George Washington's Headquarters and Home Historic Resource Study

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The George Washington’s Headquarters and Home Historic Resource Study (2012) reexamines George Washington’s role in the Siege of Boston (1775–1776), challenging the simplified popular narrative that portrays him as a fully formed national hero who imposed discipline, selected brilliant young officers, and forced the British army’s withdrawal with the bold move onto Dorchester Heights. Instead, it presents a more complex picture of Washington as an inexperienced commander learning on the job, often frustrated in his attempts to bring about a decisive battle, and shaped as much by circumstance and the choices of rivals and subordinates as by his own decisions.
Beyond Washington as an individual, the report documents the context and networks necessary to understand Washington’s time in New England, including the rising tensions preceding the war in Cambridge, the evacuation of Loyalist residents and the impact on the families they enslaved, and the appointments of the key military leaders and aides who would advise Washington.

Methodologically, the report draws primarily on Washington’s correspondence and other contemporary letters, diaries, and documents, while carefully reassessing long-standing myths and traditions. It emphasizes tracing quotations back to their earliest sources, benefits from digitized archival materials and the evolving Papers of George Washington project, and engages selectively with earlier scholarship and biographies to build a nuanced, source-driven narrative of Washington’s formative command.

The study was authored by J.L. Bell for the National Park Service.