Bunker Hill`s Battle
The sounds of muskets being fired, its
ammunition ricocheting off rocks
and splintering trees are heard all around.
The pungent smell of gun powder
stings the nose, and its taste makes the
mouth dry and sticky. The battle is
still young, but blood soaked uniforms
and dead or dying men can already be
seen, causing the fear of death to enter
many of the soldiers' minds. It is
remembered that freedom is what the fight
is for, so we must continue to gain
independence. The battle has been going
on for a short time now, although vision
is already obscured from all the
smoke and dust in the air. It is becoming
increasingly difficult to breathe,
with all of these air borne substances
entering my lungs. People are still
being struck by musket balls for the cries
of agony rise above the many guns'
explosions. This is how the battle to be
known as Bunker Hill began. On June
17, 1775 the Battle of Bunker Hill took
place. It is one of the most
important colonial victories in the U.S. War for
Independence. Fought
during the Siege of Boston, it lent considerable
encouragement to the
revolutionary cause. This battle made both sides realize
that this was not
going to be a matter decided on by one quick and decisive
battle. The battle
of Bunker Hill was not just an event that happened overnight.
The battle
was the result of struggle and hostility between Great Britain and
the
colonies for many years. Many of the oppressive feelings came as a result
of
British laws and restrictions placed on them. It would not be true to
say that
the battle was the beginning of the fight for independence. It is
necessary to
see that this was not a rash decision that occurred because of
one dispute, but
rather that the feelings for the British had been getting
worse for a long time
and were finally released. Perhaps two of the most
notable injustices, as
perceived by the colonists, were the Stamp Act and the
Intolerable Acts. The
Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament to
raise money for repaying its
war debt from the French and Indian War. The Act
levied a tax on printed matter
of all kinds including newspapers,
advertisements, playing cards, and legal
documents. The British government
was expecting protest as result of the tax but
the level of outcry they
received. The colonists were so angry because they had
no voice in Parliament
which passed the law, thus came the famous cry, "No
taxation without
representation!" The colonists would protest these laws
with the Boston Tea
Party. The British responded to this open act of rebellion
by imposing the
Intolerable Acts, four laws designed to punish Boston and the
rest of
Massachusetts while strengthening British control over all the
colonies.
These were not the only incidents that caused unrest to exist
between the two
countries. There had been friction between British soldiers
and colonists for
some time because of the Quartering Act, a law which
required townspeople to
house soldiers. This unrest and tension resulted in
the Boston Massacre, an
event that resulted in colonists death and both sides
being more untrusting of
each other. These feelings of discontent and the
growing fear of an uprising
would lead the British to proceed to Lexington
and Concord and destroy colonial
military supplies. This left the colonists
with the feeling of hatred and total
malice towards the British. Because of
these incidents neither side trusted the
other, and had concerns that the
opposition would launch an attack upon them.
When the British planned to
occupy Dorchester Heights on the Boston Peninsula,
the colonists became
alarmed at the build up of British troops off of the coast.
The colonists
decided that action had to be taken so as to stop the threatening
British
movement in this territory to protect themselves from an attack. It
was
because of this last situation as well as the bad blood that had
accumulated
over the years, which would lead the colonies into a
confrontation with the
British. The Battle of Bunker Hill started when
the colonists learned about the
British plan to occupy Dorchester
Heights. The colonists were understandably
shaken by this news. They thought
of this as the last straw, and they had to
protect their land and freedom. A
crude "army" was made to defend the
hill. The army was not a national one,
for no nation existed. Instead, the army
was made up of men from Cambridge,
New England, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New
Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
Also, this hastily combined force of men had no
assigned commander in chief,
but did what their revered Generals instructed them
to carry out. On June 15,
1775 the American colonists heard news that the
British planned to
control the Charleston peninsula between the Charles and
Mystic Rivers.
Bunker's and Breed's Hill on this peninsula overlooked both
Boston and
its harbor, thus making the hills critical vantage points. In order
to beat
the British to the high ground, General Prescott took 1,200 of his
often
times undisciplined, disobedient, and sometimes intoxicated soldiers to
dig into
and fortify Bunker Hill with the cover of night on June 16. When
dawn broke, the
British were stunned to see Breed's Hill fortified
overnight with a
160-by-30-foot earthen structure. The British General,
Gage, dispatched 2,300
troops under the command of Major General Howe to take
control of the hill. So
it came to be that General Prescott did not actually
fortify Bunker's Hill, but
Breed's Hill instead. How did this happen? One
proposed idea is that Colonel
William Prescott, since fortifying the hill
in the middle of the night, chose
the wrong hill. Another theory is that the
map the Colonel used was incorrect,
since many maps during this period had
commonly misidentified the hills. Another
suggestion, and probably the most
practical, is that Breed's Hill is closer to
where the British ships were
positioned allowing the colonists a better
attacking position than at Bunker
Hill. Regardless of the reason, the Battle of
Bunker Hill actually took
place on Breed's Hill. The fighting began as soon as
the day did. As soon as
the men on British frigate awoke they opened fire on the
colonial
fortifications. Carol McCabe states that one soldier wrote there would
be
firing for about twenty minutes, then a lull, then the ships would
start
firing again. At about 3:00 PM Thomas Gage, the British commander,
ordered men
to try and take control of the hill. It took Gage this long to
issue a command
due to a shortage of boats and an unfavorable tide. Peter
Brown, an American
soldier, would later write about this, "There was a matter
of 40 barges full
of Regulars coming over to us; it is supposed there were
about 3,000 of them and
about 700 of us left not deserted, besides 500
reinforcements. . . the enemy
landed and fronted before us and formed
themselves in an oblong square. . . and
after they were well formed they
advanced towards us, but they found a choakly
[sic] mouthful of us." When the
British forces were firmly established on the
ground at the base of the hill
they proceeded to charge. The British just
expected to march up the hill and
just scare the colonists away. The British
Regulars advanced with
bayonets fixed; many of their muskets were not even
loaded. The British
troops, wearing their bright red wool jackets and weighed
down by heavy
equipment, marched up hill over farm fields and low stone walls
hidden in the
tall grass. As the colonists saw this massive red line approach
slowly and
steadily, they remained calm and did not open fire. The fact they
waited so
long to commence an attack was that General Prescott has been assumed
to have
given the famous order, "Don't shoot until you see the whites of
their eyes."
If this command was given it would have been to either help
preserve their
already low ammunition supplies, and to help keep the men from
shooting out
of their capable ranges. Once the British came within range, the
colonists
began firing, and the British soldiers stated to fall rapidly.
The
British forces were driven back twice, but on their third and final
thrust
forward the British were able to break through the colonists' line,
overrunning
the tentative American fortifications, thus taking the hill. The
colonists had
run out of ammunition and supplies. The colonists fled back up
the peninsula
since it was there only escape route. This battle, which lasted
for
approximately three hours, was one of the deadliest of the Revolutionary
War.
Although the British technically won the battle because they took
control of the
hill, they suffered too many losses to fully benefit from it.
The British had
suffered more than one thousand casualties out of the 2,300
or so who fought.
While the colonists only suffered 400 to 600 casualties
from an estimated 2,500
to 4,000 men. Besides having fewer deaths than the
British, the colonists
believe they had won in other ways as well. The
Americans had proved to
themselves, and the rest of the world that they could
stand up to the British
army in traditional warfare. And only a few days
later, George Washington would
lead a group of men up to Dorchester Heights,
aiming their cannons at the
British, and then watched the Red Coats
retreat from the hill. So even though
the British had won the battle, it was
a short lived victory since the colonists
took control of the hill again, but
this time with more soldiers to defend it.
The Battle of Bunker Hill was
important for a variety of reasons. The first one
being that it was the first
battle of the Revolutionary War, and because of the
fierce fighting that
defined the battle it foreshadowed that it was going to be
a long, close war.
Another important event that came from the battle was that it
allowed the
American troops to know that the British army was not invincible,
and that
they could defeat the British in traditional warfare. The losses
experienced
on the British side also helped to bolster the colonists confidence.
So
it came to be that the Battle of Bunker Hill would be the foundation that
the
colonists would look back to for the many battles that occurred during
the
American Revolution. The first being that the British suffered heavy
losses and
would no longer convinced of a victory when they went to battle
the colonists.
Fifty years after the battle a movement began to rise in
the young United States
to create a memorial to the battle atop Breed's Hill.
So, the Bunker Hill
Memorial Association was formed and they bought
fifteen acres of land atop of
Breed's Hill. Then in 1825 the cornerstone
to the monument was laid. Chronology
of the battle Time AMERICANS BRITISH
midnight Colonists begin construction of
fortifications on Breeds Hill 4am
British warships fire on the newly discovered
fortification 2pm American
reinforcements arrive; rail fence construction
Begins. British soldiers
land on Moulton's point 3:30pm First battle is repulsed
at the rail fence 4pm
Second assault is repulsed at flashes and at redoubt
4:30pm Colonists
withdraw. Final assault succeeds at redoubt 5:30pm End
of
battle.
Bibliography
1.
http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/MilSci/BTSI/hill/hill.html
2.
http://www.greeceny.com/arm/welch/bunker.htm
3.
http://www.bit-net.com/~ddillaby/bunker_hill.html
4.
http://www.nps.gov/bost/bunkhill.htm
5. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia
1996