George Washington had his share of combat victories; among the best was his brilliant and successful effort to persuade the Redcoats to abandon Boston without even putting up a fight. They simply knew they had already been beaten.

The WSJ reminds readers that on this day, 250 years ago, George Washington wrote to his compatriot John Hancock to share the good news.

It is with the greatest pleasure I inform you that… The Ministerial Army evacuated the Town of Boston, and that the Forces of the United Colonies are now in actual possession thereof. I beg leave to congratulate you Sir, & the honorable Congress—on this happy Event, and particularly as it was effected without endangering the lives & property of the remaining unhappy Inhabitants.

The Boston Globe shares with its readers how victory was won without a shot being fired.

… 11,000 British troops and Loyalists left Boston after waking 12 days earlier to see American cannons suddenly pointed their way from Dorchester Heights in present-day South Boston.

No battle ensued, no blood was shed, but the mere sight of those cannons caused the startled British to flee Boston and give General George Washington his first major victory of the Revolutionary War.

Jonathan Lane, executive director of Revolution 250, a Massachusetts nonprofit group, explains:

“What happened here was a real signal to the rest of the colonies. It was a beacon of hope. There had been a classic underestimation of America’s ability.”

British troops had never been forced to withdraw from one of the American colonies before; they never returned to Boston during seven more years of war; and Massachusetts suddenly had a chance to govern itself free of royal supervision and interference.

George Washington quickly and without embellishment summarized the British retreat before proceeding to other matters:

I have great reason to imagine their flight was precipitated by the appearance of a Work which I had Order’d to be thrown up… on an Eminence at Dorchester which lay nearest to Boston Neck, call’d Newks Hill. The Town, although it has suffer’d greatly is not in so bad a state as I expected to find it, and I have a particular pleasure in being able to inform you Sir, that your house has receiv’d no damage worth mentioning. Your furniture is in tolerable Order and the family pictures are all left entire and untouch’d.

Gen. Washington, who was busy running a war, found the time to report to a colleague on the condition of his home. He also soft-sold the fact that he had just managed to drive the world’s greatest superpower out of a city at the very heart of the revolution.

As soon as the Ministerial Troops had quitted the Town, I order’d a thousand Men… to take possession of the Heighths, which I shall endeavour to fortify in such a manner as to prevent their return should they attempt it, but as they are still in the Harbour I thought it not prudent to march off with the Main Body of the Army until I should be fully satisfied they had quitted the Coast—I have therefore only detach’d five Regiments, beside the Rifle Battalion, to New York, and shall keep the remainder here till all Suspicion of their return ceases.

The Brits never returned to Boston. Washington proceeds to note the valuable stuff left behind by the retreating Brits.

Adding insult to injury, the Americans had done it with cannon they had previously captured from the British.

As the Globe notes, with Boston liberated, patriots throughout the colonies declared their independence.