Last updated: February 13, 2026
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Post Siege: Harbor Happenings (1776)
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When the British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, the Siege of Boston had officially ended. However, several British ships remained in the outer harbor (near Nantasket/Hull) until June 1776. Bostonians and colonial leaders felt their menacing presence, as George Washington expressed in writing to Johnathan Trumbull on March 21:
"for my own part, I cannot but suspect they are waiting for some opportunity to give us a stroke, at a moment when they conceive us to be off our guard, in order to retrieve the honor they have lost by their shameful and scandalous retreat, diminishing much from that Lustre and renown which British Armies were wont to boast and justly claimed as their right—Suspecting them of such motives, I shall not detach any more of the Army than what is gone already, untill they have taken their departure and quitted the Coast."[1]
Washington’s concerns meant American ships remained on high alert over the next few months until colonial leaders could devise a plan to fully expel the British from Boston Harbor.
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Captain Mugford and the Franklin
Between March and June 1776, a few naval skirmishes occurred between patrolling American ships and British military or transport ships. Two of these skirmishes involved the American schooner Franklin, captained by James Mugford.
On May 17, the Franklin captured the British transport ship Hope, without any resistance. The British ship had been enroute from Cork, Ireland, and had not been notified of the British evacuation of Boston. The ship carried a considerable number of supplies for the British. According to historian Richard Frothingham, the ship held "a fine assortment of military stores; and as there were fifteen hundred whole barrels of powder, it was pronounced the most valuable prize that had been taken."[2]
After this success, Captain Mugford and the Franklin faced another enemy ship just two days later. On May 19, the Franklin had become stuck in the tidal flats near Deer Island, with the colonial privateer Lady Washington also anchored nearby. In the evening, both came under attack from British boats dispatched from man-of-war ships anchored off the coast of Nantasket (Hull).
General Artemas Ward wrote to Washington that "Capt. Mugford was very fiercely attacked by twelve or thirteen Boats full of Men, but he and his Men exerted themselves with remar[ka]ble Bravery, beat off the Enemy, sunk sever[al] of their Boats and killed a number of their men."[3]
Although the outnumbered Americans fended off the British attack, Captain Mugford did not survive. Varying accounts described him being shot or lanced through by British soldiers coming on board the Franklin.[4] No other known casualties occurred on the American side.
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Word of Captain Mugford’s sacrifice for the cause of liberty reached towns along the coast. A publisher in Salem distributed a broadside that featured an elegy and gave an account of these two naval clashes. He received a hero’s funeral procession in Marblehead.[5]
Final Expulsion of the British
As British military and transport ships continued to maintain a presence off the coast, colonial leaders grew impatient with the constant threat of another British invasion of Boston. After several months, General Benjamin Lincoln devised a plan to fully expel British ships from the outer harbor.
On June 13, the Continental Army and militia forces landed on Peddocks, Moon, and Long Islands and prepared fortifications. They also took up coastal posts along the southern shore, including Nantasket/Hull, Hough’s Neck, and Point Alderton.[6] Meanwhile, the British fleet, composed of a few gunships and recently arrived transports carrying Scottish Highlander troops, anchored between Georges Island and Nantasket/Hull.
Captain Francis Banks of HMS Renown wrote of the colonial attack in the early morning of June 14: "At Daybreak in the Morning, perceived the Rebels had thrown up two very strong Batteries, on Long Island...At 5 AM the Rebels began to Fire upon me from the Batteries on Long Island..."[7] Throughout the morning, the colonial troops positioned on the islands and coastline continued to exchange fire with the British ships as they sailed away, further into the outer harbor.
Making their departure, the British blew up Boston Light as a final act of retribution. Two years after the British had shut down Boston Harbor with the Boston Port Act, colonial forces had successfully freed the harbor from British presence.
Colonel Asa Whitcomb wrote to Major General Artemas Ward describing the victory:
"Through the Divine Goodness...our Enemies were obliged to leave the Harbour with their Men of War & Transports...& tho' in a manner honorary to the Continental Troops, yet in a manner shameful to them, their Strength and Numbers being vastly Superior to ours, and as an Evidence of their Cowardice, & final remove, they destroyed the Light House, which was in their hands. And what is more extraordinary than any thing is, That the whole was effected with out a man Killed or wounded. So that the Port of Boston is now open which has been shut two Years to a Day."[8]
Footnotes
[1] "George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 21 March 1776," Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 509–511.]
[2] Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), 313; "New England Chronicle, May 23, 1776" in Morgan, William James (Ed.). Naval Documents of the American Revolution, volume 5. Washington, Naval History Division, Dept of the Navy, 1970. 216-218.
[3] "Major General Artemas Ward to George Washington, 20 May 1776," Founders Online, National Archives. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 4, 1 April 1776 – 15 June 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991, pp. 347–348.]
[4] "New England Chronicle, May 23, 1776," in Morgan, William James (Ed.). Naval Documents of the American Revolution, volume 5. Washington, Naval History Division, Dept of the Navy, 1970. 216-218. "Major General Artemas Ward to George Washington, 20 May 1776," Founders Online, National Archives.
[5] "Funeral elegy on the death of Captain James Mugford with the whole particulars, account of the engagement and funeral procession of Capt. Mugford," Salem, MA, 1776. Phillips Library Digital Collections, Peabody Essex Museum.
[6] Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 314-315.
[7] "Journal of H.M.S. Renown, Captain Francis Banks, June 14, 1776," in Morgan, William James (Ed.). Naval Documents of the American Revolution, volume 5. Washington, Naval History Division, Dept of the Navy, 1970. 524-525.
[8] "Colonel Asa Whitcomb to Major General Artemas Ward, June 15, 1776," in Morgan, William James (Ed.). Naval Documents of the American Revolution, volume 5. Washington, Naval History Division, Dept of the Navy, 1970. 543.