Apocalypse

Boston Harbor
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March 17, 1776 - Just imagine, your family has lived in the New World for over one hundred years. You have been a loyal subject of the Crown living in Boston for a long time. Now, because of political disagreements which have escalated into hostilities, you are leaving the only home you have ever known. Never to return...

I've just finished reading the section of Rick Atkinson's book, The British Are Coming, covering the period of the siege of Boston from the spring of 1775 into early 1776. Henry Knox has completed his mission of hauling cannon down from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York to Boston and the Continental Army has emplaced those cannon on Dorchester Heights, overlooking the besieged British Army in Boston.

Lord Howe, the British commander in chief in North America realizes that he has no choice but to evacuate the city. Rations are running low and the memory of Bunker Hill still haunts him. He has no desire to fling his infantry against the Dorchester Heights into the teeth of a rebel army now amply stocked with cannon.

Also his fleet is now at risk, those same cannon dominate Boston Harbor. If the British stay they risk the loss of the bulk of their army and navy in North America. He gives the order, he determines not to destroy the city but makes it known that if the rebels attack him while he is evacuating, he will put Boston to the torch.

On March 10, 1776, General Howe issued a proclamation ordering the inhabitants to give up all linen and woolen goods that could be used by the colonists to continue the war. A Loyalist, Crean Brush, was authorized to receive these goods, in return for which he gave certificates that were effectively worthless. Over the next week, the British fleet sat in Boston harbor waiting for favorable winds, while Loyalists and British soldiers were loaded onto the ships. During this time, American naval activities outside the harbor successfully captured and diverted to ports under colonial control several British supply ships.

On March 15, the wind became favorable, but before they could leave, it turned against them. On March 17, the wind once again turned favorable. The troops, who were authorized to burn the town if there were any disturbances while they were marching to their ships, began to move out at 4:00 a.m. By 9:00 a.m., all ships were underway. The fleet departing from Boston included 120 ships, with more than 11,000 people aboard. Of those, 9,906 were British troops, 667 were women, and 553 were children. (Source)

Some of the civilian Loyalists eventually returned to the United States, some stayed in Canada, some went to England. It must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

While the departure of the British from Boston was not technically an apocalypse, it must have felt that way to the people aboard ship, looking back towards the only home they have ever known as it sinks below the horizon. I can't imagine being forced from my home due to circumstances beyond my control. The Loyalists had done nothing wrong, nothing illegal but they paid the price for it anyway.

I have read that during the Revolution about a third were for the Crown, a third were for independence, and another third just wanted to be left alone. Why did it happen at all?

Well, in the early years of Europeans living on this continent in numbers significant to really worry the original inhabitants, there were two powers in the north, the French in Canada, their influence running down the Mississippi to Louisiana, and the British along the Atlantic coast. The French, with the exception of what is now Quebec, were pretty thin on the ground. They claimed a lot of territory but they couldn't really control it, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico is a lot of ground. The British were more concentrated.

Now some British folks began eyeing all of that land on the other side of the Appalachian mountains stretching down from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The population of British America was growing, more land was desired, besides which the French and the English had been rivals for centuries. Eventually matters had to come to a head.

What kicked the party off was the death of a French officer named Jumonville out in the back of beyond (which described western Pennsylvania and out Ohio way pretty well in the first half of the 18th Century), I've mentioned him before. A fellow named Washington was there, as he was a number of years later at Yorktown when the rest of the British were on their way to heading back to England. Their colonies south of Canada gone forever.

But that war against the French in Canada had cost a lot of money. Parliament felt that the Americans should help pay for it, so they taxed things. Some didn't like it, most of those who imposed the taxes didn't care if the bumptious colonials didn't like it. Weapons were stockpiled and things eventually escalated to the point where the Crown felt they had to act. Lexington and Concord followed. Bunker Hill happened.

Too much blood had been spilled, there could be no reconciliation and the people who could end it all were 3,000 miles away in London, trying to fight a war by remote control and doing it not all that well. (There's a lesson we should have paid heed to!)

I guess the moral of this story is, even if you don't pick a side, you're going to get swept up by the events of the day. Whether you like it or not.

I'd rather not see the country I grew up in disappear over the horizon.

Choose wisely.

(Source)