WEBVTT NOTE 7. The Battle of Bunker Hill 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.640 Volume 4, Chapter 7, The Battle of Bunker Hill 2 00:00:04.640 --> 00:00:11.020 While the Congress was in process of choosing the heads of the Continental Army, a pitched 3 00:00:11.020 --> 00:00:17.760 battle was being fought at Boston. The famous Battle of Bunker Hill, later touted as a great 4 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:25.480 American victory, was neither a victory nor did it take place at Bunker Hill. At the end 5 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:31.160 At the end of May, the Crown had sent a triumvirate of eminent generals to assist and implicitly 6 00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:38.720 to pave the way for superseding General Gage. These prestigious arrivals were General Sir 7 00:00:38.720 --> 00:00:44.900 William Howe, an ardent Whig, who as a candidate for Parliament had pledged never to accept 8 00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:51.800 a command against the Americans, Young General Sir Henry Clinton, and the dashing General 9 00:00:51.800 --> 00:00:53.960 John Burgoyne 10 00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:59.040 Ordered by the Crown to proclaim martial law in Massachusetts, General Gage allowed General 11 00:00:59.040 --> 00:01:06.720 Burgoyne to write the inflammatory proclamation, which on June 12 denounced the Americans as 12 00:01:06.720 --> 00:01:12.520 rebels and traitors, and offered pardon to all laying down their arms except for the 13 00:01:12.520 --> 00:01:16.880 irredeemable Sam Adams and John Hancock. 14 00:01:16.880 --> 00:01:22.360 Stunned by the proclamation, the Americans yearned to retaliate, but this yearning grew 15 00:01:22.360 --> 00:01:28.560 far stronger when they learned the following day that the British had decided to seize 16 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:36.760 and fortify unoccupied Dorchester Heights, a peninsula south of Boston. 17 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:42.600 The city of Boston was confronted on two sides by peninsulas with heights commanding the 18 00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:50.400 Town, on the North, Charlestown Peninsula, on the South, Dorchester Heights. 19 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:55.080 Sensing the folly of battling the British directly for the Heights, the Massachusetts 20 00:01:55.080 --> 00:02:03.040 Committee of Safety on June 15 urged the occupation and fortification of Bunker Hill on Charlestown 21 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:04.920 Peninsula. 22 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:08.680 The American Council of War was split on the issue. 23 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:14.340 The two best generals, Artemus Ward and Joseph Warren, who had been made a general by the 24 00:02:14.340 --> 00:02:20.560 Provincial Congress, had long counseled against fortifying Bunker Hill, for the narrow neck 25 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:26.860 of the peninsula endangered the entire force, especially should their scanty ammunition 26 00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:32.920 give out. Besides, without artillery, the Americans could not use the position against 27 00:03:32.920 --> 00:03:46.920 In this situation, General Clinton urged a swift and immediate landing behind the American lines at Charlestown Neck, cutting off the Americans from the rear and seizing the entire force with ease. 28 00:03:46.920 --> 00:03:51.920 But Gage would not accept such a sneaky and un-military tactic. 29 00:03:51.920 --> 00:03:57.920 General Howe, he insisted, would mount a frontal assault against the strongest American position. 30 00:03:57.920 --> 00:04:02.920 The rebels would panic and run at the sight of the advancing British regulars. 31 00:04:02.920 --> 00:04:08.920 Such a display of force would restore the British honor, Tarnished at Concord. 32 00:04:08.920 --> 00:04:17.920 This typical contempt of the British military for the Americans led them into a disastrous blunder. 33 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:28.920 Even the advantage of speed was scorned as the British made their leisurely way to the tip of the peninsula, allowing the Americans to complete their emplacements. 34 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:41.920 A series of frontal assaults up Breed's Hill allowed the Americans to fight in their best manner, in quasi-guerrilla fashion, employing rifle fire from behind emplacements. 35 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:48.920 The Americans were only partially at an advantage, however, for their precious mobility had been 36 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:52.840 surrendered in favor of fixed positions. 37 00:04:52.840 --> 00:04:58.720 In addition, they were in short supply of ammunition and far from an escape route. 38 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:03.960 As a result, repeated frontal assaults by the British finally succeeded, Breed's Hill 39 00:05:03.960 --> 00:05:09.760 was overrun and the Americans were routed out of the peninsula. 40 00:05:09.760 --> 00:05:15.600 were enormous on both sides, the Americans suffering over 400 casualties and the British 41 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:22.720 over a thousand, amounting to over 40% of Howe's forces. Indeed, the Battle of Bunker 42 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:30.120 Hill, actually of Breeds Hill, and sensibly known to contemporaries as the Battle of Charlestown, 43 00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:38.320 was the bloodiest single conflict on the American continent until 1815. The gravest single loss 44 00:05:38.320 --> 00:05:43.440 to the Americans was General Warren, who died in the rout. 45 00:05:43.440 --> 00:05:48.400 As for the British, perhaps the most fitting casualty at Bunker Hill was the killing of 46 00:05:48.400 --> 00:05:55.640 Major John Pitcairn by a Negro rebel, the same Pitcairn who had been sure that if he 47 00:05:55.640 --> 00:06:01.960 drew his sword but half out of the scabbard, the whole bandit of Massachusetts Bay would 48 00:06:01.960 --> 00:06:04.160 flee before him. 49 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:07.600 Now the bandit had cut him down. 50 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:13.160 The American defeat would have been yet far more severe if the advice of General Clinton 51 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:19.880 had not once again been ignored. He urged swiftly seizing advantage of the route by 52 00:06:19.880 --> 00:06:25.920 pressing forward to destroy the demoralized American forces and capture Cambridge. Had 53 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:32.360 General Howe agreed, Clinton might have dealt the revolution a devastating blow, which was 54 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:48.360 This is precisely what the astute General Ward now feared, but how, beginning the rapid development of an unerring talent for making the wrong decision, chose instead to stop, dig in and fortify Bunker Hill. 55 00:06:49.360 --> 00:07:01.360 Thus the victory went to the British in that they had conquered the Charlestown Peninsula, but their preposterous tactics, born of overconfidence, had decimated their army. 56 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:10.360 As in so many military engagements in history, the battle was a tragic comedy of errors on both sides, 57 00:07:10.360 --> 00:07:17.160 with Britain's technical victory bought at an enormous price. For their part, contemporary 58 00:07:17.160 --> 00:07:23.000 Americans did not have the temerity to claim the battle as a mighty victory, and the entire 59 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:27.760 Their operation was rightly denounced as rash and unfortunate.