Who was the Commander-in-Chief of English forces in America who replaced Hutchinson as governor of Massachusetts and later saw redcoats encamped on the Boston Common?

• A. General Cornwallis
• B. General Howe
• C. General Thomas Gage
• D. General Wolfe

Answer: (C)

Thomas Gage is the figure who fits both parts. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America and, at the same time, replaced Thomas Hutchinson as the royal governor of Massachusetts in 1774. As the leading British military and civil authority in Boston, his troops were quartered and later encamped on the Boston Common, a visible symbol of British control in the colony and a catalyst for escalating tensions that led toward the American Revolution. The other generals mentioned were tied to different theaters or times and did not occupy the Massachusetts governorship or preside over the Boston troop encampment.