The 240th Anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill
June 14, 2015
June 17th marks the 240th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first battle of the American Revolution fought from a defensive position against the regular British Army. This battle, fought in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was one of the most important of the war, and one which had far reaching consequences even for a town as far away as Princeton, New Jersey.
PRELUDE
After the battles of Lexington and Concord, the New England militia swelled to about 15 thousand strong, and laid siege to the town of Boston which had three thousand British troops commanded by General Thomas Gage. Gage knew the rebels and understood that his small number of troops could not put down the rebellion. His rightly held belief that the rebels knew how to fight (Gage had participated with some of them in the Indian Wars) led to a stalemate.
William Prescott’s bravery in the Indian Wars had led to an offer of a commission in the King’s royal army, which he had declined. Further. Colonel John Stark of New Hampshire was also an experienced Indian fighter who had the unwavering loyalty of his men. Once captured by the Abenaki tribe while trapping, Stark was eventually adopted by that tribe in recognition of his bravery.
The New England militia, led by General Artemas Ward, was also reluctant to fight alone. They could not fight a war on behalf of all the colonies without help. The 2nd Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, only started in early June the process of coordinating the colonies’ military efforts and it wasn’t until June 15th that George Washington was appointed Commander in Chief of the “Continental Army”.
Gages’ superiors in London did not believe his assessment however, and, determined to break the stalemate, sent General s Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne to change to an aggressive posture and put down the rebellion once and for all.
FORTIFICATIONS
When on June 15th it became clear that the British were going to march out from Boston, and place the militia camps in jeopardy, the militia acted. A group under William Prescott marched into Charleston and occupied the heights at Bunker Hill, building a defensive works at a nearby Hill known as Breeds Hill. Breeds hill was a less defensible position, but closer to the British. The fortifications were built in the dark of night, and It is unknown whether they mistakenly occupied the wrong hill, or they decided to taunt the British into action by occupying the closer hill.
The British, seeing Breed’s Hill occupied, laid aside their original plans and attacked the next day on June 17, 1775.
Although the Breed’s Hill fortifications were weak (they were built in the dark of night), Prescott did two important things. First he sent some artillery to disrupt the British, along with Captain Thomas Knowlton’s Connecticut men to support them. Knowlton, another experienced commander of the Indian wars, seeing the weakness in the defensive line, ignored the artillery and immediately took his troops to the weakest part (on the left ) where he found a fence that farmers had used to keep their livestock from roaming. He spread his forces along this fence (now famously known as “the rail fence”) and fortified it further with stones and hay.
Prescott’s second action was to send back to Cambridge for reinforcements. These reinforcements were commanded by Col John Stark of New Hampshire, another experienced veteran. When Stark arrived in the afternoon he noticed another glaring weakness in the defenses, an open gap on the far left of the defensive line at the beach, where the British could walk through and attack the defense works from the left flank. Stark immediately plugged this gap by having his troops build a fence of nearby stones thus extending the Militia’s left flank all the way to the beach.
Now a strong defensive line was in place.
THE BATTLE – “DON’T FIRE UNTIL YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THEIR EYES”
It turned out that the left flank was exactly Howe’s main point of attack. It was a classic European maneuver to feint at the center and attack the flank. General Howe was counting on the rebels wasting their ammunition by firing too soon (as untrained troops usually did) and then running away at the sight of bayonets, gleaming in the sun, coming near.
But both Stark and Knowlton knew how to steady their men. Stark placed marking sticks on the beach at a distance of 50 yards (within the musket s range of accuracy). Then during the attack, they stood behind their men talking softly, urging them to hold fire until the last possible moment. Legend has it that during this wait, someone, perhaps Stark or Knowlton, uttered those famous words “don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes”.
Well the fire was resolute and accurate and the militia did not run away as expected. Instead, the British light infantry and grenadiers attacking the beach and the rail fence fell like autumn leaves. General Howe, leading the attack personally, appeared visibly disturbed by the carnage around him. With little choice but to regroup and attack again (to do less would have been too great a stain on Britain’s and Howe’s military honor), Howe marshaled his forces for a second assault. During this second assault the militia finally ran out of ammunition and retreated, taking most of their casualties during this retreat. [1]
AFTERMATH
Thus the British captured the hill although at an exorbitant cost in lives. Of the 2,300 or so British soldiers, more than 200 officers and men were killed and more than 800 were wounded, a casualty rate of over 40%. Of all the British officers killed in the entire war, almost 25% were killed here in Cambridge, at Bunker Hill.
The militia casualties were light in comparison: slightly more than 100 killed, and about 300 wounded. The majority of these casualties occurred during the retreat from the breastworks.
The results of the battle were horrifying to the British and it became known in Howe’s own words as a dear bought victory. Howe had later remarked “when I look to the consequences of it, in the loss of so many brave officers, I do it with horror. The success is too dearly bought”.
The following August in Brooklyn, after Howe had executed a brilliant flanking maneuver and had total victory in his grasp, he failed to capitalize on it and crush the Continental Army at Brooklyn Heights. Instead of rapidly proceeding against the remaining continental forces in their fortified positions, he turned cautious and decided to use slower, siege tactics, thus providing George Washington the opportunity to escape and continue the war.
Had Howe acted aggressively, the war might have ended then and there in Brooklyn. The history we know and which is so important to the founding of our nation might have been much different. There might have been no “10 crucial days” and no glorious victories in Trenton and Princeton. We will never know how much the horror of Bunker Hill weighed on Howe’s mind at that decisive moment in Brooklyn.
[1] For a thorough description of the battle: Paul Lockhart, The Whites of Their Eyes, Harper Collins, 2011, 268 - 304