What’s with the 25th MA?
I saw that, too. Col. Gerrish with 421 men who refused to join the battle? What in the world? Never heard that before.
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...