I'm Mary Catherine, and I'm celebrating America 250 by reading primary documents written

four or five the founders for as many of the days of the year as I can. Thank you for joining

me for this many episode of Getting Hammered. Today in 1776, it is winter and the American

revolution is barely surviving. Let's do a recap. Washington has an army, but it's ragged,

undertrained, and dangerously short on gunpowder, as we've discussed. The British, meanwhile,

have been sitting comfortably in Boston for months, holding the most important port city in New

England, protected by the Royal Navy in the harbor, still getting all the stuff they need.

Washington wants them out, but he can't assault the city directly.

His war council said no to that. But remember, Henry Knox, a young artillery officer, has hauled 60 tons of cannon captured at Fort Ticonderoga across the mountains to Boston. They arrive in January.

Washington has all this firepower, but he needs the right ground. Dorchester Heights is a peninsula southeast of Boston overlooking both the city and the harbor.

Whoever holds the high ground there commands the entire area,

and both General Washington and British General Howe know this.

And the heights are just sitting there.

So Washington concocks a plan that's kind of a big bluff.

He starts with diversionary moves a couple days prior,

which is what Abigail Adams heard and wrote John about.

On the night of March 4th, under cover of darkness,

and after diversionary artillery barrage,

2,000 American troops moved silently onto the heights

and spend the night building fortifications.

They're called chandeliers, not the ones that we think of. And back then it was a name for a sort

prefab wood structure that was then packed with earth and hay meant to go up fast and offering cover

...