250 years ago today the last major action fought between the British Army and an army comprised of militia members took place just north of Boston. The Battle of Bunker Hill technically took place on Breed’s Hill, but the location matters less than the outcome. While the British technically won the battle by forcing the citizen army from the field, they paid an enormous price; suffering twice the number of casualties than the colonists fighting in defense of their liberties, including 19 officers killed and another 62 wounded.
Though the Continental Army had been created by an act of the Continental Congress just a few days earlier, the men who fought against the Redcoats on that steamy June afternoon were serving as militia members; part of the Army of Occupation created by the Provincial Congress in the days after the fighting at Lexington and Concord. George Washington wouldn’t arrive until July, 1775, and it was Artemus Ward who was the commander-in-chief of the militia forces during the fighting at Bunker Hill (though Israel Putnam and William Prescott were the ones in command on the battlefield itself).
Some of the citizen-soldiers who fought at Bunker Hill had seen the heat of battle before, but many were untested before they faced the might of the British Empire.
The first assault was begun by the column of light infantry on the far beach, the American left flank, and was followed by the cannonading of Charlestown on the right flank, which set the town in flames; then came the slow forward movement of the main battle line: two ranks of scarlet-clad grenadiers and light infantrymen, almost 2,000 in all, marching in full kit pounds of knapsacks, blankets, food, and ammunition—across irregular fields of knee-deep grass broken by fences and low stone walls. The American troops—no more than 1, 500 men at any time, at the end only half that—held their fire until the first British line was within 150 feet of the barricades; when they fired it was almost at point-blank range, and the result was slaughter. The British front line collapsed in heaps of dead and wounded—”as thick as sheep in a field.” General Howe’s entire staff was wiped out in the main attack against the rail fence. Great gaps appeared in the once parade-perfect ranks, and the survivors spun back.
The British regrouped and once again made their way up the hill, only to be rebuffed by another wave of fire. On their third attempt, however, the Redcoats gained the upper hand.
Again the advancing line was thrown back by the defenders’ fire, and again great gaps were torn in the marching ranks. But this time the fire was less intense and it could not be sustained. The 700 exhausted defenders had been sent no reinforcements; they had no supplies except what they had carried with them the night before. As the third charge neared the line of fortification their powder ran out, and though they fought desperately with everything they could lay hands on, they could no longer force the British back. Grenadiers and light infantrymen poured over the parapets and through the thin barricades, and dove into groups of defenders. The Americans turned and fled up over and around Bunker Hill to the roads that led to safety. So the battle came to an end.
The British had taken Bunker Hill, but they were still pinned down in Boston, and their position in Charleston offered them no tactical advantage against the tens of thousands of militia members in the surrounding fields and towns.
The colonists fighting for their rights as Englishmen, still more than a year away from declaring independence, saw the tactical loss as a moral and spiritual victory. Farmers, mechanics, and fishermen, along with lawyers, doctors, and merchants, stood their ground and held their own against a larger, better equipped, and far better trained army.
“ Up until the Battle of Bunker Hill, and really even following the events of Lexington and Concord, there was this pervasive opinion among the British military establishment that militiamen and colonials were not a serious threat. In fact, one British officer in the runup to revolution remarked that he could march across the entire continent unscathed with just 5,000 men,” [American Rifleman Executive Editor Evan] Brune said. “And those kinds of suppositions were quickly put to rest following the really true bloodbath that was the assault on Bunker Hill by British infantry. The British suffered more than 900 casualties trying to take these defensive fortifications over three assaults.”
The memories of Bunker Hill (as well as Lexington and Concord) were still fresh on the minds of many Americans when the Second Amendment was enshrined in the Constitution sixteen years later. They knew the value of the militia, but more importantly, they recognized the inherent right of the people to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and their free states.
I’m guessing that most of the politicians on hand for today’s anniversary events won’t acknowledge that right in their remarks. Heck, most of the local politicians who’ll show up consider the Second Amendment a dead letter; an artifact of history that has no relevance today. The right of the people to keep and bear arms, however, is just as important and valuable today as it was in 1791; both as a safeguard for individual security and protection against tyranny.
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