Near the end of the siege of Boston in 1776 the city was burned. British merchant ships couldn't get through to Boston. The whole city was starving. The city also ran out of wood and had to chop down buildings. The British eventually pulled out and let the Patriots have the city. All of the characters in this book except military generals and important figures are fiction. The Patriots built forts around Boston on the surrounding hills. The British ships in the harbor couldn't hit the forts with there cannons. The British tried attacking these forts but failed most of the time. One time though the Patriots ran out of gunpowder and had to retreat.