Date line Boston 17 March 1776
Troops with draw in face of rebellious colonists !http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/03/long-lost_lette.htmlBy Katherine Landergan, Globe Correspondent
A long-lost letter written by a hero of the American Revolution was the centerpiece of a ceremony today commemorating Evacuation Day, the day British troops left Boston.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin presented a replica of the letter to the Evacuation Day Heritage Committee, in a ceremony at Dorchester Heights attended by a crowd of elected officials, veterans, and children.
The letter was written in May 1775 by Dr. Joseph Warren, who was president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. It detailed the colonials' takeover of the British-held Fort Ticonderoga and other forts around Lake Champlain.
Warren, who would be killed three weeks later in the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston, requested the letter be shared with General Henry Knox, who brought the captured Fort Ticonderoga cannons to Boston. General George Washington used the cannons when he fortified Dorchester Heights in 1776, a move that ultimately caused the British to flee the state on March 17, 1776.
Galvin said he feels the holiday has been overshadowed by controversy over whether Evacuation Day, which falls on the same day as St. Patrick's Day, should be a public holiday.
“We have a right to be very proud that we stood up for our rights and here you had one of the largest powers at the time leaving,” he said. “That’s an event worth commemorating.”
Veterans laid wreaths at the ceremony. State Senator Jack Hart; State Representative Nick Collins; Boston City Councilor Bill Linehan; and Robert Allison, president of the South Boston Historical Society, also spoke at the event, which lasted about an hour.
The original letter was returned to the Massachusetts Archives this past fall, roughly 60 years after it was stolen from the archives, which, at the time, were located in the basement of the State House. The letter turned up in the Americana collection of James S. Copley, a newspaper publisher from San Diego, who died in 1973.
A portion of his valuables, including the letter, was put on sale last fall by the Sotheby’s auction house. The Commonwealth negotiated with Copley’s estate and ultimately paid $8,000 to get the letter back.