Colonials Hold Bunker Hill: Resilience Against British Fire

Colonial militia forces inflicted devastating casualties on British regulars at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, killing or wounding roughly 1,054 of the 2,200 British troops engaged while losing approximately 450 of their own. The battle was actually fought on nearby Breed's Hill, where colonial forces had fortified an earthen redoubt overnight in a decision that surprised both sides. Colonel William Prescott commanded the colonial position and reportedly issued the famous order: "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," though the quote has been attributed to multiple officers. British General William Howe chose a direct frontal assault up the hill rather than flanking the colonial position or cutting off its supply line from the Charlestown Neck. The decision reflected a calculated arrogance. Howe believed that disciplined regular infantry advancing in formation would scatter untrained militia on first contact. The first two British charges were repulsed with devastating musket fire at close range, inflicting casualties that shocked veterans of European warfare. The colonials held fire until the British were within fifty yards, then delivered volleys that cut through the advancing ranks. The third assault succeeded only because the colonial defenders ran out of powder and shot. Prescott's men resorted to swinging muskets as clubs before retreating. Among the American dead was Dr. Joseph Warren, a political leader and president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, whose death at the redoubt made him the revolution's first prominent martyr. British Major John Pitcairn, who had commanded the troops at Lexington, was also killed. Howe never fully recovered from the experience. He would spend the rest of the war avoiding the kind of direct assault that had succeeded at Bunker Hill only at unbearable cost. The British won the ground but lost the strategic argument: untrained American militia could stand against regulars.