USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 19
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* " Siege of Boston ;" Botta ; Graham.
215
BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.
[1775.]
and the wounded were seen instinctively crawling upon their hands and knees to get out of the broken lines and save themselves from the heavy tread of the columns that they could hear forming behind them, and whose weight as they advanced might easily crush out the spark of life that still remained. The British ranks closed up sternly as if they had been walls of iron. They returned the American fire, but as they took no aim, and as the Americans were under cover along their whole line, they fought at fearful odds. General Pigot, on the left, soon ordered a retreat .* But General Howe, who came of a family that had an old military renown, and who knew as little what fear was as did Putnam himself, was determined not to give back. Exposing his person to the deadly fire of an enemy, who, as he could now see by the fallen plumes around him, were singling out the most shining marks upon the field with as much deliberation as if they had been firing at a target, and advancing nearer to the rail fence than any of his columns could be made to approach, waving his sword and animating his men, he stood his ground, while volley after volley was discharged with a regularity that showed the perfection of British discipline, and the cool courage of the Saxon blood. But as fast as his ranks were closed, they were opened by the murderous and now irregular fire of the provincials. He was at last forced to retreat, leav- ing hundreds of his men dead and dying upon the hill-side. In some instances whole columns almost to a man were shot dead.t The cry of victory, wild as the havoc of the battle, now echoed along the whole American line .¿ So total was
* The British account in the Conduct of the War, says :- " On the left Pigot was staggered, and actually retreated by orders : great pains have been taken to huddle up this matter."
+ Frothingham.
# Many were marksmen, intent on cutting down British officers, and when one was in sight, they exclaimed-" There ! see that officer !" "Let us have a shot at him !" when two or three would fire at the same moment. They used the fence as a resting-place for their guns, and the bullets were true to their message. When the enemy retreated, many of the Americans were in favor of pursuing them ; and some, with exulting huzzas, leapt over the fence for this purpose, but were re-called by their officers. Frothingham, 142.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
the defeat of the enemy, that many of them sought the friendly shelter of the boats." The reinforcements sent by General Ward now came thronging from Cambridge. But when they arrived at the neck, the cannon balls and chain- shot from the enemy's ships and batteries swept across it and plowed up the ground so frightfully that they did not dare to . go over. While the enemy at the foot of the hill, were mus- tering their columns for a second attack, Putnam took advantage of this breathing-spell in the conflict, and rode to the neck to induce the reinforcements to cross it.t He appealed to their love of liberty, he taunted them with cowardice, he threatened them with punishment ; still they cowered behind trees or fled shuddering from the fatal mis- sives that flew like hail-stones around them. Striking his jaded horse with the blade of his sword, again and again he rode across the fatal spot in the vain attempt to convince the soldiers that there was no danger.} But they could not believe that the clouds of dust which rolled up from the earth and half hid his form from view, could be a safe screen for them, although they were ready to admit that he was invulnerable. A portion of them, however, were shamed out of their fears and followed Putnam across the neck.§
General Putnam now hastened to Bunker Hill to procure reinforcements for a second reception of the enemy. He found Colonel Gerrish snugly quartered there, with a part of his regiment and some other troops who had there taken refuge. Gerrish, who was very corpulent, lay flat on the ground, and declared that he was entirely overcome with the heat, while his men were scattered about on the west side of the hill and
* Gordon, i. 353. + Chester's letter. # Swett, 35.
§ The cowardice or inefficiency of Major Gridley on this occasion was con- spicuous. He was a son of the brave Colonel Gridley ; but being young and inexperienced, he proved himself quite unequal to so important a command. Col. Swett remarks : " His aversion to entering into the engagement was invincible, and he ordered them [his troops] on to Cobble Hill, to fire at the Glasgow and floating batteries. This order was so palpably absurd, with their three pounders, that Captain Trevett absolutely refused obedience, ordered his men to follow him, and marched for the lines." Frothingham, p. 146.
217
BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.
[1775.]
entirely screened by its summit from the reach of cannon or musket shot. Putnam ordered them to resume their places. They refused to obey. He threatened them, and some of them he knocked down with the hilt of his sword. But all his attempts were idle, and he again repaired to the fence to await the second advance of the enemy .*
General Howe had now re-organized his troops, and was ready to march. The British advanced through the tall grass with the same calm bravery that had marked their previous movements, carrying their heavy knapsacks, arms, and accoutrements, weighing one hundred and twenty-five pounds, and in the face of the burning sun. They were obliged this time, in addition to other obstacles, to step over the corpses of their fallen comrades. When they had arrived within a suitable distance to commence the attack, some of the soldiers piled up these bodies into a grim and bleeding breastwork, and under cover of such a defense, fired at the provincial lines. t
The Americans had already begun to look upon the con- flict as an exciting sport. They were ordered to reserve their fire until the British columns had approached within six rods.
By this time, Boston and its environs presented to the eye of the thousands who were assembled to witness it, a spectacle of the most sublimely interesting character.
Those bold hills rising from the bay, and impartially enclos- ing the two armies in their walls of summer verdure, were crowned with the fathers, wives, daughters, and mothers, of the combatants who had so nobly begun to resist the blind fury of arbitrary power.
The eminences, roofs, and steeples of Boston, were occu- pied by the distressed inhabitants of the town, by the soldiers who had not been called into active service, and in some instances, by the wives of the British officers who had seen with heart-rending agony, the gay plumes that they had watched floating in the breeze of the bay as the barges bore
* Swett's Hist., p. 37 ; Frothingham, 143.
+ This singular fact is attested by an eye witness. See Hist. of the battle, p. 37.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
their husbands to the fatal scene, droop and sink beneath the waves of battle. The cannonade and bombardment too, that had been opened on the American camp at Roxbury, to pre- · vent the troops who were posted there from mingling in the action, the roar of artillery from the floating batteries, from the ships, and from the cannon that had now approached within three hundred yards of the rail fence, and were begin- ning to sound again the note of onset, sent the tidings in long echoes from hill to hill .*
A new feature was now added to the horrors of war. General Howe on his first advance had sent word to General Burgoyne and General Clinton, that his left flank was exposed to attack from some troops stationed at Charlestown, and begged them to set the place on fire. A carcass was thrown into the town but failed. A second fell into the street and commenced the work that was more thoroughly completed by some troops who landed from the Somerset, and applied the torch with an unsparing hand. The town consisted of about three hun- dred dwelling houses and two hundred other buildings, and was constructed chiefly of wood, which, from the summer drought, was inflammable as tinder. The whole village was soon in a blaze. The flames darted to the tall church-spire that towered above the town, and flashed up into the heavens, a signal of distress and menace that could be seen for miles along the coast .; Doubtless it was hoped that the flames would have intimidated the provincials, or that the smoke would have cast a dark cloud over the hill-side and blinded their eyes so that the British columns could advance without being again exposed to their deadly aim. But the elements seldom favor the designs of incendiaries.
The battle-field was unobstructed by the smoke, and the British troops marched in sight of the flames that they had kindled, and that threw into their own faces a sickly gleam, like that of a funeral pyre. They opened their fire with the same show of discipline as before, but with the same want of judgment in overshooting the heads of the provincials.j
* See Gordon, i. 353. + Gordon, i. 353. # Swett ; Frothingham ; Graham.
219
BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.
[1775.]
The orders of Putnam were this time strictly obeyed. Not a gun was discharged until the enemy had come within one hundred feet of the American lines. Then the word was given, and instantly whole ranks of the British troops fell dead as if blasted by lightning. They rallied and shot volley after volley, as before ; but neither discipline nor valor could resist death coming in such a shape. In a few minutes one thousand men had fallen, with a proportion of veteran officers truly alarming. The ranks now began to reel and fall back. Almost every member of General Howe's staff was either slain or disabled. Balfour, his aid-de-camp, had been shot through the body and was carried bleeding from the field ; Gordon, his volunteer aid, and the gallant Captain Addison, a descendant of the author of the Spectator, were both dead. He seemed left alone between the American lines and his retreating columns .* Stung to madness at the sickening sight of death and blood, and anxious to share rather than to shun the fate of so many brave men, he made almost superhuman exertions to save himself from a second defeat. But the attempt to stop a mountain torrent would not have been more fruitless than his efforts to bring his shattered columns again into line. Retreating slowly over fallen forms and pools of blood, him- self unwounded, he followed them toward the barges with a sorrowful heart.t
Still there lingered upon the hill-side, where the musket balls ranged thickest, one solitary veteran who seemed bent on finding the home that he had sought in so many battles, a soldier's grave. Putnam, whose eye swept the whole field at once, saw him and recognized him at a glance as his old friend, Major Small, who had fought side by side with him in the French wars. His heart swelled within him. He
* Stedman, i. 127. A British officer writes, (June 25th,) " General Howe was three times in the field left by himself, so numerous were the killed and wounded about him." Howe was a brave and successful officer. He defeated the Ameri- cans at Germantown, Oct. 4, 1777, and with his brother, Admiral Howe, he was a commissioner for peace. He published a narrative of his command in North America, second edition, 1780 : and died in 1814.
+ Swett's Hist., p. 39.
220
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
rushed to the spot where the keen marksmen were leveling their muskets to cut him down, and threw up their tubes into the air in time to save him. "Spare him," shouted the old hero, as fervently as if he had indeed been begging for the life of his father's son, "Spare that officer, for he is dear to me as a brother." An exclamation of affectionate sympathy and chivalric enthusiasm rang along the American lines, mingling not discordantly with the shouts of victory. The sacredness of friendship was respected and the British officer, gracefully acknowledging the interference, slowly retired from the field .*
The joy of the Americans was followed by the sad con- sciousness that their ammunition was spent.
General Clinton, who had been able to see, from his elevated position upon Copp's Hill, where was the weak point in the American defenses, and who had felt his blood boiling in his veins when he saw his favorite battalions, the marines, and the forty-seventh, breaking and giving way, without staying for orders, leapt into a boat and crossed over to the foot of the hill where the British troops were now trying to make a last rally. His arrival inspired the British army with new confidence. A new plan of attack was now adopted. General Howe ordered the right wing toward the lines with fixed bayonets.t Courting as before the post of danger, he now assumed the command of the left wing, to march against the redoubt. Clinton joined General Pigot with the marines on the left, with the intention of turning the right flank of the Americans. General Howe ordered the artillery to advance beyond their former position, and turn the left of the breast- work. This point has justly been called the key of the American defenses.
General Putnam, who saw that it was idle to think of defend- ing the lines without a large reinforcement, took this last opportunity to bring on fresh troops and to supply the soldiers with ammunition. He again rode to the rear. He ordered
* Swett's Hist., 39 ; Graham, iv. 381 ; Botta, i. 205, 206.
+ Frothingham, 148.
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221
MAJOR DURKEE AND CAPTAIN CHESTER.
[1775.]
the brave Col. Gardner to leave the intrenchments on Bun- ker Hill, and descend to the rail fence. As the colonel was in the act of descending the hill, a musket ball entered his groin, and he fell mortally wounded .*
The confusion that now prevailed along the entire road from Cambridge to the neck, surpasses description.
Just at this critical time, three companies from Connec- ticut under Captains Chester, Clark, and Coit, came up, and crossing the neck in unbroken order, advanced toward Bun- ker Hill. The brave Major Durkee, of stamp act celebrity, also came up to share in the engagement.t When Capt. Chester started from Cambridge, three regiments of raw troops set out in advance of his company ; but when he overtook them at the hill, they were in a state of disorder that is best described by the following strokes of his own, so sharp and well-defined that one would almost think he had cut them upon the brown sheet of paper that still preserves them, with the point of his own sword :
"The musketry began before we passed the neck ; and when we were on the top of the hill and during our descent to the foot of it on the south, the small as well as cannon shot were incessantly whistling by us. We joined our army on the right of the centre just by a poor stone fence two or three feet high and very thin, so that the bullets came through. * When we first set out [from Cam- bridge,] perhaps three regiments were by our side and near us; but here they were scattered, some behind rocks and haycocks, and thirty men perhaps behind an apple tree, and frequently twenty men round a wounded man, retreating, when not more than three or four could touch him to advan- tage. Others were retreating seemingly without any excuse, and some said they had left the fort, because they had been all night and day on fatigue, without sleep, victuals, or drink; and some said they had no officers to head them, which indeed seemed to be the case. At last I met with a consider- able company who were going off rank and file. I called to
* "Siege of Boston," 151. + Frothingham, 147.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
the officer that led them and asked why he retreated ? He made me no answer. I halted my men and told him if he went on it should be at his peril. He still seemed regardless of me. I then ordered my men to make ready. They immediately cocked, and declared if I ordered they would fire. Upon that they stopped short and tried to excuse themselves. But I could not tarry to hear him, but ordered him forward and he complied."*
The British generals had already found out that even Americans could teach them something. They ordered their men as they advanced, to throw off their cumbrous knapsacks and other useless incumbrances. Some of the soldiers even threw aside their coats. But the advance of their columns was not one of uninterrupted progress. The soldiers had such a dread of the reception that they expected to meet, that some of them fired off their muskets into the air and doggedly refused to move forward. Such was their obstinacy that the officers were obliged to prick them on with their swords .; However, the mass of them advanced with their wonted coolness, and order was soon restored.
The Americans at the redoubt had now left only a few charges of powder. These they soon expended, and then picked up the stones that had been thrown upon the parapet, and madly hurled them against the enemy as they pressed against the walls of the redoubt.
Richardson, of the royal Irish, was the first who mounted the works. He was shot dead where he stood. The veteran Major Pitcairn was among the first who followed, shouting to his men, " The day is ours." In an instant he was pierced
* Frothingham's "Siege of Boston," 390, 391.
t Judge Prescott's account.
# Swett's History. In Clarke's narrative, however, it is stated that the remains of a company of the sixty-third regiment of grenadiers were the first that succeeded in entering the redoubt. After Captain Hosford had been wounded and Lieutenant Dalrymple had been killed, a sergeant took the command, made a speech to the few men left, saying, " We must either conquer or die," and entered the works. General Gage recommended the brave sergeant for promotion. See Frothingham, p. 150.
223
DEATH OF GENERAL WARREN.
[1775.]
with bullets and fell into the arms of his son, a gallant young officer, who bore him to the boats .*
General Howe, as he advanced, was wounded in one of his feet. Colonel Abercrombie, who commanded the grenadiers, fell soon after, of a fatal wound. In his last agonies he bethought himself of his old friend Putnam, who had served with him in the long campaigns of the French war, and with his dying breath shouted to his friends who were pressing on, " If you take General Putnam alive, don't hang him, for he's a brave fellow !"
General Pigot, small in stature but great in soul, pulled himself up the south-eastern corner of the redoubt by the aid of a tree that stood there, and led his men over the parapet. The British troops now followed in great numbers. Prescott ordered his men to beat them off with the butts of their muskets. But what could such weapons avail against British bayonets ? Almost heart-broken at the necessity that impelled it, Prescott finally sounded a retreat.f
Warren, the high-souled and impassioned devotee of liberty, who seems to have gone into the battle with the design of offering upon her altar a sacrifice without blemish or stain, still lingered on the fatal spot, discharging his musket and encouraging the men to stand their ground. He was the last man who left the redoubt. As he was turning to follow his comrades, Major Small, who stood near by, saw him and knew him. As Putnam had saved his life a little while before, he resolved now to requite the debt. He called aloud to him, "For God's sake, Warren, stop and save your life !" The patriot-soldier turned and appeared to recognize him, but kept retreating. Small bade his men not to fire at him, and threw up their muskets with his sword. The effort was too late. Eighty yards from the redoubt a bullet passed
* Swett.
+ See Frothingham, 150 ; Graham, iv. 382. Col. William Prescott, was born at Groton, Mass., in 1725. He was a man of wealth, and belonged to a very influential family. He served with success through the Revolution, and died Oct. 13, 1795.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
through his head and he fell lifeless .* Thus, at the very dawning of his country's existence, passed this noble spirit to a land where no tyrant rivets the chain, and where the inhabitants, to use his own beautiful metaphor, are feasted in the highest and most spiritual sense upon " the golden apples of Freedom."t
Almost breathless from their efforts in ascending the redoubt, and panting from heat, the weary British troops could not use their bayonets, and were unable to overtake the retreating Americans. Nor could they fire their muskets at them with much safety, as their own right and left wings stood facing each other, with a body of provincials between.
With masterly skill Putnam now conducted the retreat. Putting spurs to his horse, he threw himself in the rear of his troops, and only twelve rods from the British lines. He called loudly on the Americans to rally, repair to Bun- ker Hill, and there make a last stand against the enemy. If they would do so, he pledged his honor that he would place them in a way of winning an easy victory. Covering the retreat with a few companies of Lieutenant-Colonel Ward's troops, Captain Lunt's company of Little's regiment, and the companies of Captains Chester, Coit, and Clark, from Connecticut, who had just come upon the ground and had plenty of ammunition, Putnam was able to save the army from confusion, and to keep the enemy at bay. This noble rear guard fought with as much coolness and discipline as British regulars, and fired their volleys with a fatal aim. But exposed as they were, they were sadly cut in pieces.
They had thus retreated full twenty rods, before the enemy had been able to rally and pursue them. Such a destructive fire was now poured in upon the American right wing that they were finally routed.
The left wing still remained firm. Their flank was finally opened by the retreat of the right wing, and the enemy pres- sing hard upon them, they were forced to retire.
* See Graham, iv. 382, 383 ; also, Swett ; Frothingham ; Bradford ; Gordon.
t See Warren's letter to Stonington Committee, ante.
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225
THE RETREAT FROM BUNKER HILL.
[1775.]
Thus covering their retreat with the brave troops from Con- necticut, and himself riding in the rear of this gallant band, regardless of the balls that flew in hundreds around him, Putnam seemed to defy the British battalions to do their worst. As we have seen, he used all his tact and address to induce the army to make a stand and intrench themselves upon Bunker Hill, where the works had already been commenced. He took his posi- tion near a cannon and appeared about to make a stand alone against the enemy .* His men, however, fled and left him. One brave sergeant stood by him till he was shot dead. The British bayonets were almost within reach of him when he retired. All his efforts, though seconded by Prescott, Pomeroy, Stark, Durkee, and other brave officers, only served to check and fortify a retreat that was inevitable at last. Just as the American army retired, Ward's, Putnam's, and Patterson's, regiments, the flower and pride of the army, arrived upon the ground, whither they had so long vainly besought General Ward to dispatch them. They came in season to witness the defeat of the American arms, and to hear the huzzas of the British battalions as they took possession of the summit of Bunker Hill. One quarter of these fresh troops, had they been on the field when the British were making their third advance against the American works, would, in the language of Captain Chester, "have sent the enemy [to the fence] from whence they come, or to their long homes."t
Thus ended this unparalleled conflict, in which thirty-five hundred American citizens with a few companies of well- trained soldiers, but without suitable arms, without even the
" Make a stand here," exclaimed Putnam, " we can stop them yet !" " In God's name, form, and give them one shot more !"
t Captain Chester's Letter. It will be observed that, in my description of this important battle, I have gencrally followed the narrative of Colonel Samuel Swett's history of the engagement. As he appears to have bestowed much research upon the subject, and to be thorough and candid in his investigations, I can but look upon him as a reliable authority. I also take much pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to the " Siege of Boston," by the Hon. Richard Frothingham, Jr.
The number of the killed and wounded, belonging to Putnam's regiment, (including Coit's and Chester's companies,) was fifteen killed, and thirty wounded.
47
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
most ordinary comforts of food and water, proved themselves able to drive back thrice their number of the best troops of the British army, and with a loss on their part comparatively insignificant, to leave one quarter of the enemy dead or wounded upon the field. Is it strange if Connecticut, whose sons played so conspicuous a part in this struggle, should wake up at last, and, without seeking to pluck any laurels from the brows of the other great men who fought there, should attempt to restore the immortal leaves of oak that have been so rudely torn from the forehead of Putnam, the author and the commander of the battle of Bunker Hill ? Had he also been commander at Cambridge on that day, the British flag would not have floated in triumph from the top of Bunker Hill in the beams of the setting sun.
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