Rather than preventing a potential attack, Prescott had provoked what would prove to be the bloodiest engagement of the Revolution.Ĭopyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. The fierce fight confirmed that any reconciliation between England and her American colonies was no longer possible. When the sun rose on the morning of June 17, 1775, British commander-in-chief Thomas Gage determined that given the proximity of the patriot stronghold he had no choice but to order an assault. Massachusetts The American patriots were defeated at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but they proved they could hold their own against the superior British Army. Instead of going with Bunker Hill on the northern portion of the Charlestown peninsula, Prescott’s men built their fort almost a half-mile to the south on Breed’s Hill-right in the figurative face of the British army, just a half mile across the harbor in Boston. His Sketch of Bunker Hill Battle, published in 1818, was presented as an appendix to Colonel David Humphreys' book, Israel Putnam which was addressed to the State Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut. But for reasons that are still unclear today, the New Englanders commanded by Colonel William Prescott built their earthen stronghold on the wrong hill. Swett Colonel Samuel Swett published an account about the Battle of Bunker Hill which covered many of the activities of Putnam. In order to prevent the British from attacking American forces stationed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, about 1,200 soldiers would, under the cover of darkness, build a fortification on a rise of land known as Bunker Hill. The original plan had seemed simple enough.
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