The Battle of Bunker Hill

British Frontal Attack Up Breed's Hill

A misnamed engagement of the American Revolution, the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought between British regulars under Gen. William Howe and New England militiamen under Col. William Prescott and Gen. Israel Putnam on June 17, 1775.

The second battle of the war, the British lost 1,150 men, out of 2,500 engaged, and 92 officers -- one in four of the British officers killed in the whole war.

General Gage had decided to seize and fortify Dorchester Heights and Charlestown which, if taken by the Americans, would make Boston quite untenable. When the Americans learned that the British in Boston intended to secure certain heights outside the city, Gen. Artemas Ward, hearing rumors of this, ordered the fortification of Bunker Hill on the Charlestown peninsula. He then decided on 15 June to occupy Bunker Hill, 110 feet high, and, - just behind it - Breed's Hill, 75 feet high, inside Charlestown Neck. From Breed's Hill, small cannon could threaten Boston and its shipping.

Building the Earthwork Fort on Breed's Hill

In four hours of furious digging (above), the Americans built a formidable earthwork fort (redoubt) on Breed's Hill. The fort put Boston and ships in the harbor within range of American artillery, so the British were forced to attack it. The Americans had been ordered to fortify nearby Bunker Hill, and that name became attached to the battle.

Howe was ordered by Gage to dislodge them. He succeeded, but only after three frontal attacks up a slope held by accurate sharp-shooters.

It was a cloudless June afternoon. Howe's 20 companies of light infantry and grenadiers, supported by the 43rd and 52nd Foot under Brigadier Robert Pigot, toiled over uneven ground, some of it knee deep in grass. Each man was loaded with full kit of knapsack, blanket and ammunition: a deadweight of 125 pounds. General Howe marched at their head. The British soon launched an attack up the slope. In several hours of bloody fighting the Americans were dislodged, but only after the British lost 228 dead and 826 wounded -- 42 percent of the 2,500 regulars engaged.

THE BATTLE AS SEEN FROM BOSTON

"And now ensued one of the greatest scenes of war that can be conceived. If we look to the heights, Howe's corps ascending the hill in the face of entrenchments and in a very disadvantageous ground was much engaged. To the left the enemy pouring in fresh troops by the thousands over land, and in the arm of the sea our ships and floating batteries cannonading them. Straight before us a large and noble town in one great blaze. The church steeples being of timber were great pyramids of fire above the rest. Behind us the church steeples and heights of our own camp, covered with spectators. The hills around the country covered with spectators. The enemy all in anxious suspense. The roar of cannon, mortars and musketry, the crash of churches, ships upon the stocks and whole streets falling together in ruins to fill the air; the storm of the redoubt . . . filled the eye and the reflection that perhaps defeat was a final loss to the British Empire [of] America to fill the mind, made the whole a picture and a complication of horror and importance beyond anything that ever came to my lot to witness to." General John Burgoyne

Bunker Hill was a British victory. But even a few like them would still leave America victorious, as the British commanders knew. As General Clinton admitted, "It was a dear bought victory, another such would have ruined us." It was a battle that should never have been fought on a hill that should never have been defended.

All of Howe's staff officers were killed or wounded on Bunker Hill.

Only gradually did Americans begin to see Bunker Hill as a kind of victory. One of the first to reach this conclusion was a young Rhode Island general, Nathanael Greene. "I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price," he said. Today we know that the battle crippled the British army in America and threw it on the defensive for more than a year.

Go to MAP of the Battle (610K)

A battle that should never have been fought --
on a hill that should never have been defended.

redoubt --- 1. A small, often temporary defensive fortification. 2. A reinforcing earthwork or
breastwork within a permanent rampart.

(See Bibliography Below)

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Authors: Don Higginbotham - Permission given by the author; Esmond Wright (contributing).
Picture Credit: Bunker Hill by Howard Pyle. Delaware Art Museum (top); New York Public Library, Emmet Collection (middle); Yale University Art Gallery (bottom).
Bibliography: Ketchum, Richard M., Battle for Bunker Hill (1962); Wright, Esmond, The Fire of Liberty (1983).