watching every movement, kept up an incessant fire, which was seconded by the "Falcon" and the "Lively," the "Somerset" and the two floating batteries; the town of Charlestown, consisting of five hundred edifices of wood, burst into a blaze; and the steeple of its only church became a pyramid of fire. All the while the masts of the shipping, and the heights of the British camp, the church towers, the housetops of a populous town, and the acclivities of the surrounding country were crowded with spectators, to watch the battle which was to take place, in full sight on a conspicuous eminence; and which, as the English thought, was to assure the integrity of the British empire; as the Americans believed, was to influence the freedom and happiness of mankind. 1775. June 17. As soon as Prescott perceived that the enemy were in motion, he commanded Robinson, his lieutenant-colonel, the same who conducted himself so bravely in the fight at Concord, and Henry Woods, his major, famed in the villages of Middlesex for ability and patriotism, with separate detachments to flank the enemy; and they executed his orders with prudence and daring. He then went through the works to encourage and animate his inexperienced soldiers. "The redcoats will never reach the redoubt," such were his words, as he himself used to narrate them, "if you will but withhold your fire till I give the order, and be careful not to shoot over their heads." After this round, he took his post in the redoubt, well satisfied that the men would do their duty. The British advanced in line in good order, steadily and slowly, and with a confident, imposing air, pausing on the march to let their artillery prepare the way, and firing with muskets as they advanced. But they fired too soon and too high, doing but little injury. Incumbered with their knapsacks, they ascended the steep hill with difficulty, covered as it was with grass reaching to their knees, and intersected with walls and fences. Prescott waited till the enemy had approached within eight rods as he afterwards thought, within ten or twelve rods as the committee of safety of Massachusetts wrote, when he gave the word : "Fire! At once, from the redoubt and breast work, every gun was discharged. Nearly the whole front rank of the enemy fell, and the rest, to whom this determined resistance was unexpected, were brought to a stand. For a few minutes, fifteen or ten, -who can count such minutes!-each one of the Americans, completely covered while he loaded his musket, exposed only while he stood upon the wooden platform or steps of earth in the redoubt to take aim, fought according to his own judgment and will; and a close and unremitting fire was continued and returned, till the British staggered, wavered, and then in disordered masses retreated precipitately to the foot of the hill, and some even to their boats. The column of the enemy, which advanced near the Mystic under the lead of Howe, moved gallantly forward against the rail-fence, and, when within eighty or one hundred yards, displayed into line with the precision of troops on parade. Here, too, the Americans, commanded by Stark and Knowlton, cheered on by Putnam, who like Prescott bade them reserve their fire, restrained themselves as if by universal consent, till at the proper moment, resting their guns on the rails of the fence, they poured forth a deliberate, well-directed, fatal discharge; here, too, the British recoiled from the volley, and after a short contest were thrown into confusion, sounded a retreat, and fell back till they were covered by the ground. Then followed moments of joy in that unfinished redoubt, and behind the grassy rampart, where New England husbandmen, so often taunted with cowardice, beheld vete June 17. ran battalions shrink before their arms. Their hearts 1775. bounded as they congratulated each other. The night-watches, thirst, hunger, danger, whether of captivity or death, were forgotten. They promised themselves victory. As the British soldiers retreated, the officers were seen by the spectators on the opposite shore, running down to them, using passionate gestures, and pushing them forward with their swords. After an interval of about fifteen minutes, during which Prescott moved round among his men, en couraging them and cheering them with praise, the British column under Pigot rallied and advanced, though with apparent reluctance, in the same order as before, firing as they approached within musket-shot. This time the Americans withheld their fire till the enemy were within six or five rods of the redoubt, when, as the order was given, it seemed more fatal than before. The enemy continued to discharge their guns, and pressed forward with spirit. "But from the whole American line there was," said Prescott, a continuous stream of fire;" and though the British officers exposed themselves fearlessly, remonstrating, threatening, and even striking the soldiers to urge them on, they could not reach the redoubt, but in a few moments gave way in greater disorder than before. The wounded and the dead covered the ground in front of the works, some lying within a few yards of them. 66 1775. June 17. On the flank also, the British light infantry again marched up its companies against the grass fence, but could not penetrate it. 'Indeed," wrote some of the survivors, “how could we penetrate it? Most of our grenadiers and light infantry, the moment of presenting themselves, lost three fourths, and many nine tenths of their men. Some had only eight or nine men in a company left, some only three, four, or five." On the ground where but the day before the mowers had swung the scythe in peace, "the dead," relates Stark, "lay as thick as sheep in a fold." Howe for a few seconds was left nearly alone, so many of the officers about him having been killed or wounded; and it required the utmost exertion of all, from the generals down to the subalterns, to repair the rout. Rails which the British had clambered over were found the next day studded with marks of musket-balls, not a hand's-breadth apart; and officers, who had served in the most remarkable actions of the last war, declared that for the time it lasted it was the hottest engagement they ever knew. At intervals, the artillery from the ships and batteries was playing, while the flames were rising over the town of Charlestown, and laying waste the places of the graves of its fathers, and streets were falling together, and ships at the yards were crashing on the stocks, and the kindred of the Americans, from the fields and hills and house-tops around, watched every gallant act of their defenders. "The whole," wrote Burgoyne, "was a complication of horror and importance beyond any thing it ever came to my lot to be witness to. It was a sight for a young soldier, that the longest service may not furnish again.” June 17. "If we drive them back once more," cried Prescott, "they cannot rally again." To the enduring hus1775. bandmen about him, the terrible and appalling scene was altogether new. "We are ready for the redcoats again," they shouted, cheering their commander; and not one of them shrunk from duty. In the longer interval that preceded the third attack, a council of officers disclosed the fact that the ammunition was almost exhausted. Though Prescott had sent in the morning for a supply, he had received none, and there were not fifty bayonets in his party. A few artillery cartridges were discovered, and as the last resource the powder in them was distributed, with the direction that not a kernel of it should be wasted. CHAPTER XL. THE RESULT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE. JUNE 17, 1775. 1775. June 17. THE royal army, exasperated at retreating before an enemy whom they had professed to despise, and by the sight of many hundreds of their men who lay dead or bleeding on the ground, prepared to renew the engagement. While the light infantry and a part of the grenadiers were left to continue the attack at the railfence, Howe concentrated the rest of his forces upon the redoubt. Cannon were brought to bear in such a manner as to rake the inside of the breastwork from one end of it to the other, so that the Americans were obliged to crowd within their fort. Then the British troops, having disincumbered themselves of their knapsacks, advanced in column with fixed bayonets. Clinton, who from Copp's Hill had watched the battle, at this critical moment, and without orders, pushed off in a boat, and put himself at the head of two battalions, the marines and the fortyseventh, which seemed to hesitate on the beach as if uncertain what to do. These formed the extreme left of the British, and advanced from the south; the fifth, the thirtyeighth, and forty-third. battalions formed the centre, and attacked from the east; on their right was the fifty-second with grenadiers, who forced the now deserted intrench ments. The Americans within the redoubt, attacked at once on three sides by six battalions, at that time numbered less than seven hundred men. Of these, some had no more than one, none more than three or four rounds of ammunition left. But Prescott's self-possession increased with danger. |