Table Of ContentWAR
AMERICA
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The Revolutio
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and Benton Minks
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John Bowman, General Editor
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War
The Revolutionary
WAR
AMERICA AT
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Louise and Benton Minks
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The Revolutionary War
Copyright © 1992 by Louise & Benton Minks
All rights reserved. No part ofthis bookmay be reproduced orutilized in any
form orby any means, electronic ormechanical, including photocopying,
recording, orby any information storage orretrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the publisher. Forinformation contact:
Facts On File, Inc. Facts On File Limited
460 Park Avenue South c/o Roundhouse Publishing Ltd.
New York NY 10016 P.O. Box 140
USA Oxford 0X2 7SF
United Kingdom
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Minks, Louise.
The Revolu—tionary War / Louise and Benton Minks.
p. cm. (America at war)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: A narrative accountofthe American Revolution, covering
the origins ofdisputes with Britain, profiles ofthe key figures,
and descriptions ofmajorbattles.
ISBN 0-8160-2508-8 (acid-free paper)
— — —
1. United States Histor—y Revolu—tion, 1775-1783 Juvenile
literature. [1. United States History Revolution 1775-1783.]
I. Minks, Benton. II. Title. III. Series.
E208.M53 1992
973.3--dc20 92-15635
British CIP data available on requestfrom Facts On File.
Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in
bulk quantities forbusinesses, associations, institutions orsales promotions.
Please contact ourSpecial Sales Department in New York at 212/683-2244
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Series interior andjacket design by Ron Monteleone
Compositionby Facts On File, Inc./Grace M. Ferrara
Manufacturedby the Maple-Vail BookManufacturing Group
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
98765432
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
CONTENTS
HOLDING THE LINE ON BREED'S HILL, 1775
21.. UNDERCURRENTS OF RESISTANCE .... 71
3. A MASSACRE AND A TEA PARTY 19
4. MINUTEMEN AND MOUNTAIN BOYS .... 30
THE FIRST CAMPAIGNS 43
5.
6. RING OUT LIBERTY! 57
7. WASHINGTON IN CHARGE 69
8. FIRE AND BLOOD ACROSS THE FRONTIER 81
.
9. MANEUVERS AT SEA 89
10. MONEY, MUTINY AND MORALE 0O
1
11. "THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN" 111
12. GLORIOUS TRIUMPH 125
RECOMMENDED READING FOR
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 136
INDEX 137
AMERICA AT WAR
World War
I
World War
II
The Vietnam War
The Civil War
The Mexican War
The Korean War
The Revolutionary War
—
I
HOLDING THE LINE ON
BREED'S HILL, 1775
Throughout the night of June 16-17, 1775, a group of American
colonists stumbled over boulders, tripped over one another, and
slipped into ditches they were hastily digging. They worked franti-
cally during the damp, dark hours as they piled up sod, granite and
stumps on top of a hill where the day before cattle had lazily grazed.
The men had no time to lose. By dawn they needed to complete an
earthen fortification in order to protect themselves against a feared
enemy assault.
—
Using simple farm tools picks, shovels, axes and heavy prybars
—
for moving the biggest of the stones this detachment of the New
England army dug, slashed, cursed andpried through the shortnight.
June 16, 1775 Fortifying Breed's Hill in the night
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The Revolutionary War
Onlythe broken lightfromlanterns andtheblaze frompine-knottorches
kept them from battering each other.
The Charlestown Peninsula on which they worked was across the
Charles River and not far from the colonial city of Boston. The only-
prominentfeatures on its landscape weretwohills. Named afterthe men
who pastured their cattle there, the hill closest to Boston was Breed's
Hill, and the other (the higher of the two), Bunker Hill. The "Battle of
—
Bunker Hill,—" though mistakenly named it was actually fought on
Breed's Hill would foreverbe considered aturning point in the Amer-
ican colonists' fight for independence from England.
Quartered in Boston were hundreds of troops of His Majesty King
George III. Some ofthemlived in tents, but many ofthe British regulars
had moved into the homes of Boston families. Their commander,
Thomas Gage, had orders from England to occupy the city and control
the angry and rebellious colonials. General Gage's agents, or spies, had
notpreparedhimforthesavagefightinghistroopswouldencounterfrom
volunteers ofthe New England army on the morning ofJune 17.
The New England army was a different force from the one the British
—
expected. There were not only Massachusetts militia the famous
—
"Minutemen" butalsovolunteers fromConnecticut, RhodeIslandand
New Hampshire. George Washington had been appointed general only
onemonthbeforeandwasjustbeginningtogathertogetheraunitedarmy
—
from all the colonies a Continental Army. In Massachusetts, four
officers were responsible for carrying out orders from General Artemas
Ward, headquartered in Cambridge on the present campus of Harvard
University.
Senior General Ward and his advisors had decided that it was good
strategy to secure Bunker Hill on the Charlestown Peninsula, but there
was confusion among the men responsible for carrying out the plan.
GeneralIsraelPutnamwascertainthatBreed'sHillwastheintendedsite,
perhaps because it was closer to Boston.
Besides choosing the wrong hill to fortify, the New Englanders took
the risk of digging in at the end of the peninsula, far from their only
sources offood, water and ammunition. Their supply lines could easily
havebeencutoffbytheBritish.Withtheirmusketsandsixsmallcannon,
they were no match for the many large British cannon placed along the
Charles River shore and on ships in the river.
However,throughoutthatJunenight,thecolonialvolunteerscontinued
tobuildtheircrudenetworkofsodwallsandtrenches. Theyhaddropped
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—
Holding the Line On Breed's Hill, 1775
their farm tools, left their businesses and ridden or walked great
distances with determination to answer the call of the Committee of
Safety. General Gage must not be allowed to set up his troops on the
hills outside of Boston.
When General Gage discoveredthe workon Breed's Hill the morning
of June 17, he responded by ordering his Boston troops in charge of
cannon batteries to begin firing.
Common sense wouldhave directed themto run offthepeninsula, but
the militiamen continued their work. Instead of choosing to cut offthe
NewEnglanders' supplylines,GeneralGagedecidedtoattacktheenemy
head-on, an honorable but deadly tactic. To this task he appointed Sir
William Howe, recently arrived from England to command the British
troops in Boston. Howe's command was to ferry 2,300 British soldiers
across theriverandthen march themup the slope ofBreed's Hill, where
halfas many colonial volunteers waited nervously.
In the heat of a mid-June sun, infantrymen in dazzling red and white
uniforms began moving inranks three deeptowardthe earthworks atthe
top of the hill. Each English soldier carried a heavy field pack with a
ration offood, blankets, musketballs andgunpowder. Colonial soldiers,
June 17, 1775 The Battle of Bunker Hill
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The Revolutionary War
on the other hand, had little water and food and only a few rounds of
ammunition, with no easy way to get more.
No one can explain why the colonials did not panic and try to get off
the peninsula while they still had time. For most of them, the glint of
sunlight offthe bayonets ofhundreds ofmen moving up the hill threat-
ened certain death. Stepping forward with machinelike precision, each
English soldierhad orders to climb overthe walls the colonials hadbuilt
ifnecessary and to attack with the bayonet.
The British did not break stride but continued as ifthey were a single
unit. The only sounds were the rhythmic thud of thousands of boots
pounding the sod, therattling ofdrumheads, the shrill whistle ofthe fife,
and the click ofrifle butts rubbing against brass buckles.
"Don't fire until you see the whites oftheireyes!" was the disciplined
command from Colonel William Prescott. When the English drew close
enough at last, there was a single volley aimed atthem, without warning
and with surprising accuracy. Hundreds of England's proven soldiers
went down, many ofthem never to fight again. Those who survived the
first blast from the colonials ran, stumbled and fell back to the base of
thehill.Theyreformedtheirlinesandmarchedforwardagaininthesame
steady rhythm. Once more the English forces met a colonial force that
was waiting, and the musketfire wasjustas savage on the secondround.
Unmercifully, the English officers commanded their men to attack a
third time. Meanwhile, the colonials were almost out of musket shot.
Someofthemhadonlytwomoreroundsatmost,butmanywerehelpless,
with no ammunition andnobayonets. They were preparedto swing rifle
—
butts and even to throw stones to defend themselves but such a tactic
wasnotnecessary. TheAmericanofficerswiselycommandedanorderly
retreat off the peninsula. When the English arrived at the barricades a
third time, there was no one waiting.
The cost to the English army was staggering: 1,504 men killed or
wounded, almost half the 2,300 solders who began the fight. Colonial
losses were estimated to be close to 500 dead or wounded. "Damn the
rebels," reported a British officer, "that they would not flinch."
An even more serious loss to the English, however, was their loss of
confidence in their superior strength. The most important benefit to the
colonialswasnotsomuchtheirhavingprovedthemselvesbattle-worthy
but the fact that they had done it as a united, continental army.
With the Battle ofBreed's Hill, the forces ofcolonial resistance took
the risky step ofchallenging the strongest military country in the world.
4
