Written by Drew Palmer 

In the summer and fall of 1775, the Continental Army, headquartered in Cambridge, was besieging British-held Boston. The main bodies of the armies were no farther than a mile and a half from one another. Within the Continental Army were Maryland rifle companies that arrived in Cambridge in August 1775. Soon after their arrival, the riflemen endured intense artillery fire from close proximity. Maryland rifleman Daniel McCurtin kept a vivid diary that illustrates the constant threat posed by artillery and its effectiveness during the siege of Boston. 

Initially, McCurtin found Cambridge and the surrounding towns, such as Roxbury, to be pleasant. “This Cambridge is a beautiful town, it has a University in it of a very elegant building and several other buildings for the Collegians use which makes the town appear very beautiful to the eye and makes me believe that it was a flourishing town in the time of peace.” McCurtin also found Roxbury to be “a very pleasant place” even though the “Regulars have spoiled it with their cannonballs.”1 McCurtin and his fellow rifleman were young, most had never experienced war or seen anything like the constant artillery barrages that threatened them every second of the day. During their “first alarm” McCurtin stated that the riflemen were hit with an intense combination of “balls, bombs, and grenade shells” from the British lines. Only a day later, McCurtin was having a calm breakfast in a home when the British fired “four 32 pounders” at the house. The incoming artillery sent McCurtin and his comrades scrambling for a breastwork.2 This was the new reality for McCurtin and the Maryland rifleman. Almost every day, they lived with the constant threat of incoming artillery. 

The artillery fire became so continuous that it prevented the rifleman from carrying out duties such as standing picket. Sometimes, the artillery was so intense that they had to wait to fire back. In late August, thirty cannonballs were fired at McCurtin and the rifleman, which “killed two musketeers on the spot and slightly wounded one of the riflemen.3. In October, “nine cannons were discharged at our meeting house where about 2,000 men were collected.”4 On the quieter days, McCurtin and the rifleman could expect one or two cannonballs fired towards them at random times. On September 8, the British fired “several bombs and balls at us.” On September 22, “thunders of cannon around our ears.”5 September 25, the British fired “ 108 [cannonballs] at us.”6

Though the British artillery fire most certainly had a damaging psychological impact, it did little physical damage to McCurtin and the rifleman. If McCurtin is being honest in his diary about casualties, British artillery usually missed the riflemen even when firing at their position. His writing indicates there were plenty of close calls and near misses, but no cases of high rifleman casualties from direct hits.  It appears this can be attributed to simple luck. 

Endnotes

1. Daniel Mc Curtin, Journal of the Times at the Siege of Boston, in Papers Relating Chiefly to the Maryland, Thomas Balch (Collins, 1857), 12. 
2. Ibid, 13. ,
3. Ibid, 19.
4. Ibid, 17.
5. Ibid, 17. 

6.  Ibid, 18.