The evening proved a rainy one and cool for the season; but the
"Dolphin's" cabin was found an agreeable resort. All gathered there,
and at once there was an urgent request from the young people that the
interrupted story of the battle of Bunker Hill might be resumed.
"You know, Papa, we left off just where Prescott's men were digging and
making a redoubt," said Lulu. "The night before the battle, wasn't it?"
"Yes," he replied. "The British were greatly astonished when daylight
revealed the work that had been going on during the hours of darkness;
for it was done so quietly that their suspicions had not been aroused.
"No shout disturbed the night
Before that fearful fight;
There was no boasting high,
No marshalling of men
Who ne'er might meet again;
No cup was filled and quaffed to victory!
No plumes were there,
No banners fair,
No trumpets breathed around;
Nor the drum's startling sound
Broke on the midnight air."
"What nice verses, Papa!" said Gracie. "Did you make them yourself?"
"No, daughter," he replied, "it was merely a quotation from John Neal,
one of our own American poets.
"But to go on with my story. As soon as the British discovered the
redoubt our men had constructed on Breed's Hill, the captain of the
'Lively' put springs on his cables and opened a fire upon it without
waiting for orders.
"The noise of the cannon aroused the sleeping people of Boston, and by
the time the sun was up every eminence and roof in the city swarmed
with them, all gazing with astonished eyes upon the strange apparition
on Breed's Hill. The 'Lively's' shots did no harm, and the Americans
went on as before with their work. They were behind their intrenchments
busied in strengthening them, and toiled on till pick and shovel had to
be laid aside for guns to defend them with.
"The firing presently ceased for a little, by order of Admiral Graves,
the British naval commander-in-chief, but was soon resumed by the
shipping, while a battery of six guns on Copp's Hill in the city joined
in with them.
"Early that morning the British general, Gage, called a council of war,
and it was decided to drive the Americans out of their works, and that
the attack should be made in front.
"Boston was full of excitement, drums were beating, dragoons
galloping about the streets, regulars and royalists marching and
counter-marching, artillery trains rumbling and church-bells ringing."
"Ah, how the hearts of wives and mothers, brothers and sisters, must
have been torn at thought of the terrible struggle just at hand!"
sighed Grandma Elsie, as the Captain paused for a moment in his
narrative.
"Yes," he replied, "then and still more when from the roofs, steeples,
and every sort of elevation, they watched with streaming eyes the
progress of the fight after it had actually begun."
"Oh," exclaimed Gracie, "how glad and thankful I am that God let us
live in these later days when there is no war in our dear country!
"Yes, dear child, we should thank God for peace," her father responded,
softly smoothing her hair and pressing his lips to her cheek for an
instant as she stood by his side, her head resting lovingly on his
shoulder.
"The Americans worked faithfully on their intrenchments all the
morning," he continued, "Prescott doing all he could to encourage
them by his voice and example, even walking leisurely around upon the
parapet in full view of the British officers who were still in Boston.
"It is said that Gage was looking at the American works through a
field-glass, and saw Prescott, who was a tall man of commanding
appearance, going his rounds, and that he inquired of Counsellor
Willard, a brother-in-law of Prescott, who was standing near, who it
was.
"'That is Colonel Prescott,' was the reply.
"'Will he fight?' asked Gage.
"'Yes, sir,' answered Willard, 'he is an old soldier, and will fight as
long as a drop of blood remains in his veins.'
"'The works must be carried immediately,' was Gage's rejoinder, and he
at once proceeded to give the order for the attack.
"He sent between two and three thousand picked men under the command
of Generals Howe and Pigot. They crossed the water in twenty-eight
barges, and landed at Morton's Point beyond the eastern foot of Breed's
Hill, covered by the guns of the 'Falcon' and other vessels. There they
waited for reinforcements, which were sent Howe about two o'clock.
"While the troops of Howe and Pigot were waiting, they dined; but the
poor Americans behind their intrenchments, at which they had been
working all the morning as well as from twelve o'clock of the previous
night, had little or nothing to eat or drink, and were suffering with
hunger, thirst, and the extreme heat of the weather as well as fatigue,
for the day was one of the hottest of the season.
"Besides, the reinforcements sent to their assistance were so few and
feeble that a dreadful suspicion arose in their minds that they were
the victims of treachery.
"Still they could not doubt the patriotism of their principal officers;
and before the battle began, the arrival of their beloved Dr. Warren
and General Pomeroy entirely relieved their doubts.
"Dr. Warren was suffering from sickness and exhaustion; and Putnam,
who was at Cambridge forwarding reinforcements and provisions to
Charlestown, tried to persuade him not to take part in the coming
fight. But his heart was in the cause, and he was not to be induced
to give up doing all he could to help in the approaching struggle for
freedom.
"He mounted a horse, sped across the neck, and just as Howe gave orders
to advance, entered the redoubt amid the loud cheers of the men who so
loved and trusted him."
"Such a lovely man, and ardent patriot as he was!" exclaimed Violet.
"Oh, it makes my heart ache to think that he was killed in that battle."
"It was a very great loss to the American cause," responded her
husband, taking a book from a table near at hand as he spoke. "This,"
he said, "is Bancroft's History, which I bought this afternoon that I
might have his help in going over the story of the battle of Bunker
Hill and other interesting events of the Revolution. This is what he
says of Joseph Warren:--
"In him were combined swiftness of thought and resolve, courage,
endurance, and manners which won universal love. He opposed the
British government not from interested motives nor from resentment.
Guileless and intrepid, he was in truth a patriot. As the moment for
the appeal to arms approached, he watched with joy the revival of the
generous spirit of New England's ancestors; and wherever the peril was
greatest he was present animating not by words alone, but ever by his
example.
"His integrity, the soundness of his judgment, his ability to write
readily and well, his fervid eloquence, his exact acquaintance with
American rights and the infringements of them, gave authority to his
advice in private and in the provincial congress. Had he lived, the
future seemed burdened with his honors; he cheerfully sacrificed all
for the freedom of his country and the rights of man."
"He left some children, if I remember right?" remarked Violet in a tone
of inquiry, as her husband paused in his reading.
"Yes, four of them," answered the Captain; "and his wife having died
about two years before, they were now left orphans, in straitened
circumstances.
"And that reminds me of a good deed done by Gen. Benedict Arnold. He
was a warm friend of Warren, and for that reason came to their relief,
himself contributing five hundred dollars for their education, and
obtaining from Congress the amount of a major-general's half pay, to be
applied to their support from the time of their father's death until
the youngest child should be of age.
"But to go on with the account of the battle. Warren had been entreated
not thus to expose his life. His answer was, 'It is sweet and becoming
to die for one's country.' He saw all the difficulties in the way of
his countrymen, and desired to give all the help in his power.
"Putnam expressed himself as ready to receive his orders; but Warren
declined to take the command from him, and passed on to the redoubt
which seemed likely to be the chief point of attack by the enemy.
"Prescott there offered the command to him, as Putnam had just done;
but Warren again declined, saying, 'I come as a volunteer, to learn
from a soldier of experience.' This though three days before he had
been elected a provincial major-general.
"After the British had landed and before the battle began, Col. John
Stark arrived with his New Hampshire troops. Except Prescott he brought
the largest number into the field. He was a very brave man, and so
cool and collected that he marched leisurely across the isthmus, raked
by the cannon of the enemy; and when one of his captains advised a
quickstep, he replied, 'One fresh man in action is worth ten fatigued
ones.'
"There was not time for him to consult with Prescott. They fought
independently,--Prescott at his redoubt, Stark and Knowlton, and Reed's
regiment to protect its flank.
"Months before that,--two days after the battle of Concord,--Gage had
threatened to burn Charlestown in case the Americans should occupy
the heights. So an order was now given to set it on fire, and it was
done by shells from Copp's Hill; the houses being mostly of wood, two
hundred of them were soon in flames.
"The British thought to be protected in their advance by the smoke of
the burning houses, but a gentle breeze, the first that had been felt
that day, arose and wafted it aside, so that they were not hidden from
the eyes of the Americans.
"It was somewhere between two and three o'clock when the British began
their approach. They were in two columns, one led by Howe, the other by
Pigot, Howe no doubt expecting to get into Prescott's rear and force
him to a surrender. But I will give another extract from Bancroft.
"As they began to march, the battery on Copp's Hill, from which
Clinton and Burgoyne were watching every movement, kept up an
incessant fire, which was seconded by the 'Falcon' and the
'Lively,' the 'Somerset' and the two floating batteries; the town of
Charlestown, consisting of five hundred edifices of wood, burst into
a blaze; and the steeple of its only church became a pyramid of fire.
All the while the masts of the British shipping and the heights of the
British camp, the church towers, the house tops of a populous town,
and the acclivities of the surrounding country, were crowded with
spectators to watch the battle which was to take place in full sight
on a conspicuous eminence."
"Oh, Papa," pleaded Gracie, as he paused for an instant, "please tell
it. I like that so much better than listening to reading."
"Quite a compliment to me as a reader," he returned with an amused look.
"No, sir, as a talker. I like to hear you tell things," she responded,
with a sweet, engaging smile.
"Do you, dear child? Very well, I'll try to gratify you.
"When Prescott saw the red-coats moving toward his redoubt he ordered
two separate detachments to flank the enemy, then went through his
works encouraging his men, to whom this was an entirely new experience.
'The red-coats will never reach the redoubt,' he said, 'if you will but
withhold your fire till I give the order; and be careful not to shoot
over their heads.' Then he waited till the enemy had come within a few
rods, when waving his sword over his head he gave the word, 'Fire!'
"Every gun was instantly discharged, and nearly the whole of the front
rank fell; the rest, astonished at this unexpected resistance, stood
still. Then for some minutes the fire of the Americans continued,
answered by the British, till at last they staggered, wavered, then
fled down the hill toward their boats.
"Howe had been treated to a like reception by Stark's and Knowlton's
troops, cheered on by Putnam who, like Prescott, bade them reserve
their fire till the best moment, when they poured in one as deadly and
destructive as that which came from Prescott's redoubt."
"Wasn't Prescott's order to his men to reserve their fire till they
could see the whites of the British soldier's eyes?" queried Violet.
"Yes, so Lossing tells us; and that he added, 'Then aim at their
waistbands; and be sure to pick off the commanders, known by their
handsome coats.'
"His men were filled with joy when they saw the British fly, and wanted
to pursue them, some even leaping the fence; but their more prudent
officers restrained them, and in a few minutes they were all within
their works again, and ready to receive and repulse a second attack.
"Colonel Prescott praised and encouraged them while Putnam rode over to
Bunker Hill to urge on reinforcement; but 'few additional troops could
be brought to Breed's Hill before the second attack was made.' Before
that the British were reinforced by four hundred marines from Boston,
then they moved against the redoubt in the same order as at first,
their artillery doing more damage to the Americans than in the first
assault."
"Papa," asked Gracie, "what had become of the wounded men they'd left
lying on the ground?--those the Americans shot down at their first fire
over the redoubt?"
"They were still lying there on the ground where they had fallen, poor
fellows! and the others marched over them. Ah, war is a dreadful thing,
and those who forced it upon the patient, long-suffering Americans were
either very thoughtless or exceeding cruel."
"Yes," exclaimed Rosie, "I don't know what George III. could have been
made of to be willing to cause so much suffering even to innocent
defenceless women and children, just that he might play the tyrant and
forcibly take from the Americans their own hard earnings to pay his
way."
"He was perhaps not quite so wicked as weak," replied her mother; "you
know, I think, that he afterward lost his mind several times. Indeed he
had done so once before this,--in 1764."
"He had been wicked and cruel enough for a guilty conscience to set him
crazy, I should think," remarked Max.
"Please go on, again, Papa, won't you?" entreated Lulu.
"I will," he said. "The British fired as they drew near, but with
little effect; and the Americans, reserving their fire as before, till
the foe was within five or six yards of the redoubt, then poured it on
them with deadly aim, as at the first attack. It told with terrible
effect; whole ranks of officers and men fell dead."
"Oh, didn't they run then, Papa?" queried Gracie with a shudder of
horror as she seemed to see the ground strewed with the dead and dying.
"They were thrown into confusion and retreated to the shore," the
Captain replied,--"retreated in great disorder. It seemed that the
American fire was even more fatal than before. In telling the story
afterward Prescott said, 'From the whole American line there was a
continuous stream of fire.'
"The British officers exposed themselves fearlessly, and urged their
soldiers on with persuasions, threats, and even blows; but they could
not reach the redoubt, and presently gave way, and, as I have said,
retreated in great disorder.
"At one time Howe was left nearly alone for a few seconds, so many of
his officers had been killed or wounded; while 'the dead,' as Stark
said in his account of the battle, 'lay as thick as sheep in a fold.'
"Now I think my little Gracie will have to put up with some more
reading," added the Captain, with a smiling glance at her; then opening
his book, read aloud,--
"At intervals the artillery from the ships and batteries was playing,
while the flames were rising over the town of Charlestown and laying
waste the places of the graves of its fathers, and streets were
falling together, and ships at the yards were crashing on the stocks,
and the kindred of the Americans, from the fields, and hills and
house-tops around, watched every gallant act of their defenders. 'The
whole,' wrote Burgoyne, 'was a complication of horror and importance
beyond anything it ever came to my lot to be witness to. It was a
sight for a young soldier that the longest service may not furnish
again."
"If," remarked Captain Raymond, again closing the book, "it was so
dreadful a sight for soldiers accustomed to the horrors of war, what
must it not have been to the American farmers taking their first lesson
in war? But not one of them shrank from duty. I think we may be very
proud of those countrymen of ours. Prescott said to his men, 'If we
drive them back once more they cannot rally again.' At that his men
cheered him, and shouted. 'We are ready for the red-coats again.'
"But alas! the officers now discovered that the supply of gunpowder was
nearly exhausted. Prescott had sent in the morning for more, but it had
not come; and there were not fifty bayonets in his party."
"They were wonderfully brave to stand for a third attack under such
circumstances," remarked Evelyn.
"They were indeed," responded the Captain. "No one of the seven hundred
men with Prescott seems to have thought of giving up the contest
without another effort. Some gathered stones from the redoubt to use
as missiles, those who had no bayonets resolved to club their guns and
strike with them when their powder should be gone; all were determined
to fight as long as a ray of hope of success could be discerned. And
they did.
"They waited with quiet firmness the approach of the enemy who came
steadily on with fixed bayonets, while their cannon were so trained
that they swept the interior of the breast-work from one end to the
other, obliging the Americans to crowd within their fort.
"The Americans were presently attacked on three sides, at once; and
there were, as I have said, but seven hundred of them, some of whom had
no more than one round of ammunition, none of them more than four. But
they did not quail, and Prescott calmly gave his directions.
"He bade his men wait, reserving their fire till the enemy was within
twenty yards. Then they poured in a deadly volley. Every shot told.
Howe was wounded in the foot, and several of his officers were killed
besides the common soldiers. But they pressed on to the now nearly
silent redoubt, for the American fire had slackened and begun to die
away.
"And now there was only a ridge of earth between the combatants, and
the first of the British who reached it were assailed with a shower
of stones. Then some of them scaled the parapet and were shot down in
the act. One of these was Major Pitcairn, who had led the troops at
Lexington. As he mounted the parapet he cried out, 'Now for the glory
of the marines!' and was answered by a shot from a negro that gave him
a mortal wound. His son carried him to a boat, conveyed him to Boston,
and there he soon died."
"Oh!" exclaimed Gracie, "I hope that brave Colonel Prescott didn't get
killed, Papa!"
"No; he escaped unhurt, though his coat and waistcoat were pierced and
torn in several places by the bayonets of the British, which he parried
with his sword.
"It was now a hand-to-hand fight, British and Americans mingled
together, our men walking backward and hewing their way out, dealing
deadly blows with their muskets.
"Fortunately the British were too much exhausted to use their bayonets
with vigour; and so intermingled were they and the Americans that the
use of firearms would have been dangerous to their own men as well as
to ours."
"Oh," sighed Rosie, "I have always been so sorry that our men didn't
have plenty of gunpowder! I don't think there's a doubt that if they
had been well supplied with it, they would have won a grand victory."
"Yes; they did wonders considering all they had to contend with,"
said the Captain. "Their courage, endurance, and skill as marksmen
astonished the British, and were never forgotten by them during the
long war that followed.
"The number engaged in the battle of Bunker Hill was small, all
taken together not more than fifteen hundred of the Americans,--less
than seven hundred in the redoubt,--while of the British there were,
according to Gage, more than two thousand; other and accurate observers
said, 'near upon three thousand.'
"But in spite of the smallness of the numbers engaged, the battle was
one of the severest and most determined on record. Neither side could
claim a victory, but both displayed great courage and determination."
"And Joseph Warren was one of the killed!" sighed Grandma Elsie, "one
of the bravest, best, and most lovable of men, as those who knew him
have testified. I remember reading that Mrs. John Adams said of him
and his death, 'Not all the havoc and devastation they have made has
wounded me like the death of Warren. We want him in the Senate; we
want him in his profession; we want him in the field. We mourn for
the citizen, the senator, the physician, and the warrior.' General
Howe said, 'His death was worth more to the British than that of five
hundred of the provincial privates.'"
"And that was not an over-estimate, I think," said the Captain. "It was
indeed a sad loss to the cause of the colonies when he was slain."
"But there were more of the British killed than of our men,--weren't
there, Papa?" asked Lulu.
"Yes, very many more. By Gage's own account the number of killed and
wounded in his army was at least one thousand and fifty-four. The
oldest soldiers had never seen anything like it,--so many officers
killed and wounded. Bancroft tells us that the battle of Quebec, which
won a continent, did not cost the lives of so many officers as the
battle of Bunker Hill, which gained nothing 'but a place of encampment.'
"The American loss was one hundred and forty-five in killed and
missing, three hundred and four wounded. No doubt the loss would have
been very much greater but for the brave conduct of the men at the rail
fence and the bank of the Mystic, who kept the enemy at bay while the
men from the redoubt retreated. You may remember that they were Stark's
men from New Hampshire and Knowlton's from Connecticut."
"I hope the result of the battle encouraged the Americans as much as it
discouraged the British," remarked Rosie, "and I think I have read that
it did."
"Yes," the Captain replied, "it did. In his general order, thanking
the officers and soldiers for their gallant behaviour at Charlestown,
Ward said, 'We shall finally come off victorious, and triumph over the
enemies of freedom and America.'"
"Did they fight any more that night, Papa?" asked Gracie.
"No," he said, "though Prescott went to headquarters and offered to
recover his post if he might have three fresh regiments. He did not
seem to think he had done anything more than his duty, and asked for
neither praise nor promotion, though others gave him unstinted praise
for what he had done.
"Putnam was absent from the field, engaged in trying to collect
reinforcements, when the third attack was made, and the retreating
party encountered him on the northern declivity of Bunker Hill. He
tried to stop and turn them about,--commanded, pleaded, and used every
exertion in his power to rally the scattered corps, swearing that
victory should crown the American arms. 'Make a stand here; we can stop
them yet!' he exclaimed. 'In God's name, fire, and give them one shot
more!'
"It is said that after the war was over he made a sincere confession to
the church of which he was a member; but he said, 'It was almost enough
to make an angel swear to see the cowards refuse to secure a victory so
nearly won.'"
"And couldn't he stop them, Papa?" asked Gracie.
"He succeeded with some few," replied her father, "joined them to a
detachment which had not reached the spot till the fighting was over,
and with them took possession of Prospect Hill, where he encamped for
the night."
"Oh, Papa, what did they do with all those Americans and British who
had been killed?" asked Gracie.
"There must have been many a sad funeral," the Captain said in reply,
"many a widow and fatherless child to weep over the slain. Ah, let us
thank our heavenly Father for the liberty and security bought for us at
so fearful a price."
"Yes," responded Grandma Elsie; "and let us keep them for ourselves and
our children by the eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty.'"