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Battle of Bunker Hill |
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(Continued from: Battle at Concord's North Bridge) |
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On June 17, 1776, full war broke out when the Americans fortified Breed's Hill, next to Bunker's Hill, in Charlestown just across the harbor from Boston. General Gage, the British commander, was forced to attack this threat. As the battle raged, the Americans' ammunition ran low, and their commander, Col. William Prescott, said to his troops, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," in order to make every shot count. From their entrenched positions the Americans shot more than a thousand of the brave but poorly commanded British soldiers as they were thrown into the assault on the hill. Their ammunition exhausted, the revolutionary forces withdrew their positions. Though they lost the hilltop, they won the battle by inflicting such grievous losses on the enemy, and forcing the royal government to take the colonial rebellion as a serious military challenge to its authority and, ultimately, its tenure in America. Next: Declaration of Independence New England in the 20th Century Timeline of New England History
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