Early in 1776, General George Washington, encamped outside of British held Boston was reinforced with artillery. The Continental Army successfully attacked and captured the Heights of Dorchester, whereupon they fortified the position with the artillery, giving The Colonial Army a strategic advantage from which they could rain down cannon fire on the City of Boston and the harbor. This caused the British to evacuate Boston entirely.
For his leadership role in the successful siege and evacuation of Boston, Congress decided to award Washington a medal. He received notification of the award in a letter from John Hancock, April 2, 1776.
It gives me the most sensible pleasure to convey to you, by order of Congress, the only tribute which a free people will ever consent to pay, the tribute of thanks and gratitude to their friends and benefactors. The disinterested and patriotic principles, which led you to the field, have also led you to glory; and it affords no little consolation to your countrymen to reflect, that, as a peculiar greatness of mind induced you to decline any compensation for serving them, except the pleasure of promoting their happiness, they may without your permission bestow upon you the largest share of their affections and esteem.
Those pages in the annals of America will record your title to a conspicuous place in the temple of fame, which shall inform posterity, that, under your direction, an undisciplined band of husbandmen in the course of a few months became soldiers; and that the desolation meditated against the country by a brave army of veterans, commanded by the most experienced generals, but employed by bad men in the worst of causes, was, by the fortitude of your troops, and the address of their officers, next to the kind interposition of Providence, confined for near a year within such narrow limits, as scarcely to admit more room than was necessary for the encampments and fortifications they lately abandoned. Accept, therefore, Sir, the thanks of the United Colonies, unanimously declared by their delegates to be due to you, and the brave officers and troops under your command; and be pleased to communicate to them this distinguished mark of the approbation of their country. The Congress have ordered a golden medal, adapted to the occasion, to be struck, and when finished to be presented to you. "
I have the honor to be, with every sentiment of esteem, Sir, your most obedient and very humble servant."
Washington wrote the following letter to express his gratitude for the award.
To The President Of Congress.
New York, 18 April, 1776.
Sir,
Permit me, through you, to convey to the honorable Congress the sentiments of gratitude I feel for the high honor they have done me in the public mark of approbation contained in your favor of the 2d instant, which came to hand last night. I beg you to assure them, that it will ever be my highest ambition to approve myself a faithful servant of the public; and that to be in any degree instrumental in procuring to my American brethren a restitution of their just rights and privileges, will constitute my chief happiness.
Agreeable to your request, I have communicated, in general orders, to the officers and soldiers under my command, the thanks of Congress for their good behavior in the service; and I am happy in having such an opportunity of doing justice to their merit. They were indeed, at first, "a band of undisciplined husbandmen"; but it is, (under God,) to their bravery and attention to their duty, that I am indebted for that success, which has procured me the only reward I wish to receive, the affection and esteem of my countrymen.
The medal, intended to be presented to me by your honorable body, I shall carefully preserve as a memorial of their regard. I beg leave to return you, Sir, my warmest thanks for the polite manner in which you have been pleased to express their sentiments of my conduct; and am, with sincere esteem and respect, Sir, your and their most obedient and most humble servant.
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