The Battle of Chelsea Creek was the second military engagement of the Boston campaign of the American Revolutionary War. It is also known as the Battle of Noddle's Island, Battle of Hog Island and the Battle of the Chelsea Estuary. This battle was fought on May 27 and 28, 1775, on Chelsea Creek and on salt marshes, mudflats, and islands of Boston Harbor, northeast of the Boston peninsula. Most of these areas have since been united with the mainland by land reclamation and are now part of East Boston, Chelsea, Winthrop, and Revere. It was fought on the islands off northeastern Boston, it is also known as the Battle of Noodle’s Island or Battle of Hog Island. It was the American Revolution’s second military action of open warfare within the region; the Battle of Lexington and Concord being the first on April 19th. It is also the first time in the war the rebel colonists used artillery. The clash between British marines and American militia occurred along Chelsea Creek, the surrounding salt marshes, mudflats, and land action on Noodle’s Island. On May 27, 1775, colonial forces, known as Provincials, began burning down buildings on Noddle’s Island, inadvertently alerting the British Navy to their activity. British Admiral Samuel Graves had orders to sail to Noddle’s Island and stop the Provincials.

A few days before the battle, Warren and General Artemas Ward, commander of the besieging forces, inspected Noddle's Island and Hog Island, which lay to the northeast of Boston, and east of Charlestown. They found no British troops there, but did spot countless livestock and fields abandoned by farmers who had chosen to flee inland. On May 21, the British had sailed troops to Grape Island in the outer harbor near Weymouth to get hay and livestock; the operation was foiled by an unexpected shift in the tides, allowing local militia to intercept and drive off the British before burning the hay and seizing the livestock. The British Navy around occupied Boston was under the command of Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves. The Royal Marines were under the command of Major John Pitcairn. The British forces as a whole were led by Governor-General Thomas Gage. Graves had, in addition to hay and livestock, hired storage on Noddle's Island for a variety of important naval supplies which he felt were too valuable to keep in Patriot-leaning Boston, owing to the "almost impossibility of replacing them at this Juncture." The British Navy sent marines to pursue the Provincials on foot on Noddle's Island and also sailed up a narrow tidal waterway called Chelsea Creek on the HMS Diana.

A series of land and sea skirmishes occurred involving hundreds of men over two days; both sides fired small cannons and muskets in close proximity in a lethal cat-and-mouse game. The Diana ran aground and the Provincials ransacked and burned it. Casualties on both sides were light but higher on the British side. In the end, the colonial forces denied the British forces the supplies of Noddle’s and Hog Islands. These colonial forces also laid waste to Noddle’s Island and neither side used it for the rest of the siege. British Vice Admiral Graves then ordered the royal marines to land on the island and engage the colonists. The two-day running battle on the islands, salt marshes, and mudflats of the harbor was the second major military engagement of the war. Several ships and barges were sent to provide support to the British, including the armed schooner HMS Diana. The Diana became stuck in the shallow waters of Chelsea Creek, and was subsequently abandoned by her crew. Colonists quickly stripped the ship of anything valuable before destroying it by setting it on fire. This skirmish was apparently the first use of field pieces by the Colonists in the American Revolution. They suffered no fatalities, with only a small number of wounded, and their morale was greatly boosted by the successful capture and destruction of Diana.