CHARLESTOWN  , formerly a

separate city of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., but since 1874 a part of the city of Boston, with which it had long before been in many respects practically one . It is situated on a small peninsula on Boston harbour, between the mouths of the Mystic and Charles rivers; the first bridge across the Charles, built in 1786, connected Charlestown and Boston . A United States navy yard (1800), occupying about 87 acres, and the Massachusetts state prison (1805) are here; the old burying-ground contains the grave of John Harvard and that of Thomas Beecher, the first American member of the famous Beecher family; and there is a soldiers' and sailors' monument (1872), designed by Martin Milmore . Charlestown was founded in 1628 or 1629, being the oldest part of Boston, and soon rose into importance; it was organized as a township in 1630, and was chartered as a city in 1847 . Within its limits was fought, on the 17th of June 1775, the battle of Bunker Hill (q.v.), when Charlestown was almost completely destroyed by the British . The Bunker Hill Monument commemorates the battle; and the navy yard at Moulton's Point was the landing-place of the attacking British troops . Little was done toward the rebuilding of Charlestown until 1783 . The original territory of the township was very large, and from parts of it were formed Woburn (1642), Malden (1649), Stoneham (1725), and Somerville (1842); other parts were annexed to Cambridge, to Medford and to Arlington . S . F . B . Morse, the inventor 'of the electric telegraph, was born here; and Charles-town was the birthplace and home of Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796), a member of the Continental Congress in 1782-1783 and 1785-1787, and its president in 1786; and was the home of Loammi Baldwin (178o-,838), a well-known civil engineer; of Samuel Dexter (1761-1816), an eminent lawyer, secretary of war and for a short time secretary of the treasury in the cabinet of President John Adams; and of Oliver Holden (1765-1831), a composer of hymn-tunes, including " Coronation." See R .

Frothingham, History of Charlestown (Boston, 1845), covering 1629–1775; J . F . Hunnewell, A Century of Town Life . . . 1775–1887 (Boston, 1888) ; and Timothy T . Sawyer, Old Charlestown (1902) .