All was over, and the town was in the hands of the Americans.  In Washington’s own words, “To maintain a post within musket-shot of the enemy for six months together, without powder, and at the same time to disband one army and recruit another within that distance of twenty-odd British regiments, is more, probably, than ever was attempted.”  It was, in truth, a gallant feat of arms, carried through by the resolute will and strong brain of one man.  The troops on both sides were brave, but the British had advantages far more than compensating for a disparity of numbers, always slight and often more imaginary than real.  They had twelve thousand men, experienced, disciplined, equipped, and thoroughly supplied.  They had the best arms and cannon and gunpowder.  They commanded the sea with a strong fleet, and they were concentrated on the inside line, able to strike with suddenness and overwhelming force at any point of widely extended posts.  Washington caught them with an iron grip and tightened it steadily until, in disorderly haste, they took to their boats without even striking a blow.  Washington’s great abilities, and the incapacity of the generals opposed to him, were the causes of this result.  If Robert Clive, for instance, had chanced to have been there the end might possibly have been the same, but there would have been some bloody fighting before that end was reached.  The explanation of the feeble abandonment of Boston lies in the stupidity of the English government, which had sown the wind and then proceeded to handle the customary crop with equal fatuity.

There were plenty of great men in England, but they were not conducting her government or her armies.  Lord Sandwich had declared in the House of Lords that all “Yankees were cowards,” a simple and satisfactory statement, readily accepted by the governing classes, and flung in the teeth of the British soldiers as they fell back twice from the bloody slopes of Bunker Hill.  Acting on this pleasant idea, England sent out as commanders of her American army a parcel of ministerial and court favorites, thoroughly second-rate men, to whom was confided the task of beating one of the best soldiers and hardest fighters of the century.  Despite the enormous material odds in favor of Great Britain, the natural result of matching the Howes and Gages and Clintons against George Washington ensued, and the first lesson was taught by the evacuation of Boston.

Washington did not linger over his victory.  Even while the British fleet still hung about the harbor he began to send troops to New York to make ready for the next attack.  He entered Boston in order to see that every precaution was taken against the spread of the smallpox, and then prepared to depart himself.  Two ideas, during his first winter of conflict, had taken possession of his mind, and undoubtedly influenced profoundly his future course.  One was the conviction that the struggle must be fought out to the bitter end, and must bring either subjugation