The sounds of muskets being fired, its ammunition ricocheting off rocksand splintering trees are heard all around. The pungent smell of gun powderstings the nose, and its taste makes the mouth dry and sticky. The battle isstill young, but blood soaked uniforms and dead or dying men can already beseen, causing the fear of death to enter many of the soldiers’ minds.
It isremembered that freedom is what the fight is for, so we must continue to gainindependence. The battle has been going on for a short time now, although visionis already obscured from all the smoke and dust in the air. It is becomingincreasingly difficult to breathe, with all of these air borne substancesentering my lungs. People are still being struck by musket balls for the criesof agony rise above the many guns’ explosions. This is how the battle to beknown as Bunker Hill began. On June 17, 1775 the Battle of Bunker Hill tookplace.
It is one of the most important colonial victories in the U. S. War forIndependence. Fought during the Siege of Boston, it lent considerableencouragement to the revolutionary cause. This battle made both sides realizethat this was not going to be a matter decided on by one quick and decisivebattle.
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 andthe colonies for many years. Many of the oppressive feelings came as a result ofBritish laws and restrictions placed on them. It would not be true to say thatthe battle was the beginning of the fight for independence. It is necessary tosee that this was not a rash decision that occurred because of one dispute, butrather that the feelings for the British had been getting worse for a long timeand were finally released. Perhaps two of the most notable injustices, asperceived by the colonists, were the Stamp Act and the Intolerable Acts.
TheStamp Act was passed by the British Parliament to raise money for repaying itswar debt from the French and Indian War. The Act levied a tax on printed matterof all kinds including newspapers, advertisements, playing cards, and legaldocuments. The British government was expecting protest as result of the tax butthe level of outcry they received. The colonists were so angry because they hadno voice in Parliament which passed the law, thus came the famous cry, “Notaxation without representation!” The colonists would protest these lawswith the Boston Tea Party. The British responded to this open act of rebellionby imposing the Intolerable Acts, four laws designed to punish Boston and therest of Massachusetts while strengthening British control over all the colonies. These were not the only incidents that caused unrest to exist between the twocountries.
There had been friction between British soldiers and colonists forsome time because of the Quartering Act, a law which required townspeople tohouse soldiers. This unrest and tension resulted in the Boston Massacre, anevent that resulted in colonists death and both sides being more untrusting ofeach other. These feelings of discontent and the growing fear of an uprisingwould lead the British to proceed to Lexington and Concord and destroy colonialmilitary supplies. This left the colonists with the feeling of hatred and totalmalice towards the British. Because of these incidents neither side trusted theother, 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 threateningBritish movement in this territory to protect themselves from an attack. It wasbecause of this last situation as well as the bad blood that had accumulatedover the years, which would lead the colonies into a confrontation with theBritish. The Battle of Bunker Hill started when the colonists learned about theBritish plan to occupy Dorchester Heights. The colonists were understandablyshaken by this news. They thought of this as the last straw, and they had toprotect their land and freedom. A crude “army” was made to defend thehill.
The army was not a national one, for no nation existed. Instead, the armywas made up of men from Cambridge, New England, Massachusetts, Connecticut, NewHampshire, and Rhode Island. Also, this hastily combined force of men had noassigned commander in chief, but did what their revered Generals instructed themto carry out. On June 15, 1775 the American colonists heard news that theBritish planned to control the Charleston peninsula between the Charles andMystic Rivers. Bunker’s and Breed’s Hill on this peninsula overlooked bothBoston and its harbor, thus making the hills critical vantage points.
In orderto beat the British to the high ground, General Prescott took 1,200 of his oftentimes undisciplined, disobedient, and sometimes intoxicated soldiers to dig intoand fortify Bunker Hill with the cover of night on June 16. When dawn broke, theBritish were stunned to see Breed’s Hill fortified overnight with a160-by-30-foot earthen structure. The British General, Gage, dispatched 2,300troops under the command of Major General Howe to take control of the hill. Soit came to be that General Prescott did not actually fortify Bunker’s Hill, butBreed’s Hill instead. How did this happen? One proposed idea is that ColonelWilliam Prescott, since fortifying the hill in the middle of the night, chosethe wrong hill.
Another theory is that the map the Colonel used was incorrect,since many maps during this period had commonly misidentified the hills. Anothersuggestion, and probably the most practical, is that Breed’s Hill is closer towhere the British ships were positioned allowing the colonists a betterattacking position than at Bunker Hill. Regardless of the reason, the Battle ofBunker Hill actually took place on Breed’s Hill. The fighting began as soon asthe day did. As soon as the men on British frigate awoke they opened fire on thecolonial fortifications.
Carol McCabe states that one soldier wrote there wouldbe firing for about twenty minutes, then a lull, then the ships would startfiring again. At about 3:00 PM Thomas Gage, the British commander, ordered mento try and take control of the hill. It took Gage this long to issue a commanddue to a shortage of boats and an unfavorable tide. Peter Brown, an Americansoldier, would later write about this, “There was a matter of 40 barges fullof Regulars coming over to us; it is supposed there were about 3,000 of them andabout 700 of us left not deserted, besides 500 reinforcements. .
. the enemylanded and fronted before us and formed themselves in an oblong square. . . andafter 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 theground at the base of the hill they proceeded to charge. The British justexpected to march up the hill and just scare the colonists away. The BritishRegulars advanced with bayonets fixed; many of their muskets were not evenloaded. The British troops, wearing their bright red wool jackets and weigheddown by heavy equipment, marched up hill over farm fields and low stone wallshidden in the tall grass. As the colonists saw this massive red line approachslowly and steadily, they remained calm and did not open fire. The fact theywaited so long to commence an attack was that General Prescott has been assumedto have given the famous order, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites oftheir eyes.
” If this command was given it would have been to either helppreserve their already low ammunition supplies, and to help keep the men fromshooting out of their capable ranges. Once the British came within range, thecolonists began firing, and the British soldiers stated to fall rapidly. TheBritish forces were driven back twice, but on their third and final thrustforward the British were able to break through the colonists’ line, overrunningthe tentative American fortifications, thus taking the hill. The colonists hadrun out of ammunition and supplies.
The colonists fled back up the peninsulasince it was there only escape route. This battle, which lasted forapproximately three hours, was one of the deadliest of the Revolutionary War. Although the British technically won the battle because they took control of thehill, they suffered too many losses to fully benefit from it. The British hadsuffered 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 2,500to 4,000 men. Besides having fewer deaths than the British, the colonistsbelieve they had won in other ways as well.
The Americans had proved tothemselves, and the rest of the world that they could stand up to the Britisharmy in traditional warfare. And only a few days later, George Washington wouldlead a group of men up to Dorchester Heights, aiming their cannons at theBritish, and then watched the Red Coats retreat from the hill. So even thoughthe British had won the battle, it was a short lived victory since the coloniststook 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 onebeing that it was the first battle of the Revolutionary War, and because of thefierce fighting that defined the battle it foreshadowed that it was going to bea long, close war. Another important event that came from the battle was that itallowed the American troops to know that the British army was not invincible,and that they could defeat the British in traditional warfare. The lossesexperienced 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 thecolonists would look back to for the many battles that occurred during theAmerican Revolution. The first being that the British suffered heavy losses andwould 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 Statesto create a memorial to the battle atop Breed’s Hill. So, the Bunker HillMemorial Association was formed and they bought fifteen acres of land atop ofBreed’s Hill. Then in 1825 the cornerstone to the monument was laid. Chronologyof the battle Time AMERICANS BRITISH midnight Colonists begin construction offortifications on Breeds Hill 4am British warships fire on the newly discoveredfortification 2pm American reinforcements arrive; rail fence constructionBegins. British soldiers land on Moulton’s point 3:30pm First battle is repulsedat the rail fence 4pm Second assault is repulsed at flashes and at redoubt4:30pm Colonists withdraw.
Final assault succeeds at redoubt 5:30pm End ofbattle. Bibliography1. http://www. wpi.
edu/Academics/Depts/MilSci/BTSI/hill/hill. html2. http://www. greeceny. com/arm/welch/bunker.
htm3. http://www. bit-net. com/~ddillaby/bunker_hill. html 4. http://www.
nps. gov/bost/bunkhill. htm 5. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 1996
