THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL
The strategy of Bunker Hill battle has been criticised as often as the
battle has been described. We have already seen that the choice of
Charlestown instead of Dorchester was owing to ignorance, on the part of
the Committee of Safety, of the advantages of the latter. From
Dorchester Heights the town could equally well have been threatened, the
shipping more effectively annoyed, reinforcements more safely summoned,
and retreat much better secured. Nevertheless, since at this stage the
British might have taken any fortification, it is fortunate that the
Americans chose as they did, and left Dorchester for a later attempt.
Prescott's party of twelve hundred marched in silence to Charlestown,
and on the lower slope of Bunker Hill the men rested for some time
while the officers discussed the situation. On the ground were Prescott,
Putnam, and "another general,"[92] with Colonel Richard Gridley, the
chief engineer. Their discussion was as to the proper point to fortify.
The peninsula of Charlestown, as has already been said, stretched toward
Boston from the northwest. The approach to it was by a narrow neck of
land, on one side of which, the northeast, ran the Mystic River; while
on the southwesterly side was an inlet from the Charles. The town, a
settlement of several houses, was on the bulge of the peninsula nearest
Boston; but along the Mystic rose a series of three hills, from the
lowest at Morton's or Moulton's Point, to the highest at Bunker Hill.
Morton's Hill was 35 feet high, Breed's, in the centre, was 75 feet, and
Bunker's was 110. The question arose, should Bunker Hill be fortified,
as in the orders, or Breed's, which was nearer Boston and the shipping?
Much time was spent in the discussion. Bunker Hill was higher and the
safer, and commanded most landing points; but Breed's Hill seemed better
suited to the eager spirits of the officers. When at last Gridley
reminded that time was passing, the question seems to have been decided
by the urgency of the unknown general, and a redoubt was laid out by the
engineer on the summit of Breed's Hill. In the bright moonlight Prescott
at once set his men at work digging, endeavoring to raise a good
protection before morning.
In this he was successful. His men were all farmers, used to the shovel
and pick; the earth was soft and scarcely stony; and there was no
interruption. Cheered from time to time by the cry of the sentry on the
nearer ship, "All's Well!" they pushed on the work. When at daybreak the
redoubt was seen, the British could scarcely believe their eyes, for a
completed fort seemed to stand there.
And now was a chance for a display of military science on the part of
Gage and his three major-generals. There stood the little low redoubt,
unflanked and unsupported by any other fortifications, easily cut off
from its own line of relief or retreat. If now Gage had promptly seized
the isthmus, drawn his ships up close, and dragged a battery to the top
of Bunker Hill, the American force could very soon have been driven to
surrender. Ruggles, the Tory brigadier, is known to have advised this,
and there were some among the British leaders who urged it. The general
feeling, however, seems to have been that it would be unmanly to catch
the Americans in the trap which they had laid for themselves. In a hasty
council of war it was decided to assault the redoubt in the good old
British fashion of marching up to its face. Gage was in no hurry even
for this. Contenting himself with ordering the shipping and the Boston
batteries to fire upon the little fort, he gave the Americans every
chance to complete their defences, while leaving the way open for
reinforcements. In a leisurely way he set about preparing an expedition
to cross Charlestown ferry. The men were mustered, and equipped as for
a march.
Howe was to take charge of the assault, and Burgoyne and Clinton to
direct the Boston batteries. The fleet joined in the fire. From Copp's
Hill, from Barton's Point, from five ships of war, and from a couple of
floating batteries, such a storm of roundshot was poured upon the
redoubt that its defenders were amazed, and on the death of a comrade
were ready to stop work. But Prescott, coolly insisting--against the
protest of a horrified chaplain--that the body be immediately buried,
took his stand upon the parapet, and from there directed the finishing
of the redoubt.
In this position he was seen from Boston. Gage, handing his
field-glasses to a Tory who stood near him, asked if he recognized the
rebel. The Tory was Willard of Lancaster, a mandamus councillor, who
well knew Prescott's declared intention never to be taken alive.
"He is my brother-in-law," he replied.
"Will he fight?" asked Gage.
"I cannot answer for his men," said Willard; "but Prescott will fight
you to the gates of hell!"[93]
At the redoubt one of Prescott's aids followed his example, and walking
back and forth on the parapet the two gave courage to their men. These
fell to and completed the work. The rampart was raised to a considerable
height, platforms of earth or wood were made inside for the defenders,
and at about eleven o'clock the men stacked their tools and were ready.
The redoubt, when thus finished, was roughly square, about "eight rods
on the longest side," which had a single angle projecting toward the
south. Running northwards from the northeast corner Prescott had made a
breastwork of perhaps two hundred feet,[94] to prevent flanking. It
stretched toward the Mystic River, but fell short by more than a hundred
yards.
Cooped up in this little fort, inadequately protected against flanking,
with shot continually striking on the sides of the redoubt, Prescott's
men waited. They had worked all night and most of the morning, had
little food and water, saw as yet nothing of the relief that had been
promised them, and could tell by the fever of activity visible in
Boston's streets that the red coats soon would come against them. There
is no wonder that when Putnam rode up and asked for the entrenching
tools (proposing, with the best of military good sense, to make a
supporting redoubt on Bunker Hill), many of Prescott's men were glad of
the excuse to remove themselves from so dangerous a neighborhood. Of
those who carried back the tools, few returned.
But Prescott's remainder was stanch. The men were already veterans,
having endured the work and the cannonade. Waiting in the fort, some of
them could appreciate the marvel of the scene: a great stretch of
intermingled land and water, the shipping spread below, close at hand
the town of Charlestown, and across the narrow river the larger town of
Boston, with its heights and house-tops already crowded by
non-combatants, viewing the field that was prepared for the slaughter.
It was all in bright and warm weather, under a cloudless sky. Since the
world began, there had been few battle-fields so spectacularly laid out.
At last the bustle in Boston's streets produced results. From the
wharves pushed out into the placid water the boats of the fleet, loaded
to the gunwales with soldiers in full equipment. As they neared the
Charlestown shore, the fire upon the redoubt was doubled, and under its
cover the troops landed upon Moulton's Point. There Howe at first
deployed them, but after inspecting the ground sent back for
reinforcements. For the men in the redoubt there were two more hours of
waiting.
Those two hours very nearly decided the fate of the struggle, for had
Howe moved immediately to the assault there could have been no such
resistance offered him as later he met. Prescott decided to send to
Cambridge for reinforcements; but such was the confusion that the
messenger could get no horse, and had to walk the six miles to
headquarters. There he was ill received, for Ward, who during the whole
day did not leave his house, feared an attack on Cambridge, dreaded to
deplete his supply of powder, and only upon repeated representations
ordered a couple of regiments in support of Prescott. These regiments
had to draw their powder and make up their cartridges, and arrived when
the battle was just about to begin.
The student of this day finds it difficult to disentangle the varied
accounts. Who was on the field and who was not, what part was taken by
each, who was in command at this point and who there, and the total of
men engaged, all either were or still are disputed points. It seems to
be beyond doubt, however, that Prescott from the first was in command at
the redoubt, and that Putnam assumed, and tried to execute, general
oversight of the field of contest outside the redoubt and beyond the
breastwork.
While Howe's troops lunched quietly at Moulton's Point, the aspect of
affairs for the Americans became brighter. Prescott, seeing that he must
have better protection toward the Mystic River, ordered a detachment of
Connecticut troops, under Captain Knowlton, and with them six
field-pieces--which seem to have figured not at all in the result--to
"go and oppose" the enemy. Avoiding a marshy spot of ground, Knowlton
chose a position some two hundred yards to the rear of the redoubt and
its breastwork. Here was a fence, the lower part of stone, the upper of
rails. The men brought forward from the rear another rail fence, leaned
it against the first, and wove in between the rails hay which they found
recently cut upon the ground. This, the "rail fence" mentioned in all
accounts of the battle, was their sole protection.
Now began slowly to come across the isthmus the first of the
reinforcements that strengthened the hands of the provincials. They
came partly as individuals, of whom the most noted was Warren, who but
the day before had been appointed general by the provincial congress. He
came as a volunteer, knew his risk, and was prepared to die.
Curiously James Otis, it is said, was also among the defenders of the
redoubt, coming, like Warren, as a volunteer. It was a strange fate
which sent him safely home, to live, still wrecked in intellect and
useless to his country, while Warren was to fall.
By this time a lively hail of shot and shell was falling on Charlestown
Neck, and to cross it was a test of courage. Seth Pomeroy,
brigadier-general, veteran of Louisburg, came on a borrowed horse, and,
sending back the animal, crossed on foot. Others, alone, in groups, or
in semi-military formation, followed him, to be directed by Putnam to
the rail fence, which needed defenders. At last came one who needed no
directions--Stark, at the head of his New Hampshire regiment. Although
requested to hurry his men across the Neck, Stark replied, "One fresh
man in action is worth ten fatigued ones,"[95] and would not change his
step. Marching down the slope of Bunker Hill, he quickly noted that
between the rail fence and the water the beach was unguarded. "I saw
there," he said afterward, "the way so plain that the enemy could not
miss it."[96] Before the attack could begin, Stark's men threw up a rude
breastwork of cobbles behind which they could find a little
shelter.--And now at last the American defences were completed, just as
the troops were in motion to attack them.
At this point Howe neglected a method of attack which would have made
his victory immediate. The rail fence, and Stark's defence upon the
beach, were open to attack from the river. We have seen that two
floating batteries ("large flat boats," says Lieutenant Barker, "sides
raised and musquet proof") were used to bombard the redoubt. These,
like the shipping and the Boston batteries, did no good whatever. But
placed in the Mystic in the proper position, they could have raked the
rail fence. "Had these boats been with us," says our lieutenant, " ...
they would have taken a part of the Rebels entrenchment in flank, and in
their retreat wou'd have cut off numbers." But Howe was only a soldier,
such an aid apparently never occurred to him, and the floating
batteries--gondolas, as they were called--remained on the southern side
of the peninsula. He ordered the attack.
The attack was triple, but the artillery fire, on which Howe had
counted, was at first valueless, because for the six-pounders had been
sent over mostly nine-pound shot, thanks to the chief of artillery, who
was afterward supposed to be making love to the schoolmaster's daughter.
The cannon, further, got into the marshy ground, and could not find an
effective position. So the real assault was first delivered by the
troops alone, one detachment marching against the redoubt, and one
against the rail fence.
The troops moved with great confidence. According to the habit of the
time, they were completely equipped as for an expedition, with blankets
and three-days' rations. It has been computed that each soldier carried
about a hundred and twenty pounds.[97] They were, therefore, greatly
burdened at best; and on so hot a day, with the grass to their knees,
and many fences to cross, their task was the worse. But they advanced
with great composure, and apparently forgetting the 19th of April they
were deployed in open order, as if to present each marksman with a
separate target. Howe led those who marched at the rail fence, and
General Pigot led the assault upon the redoubt. Both bodies of the
regulars advanced with occasional ineffective volleys.
At first, says tradition, a few Americans fired when the troops came in
range, but Prescott and his officers, leaping upon the parapet of the
redoubt, kicked up the muzzles of the guns. If the men would but obey
him, Prescott told them, not a British soldier would get within the
redoubt. At the rail fence the men were likewise prevented from firing,
Putnam threatening to cut down any who disobeyed. They were ordered not
to shoot until the regulars passed a stake which Stark set up for a
mark. Many familiar sayings were passed among the provincials: "Wait
till you see the whites of their eyes! Aim at the crossing of the belts!
Pick out the handsome coats!"
As if to add to the impressiveness of the scene, it was about this time
that Charlestown, set on fire a little while before, that it should not
give cover to the Americans, and that the smoke should confuse the
rebels, burst into general conflagration. The town had been for weeks
almost deserted, in dread of this fate; now at the command of Howe
red-hot shot were thrown in among the houses, and marines landed from
the ships and fired the wharves and waterside buildings. The act was,
however, a wanton one, for no advantage was gained or lost to either
side by the fire.[98]
At last the troops were near enough. They had themselves been firing
for some time, volleying as they advanced, but firing too high. Now, as
they reached a line some eight or ten rods from the redoubt, Prescott
gave the word to fire, and to continue firing. The discharge from the
redoubt was close, deadly, and incessant, while at the rail fence the
reception of the British was even more fatal. For a few minutes the
regulars held their ground, returning the fire as best they might, yet
decimated by the American bullets, and seeing their officers falling all
about them. There was no hope to advance, and sullenly they withdrew.
If ever there was a moment that marked the fate of our nation, it was
that one. It forecast Bennington, Saratoga, and Yorktown, Gettysburg and
the Wilderness. Well might the provincials exult as they saw the retreat
of the regulars; and well might Washington exclaim, when he learned that
the farmers had driven the British, "Then the liberties of the country
are safe!"[99]
But the battle was not yet won. The slaughter among the officers was
frightful, yet the leaders were uninjured. Howe gave the order, the
troops formed again, and again advanced to the attack. The Americans
admired them as they approached, preserving unbroken order, and stepping
over the bodies of the slain as if they had been logs of wood. This time
the troops were allowed to come nearer yet, but when the provincials
fired at the word the carnage was greater than before. In the smoke the
officers were seen urging their men, striking them with their sword
hilts, and even pricking them with the points. But it was in vain. The
officers themselves were shot down in unheard-of proportion, and at the
rail fence those who survived out of full companies of thirty-nine were
in some cases only three, or four, or five. Nothing could be done under
such a fire. Leaving their dead within a few yards of the American
lines, for a second time the British retreated.
At last Howe had learned his lesson. While his officers, for the sake
of the men, implored him to find some other way to conquer the redoubt,
he determined on a third assault. He ordered that the knapsacks be left
behind, and that the troops be formed in column. In the work of rallying
the disheartened men he was ably helped by Clinton, who, observing a
detachment in disorder near their boats, impetuously hurried across the
river, reformed their ranks, and put himself at their head. Some four
hundred marines came over as reinforcements; according to Lieutenant
Barker, the 47th regiment came also. Howe disposed his forces in three
columns, to attack the three faces of the redoubt.
Between the first and second assaults there had been less than half an
hour's interval. This time the wait was longer, and the Americans
ineffectually sought to take advantage of it. Messengers were again sent
to Ward; the general, learning at last that so many of the British
forces were occupied in the battle that Cambridge was safe from an
attack, gave orders that more regiments should go to Prescott's
assistance. To save the day there was yet time, but of the regiments
thus ordered, few companies reached the ground, and fewer still took
part in the action. And in this the weakness of the American
organization was sadly evident. From first to last Ward seems to have
sent to Bunker Hill sufficient force to have won the battle; but as he
never left his house he could take no pains to make sure that his orders
were obeyed. As a matter of fact, of the regiments despatched, one went
to Lechmere's Point, where it must have secured an excellent view of the
battle, but was completely useless. Being next ordered "to the hill," it
was conducted by its colonel, James Scammans, to Cobble Hill; thence he
sent to Bunker Hill to learn if he was wanted. Receiving a vigorous
reply from Putnam, Scammans at last marched his men to Bunker Hill,
reaching the top in time to witness the end of the battle. In similar
fashion young Major Gridley of the artillery battalion, whom "parental
partiality" had given too much responsibility, took post at a distance,
and fired at the shipping. Both Scammans and Gridley were later
court-martialled. Other officers lost their way, or, like Colonel
Mansfield, who stayed with his regiment to "support" Gridley in his
position of safety, disobeyed orders.
These facts serve to show not only the confusion of the day, but also
the bad judgment, to use no stronger phrase, of unseasoned soldiers. It
is fair to say that the hesitancy of some was offset by the heroism of
others. When Colonel Gerrish, who was later cashiered, could bring his
men no further forward than Bunker Hill, his adjutant, Christian
Febiger, a Dane, led a part of the command to the rail fence, and fought
bravely there. One of the captains of artillery, disregarding Gridley's
commands, took his two guns to Charlestown, and served one of them at
the rail fence. Other individuals named and unnamed, with or without
orders, went to the field, took post where they could, and fought for
their own hand. Yet these are scattered instances in the midst of too
many failures to obey. Those who did march down to the field of carnage,
with "no more thought," as one of them confessed, "of ever rising the
hill again than I had of ascending to Heaven, as Elijah did, soul and
body together,"--those who thus devoted themselves left many behind on
the safe side of Bunker Hill, or posted ineffectively behind distant
fences or trees. Of the thousand Americans who during this last pause in
the battle might have reached the post of danger, not enough arrived to
affect the result.
At last, while aides were still beating up for more support, and Putnam
himself was returning from a similar errand, Howe put his troops in
motion. This time the movement against the rail fence was but a feint;
and now for the first time the artillery of either side did effective
service in the battle. Against the protest of the artillery officers
that the ground was too soft to take better position, Howe ordered them
forward, and they loyally obeyed. They found a post from which they
could enfilade the breastwork, and at their first discharge of grape
sent its defenders into the redoubt for safety. It was the beginning of
the end. Prescott, as he saw the breastwork abandoned, and marked the
three advancing columns, saw that the redoubt was doomed.
And yet the day ought not to have been lost. Had Ward but sent a hundred
pounds of powder, the fight might have been won. But Prescott looked for
it in vain. Or had those men, whom he saw shooting at long range from
positions of safety, come forward to reinforce the defenders of the
redoubt, the scales might have been turned. But the fight was to end as
it had begun, with Prescott's small detachment still unsupported, left
all day without food or water, and now at the end without powder. As the
troops climbed the hill a few artillery cartridges were opened and their
powder distributed among the provincials. Some of the men thus had
three or four charges to their guns, some had only one; besides this,
there were few bayonets among them. The wonder is that the men awaited
the assault.
This time the regulars came within twenty yards of the redoubt before
the word was given to fire. The heads of the columns were swept away,
but the rest came on, and mounted the parapet. The first who topped it
were shot down, among them Pitcairn. But then the American powder was
spent, and from three sides the British swarmed into the redoubt.
Reluctantly Prescott gave his men the word to retreat.
For a few moments the fighting was fierce. Some of the provincials were
unwilling to run, and fought till they were killed. Some used stones,
and some their clubbed muskets, retiring unwillingly. It might be
supposed that the slaughter was great. But the British, for the very
reason that they had entered from three sides, were afraid to fire on
the farmers for the sake of their own men; the dust rose up in clouds,
and so in the confusion most of the defenders escaped, like Peter
Brown, who wrote his mother: "I was not suffered to be touched, although
I was in the front when the enemy came in, and jumped over the walls,
and ran half a mile, where balls flew like hailstones, and cannon roared
like thunder."[100]
Prescott came off unhurt. Those who saw him said that he "stepped long,
with his sword up." He saved his life by parrying the bayonets which
were thrust at him, although some of them pierced his clothes.
That more were not killed in the pursuit was due to two factors. The
first was the exhaustion of the soldiers, who, tired with carrying heavy
loads in the unwonted heat (and an American summer is like the tropics
to an Englishman), were winded with their last charge up the hill. They
were therefore in no good condition to follow up their victory, and the
fugitives were soon away beyond Bunker Hill. Yet that the pursuit was so
poor was due partly to the defenders of the rail fence. These men, more
like veteran regiments than fragments of many commands, withdrew in a
body, continually threatening those who offered to close in from behind.
The end of the fight was as honorable to them as its beginning.
But there was much loss. A number were killed in the redoubt, and the
slopes of Bunker Hill were dotted with slain, killed by bullets and
cannon shot. At the Neck some few more were killed. The total of dead,
according to Ward's record, was 115, of the wounded 305, of the captured
30. Slightly varying totals are reported.[101]
The great personal loss on the part of the Americans was in the death of
Warren. There had been no need of his coming, and his value for higher
services--he was president of the provincial congress and had just been
appointed a major-general--was greater than at the post of actual
conflict. But his fiery spirit, of which we have seen so much, would
not be denied. That day he waked with a headache, but on learning of the
expected battle he declared himself well. Friends tried to detain him,
but he replied with the Latin phrase, "It is sweet and becoming to die
for one's country." On reaching the field he met Putnam, who offered to
take his orders. But Warren had come as a volunteer, and asked where he
should go. Putnam showed him the redoubt, saying, "There you will be
covered."
"Don't think," said Warren, "that I come to seek a place of safety; but
tell me where the onset will be most furious."
Putnam still sent him to the redoubt. "That is the enemy's object."
Warren went to the redoubt, where the men received him with cheers, and
Prescott offered him command. But Warren still declined, took a musket,
and fought with the men. There is no doubt that part of the credit of
the stout defence belongs to him. When the retreat was ordered he
withdrew unwillingly, and was among the last to leave the redoubt.
After he had gone but a little way in the open field he was shot in the
head, and died instantly. Once, when the British questioned the courage
of the Americans, he had said, "By Heavens, I hope I shall die up to my
knees in blood!" He had had his wish.
Warren's death at the time was not certainly known to either friend or
foe; his body was buried on the field, and was disinterred and
identified only after the evacuation. Of the Boston leaders, he was the
only one who gave his life for the cause. He was sadly missed, a man of
keen intellect and excellent political sense, of deep sympathies, and
high honor. A magnetic leader, he could ill be spared.
The last figure on the battle-field was Putnam's. At the unfinished
fortification on Bunker Hill he implored the fugitives to rally and
"give them one shot more." The profanity which he used on this occasion
he afterwards penitently acknowledged in church. He retired only when
the pursuers were close behind, but went no further than Prospect Hill.
There, seizing on the chance which so long had been denied him, without
orders he collected men and commenced another redoubt. The next day he
was found there, unwashed, still digging, and ready for another battle.
Prescott returned to Cambridge, reported at headquarters, and offered if
given sufficient troops to retake the hill. But Ward was afraid of his
own position, and would not sanction the attempt.
The British loss was very heavy, about one thousand and fifty, of whom a
quarter were killed, while ninety-two among the dead were officers.
Pitcairn was carried to Boston, and died there. Colonel Abercrombie was
killed, and many others of lesser note. As soon as it was possible the
wounded officers were conveyed to Boston for medical attendance, and we
have in Major Clarke's narrative a dismal picture of one sad procession.
"In the first carriage was Major Williams, bleeding and dying, and
three dead captains of the fifty-second regiment. In the second, four
dead officers; then another with wounded officers."
The Americans, at first discouraged by their defeat, in the course of
time came to regard it as a victory. This it certainly was not, yet it
had all the moral effect of a British defeat. The regulars learned that
the provincials would stand up to them. "Damn the rebels," was the
current phrase; "they would not flinch."[102] Many of the officers felt
called upon to explain, in letters home, the reason for the defeat. The
American rifles, argued one, were "peculiarly adapted to take off the
officers of a whole line as it advances to an attack." They reasoned
that the redoubt, whose perfection when examined was astonishing, must
have been the work of days. As to the comparative uselessness of the
British cannon, it was explained by the nine-pound shot (some say
twelve) sent for the six-pounders. Said one newspaper: "It naturally
required a great while to ram down such disproportioned shot; nor did
they, when discharged, fly with that velocity and true direction they
would have done, had they been better suited to the size of the
cannon."[103]
But aside from a few such absurdities, the body of the army and the
British public recognized at last that they had formidable antagonists.
This was no such fight as that on the 19th of April, when the shifting
provincials gave the regulars nothing to strike at. This was a pitched
battle, and the farmers had all but won it. The British were amazed by
the stubborn defence, and the rapidity and accuracy of the American
fire. The proportion of killed among the officers was greater than any
before known, and veterans admitted that the slaughter was worse than at
Minden, the deadliest of recent European battles. It is with reason,
then, that Boston still celebrates Bunker Hill. It was the first signal
proof of American courage, and forecast the success of the siege.
Indeed, it is not too much to say that Bunker Hill battle had influence
in deciding the outcome of the war. Howe, destined to be the leader of
the British forces, never forgot the lesson of the redoubt on Breed's
Hill, or of the flimsy fence of rails and hay. It was seldom that he
could resolve to send his men against a rebel entrenchment.
FOOTNOTES:
[92] Frothingham's "Siege," 123.
[93] Frothingham's "Siege," 126, and Sabine's "Loyalists," 707.
[94] Reports vary from eighty to three hundred feet.
[95] Dearborn's account of the battle, _Historical Magazine_ for 1864.
[96] Bancroft, v, 612.
[97] Ross's "Life of Cornwallis," quoted in Fonblanque's "Burgoyne,"
159.
[98] The picturesqueness of this scene has been remarked by many
writers. The best contemporary description is, of course, Burgoyne's.
"To consider this action as a soldier, it comprised, though in a small
compass, almost every branch of military duty and curiosity. Troops
landed in the face of an enemy; a fine disposition; a march sustained by
a powerful cannonade by moving field artillery, fixed batteries,
floating batteries, and broadsides of ships at anchor, all operating
separately and well disposed; a deployment from the march to form for
the attack of the entrenchments and redoubt; a vigorous defence; a storm
with bayonets; a large and fine town set on fire by shells. Whole
streets of houses, ships upon the stocks, a number of churches, all
sending up volumes of smoke and flame, or falling together in ruins,
were capital objects. A prospect of the neighboring hills, the steeples
of Boston, and the masts of such ships as were unemployed in the harbor,
all crowded with spectators, friends and foes alike in anxious suspense,
made a background to the piece; and the whole together composed a
representation of war that I think the imagination of Lebrun never
reached."--FONBLANQUE, "Burgoyne," 156.
[99] Lodge's "Washington," i, 133.
[100] Appendix to Frothingham's "Siege," 393.
[101] Washington reported later 139 killed, 36 missing, 278 wounded.
[102] Moore's "Diary of the Revolution," 110.
[103] These two quotations are from Frothingham's "Siege."