The night in Eastie that changed the course of the Revolutionary War

Boston Globe

20-05-2025

Right around us in East Boston and Chelsea, at least two and as many as 30 British sailors and marines were killed. A few Americans were wounded, but none died, a startling fact that gave the Americans a feeling of righteous invincibility that did not always benefit them. 'Blessed be God for the interposition of his Provedence on our Side,' one American private wrote. 'Surely God fote the Battle and not we.'
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It started over cattle and sheep. After the battles at Lexington and Concord, rebel militias surrounding Boston cut the British off from the provisions of the surrounding towns — Roxbury, Dorchester, Cambridge, Brookline, Charlestown, Medford. The harbor islands, including Noddle's and Hog islands, had the nearest remaining stores of livestock and hay, which General Thomas Gage, commander of the British forces, sent foraging parties to buy or seize.
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Owners of hay and livestock could not win. Sell to the British and the patriots would take retribution. Refuse to sell and the British would seize their livestock.
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Hearing that owners were selling Noddle's Island livestock to the British, the patriots planned to clear the island of sheep, cattle, horses, and hogs, 'for no reason,' British General Thomas Gage wrote to Admiral Samuel Graves, 'but because the owners having sold them for the King's use.' Graves ordered 50 marines ashore, but the tide was not right for them to land.
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The next night, May 26, the patriots acted. Colonel John Nixon of Framingham led 300 men to Medford, where they joined Colonel John Stark and his 590 New Hampshire militiamen. Early the next morning they marched to the Rumney Marsh Meeting House (still standing in Revere). After breakfast with the Chelsea militia they marched to Belle Isle Marsh to cross to Hog and Noddle's islands.
Nixon's and Stark's men secured hundreds of sheep, cows, and horses. Thirty men sent to Noddle's Island set fires to haystacks, which alerted Graves, who sent 170 marines ashore. He also dispatched his nephew, Lieutenant Thomas Graves, on the sloop Diana
to intercept the rebels up Chelsea Creek. The 30 men setting fires on Noddle's Island did not know that the Royal Navy and marines were after them. Just as they crossed Crooked Creek, a tidal stream separating Noddle's and Hog Islands (now the area of Boardman Street), the British aboard the Diana
saw them and opened fire.
When the British marines arrived, the last of the Americans crossed the creek, took positions in a ditch, and fired at the marines so their compatriots could herd the livestock to safety. 'We had a hot fiar,' Private Amos Farnsworth wrote, 'until the Regulars retreated.' Though 'the bullets flew very thick' and the 'balls sung like bees around our heads,' no American was hit. 'Suerly,' he wrote, 'God has A faver towards us.'
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The Diana
continued upstream as Nixon's and Stark's men herded livestock across Belle Isle Marsh to Chelsea. Back on Noddle's Island, near today's Meridian Street Bridge, British marines brought cannons ashore to bombard the Chelsea Militia who were firing on British ships and marines across the creek.
The cannon noise reached Israel Putnam, commander of the American operation, who remained at headquarters in far-off Cambridge. At about the same time, a messenger arrived from Nixon and Stark asking for reinforcements. Putnam set off immediately with two cannons, reaching the battle four hours later. He found Graves and the Diana
in a cul de sac
far up Chelsea Creek, a spot today commemorated by a marker near the Cronin Skating Rink. After setting up his cannon, Putnam, according to tradition, waded into the water, offering surrender terms to Graves. The Diana responded with an artillery blast.
Time and tide were not with Graves. The unusually high spring tide had turned, and Graves needed his longboats to pull the Diana
down Chelsea Creek, where they took fire from the shore. Two rowing sailors were killed. The longboats detached from the Diana
,
which struck a mud bank and heeled over. Graves ordered his men to abandon ship.
He hoped to continue the fight — the tide would turn and the British had more ships — but the Americans stripped the Diana
of cannons, swivel guns, ammunition, sails, rigging, clothing, and money before lighting fires, which reached the powder magazine. At 3 a.m. on May 28, the Diana
exploded.
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The Americans hauled the ship's
76-foot mainmast to Prospect Hill to use as a flagpole. From this pole on Jan. 1, 1776, they raised a new flag, representing the union of 13 provinces fighting together against the British.
On Saturday,
Cattle and sheep no longer graze on Eagle Hill, though its streets are named for Revolutionary battles and patriots. Hog Island is now Orient Heights. All who live here now, though, are in debt to those who fought here. The shores may be different, but they are still washed by the tides as Chelsea Creek follows its course.