Happy Evacuation Day, Boston! Though you may have inclined to put on your best brogue proclaim “top o’ the mornin’ to ya” as it also happens to be St. Patrick’s Day, Evacuation Day is a Boston-specific holiday, the celebration of which once rivaled that of St. Paddy’s and to this day commemorates a pivotal point in the birth of our nation.
When March 17 rolls around in Boston, we typically spend the weekend indulging heavily in green beer and avoiding any public displays of drunkenness to the best of our inebriated abilities. But if you were to wind back the clocks to 1901 the traditional parade you’d see marching throughout the streets of The Hub would be in celebration of Evacuation Day.
For those of you with pounding hangovers unable to digest fully what exactly Evacuation Day is, let alone any food item the remnants of your Irish weekend are keeping you from keeping down, allow me to give you a quick overview of what it’s all about.
After the British imposed a slew of taxes on the American colonies, the most infamous of which resulted in the Boston Tea Party, they enacted legislation colloquially known as the Intolerable Acts. In doing this, the British closed and guarded the port of Boston in essence crippling the economy of the city.
Thus the American Revolution was born. The battles of Lexington and Concord, and Bunker hill subsequently ensued. After Lexington and Concord, the British retreated back to Boston, then a peninsula, and fortified the city’s defenses.
In taking the Charlestown peninsula across the Charles River, the British won a Pyrrhic victory – a victory with devastating loss of life for the sides that won. The Battle of Bunker Hill, which took place on Breed’s Hill, resulted in over 1,000 casualties and losses for British forces, totaling some 3,000 men. The American militia coalition lost 450 of their estimated 2,ooo men.
During this time, Henry Knox, who would later become one of George Washington’s most trusted generals, along with his his men, hauled cannons taken from captured British stronghold Fort Ticonderoga in New York over the Berkshires to come to the aid of Boston.
Perennial badass George Washington took up colonial defense upon Dorchester Heights. Armed with an arsenal of artillery, he rained cannon fire down on the British fleet in Boston Harbor who, afraid of sustaining heavy casualties ŕ la Bunker Hill, opted instead to retreat, freeing Boston from the stranglehold of British forces.
The victory by Washington helped boost morale for the American cause and proved to the British imperial forces that they were not as immune to defeat as they had perhaps anticipated, and that the rebels respectfully stood a chance.
In 1902, a 115-foot tall marble monument was erected on Dorchester Heights to commemorate Washington’s victory. Since 1901, March 17 has been known as Evacuation Day and has since sparked celebrations that, at times, rivaled those for St. Patrick’s Day.
On Monday, Mayor Marty Walsh conveyed his utmost respect and gratitude for American veterans doing their part to protect not only Boston, but the entire nation.
