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Washington was as prompt to reply; and ordered Lee to “take such Connecticut volunteers as he could quickly assemble in his march, and put the city in the best possible posture of defence which the season and circumstances would admit of.”

Meanwhile, every immediate energy of the Commander-in-Chief was concentrated upon a direct attack of the British position. The business capacity of Colonel Knox had already imparted to the Ordnance Department character and efficiency. Under direction of Washington he visited Lake George, during December, 1775, and by the last of February hauled upon sleds, over the snow, more than fifty pieces of artillery to the Cambridge headquarters. This enabled him to make the armament of Lechmere Point very formidable; and by the addition of several half-moon batteries between that point and Roxbury, it became possible to concentrate upon the city of Boston the effective fire of nearly every heavy gun and mortar which the American army controlled.

It had been the intention of Washington to march against Boston, across the ice, so soon as the Charles river should freeze sufficiently to bear the troops. Few of the soldiers had bayonets, but “the city must be captured, with or without bayonets,” and his army released for service elsewhere. In one letter he used this very suggestive appeal: “Give me powder, or ice, and I will take Boston.” Upon the occasion of “one single freeze and some pretty strong ice,” he suddenly called a council of war, and proposed to seize the opportunity to cross at once, and either capture or burn the city. Officers of the New England troops who were more familiar with the suddenness with which the tides affect ice of moderate thickness, dissuaded him from his purpose; but in writing to Joseph Reed, for some time after his Adjutant-General, he thus refers to the incident: “Behold, while we have been waiting the whole year for this favorable event, the enterprise was thought too hazardous. I did not think so, and I am sure yet, that the enterprise, if it had been undertaken with resolution, would have succeeded; without it, any would fail.” “P.S.—I am preparing to take post on Dorchester Heights, to try if the enemy will be so kind as to come out to us.” This postscript is an illustration of Washington’s quick perception of the strategic movement which would crown the siege with complete success. He added another caution: “What I have said respecting the determination in Council, and the possession of Dorchester, is spoken sub-rosa.”