Artemas Ward, the general who had been in command of the provincial army when Washington arrived in 1775. Washington’s criticisms of the New Englanders did not sit well with Ward, and the two generals appear to have become increasingly estranged. It did not help matters that Ward was the first officer to propose the strategy that ultimately allowed the Americans to prevail: the fortification of Dorchester Heights, a move Washington initially rejected in favor of attacking British-occupied Boston directly. Only after Washington’s plan to take Boston by storm had been unanimously voted down by
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