Boston Massacre Site - Satellite Oddity - Boston, Massachusetts, USA. - Satellite Imagery Oddities on Waymarking.com

The Boston Massacre Marker is a memorial to the victims of the Boston Massacre, which took place on March 5, 1770 in front of the old State House during the American Revolution.

The marker, which is made up of 13 rings of cobblestones and a center stone marked with a star, had been on a traffic island in front of the Old State House for decades but in 2011 it was removed and placed at its current location at the intersection of Congress, Devonshire and State Streets, which is on the sidewalk in front of the Old State House.

"The tensions that led to the Boston Massacre were the product of the occupation of Boston by Redcoats in 1768. Redcoats were sent to Boston to quell riots in the wake of the Townsend Duties and to protect customs officials.

With 2,000 soldiers occupying a town with a population of about 16,000, friction was inevitable. This would occasionally produce fist fights and angry confrontations. The violent clash on March 5, 1770 began when Private White, on guard at the Customs house on King Street (now State Street) struck young Edward Garrick in the face with the butt of his musket for insulting White's commanding officer. White soon found himself surrounded by an angry mob of Bostonians that hurled taunts and snowballs at him.

Captain Preston of the 29th Regiment arrived with eight fellow Redcoats to extract White from the square. The troops forced their way through the increasingly hostile crowd. According to some witnesses, amidst a hail of snowballs and rocks, a club thrown from the crowd struck Private Montgomery in the face. Witnesses said Montgomery then fired the first shot. The crowd continued to press on the soldiers and more shots were fired. When the smoke cleared, five men lay dead or dying."

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