page_title: Fortification of Dorchester Heights
section_title: British reaction
hierarchical_section_title: Fortification of Dorchester Heights / British reaction
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of the Dorchester Heights Monument, Boston, Massachusetts.
context_page_description: The Fortification of Dorchester Heights was a decisive action early in the American Revolutionary War that precipitated the end of the siege of Boston and the withdrawal of British troops from that city.
  On March 4, 1776, troops from the Continental Army under George Washington's command occupied Dorchester Heights, a series of low hills with a commanding view of Boston and its harbor, and mounted powerful cannons there threatening the city and the Navy ships in the harbor. General William Howe, commander of the British forces occupying Boston, planned an attack to dislodge them. However, after a snowstorm prevented its execution, Howe chose to withdraw. British forces, accompanied by Loyalists who had fled to the city during the siege, evacuated the city on March 17 and sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
context_section_description: Admiral Shuldham, commander of the British fleet, declared that the fleet was in danger unless the position on the heights was taken.  Howe and his staff then determined to contest the occupation of the heights, and made plans for an assault, preparing to send 2,400 men under cover of darkness to attack the position.  Washington, notified of British movements, increased the forces on the heights until there were nearly 6,000 men on the Dorchester lines. However, a snow storm began late on March 5 and halted any chance of a battle for several days.  By the time the storm subsided, Howe reconsidered launching an attack, reasoning that preserving the army for battle elsewhere was of higher value than attempting to hold Boston.
  On March 8, intermediaries delivered an unsigned paper  informing Washington that the city would not be burned to the ground if his troops were allowed to leave unmolested. After several days of activity, and several more of bad weather, the British forces departed Boston by sea on March 17 and sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, taking with them more than 1,000 Loyalist civilians.
caption: The Dorchester Heights Monument, completed in 1902
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