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The management of the whole affair was hardly less simple. Eight hundred soldiers, not needed during the cannonading, quietly marched out of camp the night before,—some between Boston and Dorchester Heights, and others at the east end of the peninsula, opposite Castle Island; while still others, with tools, and a supporting party of twelve hundred soldiers under General Thomas, followed the advance. Three hundred carts, loaded with suitable material, followed.

All this movement was liable to be discovered in spite of the incessant roar of heavy ordnance over the works of besiegers and besieged. The flash of heated guns or bursting bombs might light up the trail of this slowly crawling expedition, and vast interests were staked upon the daring venture. But, along the most exposed parts of the way, the bales of pressed hay had been placed as a protecting screen; and behind its sufficient cover, the carts passed to and fro in safety. Even the moon itself only deepened the shadow of this artificial protector, while in position to light, as by day, the steps of the advancing patriots. And there was, also, a brisk north wind which bore away from the city, southward, all sounds which were not already lost in the hurricane of war that hushed all but those of battle.