The winter was memorable for its mildness, so that the American troops, encamped about the city in tents, did not suffer; but the in-gathering of recruits, to replace soldiers whose enlistments had just expired, involved the actual creation of a new army, directly in the face of a powerful, well-equipped, and watchful adversary. And yet, this very adversary must be driven from Boston before the American patriot army could move elsewhere, and engage actively against the combined armies and navy of the British crown. Indications of increasing hostilities on the part of royal governors of the South were not wanting to stimulate the prosecution of the siege to its most speedy consummation; and although unknown to Washington at the time, the city of Norfolk, Va., had been bombarded on New Year’s day by order of Lord Dunmore. [Illustration: Boston and Vicinity.] Impressed by the urgency of the crisis, Washington, on the same day, was writing to Congress in plain terms, as follows, leaving the last word _blank_, lest it might miscarry: “It is not, perhaps, in the power of history to furnish a case like ours; to maintain a post within musket-shot of the enemy, within that distance of twenty, old British regiments without——” General Greene kept his small army well in hand, watchful of the minutest detail, inspecting daily each detachment, as well as all supplies of ammunition and food; and on the fourth of January, writing from Prospect Hill (see map of Boston and Vicinity), thus reported his exact position to the Commander-in-Chief: “The night after the old troops went off, I could not have mustered seven hundred men, notwithstanding the returns of the new enlisted men amounted to nineteen hundred and upwards. I am strong enough to defend myself against all the force in Boston. Our situation has been critical. Had the enemy been acquainted with our situation, I cannot pretend to say what might have been the consequences.”