Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1918 — BUNKER HILL PROVED SPIRIT OF COLONISTS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BUNKER HILL PROVED SPIRIT OF COLONISTS

In Its Consequences That Conflict Ranks as the Most Momentous of All the Struggles of Revolutionary Days—Revealed to the British the True Spirit of Their Foes.

A LITTLE before sunset 143 years ago, a few hundred American troops stacked their guns, threw off their packs, seized their trenching tools, and set to work with great spirit At midnight Bos-

ton was buried in sleep. The sentry’s cry of “All’s wellI” could be heard distinctly from its shores. At dawn, 143 years ago, the Americans at work were seen by the sailors on board the British ships of war and the alarm was given. The captain of the Lively, the nearest ship, without waiting for orders, put a spring upon her cable and, bringing her guns to bear, opened a fire upon the hill. One man, among a number who had incautlqusly ventured outside, Was killed. A subaltern reported his death to Colonel Prescott and asked what was to be done. “Bury him,” was the reply. It was the first fatality in the battle of Bunker Hill, one of the most momentous conflicts in our Revolutionary history. It was the first regular battle between the British and the Americans and most eventful in its consequences. The British had ridiculed and despised their enemy, representing them as dastardly and inefficient; yet here the best British troops, led on by experienced officers, were repeatedly repulsed by an inferior force of that enemy—mere yeomanry—from works thrown up in a single night, and suffered a loss rarely paralleled in battle with the most veteran soldiers.. According to tjieir own returns their killed and wounded, out of a detachment of 2,000 men, amounted to 1,054, and a large proportion of them officers. The loss of the Americans was 411 out of 1,500 men engaged. So the number of casualties in this battle was more than 30 per cent

of the number in action, thus placing it among the bloodiest battles that had heretofore been known to history. At Waterloo the British loss was less than 34 per cent. No wonder that June 17 is a second Fourth of July. What the Victory Meant A gallant loyalist of Massachusetts, who fought so well for King George that he rose to be a full general in the British army, regarded Bunker Hill as a transaction which controlled everything that followed. “You could not,” he would say to his friends on the other side, “have succeeded without it.” “The rebels,” Gage wrote a week after the battle, “are shown not to be the disorderly rabble too many have supposed. In all, their wars against the French they have showed no such conduct and perseverance as they do now. They do not see that they have exchanged liberty for tyranny. No people were ever governed more absolutely than the American provinces now are; and no reason can be given for their submission but that it is a tyranny which they have erected themselves.” Bunker Hill exhibited the Americans to all the world as a people to be courted by allies and counted with by foes. It was a marvel that so many armed citizens had been got together so quickly and still a greater marvel that they had stayed together so long. Move Forced on British. After the engagement at Lexington on April 19 the British force under General Gage, was increased to 10,000 men by the arrival of Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne with their commands from England. These occupied the town of Boston on a peninsula extending into the harbor. The naval forces consisted of the Falcon, Lively, Somerset, Symmetry, Glasgow, and four floating batteries. Across the Charles river, at Cambridge, and on the surrounding hills, were encamped between 16,000 and 20,000 undisciplined Americans. The British, thus cut off from communication with the main-

land, were seriously hampered for provisions, and General Gage' contemplated a movement to occupy the several heights near Charlestown, at Dorchester, and adjacent pomes. The arrival of such a formidable force of the enemy caused the gravest concern to the colonists. It ws rumored that the British would sally forth from Boston and burn the neighboring towns. It was to prevent this that the Americans detenfiined to fortify Bunker Hill; for, if the British should get out of the city and intrench upon Dorchester Heights to the south of Boston, the Continental position would be made untenable. Prescott's Gallant Act. Not an unnecessary sound was made during the long hours of the night of June 16, 1775, and when dawn came intrenchments six feet high along the side of the hill were disclosed. In the face of the fire from the enemy ships and by the battery on Copp’s Hill the Americans kept steadily at work completing their intrenchments and, when there was a slight show of faltering aft-

er a shot better directed than the others had done some execution In the trenches, Presscott himself mounted the works and marched to and fro with drawn sword regardless of the fact that he was a mark for the British. He thus preserved the courage of his men, who had never before been under fire. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon when the British troops supported, by a terrific bombardment from the ships in the

harbor, advanced in solid column against the fortifications. Confidently they approached the works of the Americans, construing the silence on the hilltop as timidity. They changed their attitude on this point when they arrived within a few hundred feet of the redoubt The Americans had been silent, but they had been ordered to refrain from firing until the command was given. Thus it was the British, advancing over the open stretch of ground, panting from the heat and the weight of their knapsacks, heard the word “Fire!” at the moment of their supreme confidence, and recoiled before a volley that mowed down many of their number. British Line Decimated. A deadly fire was poured into the British columns, the marksmen of the Americans picking off the officers. Along the whole line of fortifications, from the rail fence to the redoubt, the British troops were soon in retreat. The British columns advanced a second time and once more were met with deadly fire. Now, however, they were prepared for it; although staggered by the shock, they soon rallied and continued their advance. The Americans fired with such rapidity that it seemed

as if a continuous stream of fire poured out from the redoubt. Bravely the British struggled to cross the open place in front of their enemy’s position, but were forced to give up the attempt, and fled precipitately to the boats. Although the field was strewn with their dead, the British again attempted to take the American position. Prescott

had sent for re-enforcements early in the day, and John Stark, with his New Hampshire company, had courageously crossed Charlestown Neck under a severe fire from the enemy. But the hazard of the attempt deterred other commanders from bringing troops to the support of the brave Prescott. With ammunition almost exhausted and troops tired out from the strain to which -they had been subjected, Prescott realized the futility of holding his position in the face of repeated attacks by the reformed and re-enforced British lines. Nevertheless he determined again to measure his strength with the adversary; and, with a command to his men to make every shot tell, he awaited the advance of the British. Again the latter were permitted to advance within twenty yards of the American works before they were fired upon. The British line was broken, but still it advanced. With their powder now quite exhausted the Americans met their opponents with clubbed muskets and bayonets. The odds were too great and Prescott ordered his mea to retreat. It was in doing this that the Americans suffered their heaviest loss; among others who fell was Warren, one of the most cherished of the popular leaders.

General Joseph Warren.

Bunker Hill Monument.

General Warren's Monument.