Washington Used A Nerd To Capture Boston Without Firing A Shot
The year was 1776 and the Continental Army of the future United States was laying siege to the British occupied city of Boston. The siege effort was in a total stalemate. Both sides fired ineffective cannon barrages at each other and made small raids.
Time was on the British side. General Washington, commander of the Continental army, had to resolve the stalemate. But how could he do it?
This is when a bookish soldier, named Henry Knox, came to Washington with an idea. There was a series of hills called Dorchester Heights to the south of Boston. If this area could be fortified with cannons, it would spell doom for the British.
Knox had a firm understanding of mathematics, calculated angles and saw that the Continentals would be able to fire on the city and British fleet. The British would not be able to return fire on the patriots due to the high angle of the heights. It was a perfect plan. There was just one problem.
Washington’s army didn’t have the cannons to do it!
Knox had an answer for this as well. There was a captured fort in upstate New York that was rumored to have a number of cannons sitting idle. What if the Continentals could get them and bring them to their camp in Cambridge?
