The first naval engagement of the American Revolution was fought in Chelsea, in the creek that separates the city from East Boston, six weeks after Lexington and Concord. On Sunday, September 27 at 2 p.m., Revere’s city historian Jeff Pearlman will give a talk on the Battle of Chelsea Creek at the Revere History Museum, 108 Beach Street, Revere.
The battle
On May 27 and 28, 1775, colonial militia under Colonel John Stark moved onto Hog Island and Noddle’s Island, the farmland that is now East Boston and the airport, to remove the livestock and hay that the British garrison in Boston was using to feed itself. The British sent marines and the armed schooner Diana up Chelsea Creek to stop them. The Diana ran aground in the creek as the tide fell, the militia poured fire into her from the Chelsea shore through the night, and at dawn on the 28th the colonists boarded and burned her. It was the first British vessel captured in the war, and the Americans, who a month earlier had been farmers with muskets, had taken and destroyed a Royal Navy ship.
Chelsea’s part in the fight was the shore. Israel Putnam brought reinforcements and two field pieces across from Cambridge and set them up on the Chelsea bank, and the artillery fire from the Chelsea side is what kept the British from refloating the Diana. The site is marked today near the Chelsea Street Bridge, and the city’s Winnisimmet neighborhood, the ferry landing at the foot of the hill, is where much of the action was watched from.
The talk
Pearlman is a retired local educator who specializes in early American history and holds the city historian title in Revere, which in 1775 was still part of Chelsea. The Revere History Museum is a small volunteer institution on Beach Street, and its programs are free. The museum’s Facebook page is the best source for parking and any change of plan.
This site’s history archive has a page on Chelsea’s early history, including the town’s incorporation and its Revolutionary-era families.