Today is Bunker Hill Day. I know, I can’t believe there is such a thing either, but there is (at least that’s what my desk calendar says). Bunker Hill is where one of the early battles took place in the American Revolutionary War. It followed the fights at Lexington and Concord by two months on June 17, 1775. This was a battle the American colonialists lost, so why is it on my calendar?On June 13, four days before Bunker Hill, the leaders of the besieging colonial forces learned that the British generals in Boston were planning to occupy the hills around Boston. In response to this intelligence, 1,200 colonial troops under the command of William ("Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes.") Prescott stealthily occupied Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill, constructed an earthen redoubt on Breed's Hill, and built lightly fortified lines across most of the Charlestown Peninsula.
When the British were alerted to the presence of the colonialists the next day, they mounted an attack against them. After two assaults on the colonial lines were repulsed with significant British casualties, the British finally captured the positions on the third assault after the defenders in the redoubt ran out of ammunition. The colonial forces retreated to Cambridge over the hill, suffering their most significant losses on Bunker Hill itself.
While the British were victorious, they also suffered their greatest casualties of the entire war: over 800 wounded and 226 killed, including a notably large number of officers. Their immediate objective (the capture of Bunker Hill) was achieved, but that did not significantly alter the state of the siege. It did, however, demonstrate that relatively inexperienced colonial forces were willing and able to stand up to well-trained troops in a pitched battle.
In Boston, Massachusetts, where Bunker Hill Day is a legal holiday (no school!), a 221-foot monument stands in commemoration of this battle.
1 comments:
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