Remembering the Battle of Bunker Hill, 250 Years Ago—1775
Remembering the Battle of Bunker Hill, 250 Years Ago—June 17, 1775
our hundred patriots dead,” announced John Adams, delegate from Massachusetts as he rose from his seat amidst the interminable rhetoric of the Second Continental Congress, reading aloud to his fellow delegates a devastating note he had just received from his wife. It bore news of the Battle of Bunker Hill. “Four hundred patriots dead! Not professional soldiers, ordinary citizens of Massachusetts who willingly gave their lives to defend what was rightfully theirs. Their liberty.”
A contemporary painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill by artist Winthrop Chandler (1747–1790)
So much had lead up to this. The unfolding story of our nation’s birth is well known to us all, how in previous years the levied taxations and the responding protests had bloomed into secret committees, written remonstrances and whispered talk of an irrevocable independence from the mother country. In March of 1775 the Virginian orator Patrick Henry had addressed the House of Burgesses with fire and brimstone calling for liberty or death. In April there had been shots fired between the British Regulars and colonial militia over the attempted seizure of powder and arms at Lexington and Concord. Boston had been put under martial law for its unrest, and kept from receiving provisions from its fellow colonies. In May of 1775 a Second Continental congress met in Philadelphia—an illegal assemblage itself with its delegates viewed by the Crown as unauthorized and treasonous.
The Battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775
Men of the Second Continental Congress voting to declare independence from Britain
By the time this Second Continental Congress met, the point of no return had been reached, although not all attending delegates were aware of this. Delegate Benjamin Franklin—who saw himself as the great intermediary between Britain and America due to his previous experience as such—had spent the previous year in London trying to make peace. In particular, he presented a petition to the Privy Council to have the unpopular Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts removed. Back then he still believed in a negotiated compromise, but he got no thanks for his pains as his petition coincided with the Boston Tea Party and the inflaming of English opinion toward the colonies. Franklin was accused, to his astonishment, of being ‘the leader of disaffection,’ and a rebel ‘possessed with the idea of a great American republic.’ Having his pleas thus repulsed, Franklin came home and joined this second Congress, noting that “the Unanimity is amazing.” But that was unanimity for resistance; only a minority yet thought in terms of outright independence.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
‘The Boston Tea Party’, December 16, 1773
On the far extreme of moderation at the Congress was John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and his proposed direct appeal to King George. He begged his fellows to give Britain yet another “last chance” and drafted what became known as the Olive Branch Petition. Even former fellow moderates thought this measure pointless. John Adams—with characteristic bitterness born of watching first-hand the rapacious treatment of his colony—dismissed it as a groveling attempt to put off the inevitable contest, espousing instead that “powder and artillery are the most efficacious, sure and infallible conciliatory measures we can adopt.” Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington met together often to create various committees tasked with providing the infrastructure for an independent government, so as not to be caught completely unprepared by the time their fellow delegates might agree to a permanent break with Great Britain. Franklin himself saw to the printing of currency, the manufacturing of gunpowder, and the designing of an independent postal system. He even drew up Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. By early June, George Washington had offered to raise a thousand men in his home colony of Virginia, arm and supply them at his own expense, and march them to the relief of Massachusetts. A Continental Army was subsequently established by Congress, with Washington appointed its commander—to the dire alarm of those still clinging to any hope of success from the Olive Branch Petition.
George Washington (1732-1799)
The signature page of the Olive Branch Petition—the signatures of John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson and others are prominent
No matter how much pacifying speechmaking was employed in distant Philadelphia, the situation in New England only grew more perilous with each passing day. Since April, when the open hostilities had begun at Lexington and Concord, bands of colonial militiamen whose numbers were quickly growing began to resemble an army—an American one. Over 15,000 strong and the first of its kind, they had surrounded General Thomas Gage and his garrison of British regulars in Boston, effectively placing the main portion of the town under siege, and taking up various topographically favored positions around the harbor. Two of these spots were nearby Breed’s Hill and Bunker’s Hill, situated on the Charlestown Peninsula, a section of what is now greater Boston. Coinciding with Congress’ diplomatic strivings in the stuffy Pennsylvania State Hall, this American army and its rag-tag soldiers set themselves to hold the line against the army of occupation. Under their watch no further incursions would be made into the interior to seize arms or impose the housing of soldiers on the citizenry. Called hastily from their farms and vocations, lacking organization and military advantages, these were intelligent and independent-minded men nonetheless, capable of turning their mind to anything. They were experts at guns and shovels, if not tactics.
Thomas Gage (1718-1787)
The lay of the land and troop movements in Boston during the Battle of Bunker Hill, as engraved by Jeffrys & Faden, London, August 1, 1775
On the evening of June 16, 1775 about 800 Massachusetts and 200 Connecticut troops, under the command of Col. William Prescott of Massachusetts, were detached to carry out the project of fortifying these hills on the Charleston Peninsula. By some error never explained, Prescott fortified Breed’s Hill, which, though nearer Boston than Bunker’s, was not only lower, but could more easily be surrounded by the British. Prescott and his men had completed digging one redoubt by the time they were discovered by the British at daybreak on the 17th. “We worked there undiscovered till about five in the morning,” wrote 22-year-old Peter Brown, “then we saw our danger, being against ships of the line, and all Boston fortified against us.” Despite a hellish cannonade from British men-of-war in the harbor and from a battery on Copp’s Hill in north Boston, the colonists were able to further strengthen their position during the morning by building a breastwork about 100 yards long, running northward down the slope of the hill toward the Mystic River.
Townspeople watching the Battle of Bunker Hill from rooftops on Copp’s Hill
On learning that the New Englanders had entrenched themselves on the Charleston Peninsula with intent to drive him out of Boston, General Gage sent over a detachment of some 2,300 troops under Maj. Gen. William Howe to dislodge or capture the colonists. The British landed on the peninsula without opposition, under protection of British artillery fire, their threat divided into two wings in an attempt to make a flanking maneuver. Howe’s advance, which he led in person, made it up to the base of Breed’s Hill before the previous unbroken stillness was shattered by a deadly volley from a body of Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts troops who had posted themselves behind a rail fence hastily stuffed with grass, hay, and brush. There they had pluckily held their fire until the British were very near, so as not to waste a shot. There the patriots repulsed the advance of the British regulars and sent them reeling into confusion, picking off their officers with savage aim and shattering their discipline. Howe gathered his men and led them on a second and third advance, his flanking movement managing to overwhelm the main redoubt and force the rebel defenders to begin a retreat. “We did as before—reserved our fire until they came within about six or seven rods, then we showed them yankee play and drove them back again. But soon they renewed the attack and came again. But we, being destitute of ammunition, made use of ammunition called cobble stones”, recounted thirteen-year-old Isaac Glynney.
William Howe (1729-1814) in full dress uniform
“The Battle of Bunker Hill” by renowned American artist, Howard Pyle
The militia’s retreat was covered by New England reinforcements, spurred to the front by Gen. Israel Putnam of Connecticut. The resultant casualties, particularly for the British, were extremely heavy in proportion to the number of troops engaged. About 450 Americans were killed, wounded, or captured. The number of British killed or wounded totaled a shocking 1,054, including 89 officers.
A stone marker which reads: ‘In memory of New Hampshire soldiers who fell at Bunker Hill buried in this town and interred in this spot 1849’
Among the Americans who were killed was Gen. Joseph Warren of Massachusetts, a physician and delegate to the First Congress who had entered the redoubt as a volunteer. His death was gravely lamented in Congress by John Adams, who read to his fellow delegates the details of this sacrifice that his wife Abigail had put down thus:
“The Day; perhaps the decisive Day is come on which the fate of America depends. My bursting Heart must find vent at my pen. I have just heard that our dear Friend Dr. Warren is no more but fell gloriously fighting for his Country—saying better to die honourably in the field than ignominiously hang upon the Gallows. Great is our Loss. He has distinguished himself in every engagement, by his courage and fortitude, by animating the Soldiers and leading them on by his own example. . . . Charlstown is laid in ashes. The Battle began upon our [e]ntrenchments upon Bunkers Hill, a Saturday morning about 3 o clock and has not ceased yet and tis now 3 o’clock Sabbeth afternoon. Tis expected they will come out over the Neck tonight, and a dreadful Battle must ensue. Almighty God cover the heads of our Country men, and be a shield to our Dear Friends. How [many ha]ve fallen we know not—the constant roar of the cannon is so [distre]ssing that we can not Eat, Drink or Sleep. May we be supported and sustaind in the dreadful conflict.”
Joseph Warren (1741-1775)
‘The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775’, by exceptional American painter of the day, John Trumbull
The agitation of such horrific events unfolding did not deter Abigail Adams from taking her eldest son, our future sixth president John Quincy, up to the high ground of the family farm to watch the awful display of British warships turning into a raging inferno the Americans’ resolute defense. There she told him he was witnessing history. John Quincy Adams later wrote his recollections down in 1846:
“The year 1775 was the eighth year of my age. Among the first fruits of the War, was the expulsion of my father’s family from their peaceful abode in Boston, to take refuge in his native town of Braintree. . . . I saw with my own eyes the fires of Charlestown, and heard Britannia’s thunders in the Battle of Bunker’s hill and witnessed the tears of my mother and mingled with them my own, at the fall of Warren a dear friend of my father, and a beloved Physician to me. He had been our family physician and surgeon, and had saved my fore finger from amputation under a very bad fracture. . .”
Grave of Dr. Joseph Warren and various members of his family
Warren offering to serve General Israel Putnam as a private before the Battle of Bunker Hill
If the British had followed the taking of the Charlestown Peninsula by seizing nearby Dorchester Heights, as Abigail Adams had feared, their victory at Bunker Hill might have been worth the heavy cost exacted of them. Yet they did not, presumably because of their heavy losses and the fighting spirit displayed by the militiamen. Citing the original pyrrhic victory of Epirus against the Romans, General Howe declared that with one more such victory, they would lose the war. The British commanders abandoned or indefinitely postponed their plan to drive the rebels out. Consequently, when Gen. George Washington (who took command of the Colonial Army two weeks later) had collected enough heavy guns and ammunition to threaten Boston, he was able, in March 1776, to seize and fortify Dorchester Heights without opposition and to compel the British to evacuate the town and harbor.
The view of Boston from Dorchester Heights
One month after witnessing the Battle of Lexington, a certain Rev. Samuel Langdon, then President of Harvard, had preached to the leading citizenry of Massachusetts an Election Sermon entitled ‘Government Corrupted By Vice and Recovered by Righteousness’. He said that:
“Vice will increase with the riches and glory of an empire; and this generally tends to corrupt the Constitution and in time bring on its dissolution. This may be considered not only as the natural effect of vice, but a religious judgement from Heaven, especially upon a nation which has been favored with the blessings of religion and liberty and is guilty of undervaluing them. . .”
Drum used by John Robbins at the Battle of Bunker Hill, c. 1770
Langdon had gone on to call for repentance, as well as action in faith that God had heard them, and urged them to set up new leaders in the name of the sovereign Lord. Langdon had then personally led the men of his congregation to the heights of Bunker Hill to begin their entrenchments and resist the attack of their mighty foe.
Rev. Langdon recorded in his journal the following:
“June 20, 1775—This has been one of the most important and trying days of my life. . . . Ever since the battle of Bunker Hill my mind has been turned to this subject. God’s servants are needed in the army to pray with it and for it.
This is God’s work; and his ministers should set an example that will convince the people that they believe it to be such. But the scene in the house of God today has tried me sorely. How silent, how solemn, was the congregation and when they sang the sixty-first Psalm, commencing ‘When overwhelm’d with grief, My heart within me dies. . .’ Sobs were heard in every part of the building. At the close, I was astonished to see Deacon S., now nearly sixty years of age, arise and address the congregation. ‘Brethren,’ said he, ‘our minister has acted right. This is God’s cause; and as in days of old the priests bore the ark into the midst of the battle, so must they do it now. We should be unworthy of the fathers and mothers who landed on Plymouth Rock, if we do not cheerfully bear what Providence shall put upon us in the great conflict now before us. I had two sons at Bunker Hill, and one of them, you know, was slain. The other did his duty, and for the future God must do with him what seemeth Him best. I offer my son to liberty. I had thought that I would stay here with the church. But my minister is going, and I will shoulder my musket and go, too.’ In this strain he continued for some time, till the whole congregation was bathed in tears. Oh God must be with this people in the unequal struggle, or else how could they enter upon it with such solemnity and prayer, with such strong reliance on his assistance, and such a profound sense of their need of it? Just before separating, the whole congregation joined in singing ‘O God our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come’.”
Similar to the tale of Rev. Langdon, Rev. Peter Muhlenberg famously preached a sermon stirring his congregation up for the fight, then removed his clerical robes with a flourish to reveal his uniform beneath—the Black Robe Regiment was born
Such was the cost of Bunker Hill, such its legacy far beyond strategy or statistics. It was fought by farmers and preachers, men with families to defend, and included the first instance of freed black militiamen fighting in the national struggle. It was indeed an American struggle, one never to be forgot.
The Bunker Hill Monument, a 221-foot granite obelisk, marks the site on Breed’s Hill where most of the fighting took place
Image Credits: 1 Battle of Bunker Hill (wikipedia.org) 2 Battles of Lexington and Concord (wikipedia.org) 3 Second Continental Congress (wikipedia.org) 4 Benjamin Franklin (wikipedia.org) 5 Boston Tea Party (wikipedia.org) 6 George Washington (wikipedia.org) 7 Olive Branch Petition (wikipedia.org) 8 Thomas Gage (wikipedia.org) 9 Battle Map (wikipedia.org) 10 View from Copp’s Hill (wikipedia.org) 11 William Howe (wikipedia.org) 12 Bunker Hill by Pyle (wikipedia.org) 13 Stone Marker (wikipedia.org) 14 Joseph Warren (wikipedia.org) 15 The Death of General Warren (wikipedia.org) 16 Grave of Warren (wikipedia.org) 17 Warren and Putnam (wikipedia.org) 18 Dorchester Heights (wikipedia.org) 19 Drum (wikipedia.org) 20 Rev. Muhlenberg (explorepahistory.com) 21 Bunker Hill Monument (wikipedia.org)