details. Agreeable to Washington's arrangement,
when the expedition with tools, arms, supplies, and other necessaries
was ready to move on the evening of March 3, a terrible cannonading of
the British by the American army, at two different points, commenced,
under the cover of which our troops reached Dorchester Heights without
attracting the attention of the enemy. The reader may judge of the
cannonading by the words of Mrs. John Adams, who wrote to her husband
thus:

"I have just returned from Penn's Hill, where I have been sitting to
hear the amazing roar of cannon, and from whence I could see every
shell that was thrown. The sound, I think, is one of the grandest in
nature, and is of the true species of the sublime. It is now an
incessant roar.

"I went to bed about twelve, and rose again a little after one. I could
no more sleep than if I had been in the engagement; the rattling of the
windows, the jar of the house, the continual roar of twenty-four
pounders, and the bursting of shells, give us such ideas, and realize a
scene to us of which we could scarcely form any conception. I hope to
give you joy of Boston, even if it is in ruins, before I send this
away."

What the British beheld on the morning of March 4, to their surprise and
alarm, is best told in the words of one of their officers.

"This morning at daybreak we discovered two redoubts on Dorchester
Point, and two smaller ones on their flanks. They were all raised during
last night, with an expedition equal to that of 'the genii' belonging to
Alladin's wonderful lamp. From these hills they command the whole town,
so that we must drive them from their post or desert the place."

The British general, Howe, exclaimed:

"The rebels have done more work in one night than my whole army would
have done in a month."

General Howe had superseded General Gage some time before this exploit.

Quickly as possible, General Howe began to bombard the new
fortifications on Dorchester Heights. All through the day he cannonaded
the little American army, and, under the cover of the bombardment,
prepared to land twenty-five hundred picked men at night, and carry the
Heights by storm. His guns did little damage, however, through the day.
Washington was present in person, encouraging the soldiers, and
directing them in strengthening the fortifications.

Under the darkness of night General Howe sent twenty-five hundred of his
best soldiers, in transports, to capture the