Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 78

CI-11 CA GO SID ADAY TRITI EINE JuNra 11. 1 PART ItT 7-7P Om Hill Fought (100 Bu Aker Battle of Big Importance Anierica: --MAKING AMERICA This account of the battle of Bunker Hill is one of the articles of the "Making America scris. Another will appear -in the Graphic Section at an early date. iti t'aia itt, it(2-: 14.11i 7 i i -4 4- 7 --3. i ''''t .1, ::..1.

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based on old print. It will benoted from a reading of the description data, that the artist only loosely adhered tofacts. 41 cwrisfy.k 11 r-e) PA 1 i 1 I 11 I '11 4 I'. ez 1 ill I IL 1 i ct, Lli 1 ri.14,1 js; li 11 1 If; I 11 1 i Ili 11 I (Continued from page one.) part of the redcoats, it has been suggested, was ohe of the reasons why the Americans finally won the war. Hill Vv-ai the first baffle of the war; nbt considering as such the skirmishes at Concord, Grape Island, and Noddle's 3sland and the captures of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.

It was a battle in which professional soldiers, weI I disciplined and courageous, were opposed by amateurs. The professionals had a profound contempt for the colonial militiamen end the other new recruits in the American army, a motley assortment of poorly armed and inadequately equipped patriots hastily collected together. What the professional soldiers and -their officers did not take into account was that the Americans might be just as brave as they, as.events of the battle proved to be the Case. The English in conducting a battle followed the best practice of the day, that of Frederick the Great, celebrated Prussian military genius. Their rules of warfare included a strong faith in the value of the bayonet.

The weapon to the muzzle of which they attached the bayonet was the old army musket, the Brown Bess," deadly up to abOut-60 yards and caPable of 'doing damage up to about 150 yards. 'Englishmen at home rarely had occasion to fire guns. In fact, there were no weapons of this sort in the homes of the common people. The British in their native land were not, therefore, familiar with firearms accustomed to shooting, as were the colonials. It is recorded that even in their army there was very little target practice.

Volley fire was the approved method employed in the British army. The firing regulations prescribed that the men stand erect, with heads up, and hold their muskets horizontally, the level being regulated by officers looking along the line, just as was corrected the alignment of the ranks by the officers. It would appear that this method of Bring would not be very effective, yet later, when it still was in use among the troops under Wellington, it worked against columns advancing in the open. It has been said that the British muskets were not equipped with rear sights. In an attack it generally was the custom of the British to send light companies scouting and skirmishing in advance.

It is likely that they depended upon the momentum 'of the rest of the attacking army, as later the Civil war troops trained by our regulars were ordered to do. The Americans, although about as poorly equipped with small arms as were the British, were, on the other hand, accustomed to shooting. The need of wild game for their fare and the danger of raids by Indians In this new country had made of many of them accurate marksmen. At least they knew how to load their muskets to get the best out of them, how to aim and fire their weapons, and how to withhold their fire until the target they were shooting at was well within deadly range. Conflict on the slopes of Breed's hill as pictured in an old engraving after a painting by Chappel.

Ti es from New and.a few other companies. In all the Americans, at least in strength on paper, numbered about two thou. sand more. than the British under Gage. Colonial headquarters reached a decision in the second vt-eek in June, to occupy and fortify an eminence known as Bunker's hill, situated about four miles from Cam'oridge on the Charlestown peninsula, a iection of land north of Boston and separated from that town by the estuary of the Charles river, which formed Boston harbor a ii wa Phout a third of a mile wide.

The Charlestown peninsula, which on its southern shore contain2d the town of Charlestown, was connected with the mainland, as the large map on page 1 shows, by a very narrow neck of land. Bunker's bill, 110 feet high, was on the northern part of the peninsula, no great distance from, the narrow neck. On the evening of June 16 there paraded on the commons at Cambridge the troops who were to occupy Bunker's billa portion of the men from the Massachusetts regiments, a detachment from Gen. Israel Putnam's Connecticut regiment, under the command of Capt. Thomas Knowlton, and some artillerymen and engineers, among whom was the chief engineer, Col.

Richard Gridley. There were about a thousand in all in the party. President Langdon of Harvard college prayed for the success of the undertaking, and as the twilight was deepening the men set out on their march. In command was Col. William Prescott, and accompanying the troops was General Putnam.

The little army finally reached the top of Bunker's bill, and then there followed a debate among the officers as to what part of the hill to fortify. Gridley believed Bunker's hill, the spot previously selected, ideal as a position from which to repel the enemy, but others there, led, it is believed, by General Putnam, argued that the party should move on in a southerly direction to Breed's hill, an eminence 35 feet lower than Bunker's, but with the advantage that even small cannon placed upon its top could threaten the town of Boston and the shipping Putnam wanted the fight, if there was to be a fight, fought on Breed's hill, and, as events came about, he got his wish. Although the main part of the battle on June 17 was fought on and about the slopes of Breed's hill rather than upon Bunker's hill, the encounter is known to this day as the battle of Bunker Hill. ilL1 a sil'oi; 04 ti, Plan of The American redoubt on Breed's hill as it appeared in an English drawing which first was published in the London Gentleman's Magazine in 1775. AATwo strong fences of stones and rails.

a and bTwo well contrived flanks, so arranged that fires crossed within twenty yards of face of redoubt. cAnother well contrived flank. dA bastion, with its flanks, and b. mSmall portion of trench. Two cannon are designated in embrasures at front of redoubt, at salient angles of which trees are shown.

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To begin-with, the- British army, as everyone familiar -with history knows, WRs in occupation of Boston, at that time merely a town, the shore lines of Avhico, as the inset map on page 1 shows, were far different from of 'the modern city. -After their reverse at Concord the redcoats were satisfied to remain inactive in the town, which contained in addition to the hostile citizenry a considerable number of Tories sympathetic to the British cause. The army of 3,500, under the command of governor, Gen. Thomas Gage, a man of twenty years' military experience in America, was reinforced on May 25 by new troops from oversea. Also upon that day there disembarked at Boston three British major generals who were de.

stined to play important roles in the conflict with the Americans. These three were Sir William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne. Howe had had previous military experience in America. He had been at the second taking of Louisburg. It was he who had been chosen by Wolfe to lead the detachment that climbed the Heights of Abraham.

He came out of that engagement an outstanding hero. On I return to America he a placed second in command to General Gage. Clinton, who was born in America, had campaigned extensively in continental Europe. Burgoyne's severe defeat by the Yankees at Saraloga later in the war virtually brought to an end his military career. Howe had the reputation of being a clever tactician.

In the light of what military experts of today know about campaigns and battle plans it is doubtful whether he should be criticized too freely as to his plan at Eunker Hill, which shall be gone into briefly later. Blame for the fact that the British showed a marked indifference before the battle to the fate of the army quartered in Boston cannot be attached rightfully to him. Gage, it should be borne in mind, was in supreme command, and Howe, as previously stated, did not arrive in America until May 25. There were several heights overlooking the town, the principal ones beyond Charlestown, on Charlestown peninsula, and at Dorchester, which the British had made no move to occupy, despite the fact that the command of these was the key to the town itself. Finally Gage and his officers in Boston began considering the advisability of occupying and fortifying some of this high territory that commanded a view of the.

town. The word of their deliberations was carried to American headquarters at Cambridge, and the colonials, under Gen. Artemas Ward, thereupon decided to beat the enemy at his own game. The Americans, in the a i though still represented by many of the original minute men of Concord and state militia, were in actual fact by this time troops enlisted for terms varying from three to twelve months. There were slightly more than 6,000 men in the Massachusetts regiments.

In addition there was a Connecticut regiment, some compa at right angles by several fences. The British made no attempt to take advantage of the fences for concealment; rather they found them obstacles to their orderly advanee. Some Civil war generals, notably Early, felt this same way about fences 85 years later. At about 2:55 the British, with bayonets fixed, came within firing distanee of the American barricade stretching at right angles to the beach. It was then that the colonials delivered the fire that sent their enemies reeling back along the beach.

This was the opening phase of the battle of Bunker Hill. The right wing of the British reformed again and struck at the barricade as simultaneously the main body of the British army advanced up the slope of I3reed's hill from the east and left wing attacked the redoubt from the south. This second assault was hurled back by the Yankees, as was the first. The British, still relying mainly on the bayonet, charged up the slopes of the hill, only to be met by deadly fire from colonial muskets. The charge wavered, then halted, and the redcoats retired, not in contusion, but speedily and glad to he beyond the range of the tire as quickly as possible.

In these first two main attacks on the Americans the British troops were impeded by their heavy knapsacks. weighing. it has been estimated. approximately 125 pounds each-The military idea. of course, wax that soldiers on an expedition might end up almost anywhere They therefore had to carry blankets, ammunition, rations, and other impedimenta on the possibility that they might be on their own for several davs But before delivering their third and final main assault the soldiers, at the order of their officers, discarded their weighty knapsacks and went up the slopes in better condition to battle than on their two previous attempts.

The third assault was directed against he summit of Breed's hill, and particularly against the redoubt, for by this time the Americans who had been protected by the breastworks had been forced out by Ilowe's artillery and had fallen back to the redoubt. the Americans were reinforced by New Hampshire men under the command of Col. John Stark. Some other groups, too, arrived, under the urging of General Putnam, to aid the colonials. Among those who volunteered that clay to fight against the British was Dr.

Joseph Warren. recently elected a major general of Massachusetts by provincial congress, but not as yet in possession of his commission. In all about 1,500 Americans actually took part in the battle, although there were 2.200 on the field that day, the 700 not engaged being held in reserve on Bunker's hill. Opposed to the Yankees were 2,200 British soldiers, expertly trained in the art of war a it was practiced on the battlefields of Europe in that day. Col.

William Prescott on the Bunker Hill battlefield Monument to fired rod-hot shot into 1 hc I on. About :300 buildings were burned as a result of the bombardment. Pigot successfully cleared town of snipers before turning his attention to the Americans on Breed's hill, but before he had been halted by the skirmishers, and before he had had time to drive them from the houses, there was transpiring on the other side of the peninsula the desperale scene described in the opening paragraphs of this an ice. In an advance led by a company of the 23d infantry, the famous Welsh fusiliers, the British right wing was moving to outflank the Americans on the north. These redcoats proceeded along the beach, some of them hidden by a bank close to the shore line and others marching in fours across a space cut thr, point previously mentioned There was no opposition to the landing.

The intention Of the BritLjt general was to outflank, under protection of troops now in order, the Americans disposed on the summit of Breed's hill. A half hour later llowe's reinforcements, numberin 700 grenadiers, light infantry, and marines. landed on the southern shore of the peninsula, just east of Charlestown. Pigo commanding I he left wing of the British, marched westerly to outflank the Americans from the south, his flanking party being strengthened by the reinforcements just landed. As Pigot's men swept around the left of Breed's hill they were met by a galling lire from Yankee skirmishers hidden in the houses of Charlestown.

The town itself by this time was in flames, British vessels in the Charles having Arrived upon Breed's hill, the colonials early in the night of June 16 began the task of preparing their defenses. An earthen redoubt was built, about 132 feet square. On the side looking out upon Charlestown was thrust out a projecting angle. The Americans labored all through the night strengthening the redoubt in preparation for a probable attack by the redcoats. Then day dawned, and Colonel Prescott saw that his redoubt was not as strong as he had supposed.

Daylight revealed that it could be outflanked by men marching out of effective range. Its only protections were Charlestown, on the south, from the houses of which American skirmishers could re upon troops attacking the redoubt, and a slough on the north and northeast that separated Breed's hill from Bunker's hill. To meet this situation Prescott ordered a breastwork erected on the easterly side of the redoubt and extending for about 330 feet. As his men worked through the morning hours building this additional defense they were under fire of guns of warcraft in the harbor and Copps battery. situated on the hill above the Boston water front.

Some time between 11 o'clock and noon the Americans ceased their labors on the works and began casting anxious glances in the direction front which were to come the reinforcements promised by General Ward Boston in the meantime had awakened to the fact that a battle was impending. Citizens rushed to the water front to gaze in the direction of Breed's hill, and British soldiers tramped through the streets in companies, assembling for the task ahead. Shortly before noon, pursuant to orders, the ten senior companies of grenadiers and light infantry and the 5th and 38th regiments, with blankets, ammunition, and rations for three days, marched to Long wharf, while ten more companies of grenadiers and light infantrymen and the 43d and 52d regiments received orders to march to North battery. The 47th regiment, the 1st battalion of marines, and some additional companies of grenadiers and light infantrymen were under orders to proceed to North battery for embarkation after the departure of the first troops from that place. The Americans on the summit of Breed's hill were suffering from fatigue and were desperately hungry.

Food that had been promised had not arrived. By handfuls and droves the colonials began departing for Cambridge. Before long there were left only about 500 men, 300 of Colonel Prescott's own regiment and 200 from the Connecticut regiment under Knowlton. Prescott's men kept to the redoubt; the soldiers under Knowlton were strung out behind a hastily thrown together barricade that stretched in a northeasterly direction to the beach from a point to west of the northeasterly end of the breastworks. It was Prescott's intention that these 200 under Knowlton should oppose the British landing on the beach, but instead they marched to a line at right angles to the beach, where upon the site of an old fence they hastily threw up a barricade of fence rails, brush, and hay.

The foundation of the old fence was a low wall Of stones. Knowlton had two of Prescott's six small iron cannon to help him in repulsing the British. The redcoats a departed in boats for the peninsula. Shortly before the main body of them landed on the southeastern beach of the, on the. Mystic.

river. side, Although the so-called Kentucky rifle, a highly accurate weapon within the limits of its range, had been in use in America since 1730 and was employed to some extent by colonial soldiers in other battles of the Revolutionary war, it is recorded that there was not a single rifle on the field at Bunker Hill. All guns were smoothbores, those of the British muskets, those of the Americans either old, heavy Queen Anne's musk Spanish fusees, antiquated French pieces, or home-made weapons. Very few of the Americans had bayonets. It may have beet partly because the British relied too greatly upon the bayonet and were less expert than the Americans at musket fire that they lost more men at Bunker Hill than the colonials and that they had such great difficulty in finally attaining victory there.

Of this we may be certain: European soldiers once out of control of their officers were cattle for the slaughter. The capacity of the Americans to retreat successfully after they had decimated the enemy is what took the heart out of British officers. -It was because the Americans knew how to shoot that they were able to hurl back the British twice before their ammunition was exhausted and they were forced to retire. For the British, Bunker Hill was in the end a success, in that they drove the colonials from the field. For the the battle was a moral victory in that it gave them assurance to carry on the war and established their prestige as fighters in the opinion of their foes.

From a distance of 161 years it would seem there was glory enough for both sides in that sanguinary little encounter within sight of Boston on that sunny June afternoon of 1775. For minute details of the battle the reader is referred to the large map on page 1 of this section, which points out as clearly as history has preserved them the disposition of the forces of both sides, the movements and counter movements of file opposing armies, the part that ip en lowe's orCers from Gage were to seize the The British general has been criticized for not landing his men on the narrow neck connecting the peninsula with the mainland, where, although they would have been placed between two main bodies of Americans, they would have been able to cut off the retreat of the colonials as the latter tried to evacuate the peninsula. The critics fail to consider the nature of the beaches at this neck of land. On the west side no landing could have been made on account of a mill pond which stretched before the shore. On the east the landing would have had to be made by the soldiers wading ashore through extremely shallow water.

Boats even some distance from shore would have had to move slowly. A landing made under difficulties such as these would have been dangerous. The men, who would have been unable to assume their usual marching for. mations, could have been picked off by musket fire from shore, with little opportunity to fight a k. Since they were twice repulsed later in the battle while marching accord.

ing to their regulations, what would have happened to them, struggling ashore in bunches without their ac customed cohesion? Howe knew the difficulty of land. ing! He had been present at Wolle's repulse below Quebec. His action in landing his men where he did, under the protection of warcraft, was according to correct military proceciurethen and now. After he was se.te ashore, in order and threat. ening to attack, a flank attack by water would have been in order if the boats could have been moved up the Mystic.

As it was, he tried a flank march along the beach. All Howe's battles showed him to be a disciple of Frederick's flank attack a good disciple. With 1,500 foot and some artillery, and with Brig. Gen. Robert Pigot as second in command, Howe went ashore at 2 oclock in the afternoon The third assault was a British success.

The redcoats swarmed over the top of the hill, firing point-blan and thrusting with their bayonets. The Americans had few bayonet' with which to meet the attack. Some used their muskets as clubs. The ammunition was virtually exhausted. At last, fighting desperately, they retired from the redoubt.

The American retreat, naturally, was toward and through the narrow neck of land joining the peninsula to the mainland. The retirement was by no means a flight The colonials fell back in an orderly manners their movements well covered by skirmishers who fought from fence to fence as the army extricated it. self fr om the peninsula. By 5 o'clock in the evening the British were in possession of the peninsula. The British lost 226 killed and 823 wounded; the Americans 140 killed, 271 wounded, a 31 captured.

Among those slain on the American side was General Warren, who met death in the retreat from Breed's hill. Interesting, perhaps, to readers may be a speculation- upon what would have been the outcome of the battle if the Americans' ammunition had not run out and Howe had never been informed of the flimsy nature of the Yankee defenses. The story of Bunker Hill might have had trt be written in an entirely different way. VENERABLE MENI You have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives.

that you might behold this joyous day. You are now where you stood fifty years ago, thi3 very hour, with your brothers and neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife for your country. Behold. how altered! The same heavens are indeed over your heads: the same ocean rolls at your feet but all else how changed! You hear now no roar of hostile cannon, you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame rising from burning Charlestown. The ground strewed with the dead and the dying: the impetuous charge: the steady and successful repulse: the loud call to repeated assault the summoning of all that is manly to repeated resistance: a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may be in war and these you have witnessed, but you witness them no more.

All is peace. The heights of yonder metropolis. its towers and roofs. which you then saw filled with wives and children and countrymen in distress and terror, and looking with unutterable emotions for the issue of the combat. have presented you today with the sight of its whole happy population.

come out to welcome and greet you with a universal jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of position appropriately lying at the foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it. are not means of annoyance to you, but your country's own means of distinction and defense. All is peace. and God has granted you this sight of your country's happiness ere you slumber in the 'grave.

He has allowed you to behold and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils; and he has i allowed us. your sons and countrymen, to meet you here. and in the the present generation, in the name of your country. in the name to liberty, to thank youlExcerpt from the address delivered by Daniel Webster at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill monument at Charlestown, June 17, 1825. I 1, 0 I1 1 Pt 1 11' 1 Tt 1 'll '1' ''1A 111 11: MMIN I 1 itl ,8.7 11 1i 1 1 I :2 1 i4 1 1 ,1 'k 1: ii-, fit 1 A 'al 4, .4.

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Gen-Joseph. Warren A I I.