What was Charlestown like before it was burned down by British troops? Boston is digging to find outEditor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. Because basically all of Charlestown was burned to the ground in the run-up to the battle when British troops fired heated cannonballs into the neighborhood from Boston Harbor. When we dig, we look for stuff, and these are essentially lists of all the things that they lost in the battle when their homes burned." When they came back, they voted to leave their town tavern, the Three Cranes Tavern, undeveloped forever.