FREE ESSAY ON BUNKER HILL

BUNKER HILL

Boom, Bang, Crack! The sounds of muskets being fired, its ammunition ricocheting off rocks
and splintering trees are heard all around. The pungent smell of gun powder stings the
nose, and its taste makes the mouth dry and sticky. The battle is still young, but blood
soaked uniforms and dead or dying men can already be seen, causing the fear of death to
enter many of the soldiers' minds. It is remembered that freedom is what the fight is
for, so we must continue to gain independence. The battle has been going on for a short
time now, although vision is already obscured from all the smoke and dust in the air. It
is becoming increasingly difficult to breathe, with all of these air borne substances
entering my lungs. People are still being struck by musket balls for the cries of agony
rise above the many guns' explosions. This is how the battle to be known as Bunker Hill
began. On June 17, 1775 the Battle of Bunker Hill took place. It is one of the most
important colonial victories in the U.S. War for Independence. Fought during the Siege of
Boston, it lent considerable encouragement to the revolutionary cause. This battle made
both sides realize that this was not going to be a matter decided on by one quick and
decisive battle. The battle of Bunker Hill was not just an event that happened overnight.
The battle was the result of struggle and hostility between Great Britain and the
colonies for many years. Many of the oppressive feelings came as a result of British laws
and restrictions placed on them. It would not be true to say that the battle was the
beginning of the fight for independence. It is necessary to see that this was not a rash
decision that occurred because of one dispute, but rather the seeds sown to precipitate
this battle were planted a long time ago and had just burst forth. Perhaps two of the
most notable injustices, as perceived by the colonists, were the Stamp Act and the
Intolerable Acts. The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament to raise money for
repaying its war debt from the French and Indian War. The Act levied a tax on printed
matter of all kinds including newspapers, advertisements, playing cards, and legal
documents. The British government was expecting protest as result of the tax but the
level of outcry they received. The colonists were so angry because they had no voice in
Parliament which passed the law, thus came the famous cry, No taxation without
representation! The colonists would protest these laws with the Boston Tea Party. The
British responded to this open act of rebellion by imposing the Intolerable Acts, four
laws designed to punish Boston and the rest of Massachusetts while strengthening British
control over all the colonies. These were not the only incidents that caused unrest to
exist between the two countries. There had been friction between British soldiers and
colonists for some time because of the Quartering Act, a law which required townspeople
to house soldiers. This unrest and tension resulted in the Boston Massacre, an event that
resulted in colonists death and both sides being more untrusting of each other. These
feelings of discontent and the growing fear of an uprising would lead the British to
proceed to Lexington and Concord and destroy colonial military supplies. This left the
colonists with the feeling of hatred and total malice towards the British. Because of
these incidents neither side trusted the other, and had concerns that the opposition
would launch an attack upon them. When the British planned to occupy Dorchester Heights
on the Boston Peninsula, the colonists became alarmed at the build up of British troops
off of the coast. The colonists decided that action had to be taken so as to stop the
threatening British movement in this territory to protect themselves from an attack. It
was because of this last situation as well as the bad blood that had accumulated over the
years, which would lead the colonies into a confrontation with the British. The Battle of
Bunker Hill started when the colonists learned about the British plan to occupy
Dorchester Heights. The colonists were understandably shaken by this news. They thought
of this as the last straw, and they had to protect their land and freedom. A crude army
was made to defend the hill. The army was not a national one, for no nation existed.
Instead, the army was made up of men from Cambridge, New England, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Also, this hastily combined force of men
had no assigned commander in chief, but did what their revered Generals instructed them
to carry out. On June 15, 1775 the American colonists heard news that the British planned
to control the Charlestown peninsula between the Charles and Mystic Rivers. Bunker's and
Breed's Hill on this peninsula overlooked both Boston and its harbor, thus making the
hills critical vantage points. In order to beat the British to the high ground, General
Prescott took 1,200 of his often times undisciplined, disobedient, and sometimes
intoxicated soldiers to dig into and fortify Bunker Hill with the cover of night on June
16. When dawn broke, the British were stunned to see Breed's Hill fortified overnight
with a 160-by-30-foot earthen structure. The British General, Gage, dispatched 2,300
troops under the command of Major General Howe to take control of the hill (Encyclopedia
Britannica 1990). So it came to be that General Prescott did not actually fortify
Bunker's Hill, but Breed's Hill instead. How did this happen? One proposed idea is that
that Colonel William Prescott, since fortifying the hill in the middle of the night,
chose the wrong hill. Another theory is that the map the Colonel used was incorrect,
since many maps during this period had commonly misidentified the hills. Another
suggestion, and probably the most practical, is that Breed's Hill is closer to where the
British ships were positioned allowing the colonists a better attacking position than at
Bunker Hill. Regardless of the reason, the Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place on
Breed's Hill. The fighting began as soon as the day did. As soon as the men on British
frigate awoke they opened fire on the colonial fortifications. Carol McCabe states that
one soldier wrote there would be firing for about twenty minutes, then a lull, then the
ships would start firing again. At about 3:00 pm Thomas Gage, the British commander,
ordered men to try and take control of the hill. It took Gage this long to issue a
command due to a shortage of boats and an unfavorable tide. Peter Brown, an American
soldier, would later write about this, There was a matter of 40 barges full of Regulars
coming over to us; it is supposed there were about 3,000 of them and about 700 of us left
not deserted, besides 500 reinforcements. . . the enemy landed and fronted before us and
formed themselves in an oblong square. . . and after they were well formed they advanced
towards us, but they found a choakly [sic] mouthful of us (Here's to the Losers: page 2).
When the British forces were firmly established on the ground at the base of the hill
they proceeded to charge. If you read the British letters and diaries, they expected to
march up the hill and just scare the colonists away. The British Regulars advanced with
bayonets fixed; many of their muskets were not even loaded. The British troops, wearing
their bright red wool jackets and weighed down by heavy equipment, marched up hill over
farm fields and low stone walls hidden in the tall grass. As the colonists saw this
massive red line approach slowly and steadily, they remained calm and did not open fire.
The fact they waited so long to commence an attack was that General Prescott has been
assumed to have given the famous order, Don't shoot until you see the whites of their
eyes. If this command was given it would have been to either help preserve their already
low ammunition supplies, and (or) to help keep the men from shooting out of their capable
ranges. Once the British came within range, the colonists began firing, and the British
soldiers stated to fall rapidly. The British forces were driven back twice, but on their
third and final thrust forward the British were able to break through the colonists'
line, overrunning the tentative American fortifications, thus taking the hill. The
colonists fled back up the peninsula since it was there only escape route. This battle,
which lasted for approximately three hours, was one of the deadliest of the Revolutionary
War. Although the British technically won the battle because they took control of the
hill, they suffered too many losses to fully benefit from it. The British had suffered
more than one thousand casualties out of the 2,300 or so who fought. While the colonists
only suffered 400 to 600 casualties from an estimated 2,500 to 4,000 men (The Henderson
Island Website). Besides having fewer deaths than the British, the colonists believe they
had won in other ways as well. The Americans had proved to themselves, and the rest of
the world that they could stand up to the British army in traditional warfare. And only a
few days later, George Washington would lead a group of men up to Dorchester Heights,
aiming their canons at the British, and then watched the Red Coats retreat from the hill.
So even though the British had won the battle, it was a short lived victory since the
colonists took control of the hill again, but this time with more soldiers to defend it.
The Battle of Bunker Hill was important for a variety of reasons. The first one being
that it was the first battle of the Revolutionary War, and because of the fierce fighting
that defined the battle it foreshadowed that it was going to be a long close war. Another
important event that came from the battle was that it allowed the American troops to know
that the British army was not invincible, and that they could defeat the British in
traditional warfare. The losses experienced on the British side also helped to bolster
the colonists confidence. So it came to be that the Battle of Bunker Hill would be the
foundation that the colonists would look back to for the may battles that occurred during
the American Revolution. The first being that the British suffered heavy losses and would
no longer be convinced of a victory when they went to battle the colonists. Rhode
Island's Nathaniel Grenne summed up the general feeling of the battle by saying I wish we
could sell them [the British] another hill at the same price (Here's to the Losers. pg.
3) Fifty years after the battle a movement began to rise in the young United States to
create a memorial to the battle atop Breed's Hill. So, the Bunker Hill Memorial
Association was formed and they bought fifteen acres of land atop of Breed's Hill. Then
in 1825 the cornerstone to the monument was laid. Through the course of the next 18 years
the monument began to be constructed. It took this long to complete since the funding
came from donations. The monument was slowly made from the granite taken from nearby
Quincy. Even this close supply of rock did not keep the costs down. In order to finish
the project, in 1839 the association had to sell ten acres of the land it had bought for
the memorial in order to finance more work. The monument was finally dedicated on June
17, 1843 (68 years after the battle originally took place), and at the time Carol Mccabe
says the monument had the national significance that the Washington Monument has today. 
Bibliography
Bibliography 
1. McCabe, Carol. Here's to the Losers
http://www.thehistorynet.com/HistoricTraveler/articles/1998/03986_text.htm 1998. The
History Net 2. Unknown Author. Major John Pitcairn http://208.209.60.245/we/Winthrop-web
jump/majpit6.html Unknown year. Winthrop 3. Unknown author. Bunker Hill, Battle of
Encyclopedia Britannica. 1990. Encyclopedia Britannica inc. Chicago.