About Bunker Hill 250

Bunker Hill

Every year, the events of June 17, 1775 are remembered at the Bunker Hill Monument and throughout Charlestown. The granite obelisk marks the site of the battle known as “The Battle of Bunker Hill.” Here, hundreds of British soldiers and British colonial militia fought and died to decide the fate of the colonies.

This battle took place throughout the hilly landscape and fenced pastures of Charlestown, a town just across the Charles River from Boston. While named after the highest hill in the area, Bunker Hill, the battle took place on Breed’s Hill, the hill situated closest to the Charles River where the Bunker Hill Monument is today.

The battle between the forces of the British Crown and those of British New England lasted two hours and sent shock waves throughout the world.

The Midnight Ride

In 1774 and 1775, the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety employed Paul Revere as an express rider to carry news, messages, and copies of important documents as far away as New York and Philadelphia.

On the evening of April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren summoned Paul Revere and gave him the task of riding to Lexington, Massachusetts, with the news that British soldiers stationed in Boston were about to march into the countryside northwest of the town to capture or destroy military stores. Revere contacted an unidentified friend and instructed him to hold two lit lanterns in the tower of Christ Church (now called the Old North Church) as a signal to fellow Sons of Liberty across the Charles River in Charlestown, in case Revere was unable to leave town. The two lanterns were a predetermined signal stating that the British troops planned to row “by sea” across the Charles River, rather than march “by land” out Boston Neck.

Revere then stopped by his own house to pick up his boots and overcoat, and proceeded the short distance to Boston’s North End waterfront where two friends rowed him across the river to Charlestown. Slipping past the British warship HMS Somerset in the darkness, Revere landed safely, borrowed a horse from John Larkin, a Charlestown merchant and a patriot sympathizer and set off on horseback. After narrowly avoiding capture just outside of Charlestown, Revere alarmed local militia along the route to Lexington, informing them of the British movements.

Charlestown 1775

In 1775, Charlestown was a hotbed of revolutionary activity. In protest against the Townshend Acts, Charlestown residents unanimously agreed to boycott the drinking of tea. They also organized under Sam Adams and Joseph Warren’s Committees of Correspondence in 1773. After the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament stoked colonial anger by prohibiting all commerce in Boston Harbor under the oppressive Port Bill of 1774. Along with the Boston Neck, the Charlestown Ferry was one of just two routes in and out of Boston. Small detachments of British soldiers often marched from the ferry through the streets of Charlestown on their way to the Massachusetts countryside.

Late at night on April 18th, 1775, Paul Revere arrived in Charlestown to begin his ride to Lexington. He borrowed a horse and rode up Main Street, across the Charlestown Neck, and on through Somerville, Medford and Menotomy to warn the countryside of a British military expedition. When British troops arrived in Lexington at 5AM on April 19, they encountered militiamen and opened fire. The British soldiers then continued their march to Concord to confiscate military supplies. At Concord’s North Bridge, colonial militia made their stand, firing on the British soldiers in what became known as “the Shot Heard Round the World.” Militia pursued the retreating British soldiers all the way back to Charlestown, where the British were able to safely evacuate their battered soldiers back to Boston. For the next 11 months, Patriot militias lay siege to Boston, forcing some 1,375 civilians to flee from Charlestown, including enslaved Africans and native people. Many would never return to their homes.

The Battle of Bunker Hill

On June 17, 1775, New England defended an earthen redoubt from the British army in a pitched battle. Popularly known as "The Battle of Bunker Hill," bloody fighting took place throughout a hilly landscape of fenced pastures that were situated across the Charles River from Boston. Though the British forces claimed the field, the casualties inflicted by the Provincial soldiers from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire were staggering. Of the some 2,400 British soldiers and Marines engaged, some 1,000 were wounded or killed.

The Aftermath & Legacy

After two hours of combat, British troops casualties totaled 1,054. Colonial losses totaled an estimated 450 soldiers by comparison. When the smoke cleared, the town of Charlestown was destroyed. Residents were forced to start their lives anew. 

News of the battle helped unite the thirteen colonies. In the aftermath of the battle, General George Washington assumed command of the colonial forces around Boston in July 1775. Washington had been appointed by the Continental Congress to lead a new Continental Army in June 1775. This army ultimately forced British troops to evacuate Boston in March 1776. 

The Battle of Bunker Hill has inspired generations to consider what it takes to stand up for one’s liberties. Abolitionists, suffragists, labor activists, and others have referred to the battle and its monument in their own fight for liberty and justice. Today, we are asked to question what the battle and its Monument means to us as we strive to actualize the country’s founding ideals.

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