Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

On the day of Colonel Gardner's death, July 3d, General Washington assumed the command of the American Army, having arrived in Cambridge on the preceding day. Quarters were at first assigned to him in the President's house, erected in 1726, and still standing on Harvard Street, between Dane and Boylston Halls. The Provincial Congress, June 26, ‘resolved, that the President's house in Cambridge, excepting one room reserved by the President for his own use, be taken, cleared, prepared, and furnished, for the reception of General Washington and General Lee.’¹ This arrangement was not wholly satisfactory. He had occupied the house only four days, when Congress ordered, July 6, ‘that the Committee of Safety be a committee to desire General Washington to let them know if there is any house at Cambridge, that would be more agreeable to him and General Lee than that in which they now are; and in that case, the said committee are directed to procure such house, and put it in proper order for their reception.’² Accordingly the Committee directed, July 8th, ‘that the house of Mr. John Vassall, ordered by Congress for the residence of his excellency General Washington, should be immediately put in such a condition as may make it convenient for that purpose.’³ Precisely how soon the new quarters were occupied does not appear; but Thacher represents that before July 20 the General was residing in ‘a convenient house, about half a mile from Harvard College,’⁴ a description which indicates the Vassall house; and these quarters were retained until he left Cambridge, April 4, 1776. Quartermaster-general Mifflin's Headquarters were at the Brattle House.

Immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill, the Americans began to erect works on Prospect Hill, a very commanding height above Charlestown Common, and at several other places Several works were also constructed at Roxbury, and the British confined to Boston and Charlestown within the neck.⁵ These works were extended, after the arrival of Washington, from Dorchester on the south, through Cambridge, to Mystic River on the north. In Cambridge a line of fortifications was constructed along the summit of Dana Hill, then called Butler's Hill,⁶ together