avenue, then called The Great Road, to Lexington and Concord. Once again Cambridge was at the center of a significant date in our countries’ history.

As this important day went on, Cambridge continued to play a vital role in the colonist’s victory. At 11:30 am Lord Percy’s British reinforcements finally arrived at the banks of the Charles, but were delayed by the destruction of The Great Bridge. Some of Percy’s troops were able to get across but the supply wagon had to wait until the bridge was prepared. The delay of Percy’s reinforcements was detrimental to the British that day. Eventually, Lord Percy’s troops passed through Cambridge Common on their way to Lexington. However, part of the Cambridge militia followed them prepared to ambush the troops on their retreat from Lexington. The rest of the Cambridge militia fortified The Great Bridge in case the British troops tried to use it on their way back to Boston. With the help of other militias from surrounding towns the Cambridge militia was able to severely hurt the British troops on their way back from the battles in Lexington. The British troops were under constant fire from the militia on their retreat back to Boston. This may have been the most destructive part of the day for the British army. They lost 73 men, 149 wounded, and 23 went missing whereas the colonists only experienced half of these casualties. More than half of those who died on April 19, 1775 died within the Cambridge boarders. There was even fighting in the center of Cambridge at Watson’s Corner. 

The fighting on April 19, 1775 certainly marked the first battle of the American Revolution and although most of the fighting did not take place in Cambridge, Cambridge was central to the battle and became more important to the Revolution following this date. For days militias from all over New England came to Cambridge after hearing about April 19th. Within a few days 20,000 minutemen gathered in Cambridge and prepared to fight the British. These men stayed in the abandoned Tory homes on Brattle Street, Christ Church, several Harvard buildings, and many troops camped right on Cambridge Common. The preparations for the Siege of Boston had begun. Many Cambridge men who had participated on April 19, 1775 would participate in another decisive battle of the American Revolution, Bunker Hill. This included Thomas Gardner who was in charge of the Cambridge militia. The plans for this famous battle were framed in Cambridge, at the Hastings House, and on the night before the battle President Langdon of Harvard College lead the American troops in prayer on Cambridge Common. Although the American forces could not secure Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, this battle can be considered an American victory because of the massive casualties that were inflicted upon the British. However, the American soldiers did experience their share of casualties as well, including Thomas Gardner, who was died of his injuries a few days after the battle. Several Tory homes on Brattle Street were turned into hospitals for the wounded patriots.

By July 3, 1775 George Washington came to Cambridge to take command of the American army in hopes of leading them to freedom from the British. Washington took as his head quarters the house of the Tory John Vassall. Washington and his family stayed here for the first nine months of the war. During Washington’s time in Cambridge he did not see much direct fighting but did make several influential decisions and maneuvers which lead to the evacuation of Boston by British troops. In November of 1775 the British tried to seize control of Lechmere point in Cambridge and in response Washington erected several forts including Fort Putnam and Fort Washington. He also sent Henry Knox to Fort Ticonderoga to retrieve several cannons and other weapons. Due to bad road conditions Knox did not make it back to Cambridge until January of 1776 but he did bring back 56 pieces of artillery. Washington then used these pieces of artillery to fortify Dorchester Heights on March 4, 1776 which over looked the British occupied part of Boston and forced the British to evacuate Boston on March 17, 1776. With the British gone, there was no need to the American troops to be in Cambridge anymore so Washington and the troops left.

Although the American troops were gone from Cambridge, Cambridge’s role in the war did not end. In November of 1777 Cambridge was chosen as the place for General Burgoyne’s troops who surrendered at the Battle of Saratoga. These troops became known as the Convention Troops. Under their surrender agreement the British and German troops would wait for their trip back to England in Cambridge and, under the charge of General Heath, be housed according to rank. However this was not the case once the troops arrived in Cambridge. Few preparations were made for the arriving troops and officers of high rank were forced to stay at an inn for several days until accommodations could be made. General Health had a hard time securing housing for the Convention troops as many Cambridge home owners refused to open their doors to the British and German troops. Eventually Heath was able to put General Burgoyne in the Apthrop House, although he was forced to purchase his own furniture. Baron Von Riedesell and his family were allowed to live in the Lechmere-Sewall house where they too were forced to purchase their own furniture. The Lechmere-Sewall house became the hub for the German troop’s social life while in Cambridge. The rest of the British and German troops were forced to live in the old barracks on Prospect and Winter Hill that had been used during the Siege of Boston. These barracks were in poor condition and the Convention troops lived there all winter. The Cambridge citizens held a lot of animosity toward the British Convention troops throughout their stay in Cambridge. 

The Convention troops ended up staying in Cambridge for over a year causing outrage amongst the Cambridge citizens because their lives had already been disrupted once by the Continental Army. Due to this a controversial event happened in Cambridge. Richard Brown was a Convention soldier who was driving fast down Prospect Hill in a carriage. When two Continental guards approached him Brown made a weird gesture that the guards misread as a threat and shot and killed him. General Burgoyne demanded that Brown receive a proper funeral. General Heath allowed the funeral take place at Christ Church, the former Tory church in Cambridge. However Cambridge citizens stormed the church during the funeral indicating their disgust with the Convention troops occupying their town. The Convention troops eventually left Cambridge for Virginia at the end of 1778.

There were no actual battles in Cambridge, but the town played a huge role in the formation of the country and the state of Massachusetts. After the American troops left following the Siege of Boston, a Cambridge town meeting voted on a bill passed to them by the Continental Congress regarding a declaration of Independence and whether or not the town would abide by absolute independence. On May 27, 1776 the town unanimously voted that they would support a declaration of independence. By the end of 1777 and into the beginning of 1778 Massachusetts was voting on its constitution and Cambridge rejected it, like many other towns in the Commonwealth. Because so many towns rejected it delegates from all over Massachusetts met in Cambridge from September 1, 1779 to March 2, 1780 to frame the Massachusetts Constitution. The Massachusetts’s constitution went to vote at a town meeting on May 22, 1780 where the town unanimously voted for a Bill of Rights and the majority accepted the constitution. Not only was Cambridge central in the beginnings of the Revolutionary War it was integral in the formation of our country and state.