Mapping the Battle of Bunker Hill

Boston 1775 ^ | Sunday, June 17, 2018

[Sopater]

With the sestercentennial of June 1768 passing by, I have few days to devote to the Battle of Bunker Hill. But here’s Charles E. Frye’s map of that battle, completed in 2011 and available through Wikipedia. It’s unusual in positioning American army units on the Charlestown peninsula.

Frye is an army-trained cartographer. In this interview, Frye talked about how he came to make that map:

My wife suggested I help my oldest son with his 5th grade history project and that we could research to find out where [our ancestor] Isaac [Frye] was on the battlefield. Reading about the battle proved bewildering and disorienting. Therefore, my natural inclination was to make a map along with a timeline to organize that information. We started by mapping the Boston vicinity, including what was then known as the Charlestown Peninsula. Based on that and the major landmarks of the peninsula, we could then see the form of the battle and the sequence of events. My son hand-drew a one-page color map of the battle and wrote a short essay describing where Isaac most likely was located. We had narrowed it down to two possible locations. It took years before I finally located the documentation indicating which of the two was correct.

I ended up making my own map using GIS and because I learned the Library of Congress’s map division had copies of most of the maps depicting the battle, and already had a map-scanning program. GIS allows for scanned maps to be positioned relative to modern geographic data, which then could be used to create a historical map in the GIS. I knew a cartographer working at the Library of Congress, so I contacted her, and their staff bumped up the remaining maps of the battle so I could have faster access.

My map looked good to me, and it was rich with information. I shared it with the map division staff, and they liked it and cataloged a copy. However, the “Aha!” moment occurred for me two years later when I first visited the Bunker Hill Monument. There is a diorama there depicting the battle. Other than placement of the cannon, my map completely agreed with the diorama! How does a non-historian do that part-time in only a matter of months? With GIS of course. Mapping information in GIS forces rigor, which among other things affords efficiency because non-conforming information cannot be forced into database like it can be forced into a paragraph. I later published a data model and method for historians to use GIS in their work. I am happy to say many historians have since adopted, adapted, and expanded on that work.

Here’s more on Frye’s data model and method for others to use with G.I.S. systems.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I’ve studied it a fair amount. I’ve read about the history of the militias going back to Plymouth. I’ve read some amazing accounts of the British retreat from Concord on the Battle Road with militias coming from far and wide to get in the fight. I’ve read accounts of the Breed’s Hill battle. I don’t recall reading about any units refusing to engage before this map, though.

[sargon]

What’s with the 25th MA?

Woodbridge's (25th Mass.) Reg't was ordered in as reinforcements later in the Battle, and I've uncovered evidence that at least some companies from that regiment were deployed into Charles Town and the Heights surrounding it, as snipers and/or to protect the right flank of the Patriot army. That regiment definitely suffered casualties—both dead and wounded—according to returns issued in the battle's aftermath, as well as additional documentation that has survived the centuries.

Charles Town of course, turned into a huge conflagration and burned completely to the ground. At some point, the thick smoke precluded any access to that section of the peninsula, and any soldiers stationed their were forced to withdraw. Indeed, they were no longer needed there, since a British attack on the Patriots' right flank was completely untenable.

In retrospect, one of the biggest mistakes the British made during the battle was to fail to advance their largest warships up the Charles and Mystic rivers, which, with their ample cannon, would probably have allowed them to completely cutoff the Charles Town peninsula from sending reinforcements, and—more importantly—would also have allowed these warships to enfilade the American works on Breed's Hill (and perhaps Bunker Hill as well) which would have quickly forced a retreat of the American forces. A major tactical error on the part of the British. Hindsight is 20/20, of course.

While it is true that those large warships had initially covered the landing of the British troops on the Eastern and Southeastern shores of the of the peninsula, they could have been redeployed, either individually or collectively, in time to have had a devastating effect on the Western portion of the peninsula. Whenever you see the word enfilade appear in the account of a battle, the battle is usually over.

The reason I know all this is because my own ancestor served as a Sergeant in one of the companies of Woodbridge's (25th) Regiment, and I've researched the battle at least as extensively as the writer of this article...

[Chad N. Freud]

Re: Bunker Hill, British general Sir Henry Clinton, “reflecting on the hazards of that day, wrote a trenchant summary of the battle: ‘A dear bought victory, another such would have ruined us.’ “

— Page Smith “A New Age Now Begins” Vol. 1 (1976), p. 531.

[Chainmail]

I think that you miss my point: yes, the Brits carried the field in that battle. But we and they realized that we were far stronger that anyone guessed and we weren’t going to crumble and fade away.

Bunker Hill/Breeds Hill was the first real demonstration that we were a power capable of fighting and winning.

The Brits won a hilltop at great cost but our forces preserved their combat power and moved on to our next battle. Strategic vs tactical victory.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Sopater.

[dsc]

“Grandmother’s Story of Bunker Hill Battle as She Saw it from the Belfry”

Dang, that is *good.*

If ever I get a job teaching American history, I’m leading with that.