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Battle of Bunker/Breeds Hill

 Hi History friends!! I told you I'm taking this online class, right. The lesson and assignment this time were about Bunker Hill. This is the assignment I turned in. I will expand on it later, I hope!!


The Battle of Bunker Hill was an incredibly important battle because so much was learned from it. From communication, location, strategy, supply inventory, and the race to be outstanding leaders, this battle set the stage for the American War for Independence.

Happening a couple of months after Lexington and Concord and less than 25 miles away, a plan was hatched.

The plan was for the Americans (there was no official army yet, just a bunch of different militia from different colonies) to build defensive structures on Bunker hill to hide behind and to literally have the high ground. I don't know why they ended up on Breed's hill, but that seems to be the general consensus amongst historians. I did find some, though, like Nathan Philbrick, who do believe it was intentional, even if maybe it was dumb. He also pointed out that the names of the two hills have been officially switched, esp if you use Google maps.

Anyway- the speculative questions are far less important than the actual battle. I do have to note on a personal level, that one reason this battle is interesting to me is because I have a couple of ancestors who were here; Israel Putnam (who we kind of all know) and Abner Stocking, who entered service May 6th and served until he was captured in Quebec. I have also, had a little bit of love for Dr. Warren, and it still makes me sad that he didn't make it out of this battle alive, but I also respect him for refusing command and staying with his people.

General Gage (who I have a lot of respect for, actually) had a plan to capture the Americans, but those plans got away for him, so the rebels needed to move quickly. Like I mentioned before, they fortified the hill and did so quite quickly. In the morning, Gage directed Howe and his men to take the hill. The colonials were ready and just bombarded the British. They had the advantage of being able to aim their shots and specifically looked for officers. The redcoats had to regroup several times, but there was just not much headway made. Not much, anyway, until the American's ran out of ammunition. At that point, the remaining British troops came over the barricades and there they fought, hand to hand. General Pitcairn of the British army was killed by a black man named Salem.

Technically, the battle was won by England. However, the cost was very high. The British troops lost far more men than the American troops, but the Brits had the ground at the end. The reason this was a big deal was because up until this point, the Crown had truly believed that the revolution was being run by a few Sons of Liberty and a mob or two. The fact that the Americans were so strategic in their placement of the structures and deliberate in their aim showed the British Army that this was not going away any time soon. This country had more men, trained to a much lesser extent, for sure, but still some of them trained, that could stand up and fight.


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