March 11, 1776

News from Massachusetts in March 1776 suggested that “something extraordinary” would happen soon. This report, published in Worcester, relied on a man who had come from British-occupied Boston. He reported that the British forces had moved their mortars from Bunker’s Hill across the water to Boston. General William Howe had held a war council for several days, and had advised “the tories to leave the town.” Speculation ran rampant that, “should another battle ensue, and the regulars be defeated, they would set fire to the town, and remove to some other part of the continent.”

People in Philadelphia worried that, if the British forces evacuated Boston—whether they left the city in flames or not—they might target the meeting place of the Continental Congress. All through the month of March, as new rumors and eyewitness accounts of what was happening in Massachusetts reached Philadelphia, newspaper printers tried to get the information in front of their readers.

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet or, the General Advertiser
Printed by John Dunlap

WORCESTER, March 1.

We are told a gentleman who came out of Boston last Friday reports, that the enemy have taken away their mortars from Bunker’s Hill, and carried them to Boston; that a council of war had been held in Boston for several days; that General Howe had advised the Mandamus Counsellors to go to England, and the tories to leave the town; that all the vessels in the harbour that were not in the King’s service, were taken up to transport the tories and their effects; and that it was surmised in Boston, that should another battle ensue, and the regulars be defeated, they would set fire to the town, and remove to some other part of the continent.

It is a prevailing opinion, that something extraordinary will turn up in the course of a few days.