Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, the first major battle of the war had been fought. The British position on the peninsula of Boston was impregnable to direct assault, but high ground north and south, at Charlestown and Dorchester Heights, could be used to pound the British positions in the city with artillery. When the Continentals seized Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill at Charlestown and set up defenses on the latter, Gage determined at once to drive them off. This was accomplished on June 17. Twice the Redcoats marched in close ranks, bayonets fixed, up Breed’s Hill, and each time were driven back after suffering heavy losses. Stubbornly they came again, and this time they carried the redoubt, for the defenders had run out of ammunition.
The British then cleared the Charlestown peninsula, but the victory was really the Americans’, for they had proved themselves against professional soldiers and had exacted a terrible toll. More than 1,000 Redcoats had fallen in a couple of hours, out of a force of some 2,500, while the Continentals lost only 400 men, most of them cut down by British bayonets after the hill was taken. “The day ended in glory,” a British officer wrote, “but the loss was uncommon in officers for the number engaged.”
The Battle of Bunker Hill, as it was called for no good reason, greatly reduced whatever hope remained for a negotiated settlement. The spilling of so much blood left each side determined to force the other’s submission. The British recalled General Gage, replacing him with General William Howe, a respected veteran of the French and Indian War, and George III formally proclaimed the colonies to be “in open rebellion.” The
On June 17, the British tried to dislodge Continentals from fortified (and concealed) positions atop Breed's Hill in Charlestown. Note the British cannon batteries on the shore in Boston, lobbing shells into Charlestown. When colonists brought a cannon from Ticonderoga and placed it on hills commanding Boston, the British had no choice but to leave the city.
Source: Winthrop Chandler, The Battle of Bunker Hill (detail), c. 1776-1777. Oil on Canvas, 34-7/s X 53-5/s". Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gardner Richardson (1982.281). Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Reproduced with permission. © 2002 Museum of Fine Arts Boston. All rights reserved.
Continental Congress dispatched one last plea to the king (the Olive Branch Petition), but this was a sop to the moderates. Immediately thereafter it adopted the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which condemned everything the British had done since 1763. Americans were “a people attacked by unprovoked enemies”; the time had come to choose between “submission” to “tyranny” and “resistance by force.” The Congress then ordered an attack on Canada and created committees to seek foreign aid and to buy munitions abroad. It authorized the outfitting of a navy under Commodore Esek Hopkins of Rhode Island.
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