|
More to the story of the
"Battle of Chelsea Creek"
For more than two centuries historians have
skirmished about the correct name and title for this
usually overlooked but nonetheless very noteworthy event in the
birth annals of the United States.
It is by no means a unanimous judgment that it
should be known as
"The
Battle of Chelsea Creek". The facts speak differently as
evidenced by the following contemporaneous accounts.
Is it not more accurate to refer to the skirmish
as "The Battle of Noddle's Island, Hog Island and Chelsea Creek"
since that was the actual sequence and location of the events in
Winessmit, today's Chelsea, was in those times idealic and bucolic.
However, it was Noddle's Island and Hog Island,
then farmland, today's East Boston and Orient Heights, that bore the
full brunt of the land actions that led up to the burning of the
Diana in the Creek separating the two.
At the conclusion of the Revolution General
Washington, in partial compensation for the damages suffered at
Noddle's Island awarded a barracks that had stood at Cambridge to
Noddle's Island's Williams family. Remodeled it stood until
development of the island in the 1830s near today's Maverick Square
as the "Woodbine Cottage".
The error frequently made regarding the correct
title of this very early and important skirmish between the
Colonials and the British resulted from the fact that while
Winessimit which became Chelsea early on had a community of able
advocates. Noddle's Island had few to begin with and fewer still
after the ravages of the birth of the American Revolution which took
place on its soil. (Michael A. Laurano, East Boston/Newbury,
Massachusetts
Related reading material:
"A Bright, Smart and Successful Affair": The Battle of Chelsea Creek
and the Taking of the Schooner DIANA
Boston1775:
Fighting on Noddle’s Island and Hog Island
Wikipedia:
Battle of Chelsea Creek
|
