MA, USA
Siege of Boston Command Operations
July 4, 1775
For eight months, Cambridge served as the headquarters for the siege of Boston. Washington coordinated defensive positions stretching from Roxbury to Chelsea, managed chronic supply shortages, dealt with expiring enlistments, and attempted to forge a unified command structure from thirteen colonial militias with different traditions and expectations. The siege was largely a war of patience and logistics rather than pitched battles.
People Involved
Virginia planter and Continental Army commander-in-chief who owned and managed Mount Vernon's enslaved workforce. Absent from his estate for most of the war, he directed Lund Washington's management by correspondence and returned to find the plantation's human community shaped by eight years of wartime disruption.
Eccentric former British officer who served as Washington's second in command.
Former British officer who served as adjutant general, organizing army administration.
Washington's military secretary who participated in the Harlem Heights engagement and whose letters home provide some of the most detailed contemporary accounts of the battle's psychological effect on the army.
Massachusetts officer who served on Washington's staff.
Washington's wife who managed headquarters social affairs and supported troops.