Posted on 06/18/2018 1:52:33 PM PDT by Sopater
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.
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...
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.
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.
Thanks Sopater.
“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.
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