A Day in South Boston

March 27, 2026 by DickH Posted in Uncategorized Leave a Comment

A Day in South Boston

By Rich Grady

On March 17th of this year, I drove across the Summer Street Bridge from Downtown Boston toward Southie, heading for Castle Island and the strand along Pleasure Bay. There, I would meet other Minutemen from around New England to muster for a short bus ride to St.

Augustine’s Chapel on Dorchester Street for ceremonies to kick-off the march to the top of Dorchester Heights. This was to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of Evacuation Day when the strategically placed cannons courtesy of Henry Knox and his Noble Train of Artillery, hauled 300 miles from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York during the winter of 1775-1776, helped compel the British army of occupation and supporting Royalists to withdraw from Boston. It was a major strategic victory for the fledgling Continental Army and its Commander-in-Chief, General George Washington – and it came more than three months before our Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. As Jonathan Lane, Executive Director of the modern day Rev250 organization, has said, “No Evacuation Day, no Independence Day!”

I felt compelled to participate in this commemoration and celebration for a couple of reasons. One is the obvious significance to our nation’s history. The other is my family’s history and Saint Augustine’s Chapel, where my paternal grandparents were married in 1910. Saint Augustine’s was built in 1818-1819 and is the oldest Catholic church in Massachusetts. It is very small and intimate, and surrounded by the oldest Catholic cemetery in the Commonwealth. When it was built, the Archdiocese of Boston was only 10 years old, and religious tolerance was still more of a concept than a practice. By the time my grandparents were married there in 1910, more than a third of Boston’s population was foreign-born, and almost a third of that portion had come from Ireland, and for the most part, was Catholic.

My grandfather immigrated from County Mayo in Ireland and my grandmother from County Galway, and they met over here in South Boston. They were both Irish speakers – English was their second language. They came to the United States around 1900 for opportunity and to escape British oppression. Prior to the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were not many Irish and not many Catholics in America, and they were not particularly welcome. Nonetheless, America had gained its independence from England, which was meaningful to the Irish, as was the fact that the Continental Army had compelled elite British troops to evacuate from Boston, thereby gaining international credibility for their cause. And symbolically significant, the codeword for the Continental Army on Dorchester Heights in March of 1776 was “Saint Patrick.”

Ceremonies this year officially kicked-off with a Mass in the cozy Saint Augustine’s Chapel, with people overflowing out the narrow doors. Well known politicians – both local and national – were in attendance, as well as regular churchgoers from the neighborhood. After Mass, the procession of Minutemen and Militia units formed outside the walls of the cemetery to begin the march to the top of Dorchester Heights.

I marched with the Acton Minutemen in this year’s Evacuation Day procession. They were the first to confront the British at the Old North Bridge in Concord on April 19, 1775 – now commemorated as Patriots’ Day. Their Captain in 1775 was Isaac Davis, who reportedly said, “I haven’t a man who is afraid to go,” when asked to lead the march to battle against the Redcoats. Sadly, he was shot through the heart and died in that battle. However, the Minutemen won that day, and chased the retreating British Army back to Boston, beginning an 11 month siege of the city that concluded on Evacuation Day, March 17, 1776. Isaac Davis became the inspiration for the famous Minute Man Statue (1875) by Daniel Chester French at the Old North Bridge, which has the first stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem, the Concord Hymn (1837), inscribed on its pedestal.

I am grateful for this nation of ours and those who paved the way before us. Events that help us remember our history and places that connect our past, present, and future are special and worthy of preservation and contemplation. This year’s Evacuation Day ceremony on the 250th anniversary of the withdrawal of British forces from Boston included a reopening and rededication of the Dorchester Heights Monument, which was built 125 years ago, in

1901-1902, as a national site of remembrance. The commanding views of Boston Harbor and the city below, and the vertical challenge of reaching it with cannon balls from British ships and sea-level artillery, made Dorchester Heights ideal for the Continental Army and its cannon placements and fortifications. This year’s remembrance included cannon fire and musket volleys at the base of the restored monument, after numerous speeches by politicians and dignitaries, while people from the neighborhood and visitors from far and wide endured the frigid winds on a wintery but glorious day for remembrances.