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AN 
 
 ORATION 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 ON THE 17TH OF JUNE, 1841, 
 
 IN COMMEMORATION OF 
 
 THE BATTLE OF BUNKER-HILL. 
 
 BY GEORGE E. ELLIS. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WILLIAM CROSBY AND CO.; 
 
 No. 118, ■Washington Street. 
 
 1841. 
 
DUTTON AND WENTWORTH'S PRINT. 
 Exchange Street, Soatoa. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 This Oration was prepared and delivered at the request of the Officers 
 and Members of the "Warren Phalanx," who celebrated this interesting 
 anniversary in an appropriate manner, in conjunction with the citizens of 
 Charlestown, whose participation they invited. In compliance with their 
 wish, kindly and politely expressed, these pages are now published. Large 
 portions, here printed, were necessarily omitted in the delivery. The 
 author aimed to present a fair and minute account of the memorable action 
 in this town which opened the American Revolution. He could find no 
 nearer beginning for the details of the day, than in a statement of the 
 preliminary measures of British aggression and Colonial resistance, and 
 the appropriate conclusion of the narrative seemed to require an exhibition 
 of some of the results of the bloody conflict. We are probably now in 
 possession of all that ever will be known concerning it. One who searches 
 deeply into its history, is led to ask some questions to which no Uving 
 voice or written record can give an answer. The author has availed him- 
 self of all the known existing means for affording information and ensuring 
 accuracy. The History of the Battle, by Col. Samuel Swett, is the most 
 valuable of all the documents which relate to it. For a few particulars 
 mentioned in the following pages, wliich are not derived from any public 
 documents, it is to be understood that the author is indebted to some pri- 
 vate sources of information. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 Soldiers and Fellow Citizens, — 
 
 By thus addressing the united and mingled throng 
 before me, I can best declare the occasion and the result 
 which we have assembled gratefully to commemorate. 
 We have cause to congratulate ourselves that we live day 
 after day upon a spot which is known over the world, to 
 history and to fame. It is our privilege to behold, at our 
 pleasure, the morning glories of a summer's sun from the 
 beautiful summit which rises behind us, and thence to 
 trace the land-marks and the water-lines signalized 
 through all time, and for all people, by the action which 
 we now celebrate. The name of that green eminence 
 has already become familiar over the civilized world, and, 
 saving the unchristian passions and sins which war neces- 
 sarily involves, it has no association, record or story, 
 which we may not remember and repeat with pride. 
 
 How beautiful, how sublime is the prospect which from 
 that eminence greets our eyes ! We occupy the central 
 point of a circle over which nature and art, war and 
 peace, the history of the past, the happiness of the pres- 
 ent, and the hope of the future, spread an inexhaustible 
 interest. The great features of a battle scene, which 
 yields in importance to no other on the surface of the 
 earth, scarred as it is all over its circumference with such 
 
6 
 
 melancholy memorials, are before our eyes. Across those 
 calm blue waves is the land of the ancient enemy ; the 
 land where a misguided and tyrannical Monarch, a proud 
 and heartless Ministry, and a subservient Parliament de- 
 vised their fruitless measures for the subjugation of a 
 people who owed them nothing for debt or favor ; the 
 land whence had come the hired soldiery then quartered 
 upon the forced hospitality, and riotously disturbing the 
 peace of the town of Boston. In that secure and beau- 
 tiful harbor floated the ships of war, and the transports 
 just arrived from Britain, which sent their military crew 
 upon this shore, only to die upon the first spot of Ameri- 
 can soil which their feet should touch. Then we survey 
 the fair and diversified peninsula upon which we stand, 
 comprehending with its summits and its levels, but a 
 square mile of earth. The south-eastern slope of Breed's 
 Hill divides the waters of the bay into two broad rivers, 
 which indent the shore, and just beyond the western base 
 of Biuiker's Hill, approach so near each other as to allow 
 scarcely four hundred feet of breadth to the neck of land 
 which unites the peninsula to the neighboring country. 
 The Mystic on the north, washes with its double channel 
 the farther shore. On the south, the opposite side of the 
 mouth of the Charles, which in its narrowest span is 
 about three hundred yards across, we see the now crowd- 
 ed peninsula of Boston, similarly environed by the waters 
 of the sea, and united to the main land by a narrow neck. 
 Upon a sloping eminence of that peninsula where it ap- 
 proaches nearest to us, we discern a place of graves, amid 
 which was planted the battery whence came the missiles 
 that reduced this flourishing town to a desolation. Around 
 us is a glorious amphitheatre of hill tops, which sixty-six 
 years ago on this hour were alive with anxious crowds, 
 now covered over with flourishing villages, intersected 
 and bordered by the highest achievements of modern art 
 and science. Nowhere else upon the face of the earth is 
 there such a congeries of striking objects, written over 
 
with such moving narratives of virtue, and courage, and 
 prosperity. The battle fields of ancient times, of the four 
 ancient empires, have lost their landmarks — most of them 
 now depend upon conjecture ; but very few of them can 
 be accurately defined, and more than all, the results of 
 their awful carnage do not now appear in the free and 
 vigorous life of either of those four proud empires of the 
 ancient world. The plains and hill tops of later strife 
 cannot all connect themselves with the religious cause 
 and the blessed result, which have made that eminence 
 so full of glory. Ours is the battle field of valor vindi- 
 cating only the right, and made subservient to justice — 
 of chivalry led on to self-sacrifice by christian prayers and 
 the affections of a fire-side life — of a determination to do 
 nothing for blood, but every thing for the free birthright, 
 for the lawful possession of the labor of the hands, for 
 the full privileges which every human being may and 
 should enjoy without doing a wrong to any other of his 
 race. Here are the fruits of that day's carnage, — the 
 ocean traversed by ships freighted with the means of hap- 
 piness, not with the instruments of woe, from that most 
 renowned of nations from which we are proud to trace 
 our origin, — the hill tops smiling with the blessings 
 which God gives to labor, and which man may enjoy, 
 when he has earned them by labor, — the temples of reli- 
 gion reared and reverenced by the consciences of the wor- 
 shippers, — the homes and the families where the privi- 
 leges of freedom confer the highest authority upon civil 
 laws, and social duties, and religious charities. Not in 
 vain were the death-dealing engines of war discharged 
 upon that summit. 
 
 Amid the scenes, and upon the day thus consecrated to 
 proud and grateful recollections, we are met in peace, 
 with the blessings of peace all around us. We come 
 together as the citizens of a town, which, though it takes 
 its name from a king, bears inscribed upon the brightest, 
 yet most melancholy page of its annals, the bold resist- 
 
8 
 
 ance here made to a tyrant. We come as citizens of our 
 common republic, to commemorate the deeds of our fath- 
 ers, as they in their trials and death-struggles hoped and 
 believed that we should recal their memories amid joyful 
 and grateful observances. 
 
 This day has its appointed theme, its appropriate sub- 
 ject. After the lapse of so many years, and after so much 
 research, information and eloquence, brought to the delin- 
 eation of that battle — while tradition yet keeps the story 
 fresh, and living witnesses, venerable with their hoary 
 locks and bowed frames, still survive — the subject for this 
 day can have but little of novelty. The theme itself, 
 familiar as it is, must furnish its own interest. As from 
 time to time this day shall be celebrated upon this spot, it 
 will be the aim of the orator to bring to the illustration of 
 his subject all the historical facts which throw light upon 
 the story ; — to clear it from all confusion in its details, 
 that it may descend to posterity distinctly and fairly told ; 
 ■ — to expound those eternal principles of right and justice, 
 the violation of which by one party, and the defence of 
 which by another party, have made this day forever 
 memorable; — to trace down the influence of that righteous 
 war, and of this its opening conflict ; — and last of all to 
 enforce its lessons of gratitude and duty. 
 
 The American Revolution occurred at such an era of 
 the intellectual and moral progress of civil and social life, 
 that even the school-boy might thoroughly understand 
 and estimate the reasons which justified that long and 
 dreadful struggle. That struggle was brought to its issue 
 only by many successive and increasing wrongs inflicted 
 upon our fathers. 
 
 Among all the factitious and theoretical systems which 
 relate to the connection which ought to be maintained 
 between a colony and the mother country, I can recognise 
 but one principle or condition that is founded upon the 
 essential laws of justice and order, and that is, that those 
 who voluntarily emigrate from their native land, and 
 
subdue and people a wilderness, should themselves be the 
 sole judges as to the extent and nature of the connection 
 which they will still maintain with their native land. If 
 they choose to seek its protection — to acknowledge a de- 
 pendence on their part — to refer to it for authority in their 
 laws — to bow before the distant sceptre, and to mimic the 
 forms and proceedings of the mother country — so let it 
 be. But let it be understood that they act from choice, 
 voluntarily, not by compulsion, nor in deference to any 
 laws of nature or of equity. Compulsion ! The word 
 has no meaning in this connection — and if without a 
 meaning it is still made to enforce an unjust claim, let the 
 claim be resisted till nothing is left worthy of its further 
 urging. If, however, that colony seeks the protection of 
 the mother country, and establishes precedents by its 
 authority, and receives help in its necessities from the 
 mother country — then the claims of justice are answered 
 by a measure of obedience conformed to the stipulation, 
 by proper deference to the authority so established, and 
 by payment, in kind or in value, for all assistance asked 
 and received. 
 
 Upon this broad principle of justice, it would seem to 
 me the simplest of all arguments to justify our fathers in 
 asserting and maintaining their Independence of the Brit- 
 ish Crown, had there been even no grievances for them to 
 resist. The founders of the New England Colonies, at 
 least, were driven forth from their home by oppression — 
 they twice purchased the land they occupied, once of 
 English Patentees, once of the native red-men. They 
 made the wilderness habitable by their own unpaid labor, 
 and by their own honestly earned wealth. They never 
 sought the shelter of a foreign throne, nor the protection 
 of a foreign army, and when upon these rock-defended 
 and wood-covered hills, the colonists had attained a vig- 
 orous manhood — God, and nature, and justice, made them 
 free. Yet when Britain, loaded with public and private 
 debts by almost universal hostilities with the other powers 
 2 
 
10 
 
 of the earth, looked around for aid in bearing the burden, 
 a bright vision passed before the eyes of the royal coun- 
 sellors, of vast and shining heaps of revenue to be gath- 
 ered from taxing the colonies, colonies too not represented 
 even in the lower house of legislature, where alone the 
 money of the people could be voted out of their hands. 
 The moment the news of that ministerial counsel reached 
 these shores, it was received with lowering looks, and 
 with a resolution which never could be made to yield and 
 never would yield. I can express the etfect which the 
 news produced, in no better way than by a familiar illus- 
 tration ; the colonists carefully buttoned their pockets, 
 kept their hands close, and waited in silence, as men do 
 in a crowd where they are suspicious of some of the un- 
 known guests. 
 
 Much as the conduct on the part of the Americans, ot 
 the whole strife, was commented upon at the time in 
 England, it is remarkable that such a degree of ignorance 
 and indifferenee prevailed there concerning it. 
 
 The only shadow of right which could be maintained 
 in the pretensions to authority of any kind which Eng- 
 land claimed over us, was very much magnified, and 
 grossly distorted. That the learned and excellent Dr. 
 Johnson should have taken such a part against us, as he 
 did in his pamphlet entitled " Taxation, no Tyranny," is 
 most unaccountable and wonderful. He recommended 
 that the British soldiers should be turned into free quar- 
 ters among us, to keep us in awe of England, and that 
 the negro slaves should be let loose over the land. Let it 
 ever be borne in mind that negro slavery, for the sin and 
 inconsistency of which we were so severely satirized dur- 
 ing our war of Independence — let it ever be borne in 
 mind, that negro slavery was introduced into these colo- 
 nies and perpetuated here by the influence of the mother 
 country, in defiance of the frequently and earnestly ex- 
 pressed wishes of the colonists. 
 
 The pretended ground of right upon which England 
 
11 
 
 claimed a revenue from these colonies, was, that the 
 parent state was the sovereign master of its colonies, and 
 that ainong the privileges and powers of sovereignty was 
 that of taxation. It was urged likewise that our com- 
 merce with England was the source of our wealth. 
 And was not this commerce also the source of her 
 wealth 7 Did we not give in this way, as much as we 
 received 7 Again, England made a demand upon the 
 gratitude of the colonies. She said we ought to con- 
 tribute aid in bearing the public burdens, because they 
 were in part incurred in helping us, and especially in de- 
 fending us from our hostile neighbors in the French and 
 Indian War. A poor pretence was this. If England had 
 been asked while prosecuting here the French War, why 
 she thus sent her armies to fight on a foreign soil, she 
 would scarcely have answered that it was for the protec- 
 tion of the colonies. With more of honesty, and in sim- 
 ple truth, she would have replied that she fought in self- 
 defence, from national pride, and to guard the rights and 
 the territory which she supposed to be her own. And as 
 to the help which we received from England in that war, 
 did we not likewise give help 7 In the dreary campaigns 
 and savage slaughters of that war, the native blood of 
 New England flowed in streams. It was indeed in the 
 rough and hardening experiences of that war that many 
 of our own most valiant warriors learned how to fight 
 for themselves when their day arrived. But all the 
 claims of England for service then given, for favors then 
 bestowed, were at the moment counterbalanced by service 
 repaid, and by that knowledge of the country and of In- 
 dian warfare which our fathers brought to the contest. 
 This remuneration was at the time acknowledged, indeed 
 it was thought then that we had a claim on England. 
 It is remarkable that, in the Parliamentary Debates, the 
 very first mention of the American Colonists, after the 
 accession of George III. is in a message in which the 
 King himself commends and advises compensation for 
 
12 
 
 the valuable services rendered by our fathers during the 
 war of 1756. 
 
 Yet the resistance which our fathers offered to British 
 aggression was stigmatised in England as rebellion and 
 ingratitude. Only an honest belief of this charge, how- 
 ever erroneous it was, can redeem the measures of the 
 advisers of an unjust and merciless war, from the impu- 
 tation of unmitigated cruelty and gross folly. Meanwhile 
 the honest disapprobation of our alledged rebellion and 
 ingratitude, though the only justifiable, was by no means 
 the only efficient motive of those who sent their merce- 
 nary troops across the ocean to fight with native freemen. 
 There was an utter ignorance of the true principles of 
 wealth and commerce, which would have brought advan- 
 tages to England of an infinitely higher value than a rev- 
 enue by taxation, had she known her own true interest. 
 There was a sordid spirit at work, which induced the 
 English freeholders to believe that if we were taxed their 
 own burdens would be lighter. With these errors there 
 was united the haughty pride of power, the insulting 
 estimate of the colonists as mere traders and farmers 
 afraid to fight, and the proverbial self-conceit of the Brit- 
 ish, which in spite of all their noble, and generous, and 
 virtuous traits of character, has on several occasions led 
 them to an unjust and tyrannical use of power. 
 
 There always existed in the New England Colonies a 
 lurking spirit of opposition to any acts of sovereignty 
 which England might attempt to exercise. This spirit 
 frequently manifested itself with a most formidable en- 
 ergy, and was ready to burst forth on many occasions, 
 when, for the sake of policy, or perhaps from the influ- 
 ence of timidity, it was kept in reserve. The acts of 
 sovereignty which the colonists themselves exercised, in 
 utter defiance of all the theories of the allegiance they 
 owed to England, were numerous and very bold, and 
 they date from the settlement at Boston. The first exhi- 
 bition of this spirit which connects itself with the organ- 
 
13 
 
 ised resistance offered in the Revolutionary "War, occurred 
 in the year 1754, on the expectation of the French aggres- 
 sions. The Governors and heads of assembhes convened 
 at Albany as Provincial Delegates, while adopting meas- 
 ures of preparation and defence, proposed to constitute 
 themselves a grand council, with legislative and executive 
 powers, including of course the power of raising taxes. 
 The British ministry wished that such matters should be 
 left to the royal Governors with their councils ; but this 
 was the Pelham ministry, and prudently, though omi- 
 nously, it yielded to the colonists the first step to Inde- 
 pendency. 
 
 The taxing of America was first moved in the British 
 ParUament by Mr. Greville, in March, 1764. The motion 
 was carried into effect by the Stamp Act, which passed 
 the House of Commons by a vote of 250 to 50, and the 
 House of Lords without debate or dissent, and was ap- 
 proved by the King March 22d, 1765. This delay of a 
 year in pressing the motion was artfully designed by its 
 mover, to afford an opportunity for the colonists to sug- 
 gest some other mode of raising the necessary tax, which 
 they should prefer. The insinuation was made to the 
 colony agents in London, that if their constituents did 
 follow the suggestion, they would establish the precedent 
 of their being consulted henceforward, whenever Parlia- 
 ment proposed a tax. But the colonists were not deceived 
 by this gilded bait — they resolutely protested against the 
 measure through their agents. This project of taxing all 
 legal instruments, bills, receipts and private contracts, was 
 followed in the colonies by a Continental Congress at New 
 York, which offered remonstrances and petitions, by mobs 
 and disorders, by the tolling of bells and the constructing 
 and abuse of effigies of obnoxious officers. The stamp 
 agents were compelled to resign ; business was transacted 
 without the offensive instruments, and was thus of course 
 illegal. The act was repealed the next year by the new 
 administration, after Pitt had boldly and beautifully 
 
14 
 
 triumphed in the House of Commons, by denying the 
 right of the kingdom to lay a tax upon the colonies. 
 This Repeal was accompanied by a Declaratory Act, 
 maintaining the power and right of the kingdom to bind 
 the colonies in all cases whatsoever. This Declaration 
 appears to have been winked at on this side of the water, 
 as a salvo for British pride. 
 
 In 1767, under the Townshend administration, several 
 measures most obnoxious to the colonists were devised in 
 succession, such as import duties on paper, glass, paints 
 and teas, a list of civil officers to be named by the Crown, 
 with salaries fixed at his pleasure, a requisition for pro- 
 viding articles of food and clothing for the soldiers, at the 
 expense of the colonies, together with the establishment 
 of a custom house, and a board of commissioners. These 
 measures were all followed by intense excitements of the 
 people, and led to protective combinations. In 1770 Lord 
 North brought about the repeal of the new duties, with 
 the exception of that upon tea, which was retained for 
 the purpose of upholding the disputed right of taxation. 
 The massacre, as it was called, in Boston, on March 5th, 
 in which three of the inhabitants were killed, and five 
 others wounded in an affray with the soldiers, well nigh 
 maddened the populace. From that time there was a 
 continued succession of insurrections and hostilities. 
 
 There seems to have been not only profound wisdom 
 and valuable experience, but a spirit of prophecy like- 
 wise, in the eloquent warning which was addressed to 
 the House of Commons by our former Governor Pownall, 
 who knew well the people of whom he spoke. Happy 
 would it have been if the House had listened to his warning 
 instead of being impatient under it, as we are told it was. 
 
 "The slightest circumstance will now in a moment 
 throw every thing into confusion and bloodshed ; and if 
 some mode of policy does not interpose to remove this 
 exertion of military power, the union between Great Brit- 
 ain and North America is broken forever ; unless, what is 
 
15 
 
 worse, both are united in a common ruin. That spirit 
 which led their ancestors to break off from every thing 
 which is near and dear to the human heart, has but a 
 shght and trifling sacrifice to make at this time ; they have 
 not to quit their native country, but to defend it ; not to 
 forsake their friends and relations, but to unite with, and 
 stand by them in one common union," &c. 
 
 An Act of Parliament in 1764, in anticipation of ex- 
 treme measures, had empowered the King to station a 
 military force in any province, and to quarter it upon the 
 people. This act was not immediately enforced, but in 
 1767, some troops of the royal artillery arrived in Boston, 
 and Governor Bernard made provision for their support at 
 the castle, at the expense of the province, without author- 
 ity thus to vote away money. He dissolved the General 
 Court, and refused to call it together again. The people 
 of Boston and of the neighboring towns formed and re-es- 
 tablished their combinations against the importation and 
 consumption of British goods, of tea, of foreign fruit, and 
 articles of mourning apparel, recommending likewise 
 great prudence and economy. 
 
 As the people were deprived of their General Court, a 
 Convention of Delegates from more than a hundred 
 towns assembled in Boston, in September, 1768, and sat 
 several days. They requested the Governor to call to- 
 gether the General Court, but he refused. Their meas- 
 ures were judicious and calm, but resolute ; they advised 
 the observance of a day of fasting and prayer, and that 
 the people should provide themselves with fire-arms. At 
 the close of the Convention two more regiments arrived. 
 They were quartered in Boston, in defiance of the earnest 
 objections of the people and the council. They marched 
 through the town in battle-array, and occupied the Com- 
 mon, the State House, the Court House, and Faneuil 
 Hall. The people looked on in amazement, but they did 
 not fear. 
 
 Governor Bernard was re-called to England August 1, 
 
16 
 
 1769, and was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Hutch- 
 inson, who followed up the measures of his predecessor, 
 delaying at his pleasure the convoking of the General 
 Court, and then arbitrarily summoning it to assemble at 
 Cambridge. There were now about 2000 British troops 
 in Boston. As they had been kept for a time in close 
 quarters, the people had not received from them any prov- 
 ocations beyond that of their unwelcome presence. But 
 in the winter of 1770 they had been allowed to walk 
 about the streets in little squads, and their language and 
 conduct were often insulting. It might have been fore- 
 seen that outrages like that upon the 5tli of March would 
 ensue. The resolute remonstrances of the people pro- 
 cured the removal of the troops from Boston to the castle. 
 Discontent and bold resistance gradually ripened the ele- 
 ments of civil strife, and it was evident that a great crisis 
 approached. The destruction of three cargoes of tea, 
 belonging to the East India Company, in Boston harbor, 
 I in 1773, was a plain evidence of the determination of the 
 people to resist the duty which Lord North's bill had left 
 to be exacted on that import. At the session of the Gen- 
 eral Court, in May, 1773, a committee was appointed to 
 open a correspondence with the committees of other colo- 
 nies on political subjects, and it was this step which led 
 to the convention of a Continental Congress at Philadel- 
 phia, The people had petitioned the King for the imme- 
 diate removal of Governor Hutchinson, who in letters to 
 England had made unfair and prejudicial representations 
 of the state of things in this colony. He sailed for Eng- 
 land in June, 1774. His house had been destroyed by a 
 mob, and his property and papers scattered to the winds. 
 He was succeeded by General Gage, the commander in 
 chief of the British forces in America. 
 
 If England had not then a Stuart for a monarch, she 
 had a Stuart ministry. Infatuation seems to be the only 
 appropriate word by which to designate their galling accu- 
 mulation of abuses and restrictions upon the colonists. 
 
17 
 
 who had already given sufficient evidence of their indom- 
 itable resolution to resist. Next came the appointment of 
 the Governor's counsellors by the King, instead of by 
 the Court, as heretofore, and finally the climax of minis- 
 terial delusion in which, upon June 1, 1774, a Parliament- 
 ary bill declared that Boston Port should be closed 
 against all commerce and navigation, and be in a state of 
 blockade. The passage of this bill was procured under 
 the expectation that the other ports of this and the other 
 colonies would delight in the humiliation of Boston, and 
 selfishly seize the opportunity thus put into their power 
 of drawing commerce to themselves. Here again did the 
 ministry delude itself by another gross miscalculation. 
 The eifect of the bill was wholly opposite to their expec- 
 tations. Numberless copies of it were quickly multiplied 
 and circulated over the continent, having, as Burke said, 
 the inflammatory effect which the poets ascribe to the 
 fury's torch. Copies of the bill printed on mourning 
 paper, with a black border, were hawked in the streets of 
 New York and Boston, under the title of " a bar! arous, 
 cruel, bloody and inhuman murder." In other places, 
 the populace being called together by placards, burnt the 
 bill with great solemnity. The General Court of Massa- 
 chusetts recommended to the other colonies to suspend all 
 commercial intercourse with Great Britain, and formed a 
 solemn league and covenant against the use of English 
 goods, though General Gage threatened all the subscribers 
 of it with transportation to England for treason. 
 
 Within four months after the receipt of the Boston Port 
 Bill, the deputies of twelve provinces, representing three 
 millions of people, were convened at Philadelphia. Loyal 
 and constitutional sentiments there found an honorable 
 reception, and conciliatory measures on the part of Britain 
 would even then have been of avail. Yet it was easy to 
 see that allegiance to the throne was a word which was 
 fast becoming of an empty sound throughout the conti- 
 nent. The sufferings to which the people of Boston were 
 3 
 
18 
 
 subjected were relieved by generous contributions through- 
 out the country. General Gage removed the Court from 
 Boston to Salem, where it met by adjournment on June 
 7th, but on the 17th he sent his messenger to announce 
 its dissolution. The messenger was shut out of doors, 
 while the Court, before obeying the summons, chose their 
 first delegates to the General Congress, Gushing, Samuel 
 and John Adams, Paine and Bowdoin. About this time 
 independent military companies were formed in Boston. 
 General Gage began to assume despotic power, as the 
 successive encroachments upon the chartered liberties of 
 the people brought on the unavoidable issue. He ordered 
 military stores from New York, he collected powder from 
 the neighboring towns, sent out agents to survey the 
 country, and erected strong fortifications on Boston neck. 
 This last measure, which amounted to a shutting out of 
 all intercourse between the people in Boston and the en- 
 virons, by land as well as by sea, was regarded as an 
 outrage which ought not to be endured. But he alleged 
 that the object of the fortifications was to prevent the fre- 
 quent desertions of his soldiers. 
 
 Delegates from the different towns met at Salem in 
 October, and there constituted the Provincial Congress of 
 Massachusetts. A committee of this body was directed 
 to ascertain the character and amount of the military 
 stores in the province, and to encourage military disci- 
 pline. The taxes were turned from the authorised pro- 
 vincial treasurer to a new officer then appointed, a Com- 
 mittee of Safety, with executive authority, was chosen 
 to act after the adjournment, and three general officers. 
 Colonels Ward, Thomas and Pom'eroy, were invested 
 with the command of the provincial military. Before 
 that Congress met again, another warning voice was lift- 
 ed, in solemn tones, to counsel the mother country. On 
 the 20th of January, 1775, Lord Chatham, after long 
 retirement and severe bodily suffering, rose in the House 
 of Lords. He foretold the event of these ruinous meas- 
 
19 
 
 ures, he implored the nation to pause and consider, and 
 then proposed that a humble request be made to the King 
 to require General Gage to evacuate Boston. But the 
 voice of warning was not heeded. The Provincial Con- 
 gress met again by adjournment in February, 1775, 
 organised their committees, arranged their correspond- 
 ence, and provided military preparations and stores, 
 designating Worcester and Concord as places of deposit. 
 General Gage was well informed of all these proceedings, 
 and hearing of some stores at Salem or Danvers, he sent 
 one hundred and fifty men to seize them. But the 
 attempt was rendered fruitless by resistance on the way. 
 There was a third session of the Congress in March, 
 when vigorous measures were adopted. Large companies 
 were organised, composed of men who held themselves 
 ready for service at a minute's warning. More British 
 troops arrived, and General Gage was equally determined 
 to pursue his blind and misguided measures. Nor were 
 legislative enactments the only grievances of which the 
 people complained ; insults and indignities of various 
 kinds were offered them by officers and Soldiers, which 
 annoyed and vexed the citizens. The 16th of March had 
 been consecrated as a day of Fasting and Prayer by the 
 Provincial Congress. While the Society were assembling 
 in the Church at West Boston, the regulars pitched two 
 marquee tents within ten yards of the house, and contin- 
 ued with fifes and drums to disturb the service. At the 
 commemoration of the 5th of March massacre, in the 
 Old South Church, the patriot Samuel Adams courteously 
 placed about forty British officers, who came to hear 
 Warren's Oration, in the best seats, and they listened in 
 quietness. At its close, Adams moved that an orator be 
 chosen for the ensuing 5th March, to commemorate "the 
 bloody and horrid massacre, perpetrated by a party of 
 soldiers under the command of Captain T. Preston." 
 His motion was received with hisses and cries from the 
 officers, when great confusion ensued. 
 
20 
 
 On the 8th of the month, a countryman (Thomas Dit- 
 son) from Billerica, while buying a musket in Boston, 
 was seized by the regulars and covered with tar and 
 feathers. He was carried through the streets on a truck, 
 guarded by twenty soldiers with fixed bayonets, a label 
 being attached to his back inscribed " American Liberty, 
 or a Specimen of Democracy," while a promiscuous 
 crowd, of officers, negroes and sailors followed, and the 
 drums and fifes played " Yankee Doodle," a tune used 
 by the British in ridicule of the provincials. The select- 
 men of Billerica sent a remonstrance to General Gage, 
 and told him if it did not answer the purpose, they should 
 "hereafter use a different style from that of petition and 
 complaint." Colonel Hancock's house was twice assault- 
 ed during the month, when the fence and the windows 
 were destroyed by the soldiers. On the night of the 18th 
 the Providence coach was attacked as it entered the town, 
 and its passengers were abused, but the driver, leaping 
 from his seat, inflicted a severe castigation upon the Brit- 
 ish Captain Gore. These are but specimens of the many 
 riots, outrages and indignities, which maddened the peo- 
 ple of the town and of the province. 
 
 Such were the ministerial enactments, the public griev- 
 ances and the military outrages, which were preparing 
 the way for a civil war. It was evident that only an 
 occasion was necessary to confront the foreign invaders, 
 and the citizens of the soil, in two opposing armies. 
 That occasion presented itself on the 19th of April, when 
 General Gage, without provocation, warrant or justifica- 
 tion, sent a body of troops to Concord to seize upon the 
 military stores there deposited. Those troops on their 
 way, going beyond their orders, wrong as they were, 
 made an attack upon a few militia-men at Lexington, 
 and then ensued the fight at Concord. It was a most in- 
 glorious exploit for his Majesty's regulars, for as the coun- 
 try people had good warning of their purpose, it was but 
 poorly accomplished, and they were forced to retreat. 
 
21 
 
 marking their homeward way by a hne of killed and 
 womided, shot from the shelter of houses, woods, walls 
 and fences, by the incensed comitry people. That das- 
 tardly enterprise was not even sanctioned by ministerial 
 authority, when the news reached England, though an 
 attempt was made to charge upon the provincials the sin 
 of striking the first offensive blow. The Congress of the 
 colony instituted inquiries and procured certified affida- 
 vits, which proved that both at Lexington and at Con- 
 cord, the first fire was discharged by the British. That 
 aggression upon the liberties of the people was equally 
 unauthorised and exasperating. On the 22d of the month 
 the Provincial Congress again assembled, voted to raise at 
 once thirteen thousand men, to rally at Cambridge and the 
 neighborhood, and asked aid from the other provinces, to 
 which Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire res- 
 ponded. The forts, magazines and arsenals were secured 
 for the country. Then, for the first time, the title of ene- 
 mies was given to the British, and General Gage was de- 
 no anced as the agent of tyranny and oppression. An 
 account of the battle at Lexington was sent to England, 
 and an address, closing thus : "Appealing to heaven for 
 the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free." 
 
 By advice received from Lord Dartmouth, the head of 
 the War Department, General Gage issued a Proclama- 
 tion on the 12th of June, in which he declared the dis- 
 contents to be in a state of rebellion, offered full pardon 
 to all, with the exception of Hancock and Adams, who 
 would lay down their arms and bow to his authority, and 
 announced that martial law was now in force. 
 
 This proclamation, issued on the first day of the w€*ek, 
 was to be illustrated by a fearful commentary before an- 
 other Sabbath came. For we have thus entered upon 
 that week in our history when was fought the battle 
 which has made that green summit the first altar of our 
 country's freedom. 
 
 Of the 15,000 troops then gathered, by the cry of war, 
 
22 
 
 at Cambridge and Roxbury, under the command of Gen- 
 eral Ward, about 10,000 belonged to Massachusetts, and 
 the remainder to New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Con- 
 necticut. They constituted an irregular and imdisci- 
 plined army, without accoutrements, or any other uni- 
 form than their working suits. Recruits and stragglers 
 were continually coming in. Yet many of those provin- 
 cial soldiers, though undisciplined by any thing like reg- 
 ular service, were by no means unused to the severities 
 and obligations of a military life, having had experience 
 in the Indian and French wars. One regiment of artil- 
 lery, with nine field-pieces, had been raised in Massa- 
 chusetts, and put under command of the famous engineer, 
 Colonel Gridley, but it was not yet thoroughly organised. 
 A self-constituted Provincial Congress discharged the 
 legislative functions, and a Committee of Safety, elected 
 by the Congress, filled the executive place of Governor 
 and Council, and confined their functions chiefly to mili- 
 tary directions. 
 
 There were in fact four independent armies then united 
 in resistance to the foreign enemy. The forces then gath- 
 ered in the neighborhood did not constitute a national 
 army, for there was then no nation to own them ; they 
 were not under the authority of the Continental Congress, 
 for the authority of that Congress was not as yet acknowl- 
 edged; nor had that Congress as yet recognised those 
 forces. Neither were the troops from Connecticut, Rhode 
 Island and New Hampshire^ subject to the command of 
 General Ward, save as the friendly purpose which led 
 them to volunteer their arms in defence of a sister colony, 
 would be accompanied by the courtesy that would make 
 them subordinate allies. These independent armies could 
 act in concert only by yielding themselves to the influ- 
 ence of the common spirit which called them together. 
 General Ward was a judicious and conscientious patriot, 
 had served the colony in high civil and judicial stations, 
 and in the French war, in which he was a Lieutenant 
 
23 
 
 Colonel, had earned some military experience and fame. 
 Lieutenant General Thomas, Avho accepted his commis- 
 sion on May 27, was distinguished for talents, patriotism 
 and military reputation ; he was second in command. 
 General Pomeroy, likewise famous in the border war, 
 continued to serve under the appointment of the Provin- 
 cial Congress. General Putnam preceded his Connecticut 
 troops, in hurrying to the scene of war, on the news of 
 the battle of Lexington. His men soon followed him 
 with like enthusiasm. The New Hampshire troops, on 
 their arrival at Medford, made choice of Colonel Stark as 
 their leader. Colonel Green commanded a regiment 
 from Rhode Island. 
 
 The semicircle of headlands, slopes, points and emi- 
 nences, united by green levels and extending over ten or 
 twelve miles, which we may now see from yonder sum- 
 mit, in all the beauty of its summer garb, was then cov- 
 ered by the wide-spread wings of our citizen army. A 
 part of Colonel Gerrish's regiment from Essex and Mid- 
 dlesex, and a detachment of New Hampshire troops, sta- 
 tioned on the hills of Chelsea, formed the tip of its left wing, 
 and all along the eastern sea-board to Cape Ann and Ports- 
 mouth, were watchful spies on the alert to spread the 
 alarm, if the British should attempt an entrance at any 
 of the ports. Colonels Reed and Stark, next in the line, 
 were stationed at Medford with their New Hampshire 
 regiments. Lechmere's Point, at East Cambridge, was 
 guarded against a hostile landing, to which it offered 
 great facilities, by parts of Colonel Little's and other reg- 
 iments. General Ward, with the main body of about 
 9,000 troops, and four companies of artillery, occupied 
 Cambridge, while all the points of high land, the farms, 
 and the main roads, were cautiously defended. Lieut. 
 General Thomas, with 5,000 troops from Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut and Rhode Island, with three or four com- 
 panies of artillery, constituted the right wing of the army 
 at Roxbury and Dorchester. 
 
24 
 
 Here was a wide extent of space, approachable by land 
 only at Roxbury neck, where the British lines were 
 strongly entrenched, assailable at several points by armed 
 ships and floating batteries, but protected to a great degree 
 by shoal and tide waters, swamps, and intersecting creeks. 
 The army was wholly voluntary in its organization, the 
 soldiers having enlisted for different periods, depending 
 for their daily food upon the provisions sent from their 
 several towns. Subordination and obedience to their 
 officers were secured and yielded by their respect for those 
 Avhose names were familiar to them, as associated with 
 magnanimity, enterprise and bravery. 
 
 Such was the constitution and the disposition of the 
 American army when the provincials found themselves 
 in the singular position of besieging their own chief town 
 of Boston. That little peninsula was thus completely 
 invested and hemmed in. Several of its inhabitants re- 
 mained there from different motives ; some as devoted 
 loyalists, some as timid neutrals, some as spies, to watch 
 each hostile movement and to communicate it to the col- 
 onists. Some of these last, together with many deserters, 
 would occasionally cross the water by swimming, or in 
 boats, or pass the Roxbury lines and enter the American 
 camp by night. Others there were whose anxiety for 
 their property induced them to continue in Boston. After 
 hostilities had commenced, General Gage of course con- 
 sidered the citizens as prisoners. By the spies and de- 
 serters our officers generally received full information of 
 all that occurred in Boston during the whole time of 
 its investment by the British. That word British had 
 now become synonymous with enemy, and though the 
 regular army encamped in the capital might despise the 
 undisciplined multitude which kept it in such close quar- 
 ters, it was compelled to regard its opponents as powerful 
 and formidable. 
 
 At the time of the battle at Lexington, there were 
 about 4,000 British troops in Boston. The number was 
 
25 
 
 increased to more than 10,000 before the action in this 
 town. The best-disciphned and most experienced troops 
 in the kingdom, many of them freshly laurelled in the 
 recent wars on the European continent, under the com- 
 mand of officers equally distinguished, composed the in- 
 vading army. Gage, the Governor and Commander in 
 Chief, had long resided in America, and had married 
 here. He came originally as a lieutenant under Brad- 
 dock, and was with the general when he received his 
 mortal wound. He had been Governor of Montreal, had 
 succeeded General Amherst in command of the British 
 forces on this continent, and Hutchinson as Governor of 
 Massachusetts. He had constantly and vigorously favor- 
 ed the oppressive measures of the ministry which brought 
 on the war. He had strongly fortified Boston by a double 
 line of intrenchments crossing the neck, and by batteries 
 there, and also upon the Common, commanding Roxbury 
 and Cambridge, upon Copp's Hill, commanding Charles- 
 town, upon Fort Hill and the northern extremity of the 
 town, commanding the harbor, and upon West Boston 
 Point. There were, besides, at least twenty-five armed 
 vessels in the harbor. 
 
 To the inhabitants remaining in Boston, the population 
 of which, independent of the military, was then about 
 20,000, the troops behaved in an insulting and tyrannical 
 manner. To show their Episcopal contempt of Congre- 
 gational churches, they removed the pews from the Old 
 South, covering the floor with earth, and thus converted 
 the edifice into a riding school for Burgoyne's squadron of 
 cavalry. The two eastern galleries were allowed to re- 
 main, one for spectators, the other for a liquor shop, while 
 the fire in the stove was lighted by valuable books from 
 the library of a former pastor. Dr. Prince. They de- 
 stroyed the steeple of the West Church, because it had 
 been used for a signal staff", while they burnt the Old 
 North, and several dwelling houses, for fuel. The pro- 
 vincials, in their Congregational contempt of Episcopalian 
 4 
 
26 
 
 churches, could only retaliate by using the English 
 Church at Cambridge for barracks, and melting its organ- 
 pipes into bullets. 
 
 Thus confronted, both armies seemed alike confident 
 of success, and anxious for a trial. The British were 
 naturally mortified at their condition as besieged. They 
 looked with anxiety to the heights of Charlestown and 
 Dorchester, and were forming measures to occupy them, 
 having decided to put them in force on the 18th of June. 
 They regarded their opponents as rude, untaught, and 
 cowardly farmers, and were nettled at being kept at bay 
 by an army clothed in calico frocks and carrying fowling 
 pieces. 
 
 The provincials did not feel their lack of discipline as 
 they should have done. They were restless under re- 
 straint, they were used to skirmishes and thought such 
 would be the contest before them. Yet in the Council of 
 War, and in the Committee of Safety, there was a differ- 
 ence of opinion as to the measures to be pursued. If the 
 heights of Charlestown were once occupied by the pro- 
 vincials, they must be retained against a constant fire, 
 which could not be answered, as there were but eleven 
 barrels of powder in the camp, and these contained one 
 sixth of all that there was in the province. General 
 Ward, and Joseph Warren, who was Chairman of the 
 Committee of Safety, and had been elected Major General 
 on the 14th of June, were doubtful as to the expediency 
 of intrenching on Bunker's Hill. General Putnam was 
 earnest in advocating the measure, saying, " the Ameri- 
 cans are not at all afraid of their heads, though very 
 much afraid of their legs ; if you cover these, they will 
 fight forever." Pomeroy coincided with Putnam ; he was 
 willing to attack the enemy with five cartridges to a man, 
 for he had been accustomed in hunting, with three 
 charges of powder, to bring home two or three deer. 
 Daring enterprise prevailed in the Council, and it was 
 resolved that the heights of Charlestown, which had 
 
27 
 
 been reconnoitred the month before by Colonels Gridley 
 and Henshaw, and Mr. Devens, should be fortified. On 
 the 15th of June, the Committee of Safety, by a secret 
 vote, which was not recorded till the 19th, advised the 
 taking possession of Bunker's Hill, and of Dorchester 
 heights. On the next day the Provincial Congress, as a 
 counterblast to General Gage's proclamation, by which 
 Hancock and Adams had been excepted from the protfer 
 of a general amnesty, issued a like instrument, in which 
 General Gage and Admiral Graves were the scape-goats. 
 
 It was amid the full splendor, luxuriance, and heat of 
 our summer, when rich crops were waving upon all the 
 hills and vallies around us, that the Council of War de- 
 cided to carry into execution the vote of the Committee 
 of Safety. We may omit the question as to the pru- 
 dence or discretion of the measure, as being equally diffi- 
 cult of decision and unimportant, save as the misgivings 
 of those who predicted that the deficiency of ammunition 
 would endanger a failure, were proved by the result to be 
 well grounded. 
 
 On Friday, June 16th, the very day upon which Wash- 
 ington was officially informed, in the Congress at Phila- 
 delphia, of his appointment to the command of the conti- 
 nental army about to be enlisted, General Ward issued 
 orders to Colonels Prescott and Bridge, and the Com- 
 mandant of Colonel Frye's regiment, to have their men 
 ready and prepared for immediate service. They were 
 all yeomen from Middlesex and Essex counties, and were 
 habituated to the hard labors of a farm beneath a sum- 
 mer's sun. Captain Gridley's new company of artillery, 
 and 120 men from the Connecticut regiment, under the 
 command of Captain Knowlton, were included in the 
 order. 
 
 Twenty-three years ago a controversy arose concerning 
 the command of this expedition. Who was its com- 
 mander, rightfully or actually? This question, which 
 became most unfortunately mingled with party politics, 
 
28 
 
 was most earnestly and passionately discussed. The 
 only decisive evidence which both parties would have 
 admitted to be satisfactory, would consist in the produc- 
 tion of the order which came from General Ward ; this, 
 however, is not in existence. Judge Advocate Tudor, 
 who presided at the court-martials instituted by General 
 Washington on his arrival at Cambridge, said that Col. 
 Prescott appeared to have been the chief. The contra- 
 dictory and discordant statements of those who, having 
 been engaged in the field at different places and at different 
 hours, were called upon during the controversy to make 
 depositions as to who was the commander in chief, are 
 to be accounted for by the lapse of time and the effects 
 of age ; and besides, great allowances are to be made on 
 account of the confusion in the army, and the hurried and 
 unsystematic character of the expedition. He who led 
 the detachment and fulfilled the order, probably received 
 the order. The order was to intrench and to defend the 
 intrenchments ; — this order was fulfilled by night and by 
 day, by the body of men whom Prescott led from Cam- 
 bridge to Charlestown, and by the reinforcements who 
 joined them. There is no evidence that Prescott received 
 any order from any other officer besides General Ward. 
 At any rate, he understood till the day of his death, that 
 he had the command of the expedition. A fair and im- 
 partial detail of the action, if so be we are able to present 
 it, will be sufficient to satisfy the simple desire for the 
 simple truth. 
 
 Col. Gridley accompanied as chief engineer. Three 
 companies of Bridge's regiment did not go, but as small 
 parties of other regiments fell into the detachment, it con- 
 sisted of about 1,000 men. They took with them provi- 
 sions for one meal. Colonel Prescott was ordered to take 
 possession of, to fortify and to defend. Bunker's Hill, but 
 to keep the purpose of the expedition secret, nor was it 
 known to the men, until they found the wagons on 
 Charlestown neck, laden with the intrenching tools. The 
 
29 
 
 detachment was drawn up upon Cambridge Common, in 
 front of General Ward's head-quarters, after sunset, when 
 prayers were offered by the Rev. Pres. Langdon, and 
 about nine o'clock the expedition was in motion — Pres- 
 cott, with two sergeants carrying dark-lanterns open in 
 the rear, leading the way. Though Prescott has fre- 
 quently been represented in accounts of the battle as 
 dressed in the working garb of a farmer, and appears in 
 Trumbull's painting, as wearing a slouched hat, and 
 bearing a musket, he was in reality arrayed in a simple 
 and appropriate military costume, a three-cornered hat, 
 a blue coat, with a single row of buttons, lapped up and 
 faced, and he wore his well-proved sword. This state- 
 ment may be thought a trivial correction, but it some- 
 times happens that important facts depend upon small 
 particulars. As he was sensible to the effects of the heat, 
 and expected warm service, he took with him a linen 
 coat, or banyan, which he wore in the engagement. 
 
 The order designated Bunker's Hill as the position to 
 be taken. But by mounting it we can ourselves see that, 
 commanded as it might be by shipping in the rivers, and 
 by defences upon Breed's Hill, it would have been alto- 
 gether untenable, except in connection with the latter 
 summit, while for all purposes of restraining and annoy- 
 ing the enemy in Boston, Breed's Hill was far superior. 
 Much time, however, was consumed in deliberation, after 
 the detachment had crossed the neck, and it was only 
 after the repeated and urgent warnings of the engineer, 
 that longer delay would nullify all their labors, that the 
 works were commenced upon Breed's Hill about mid- 
 night. In the account of the engagement afterwards 
 prepared by the Massachusetts Congress, it is said that 
 Breed's Hill was fortified by mistake. The reason for 
 this statement is not apparent. Undoubtedly, if both 
 summits had been fortified, and defended by troops well 
 provided with ammunition, the provincials would have 
 maintained their ground, but they could not have pre- 
 
30 
 
 vented the design of the British in occupying the heights 
 without securing Breed's Hill, As the summits are not 
 within musket-shot, and as the British would certainly 
 have occupied Breed's Hill, if not first taken hy the pro- 
 vincials, our scanty ammunition and weak artillery 
 would have been of but little avail. 
 
 The relative features of the two summits have not as 
 yet been essentially changed, their highest points being 
 about 130 rods apart, and Bunker's Hill lying a few rods 
 north of a line drawn westward from Breed's Hill, which 
 is directly opposite, at a distance of less than a mile from 
 Copp's Hill in Boston. Then, as now, a straight road, 
 beginning at the narrowest point of Charlestown neck, 
 ascended and crossed the summit of Bunker's Hill, at an 
 elevation of 112 feet, descended to the little valley, and 
 there joined a road which completely encircled the base 
 of Breed's Hill, which rises about 62 feet. One ascend- 
 ing road, answering to Wood street, united this encircling 
 road with oar present Main street. Back of the two 
 summits the land sloped, with occasional irregularities, 
 down to the Mystic shore. A point of land bearing east 
 from Breed's Hill, and extending towards the bay, is 
 called Morton's Point, and swells into a summit 35 feet 
 high, called Morton's Hill. Between Breed's Hill and 
 Morton's Point, much of the ground was sloughy, and 
 occupied by several brick-kilns. Breed's Hill was then 
 chiefly used by householders in Charlestown for pasturage, 
 and was intersected by many fences. Towards Morton's 
 Point some patches were then covered with tall waving 
 grass, ripe for the scythe, while farther back, on the mar- 
 gin of Mystic river, at the base of the two summits, were 
 fine crops of hay, just mown, lying upon the eve of the 
 battle in winrows and cocks. The fences and tall un- 
 mown grass, which were of great advantage to the Amer- 
 icans in their stationary defences, were grievous impedi- 
 ments and annoyances to the British in their advances. 
 There were then two or three houses and barns only 
 
31 
 
 upon this south-western slope of Breed's Hill. The edi- 
 fices of the town were gathered around the present 
 square, and extended along the main street to the neck. 
 
 The monument now occupies the centre of the redoubt, 
 which was eight rods square ; the southern side, running 
 parallel with the main street, was constructed with one 
 projecting and two entering angles. On a line with the 
 eastern side, which faced the navy yard, was a breast- 
 work of nearly 400 feet in length, running down the hill 
 towards the Mystic ; the sally-port opened upon the in- 
 terval between the redoubt and the breastwork, and was 
 defended by a blind. Colonel Gridley planned the works, 
 which exhibited an equal measure of military science and 
 of yankee ingenuity. No vestige of the redoubt now re- 
 mains, but a portion of the breastwork is distinctly visi- 
 ble. The intrenchments which we now see lying west of 
 the monument, are remains of the fortifications made by 
 the British, after the battle. 
 
 It has been asserted by two or three persons, and con- 
 tradicted by others, who were together working by night 
 upon the intrenchments, that General Putnam was there, 
 directing, encouraging and aiding. If he was there, his 
 presence must have been cheering and animating to those 
 of the men who knew his person and history. As we 
 have no certainty that he was then in the works, of 
 course we cannot decide whether he had any part in their 
 construction. He may have rode over the neck with or 
 after the detachment, and he would have been a most 
 welcome counsellor. As Putnam was met the next fore- 
 noon, coming from Cambridge to Charlestown, by Major 
 Brooks, who was sent to General Ward with a message 
 from Colonel Prescott, he must have left the redoubt, if 
 he had been in it at all, in the course of the night, or very 
 early in the morning. 
 
 But though the hands which spaded the bulwarks of 
 earth upon that summit on the night of Friday, June 
 16th, were used to daily toil, and brought to their 
 
32 
 
 unwonted midnight task the most unflinching courage 
 and determination, it was still a work of dreadful anxiety. 
 It was a bright starlight night of mid-summer, when the 
 long hours of day almost deny an interval to the dark- 
 ness, and we expect each moment after twilight in the 
 west, to behold the grey of morning in the east. A guard 
 was stationed at the shore nearest Boston, to anticipate 
 any movement of the enemy. Prescott himself stood 
 there in company with our late Governor Brooks, then a 
 major in Bridge's regiment, and heard from the sentries 
 relieving guard, the cry, "all's well." After a while 
 Prescott, thinking it impossible that the enemy could be 
 so hard of hearing, went down to the shore again, and 
 finding all secure, he recalled the guard. The work 
 went on, and burdened moments secured the results of 
 hours. There was a scene for the imagination to picture, 
 but we may not now delineate it. Even the narrow 
 space occupied by the river's bed, was wider than the 
 distance between those midnight laborers and their ene- 
 mies. Five armed vessels then floated in the middle of 
 the stream ; the Glasgow, on the line of Cragie's Bridge, 
 with 24 guns and 130 men, commanded the summit of 
 Bunker's Hill and the neck by which this peninsula com- 
 municates with Medford and Cambridge ; the Somerset, 
 with 68 guns and 520 men, lying near the draw of our 
 present old bridge, commanded Charlestown square and 
 its dwelling houses ; the Lively, with 20 guns and 130 
 men, lying off the navy yard, could throw its shot 
 directly upon the redoubt ; and the Falcon, sloop of war, 
 lying off" Morton's Point, defended the ascent between the 
 landing places of the British and Breed's Hill ; and the 
 Cerberus, of 36 guns, maintained a continual fire during the 
 attack. These ships were most advantageously situated 
 for the purposes of the enemy, and it seems almost impos- 
 sible that the sentries could have been wakeful at their 
 posts, and not have heard the operations upon the hill. 
 The four hours of darkness after the labors of intrench- 
 
33 
 
 ment commenced, at last gave place to the beams of early- 
 morning. On that moment when the snn sent forth the 
 first heralds of his coming, seems to have been suspended 
 the fate of empires. How awfully in contrast with the 
 glorious goodness of the Almighty, in pouring out over 
 the darkened sky and the dew-sprinkled earth, the burst- 
 ing radiance of the sun, was to be the scene which the 
 sun would behold upon that green eminence. How 
 dreadful was the sin of deforming that fair scene, when 
 the heavens in their glory greeted the earth in its loveli- 
 ness — how dreadful was the sin of deforming such a scene 
 with the frantic passions of war. If true patriotism, if 
 wise policy, at least if the love which Christian people of 
 the same blood and lineage should bear to each other, 
 had been allowed its full, free influence over the parties 
 in the approaching struggle, how much agony and woe, 
 and fruitless wretchedness might have been averted! 
 Even then it was not too late for justice, justice on the 
 part of our proud and unfeeling oppressors, to have en- 
 sured peace. The blood shed at Concord and Lexington, 
 with the long list of antecedent outrages, might have 
 been forgiven by our fathers. They had not been the 
 aggressors ; they acted only on the defensive ; they struck 
 a blow only to ward off a blow. There is no evidence 
 that the heights of Charlestown were occupied for any 
 other purpose than that of defence, to confine the enemy 
 within their narrow quarters, and to prevent any more 
 hostile incursions into the country. When the morning 
 sun displayed to the astonished invaders the character of 
 the last night's labor, and showed them the workmen 
 still employed, with undismayed hearts and untired 
 hands, it was not even then too late for peace. Gage and 
 his officers, at least, if their hired subordinates did not, 
 should have honored, though they might not have feared 
 that patriot band ; should have respected the spirit which 
 controlled them, and should have counted the cost of the 
 bloody issue. But not one moment, not one word, 
 5 
 
34 
 
 perhaps not one thought, was spent upon intercession or 
 warning. 
 
 The instant that the first beams of light marked dis- 
 tinctly the outlines of the Americans, and of their in- 
 trenchments upon the hill, the cannon of the Lively, 
 which floated nearest, opened a hot fire upon them, at 
 the same time arousing the sleepers in Boston, to come 
 forth as spectators or actors in the cruel tragedy. The 
 other armed vessels, some floating batteries, and the bat- 
 tery on Copp's Hill, combined to pour forth their vollies, 
 uttering a startling and dismal note of preparation for the 
 day's conflict. But the works, though not completed, 
 were in a state of such forwardness that the missiles of 
 destruction fell harmless, and the intrenchers continued 
 to strengthen their position. The enemy in Boston could 
 scarcely credit their eyesight. Prescott, the hero of the 
 day, with whom its proudest fame should rest, was un- 
 daunted, ardent, and full of heroic energy. He planned 
 and directed, he encouraged the men, he mounted the 
 works, and with his bald head uncovered, and his com- 
 manding frame, he was a noble personification of a patriot 
 cause. Some of the men incautiously ventured in front 
 of the works, when one of them was instantly killed by a 
 cannon shot. This first victim was buried in the ditch, 
 and his companions were fearfully warned of the fatali- 
 ties which the day would bring yet nearer to them. 
 
 When the orders had been issued at Cambridge, the 
 night before, to those who had thus complied with them, 
 refreshments and reinforcements had been promised in 
 the morning. Thus some of the men might have thought 
 they had fulfilled their part of the work, and were enti- 
 tled to relief, or were at liberty to depart. Some few, 
 when the first victim fell, left the hill, and did not return. 
 Those who remained were exhausted with their toil, and 
 without food or water, and the morning was already in- 
 tensely hot. The officers, sympathising with their situa- 
 tion and sufferings, requested Prescott to send to Cam- 
 
35 
 
 bridge for relief. He summoned a council of war, but 
 was resolute against the petition, saying that the enemy 
 would not venture an attack, and if they did venture, 
 would be defeated ; that the men. who had raised the 
 works were best able to defend them, and deserved the 
 honor of the victory ; that they had already learned to 
 despise the tire of the. enemy. The vehemence of Pres- 
 cott infused new spirit into the men, and they resolved to 
 stand the dread issue. Prescott ordered a guard to the 
 ferry to prevent a landing there. He was seen by Gage, 
 who was reconnoitring from Copp's Hill, and who in- 
 quired of Counsellor Willard, by his side, " Who is that 
 officer commanding 7" Willard recognised his brother-in- 
 law, and named Colonel Prescott. "Will he fight?" 
 asked Gage. The answer was, " Yes, sir, depend upon 
 it, to the last drop of blood in him ; but I cannot answer 
 for his men." Yet Prescott could answer for his men, 
 and that amounted to the same thing. 
 
 The measures of the enemy were undoubtedly delayed 
 by sheer amazement and surprise, on finding that the in- 
 trepidity' of the provincials had anticipated them in an 
 enterprise upon which they had deliberately decided. In 
 the Council of War, called by Gage, all were unanimous 
 that the enemy must be dislodged, but there was a differ- 
 ence of opinion as to the manner of effecting this object. 
 The majority agreed with Generals Clinton and Grant, 
 in advising that the British troops should be embarked at 
 the bottom of the Common, in boats, and under the pro- 
 tection of the ships and floating batteries, should land at 
 Charlestown, and thus hold the provincials and their in- 
 trenchments at their mercy. But General Gage overruled 
 the advice, and determined upon landing and making an 
 attack in front of the works, fearing that his troops, if 
 landed at the neck, would be ruinously surrounded by 
 the intrenchers, and the whole army at Cambridge. 
 
 Meanwhile General Ward, though repeatedly solicited 
 by Putnam and by messengers sent from Prescott, hesi- 
 
36 
 
 tated about weakening the strength of the main army by- 
 sending reinforcements upon the hill, for as the enemy- 
 had not yet landed, he had good reason to fear that they 
 might divide their forces, and while engaging with the 
 intrenchers, effect a landing at some other spot, and pro- 
 ceed to Watertown or Cambridge, where the scanty stores 
 of the provincials were deposited. 
 
 By nine o'clock the preparations in Boston, heard and 
 seen by Prescott on the hill, informed him of the determi- 
 nation of the British to attack. He therefore gave up his 
 first opinion, that they would not dare to resist him, and 
 comforted himself and his men with the promise of cer- 
 tain and glorious victory. He sent Major Brooks to Gen. 
 Ward, to urge the necessity of his being reinforced. 
 Brooks being obliged to proceed on foot, as Capt. Gridley 
 would not risk one of his artillery horses to pass the 
 neck, which was swept by the Glasgow frigate, arrived 
 about ten o'clock at head-quarters, where the Committee 
 of Safety were then in session. Brooks's urgency, second- 
 ed by the solicitations of Richard Devens, a member of 
 the committee, and a citizen of Charlestown, induced 
 General Ward to order that Colonels Reed and Stark, 
 then at Medford, should reinforce Prescott with the New 
 Hampshire troops. The companies at Chelsea were then 
 recalled, and the order reached Medford at 11 o'clock. 
 The men were as speedily as possible provided with am- 
 munition, though much time was consumed in the prep- 
 aration. Each man received two flints, a gill of powder, 
 and fifteen balls. They were without cartridge-boxes, 
 and used powder-horns and pouches, or their pockets, as 
 substitutes, and in making up their cartridges they were 
 obliged to beat and shape their balls according to the dif- 
 ferent calibre of their guns. 
 
 Dr. Joseph Warren, one of the most distinguished and 
 self-sacrificing of the many patriots of the time, had not 
 yet taken the commission which was granted to him on 
 the 14th of June. He had twice maintained the cause 
 
37 
 
 of liberty in the very teeth of British officers, on the 
 annual commemoration of the 5th of March. When the 
 report of the coming action reached him at Watertown, 
 where he then was, as acting President of the Provincial 
 Congress and Chairman of the Committee of Safety, 
 though suffering from illness and exhaustion, he resolved 
 to join in the strife. Wholly inexperienced as he was in 
 military tactics, his determination could not be shaken 
 by the earnest remonstrances of his friends. His pres- 
 ence and counsel were needed in the committee, but he 
 persisted in his resolve, and we must lament, as all his 
 contemporaries lamented, that his heroism outran his 
 prudence, and would not be controlled by duty in another 
 direction. 
 
 The hostile arrangements of the British being con- 
 cluded, our devoted band upon the slightly fortified hill, 
 soon saw the result. At noon, twenty-eight barges, form- 
 ed in two parallel lines, left the end of Long Wharf, and 
 made for Morton's Point, the most feasible landing-place. 
 The barges were crowded with British troops of the 5th, 
 38th, 43d and 52d battalions of infantry, two companies 
 of grenadiers, and ten of light infantry. These troops 
 were all splendidly appointed, with glittering firelocks 
 and bayonets, but sadly encumbered, for the hot work 
 before them and the hot sun above them, by their arms 
 and ammunition ; and it would seem by the statement of 
 their own historian, Stedman, that they carried a hundred 
 pounds of provision, intended to last for three days. 
 Their regular and uniform appearance, with six pieces of 
 ordnance shining in the bows of the leading barges, pre- 
 sented an imposing and alarming spectacle to our raw 
 soldiery. Some of the regulars that had lately arrived, 
 had been retained on board of the transports, on account 
 of the crowded state of Boston. Some of these were 
 landed for the first time at Charlestown, and thus the 
 first spot of American soil upon which many of them 
 trod, became to them a grave. The officers were all men 
 
38 
 
 of experience and valor : Generals Howe and Pigot, Cols. 
 Nesbit, Abercrombie, and Clarke, Majors Butler, Wil- 
 liams, Bruce, Spendlove, Smelt, Mitchell, Pitcairn, Short, 
 Small, and Lord Raw don, were the most distinguished. 
 Captain Addison, allied to the author of the Spectator, 
 had arrived in Boston on the day before the battle, and 
 had then accepted an invitation to dine with General 
 Burgoyne on the 17th, when a far diiferent experience 
 awaited him, for he was numbered among the slain. 
 
 This detachment landed at Morton's Point about one 
 o'clock, defended by the shipping, and wholly unmolest- 
 ed. They soon discovered an egregious and provoking 
 act of carelessness on the part of their master of ordnance, 
 in sending over cannon-balls too large for their pieces. 
 They were immediately returned to Boston, and were not 
 replaced in season for the first action. At the same time 
 General Howe, the commander of the detachment, re- 
 quested of General Gage a reinforcement, which he 
 thought to be necessary the moment that he had a fair 
 view of the elevated and formidable position of the pro- 
 vincials, as seen from the point. 
 
 While these messages were passing, some of the British 
 troops stretched at their ease upon the grass, ate in peace 
 their last meal, refreshing their thirst from large tubs of 
 drink — a tantalizing sight to the provincials. About two 
 o'clock the reinforcement landed at Madlin's ship-yard, 
 now the navy yard. It consisted of the 47th battalion of 
 infantry, a battalion of marines, and some more com- 
 panies of grenadiers and light infantry. The whole 
 number of British troops who engaged in the course of 
 the action did not fall short of, and probably exceeded, 
 5,000. In connection with this force, which far surpass- 
 ed that of the provincials in numbers, and was immeasur- 
 ably superior to them in discipline and military appoint- 
 ments, we are to consider the marines in the ships, which 
 completely cannonaded three sides of the hill, and the 
 six-gun battery on Copp's Hill, as engaging in the 
 
39 
 
 unequal contest. Contrasting a British regular with a 
 provincial soldier, we are accustomed to ascribe immense 
 advantages of discipline to the former. Yet we are to 
 remember that an overpowering superiority of character 
 and of cause was on the side of the latter. If we could 
 have followed a recruiting sergeant of Great Britain at 
 that time, as he hunted out from dram-shops and the 
 haunts of idleness and vice, the low and vulgar inebriate, 
 the lawless and dissolute spendthrift, seeing how well the 
 sergeant knew where to look for his recruits, we should 
 know how much discipline could do for them, and how 
 much it must leave undone. The provincials were not 
 acquainted with the forms and terms of military tactics ; 
 but they knew the difference between half-cock and 
 double-cock, and the more they hated the vermin which 
 they had been used to hunt with their fowling-pieces, the 
 straighter did the bullet speed from the muzzle. But 
 their superiority consisted in the kind of pay which they 
 were to receive, not in pounds and shillings, but in a free 
 land, a happy home, and rulers of their own choice. 
 
 While the British troops were forming their lines, a 
 slight work was constructed by the Connecticut troops, 
 sent from the redoubt, under Captain Knowlton, which 
 proved of essential service to the provincials. A rail 
 fence, under a small part of which a stone wall was 
 piled to the height of about two feet, ran from the road 
 which crossed the tongue of land between the hills, to the 
 bank of the Mystic, with a few apple trees on each side of it. 
 The provincials pulled up some other fences near by, and 
 set them in a line parallel with this, filling the space be- 
 tween with the fresh mown hay around the ground. 
 The length of this slight defence was about 700 feet. It 
 was about 600 feet in rear of the redoubt and breastwork, 
 and had it been on a line with them, would have left a 
 space of about 100 feet between the end of the earthen 
 and the wooden defences. Thus there was an opening 
 of about 700 feet on the slope of the hill between the 
 
40 
 
 intrenchments and the rail fence, which the provincials 
 had not time to secure. Part of this intervening space 
 then, as now, was sloughy, and as there were no means 
 of defending it save a few scattered trees, the troops be- 
 hind the breastwork were exposed to a galling fire from 
 the enemy, on their third attack, which finally brought 
 about the unfavorable issue of the strife. The six pieces 
 of British artillery were stationed at first upon Morton's 
 Hill. 
 
 All these preparations, visible as they were to thous- 
 ands upon the neighboring hill-tops, steeples and house- 
 roofs, were watched with the in tensest anxiety. Un- 
 doubtedly, the common persuasion and fear was that 
 General Gage would himself lead a portion, if not 
 the whole of the residue of his army, upon an attack 
 at some other point in the semi-circle. Roxbury 
 was heavily cannonaded, to retain the forces there from 
 proceeding to Charlestown. A schooner, with 500 or 600 
 men, was directed to the Cambridge shore, but wind and 
 tide proved unfavorable. In fear of these movements 
 great caution was advisable in sending reinforcements 
 upon the hill. Captain Callender was ordered there with 
 his artillery. Gardner's, Patterson's and Doolittle's regi- 
 ments were stationed at different points between Charles- 
 town neck and Cambridge. This neck, though frequently 
 passed by our officers and troops in single file, was fear- 
 fully hazardous during the whole day, as it was raked 
 by a fire of round, bar, and chain shot, from the Glas- 
 gow, and from two armed gondolas near the shore. The 
 reinforcements arrived from Medford before the engage- 
 ment, though General Stark had led them very moder- 
 ately, insisting that " one fresh man in battle is worth 
 ten fatigued ones." General Putnam stopped a part of 
 them to unite Avith a detachment from the redoubt in at- 
 tempting to fortify Bunker's Hill, which was of great 
 consequence to the provincials in case of a retreat. Stark 
 with oaths and encouragements led on the remainder to 
 the rail fence. 
 
41 
 
 It soon became a matter of importance to the provin- 
 cials to seek the utmost possible help from their artillery, 
 but it amounted to very little. A few ineffectual shot had 
 been fired from Gridley's pieces in the redoubt, against 
 Copp's Hill and the shipping, when the pieces were re- 
 moved and placed with Captain Callender's at the space 
 between the fence and the breastwork. Here they would 
 have been of some service in defending our weakest and 
 most exposed point. But the officers and the companies 
 who had them in charge were wholly ignorant of their 
 management, and on the plea of having unsuitable car- 
 tridges, Callender was drawing his guns off' to prepare 
 ammunition, when Putnam urged him to return. The 
 pieces were fired a few times, and soon afterwards were 
 moved by Captain Ford to the rail fence. 
 
 General Pomeroy, at Cambridge, old as he was, was 
 moved like the war-horse at the smell of the battle. He 
 begged a horse of General Ward that he might ride to 
 Charlestown, but on reaching the neck, and observing 
 the hot fire which raked it, he was afraid to risk the bor- 
 rowed animal. Giving him then in charge to a sentry, 
 he walked on to the rail fence, where his well-known 
 form and countenance called forth enthusiastic shouts. 
 Colonel Little came up with his regiment, and the men 
 were stationed along the line, from the rail fence on the 
 left to a cart- way. There were also reinforcements of 
 about 300 troops each, from Brewer's, Nixon's, Wood- 
 bridge's and Doolittle's regiments, detachments of which 
 were stationed along the main street in Charlestown. 
 Colonel Scammans, who was deprived of his sense and 
 his courage, either by confusion or fear, had been ordered 
 by General Ward to go where the fighting was. He went 
 to Lechmere's Point, understanding, as he said, that the 
 enemy were landing there. He was advised to go to the 
 hill. He chose to understand the nearest hill, and so he 
 posted himself upon Cobble Hill, where the Insane Hospi- 
 tal now stands, and occupied that useless position. Gen. 
 6 
 
42 
 
 Warren arrived just before the action. Putnam endeav- 
 ored to dissuade him from entering it, and then recom- 
 mended to him a safe place, and offered to receive his 
 orders. But Warren could not be thus wrought upon. 
 He said he came only as a vohmteer, and instead of seek- 
 ing a place of safety, wished to know where the onset 
 would be most furious. Putnam pointed to the redoubt 
 as the place of danger and importance. Prescott there 
 offered to receive Warren's orders, but he again said he 
 Avas happy to serve as a volunteer. 
 
 The tune of Yankee Doodle, which afforded the British 
 so much sport as ridiculing the provincials, was the tune 
 by which our fathers were led on to that contest. Let 
 their example commend to us this only way of depriving 
 ridicule of its sting, for there is nothing which it so much 
 annoys men to spend in vain as their scorn. 
 
 Before the engagement commenced. Captain Walker, of 
 Chelmsford, led a band of about fifty resolute men down 
 into Charlestown to annoy the enemy's left flank. They 
 did great execution and then abandoned their dangerous 
 position, to attack the right flank upon Mystic river. 
 Here the captain was wounded and taken prisoner. He 
 died of his wounds in Boston jail. 
 
 The British, in their attack, aimed at two distinct ob- 
 jects ; first, to force and carry the redoubt ; second, to 
 turn the left flank of our troops, and thus to cut off their 
 retreat. To accomplish the former. General Pigot, who 
 commanded the British left wing, displayed under cover 
 of the eastern slope of the hill, and advanced against the 
 redoubt and breastwork. General Howe led the right 
 wing, which advanced along the shore of the Mystic to 
 the rail fence. The artillery prepared the way for the 
 infantry, and it was at this time that the mistake of the 
 oversized balls was a great grievance to the enemy, as 
 they had but a few rounds of proper shot. 
 
 It was of vital necessity that every charge of powder 
 and ball spent by the Americans should take effect. 
 
43 
 
 There was none for waste. The officers commanded 
 their men to withhold their fire till the enemy were within 
 eight rods, and when they could see the whites of their 
 eyes, to aim at their waistbands, also to "aim at the 
 handsome coats, and pick off the commanders." As the 
 British left wing came within gun-shot, the men in the 
 redoubt could scarcely restrain their fire, and a few dis- 
 charged their pieces. Prescott, indignant at this disobe- 
 dience, vowed instant death to any one who should repeat 
 it, and promised by the confidence which they reposed in 
 him to give the command at the proper moment. His 
 Lieutenant Colonel, Robinson^ ran round the top of the 
 works and knocked up the muskets. When the space 
 between the assailants and the redoubt was narrowed 
 to the appointed span, the word was spoken at the mo- 
 ment ; the deadly flashes burst forth, and the green grass 
 was crimsoned with the life-blood of hundreds. The 
 front rank was nearly obliterated, as were its successive 
 substitutes, as the Americans were well protected, and 
 were deliberate in their aim. The enemy fell like the tall 
 grass which grew around before the practised sweep of 
 the mower. General Pigot was obliged to give the word 
 for a retreat. Some of the wounded were seen crawling 
 with the last energies of life from the gory heap of the 
 dying and the dead, among whom the officers, by their 
 proportion, far outnumbered the private soldiers. As the 
 wind rolled away the suffocating smoke, and the blasts 
 of the artillery and the musketry for a moment ceased, 
 the awful spectacle, the agonising yells and shrieks of the 
 sufferers were distracting and piercing. Prayers and 
 groans, foul impious oaths, and fond invocations of the 
 loved and the dear, were mingled into sounds which 
 scarcely seemed of human utterance, by the rapturous 
 shout of victory which rang from the redoubt. The 
 earth has not a sight or sound more maddening, in its 
 passion or its woe, than a battle-field. Hell then gushes 
 forth from the fiery bowels of the earth, and covers its 
 fair surface with the flames and yells of demon strife. 
 
44 
 
 While such was the temporary aspect of the field near 
 the redoubt, General Howe, with the right wing, made 
 for the rail fence, where Putnam, assisted by Captain 
 Ford's company, had posted the artillery with success. 
 Here, as at the redoubt, some of the provincials were 
 tempted to discharge their muskets while the advancing 
 enemy were destroying a fence which crossed their path. 
 Putnam, with an oath, threatened to cut down with his 
 sword the next offender. The word was given when the 
 enemy were within eight rods. The artillery had already 
 made a lane through the column, and now the fowling- 
 pieces mowed down their victims, especially the officers, 
 with fearful celerity. The strong lungs of Major Mc- 
 Clary raised the voice of encouragement above the roar 
 of the cannon. The assailants were compelled to retreat, 
 leaving behind them heaps of the fallen, while some of the 
 flying even hurried to their boats. Their artillery had 
 stopped in the slough among the brick-kilns, and could 
 do but little. The regulars did not take aim, and their 
 shot passed high over the heads of the Americans. The 
 trees around were afterwards observed with their trunks 
 unscathed, while their branches were riddled through and 
 through. The passionate shout of victory again rang 
 through the American lines, and even the coward was 
 nerved to daring. 
 
 Now it was that our troops and our cause suffered from 
 the want of discipline, and from the confusion apparent 
 in the whole management of the action, originating in the 
 hasty and imperfect preparation, and in their ignorance 
 of the purposes of the enemy. The neck of land ploughed 
 by the engines of death, and clouded by the dust thus 
 raised, was an almost insuperable obstacle to the bringing 
 on of reinforcements. Major Gridley, wholly unfitted in 
 spirit and in skill, had been put in command of a battal- 
 ion of infantry, in compliment to his father. He lost, 
 and could not recover, his self-possession and courage. 
 Though ordered to the hill, he advanced towards Charles- 
 
45 
 
 town slowly and fearfully, and though urged by Colonel 
 Frye to hasten, he was satisfied with the poor service of 
 firing three-pounders from Cobble Hill upon the Glas- 
 gow. His Captain Trevett refused obedience to such 
 weakness, and ordered his men to follow him to the 
 works. Colonel Gerrish, with his artillery on Bunker's 
 Hill, could neither be urged nor intimidated by Putnam 
 to bring his pieces to the rail fence. He was unwieldy 
 with corpulence, and overcome with heat and fatigue. 
 His men had been scattered from the summit of the hill, 
 which took tremendous effect here, as it was thought to 
 be strongly fortified. 
 
 The enemy rallied for a second attack. Though they 
 had sorely suffered, and some few of the officers were 
 reluctant to renew the fatal effort, yet the large body, like 
 the general, would have yielded to death in any form of 
 horror, before they would have left the field to those whom 
 they had always represented as cowards. At this crisis 
 four hundred reinforcements came over from Boston to 
 repair the British loss, and Dr. Jeffries accompanied them 
 as surgeon. The regulars again steadily advanced, and 
 with the dreadful apathy of feeling induced by a battle- 
 field, they even piled up the bodies of their slaughtered 
 comrades as a breastwork for their own protection. The 
 artillery was now drawn up by the road which divided 
 the tongue of land on the Mystic from the hill, to within 
 nine hundred feet of the rail fence. The object was to 
 bring it on a line with the redoubt, and to open a way for 
 the infantry. It was daring this second attack that 
 Charlestown was set on fire. Probably a double purpose 
 was intended by this act : first that the smoke might 
 cover the advance of the enemy, and second to dislodge 
 some of the provincials, who from the shelter of the 
 houses had annoyed the British left wing. General Howe 
 sent over the order to Burgoyne and Clinton to' fire the 
 town, and the order was fulfilled by carcasses thrown 
 from Copp's Hill, which, aided by some marines who 
 
46 
 
 landed from the Somerset, completed the work of desola- 
 tion. 
 
 The Americans were prepared for the renewed attack. 
 They had orders to reserve their fire till the enemy were 
 within six rods, and then to take deadly aim. As before, 
 the shot of the enemy was mostly ineffectual, ranging far 
 above the heads of the provincials. Still some of the pri- 
 vates fell, and Colonels Brewer, Nixon and Buckminster, 
 and Major Moore were wounded, the latter mortally, cry- 
 ing out in his death-thirst for water, which coald not be 
 obtained nearer than the neck, whither two of his men 
 went to seek it. The British stood, for a time whose mo- 
 ments were hours, the deadly discharge which was poured 
 upon them as they passed the appointed line, while whole 
 ranks of officers and men fell in heaps. General Howe 
 stood in the thickest of the fight, wrought up to a desper- 
 ate determination. For a time he was almost alone, his 
 aid-de-camps, and many other officers of his staff, lying 
 wounded or dead. But though he would not lead a sec- 
 ond retreat, he was compelled to follow it, and to hear 
 the repeated shout of victory rise from the patriot band 
 who had weighed the choice between death and slavery. 
 Thus the British were twice fairly and completely driven 
 from the hill. For success, up to this moment^ the pro- 
 vincials have not had the deserved acknowledgment in 
 the English histories. Even Burke (if, as is probable, he 
 wrote the account in the Annual Register,) refers only 
 once to the repulse, and then merely says the regulars 
 "were thrown into some disorder." 
 
 But now the fortunes of the day were to be reversed, so 
 far, and so far only, as to attach the bare name of victory 
 to the side of the foreign assailants. The provincials en- 
 couraged themselves with the hope that the two repulses 
 which had compelled the regulars to retire with such stu- 
 pendous' loss, would deter them from a renewed attack. 
 Some of the British officers did indeed remonstrate against 
 leading the men to another butchery, but their remon- 
 
47 
 
 strance was disdainfully repelled by their comrades. 
 During the second attack, a provincial, with incautious 
 loudness of speech, had declared that the ammunition was 
 exhausted, and he was overheard by some of the regulars. 
 General Clinton, who from Copp's Hill had witnessed the 
 repeated repulse of his Majesty's troops with great morti- 
 fication, took a boat and passed over as a volunteer, 
 bringing with him added reinforcements. A new mode 
 of attack was now determined upon. General Howe 
 having discovered that weak point, the space between 
 the breastwork and the rail fence, now led the left wing, 
 and resolved to apply the main strength of the assault 
 against the redoubt and the breastwork, particularly to 
 rake the latter with the artillery from the left, while he 
 disguised this purpose by a feigned show of force at the 
 rail fence. The men now divested themselves of their 
 heavy knapsacks, some of them even of their coats. 
 They were ordered to stand the fire of the provincials, 
 and then to make a resolute charge at the point of the 
 bayonet. The three facts last mentioned, viz. the knowl- 
 edge of the enemy that the provincials lacked ammuni- 
 tion, the encouragement of the presence of Gen. Clinton, 
 and the discovery of the weak point in the works, may 
 have nerved the British to undertake a third attack. 
 
 While these hostile preparations were in progress, the 
 little band of devoted patriots, exhausted almost to com- 
 plete prostration by their long and unrefreshed toil of the 
 night, and by the bloody work of noon-day, had time to 
 summon their remaining energies, to resolve that the last 
 blow should be the heaviest, to think upon the glory of 
 their cause and the laurels they should forever wear. 
 The few remaining cartridges were distributed by Pres- 
 cott. The small number of men whose muskets were 
 furnished with bayonets, stood ready to repel the charge ; 
 and those who were without this defence, as well as with- 
 out ammunition, resolved to club their muskets and wield 
 their heavy stocks, while the ferocity of despair strung 
 
48 
 
 every nerve. Even the loose stones of the intrenchments 
 were gladly secured as the last stay of an unflinching 
 resolution. 
 
 A body of reinforcements, fresh and resolute, and pro- 
 vided with bayonets, might have forced the regulars to a 
 third and final retreat, but as before remarked, unavoida- 
 ble confusion prevailed in the American camp. The neck 
 of land, the only line of communication, wore a terrible 
 aspect to raw recruits, and General Ward was without 
 staff officers to convey his orders. The regiments which 
 had been stationed along the road to wait further com- 
 mands, were overlooked. Colonel Gardner, though thus 
 left without orders, panting to join the strife, led 300 men 
 to Bunker's Hill, where Putnam first set them upon in- 
 trenching, but soon urged them to action at the lines. 
 The Colonel commanded his men to drop their tools and 
 follow. He was leading them to the post of dangerous 
 service, when he received a mortal wound by a musket- 
 ball in the groin. As he was borne off the field, he com- 
 manded his men to conquer or die ; deprived of their offi- 
 cer, but few of them engaged in the action. His son, a 
 youth of nineteen, met him on his way, and overcome with 
 grief, sought to aid him, but the father commanded him 
 to march to his duty. Colonel Scammans remained on 
 Cobble Hill, but a detachment of Gerrish's regiment, 
 under their Danish adjutant Ferbiger, rushed toward 
 the fence. A few of the Americans occupied two or three 
 houses and barns on the slope of Breed's Hill, and an- 
 noyed, for a time, the left flank of the enemy. 
 
 The artillery of the British effected its murderous pur- 
 pose, raking the whole interior of the breastwork, driving 
 its defenders into the redoubt, and sending the balls there 
 after them, through the open sally-port. Lieut. Prescott, 
 a nephew of the Colonel, had his arm disabled, and was 
 told by his uncle to content himself with encouraging his 
 men ; but having succeeded in loading his musket, he 
 was passing the sally-port to seek a rest from which to 
 
49 
 
 fire it, when he was killed by a cannon-ball. It was evi- 
 dent that the intrenchments could no longer be maintain- 
 ed, but the resolution to yield them only in the convulsion 
 of the last effort, nerved every patriot arm. 
 
 The British officers were seen to goad on some of their 
 reluctant men with their swords. It was for them now 
 to receive the fire, and to reserve their own till they could 
 follow it by a thrust of the bayonet. Each shot of the 
 provincials was true to its aim. Colonel Abercrombie, 
 Majors Williams and Spendlove, fell. General Howe 
 was wounded in the foot. Hand to hand, and face to 
 face, were exchanged the last awful hostilities of that 
 day. Only a ridge of earth divided the grappling com- 
 batants, whose feet were slipping upon the gory sand, 
 while they joined in the mortal strife. When the enemy 
 found themselves received with stones, the missiles of a 
 more ancient warfare, they knew that their work was 
 nearly done, as they now contended with unarmed men. 
 Young Richardson, of the Royal Irish, was the first who 
 scaled the parapet, and he fell, as did likewise the first 
 rank that mounted it, among whom Major Pitcairn, who 
 had shed the first blood at Lexington, was shot by a 
 negro soldier. It was only when the redoubt was crowd- 
 ed with the enemy and the defenders in one promiscuous 
 throng, and assailants on all sides were pouring into it, 
 that Prescott, no less, but even more a hero, when he 
 uttered the reluctant word, ordered a retreat. A longer 
 trial would have been folly, not courage. Som.e of the 
 men had splintered their musket-stocks in fierce blows, 
 nearly all were defenceless, yet was there that left within 
 them, in a dauntless soul, which might still help their 
 country at its need. Prescott gave the crowning proof of 
 his devoted and magnanimous spirit, when he cooled the 
 heat of his own brain, and bore the bitter pang in his 
 own heart, by commanding an orderly, and still resisting 
 retreat. He was the hero of that blood-dycd sumiuit — 
 the midnight leader and guard, the morning sentinel, the 
 7 
 
50 
 
 orator of the opening strife, the cool and deUbprate over- 
 seer of the whole struggle, the well-skilled marksman of 
 the exact distance at which a shot was certain death : he 
 was the venerable chief in whose bright eye and steady 
 nerve all read their duty ; and when conduct, skill and 
 courage could do no more, he was the merciful deliverer 
 of the remnant. Prescott was the hero of the day, and 
 wherever its tale is told, let him be its chieftain. 
 
 The troops in the redoubt now fought their pathway 
 through the encircling enemy, turning their faces towards 
 the foe, while they retreated with backward steps. Grid- 
 ley, who had planned and defended the works, received a 
 wound, and was borne off. Warren was among the last 
 to leave the redoubt, and at a short distance from it, a 
 musket-ball through his head killed him instantly. 
 When the corpse of that illustrious patriot was recognised 
 and identified the next morning by Dr. Jeffries, General 
 Howe thought that this one victim well repaid the loss of 
 numbers of his mercenaries. It is not strange that, both 
 in English and American narratives of that day, and in 
 some subsequent notices of it, Warren should have been 
 represented as the commander of the provincial forces. 
 His influence and his patriotism were equally well known 
 to friend and foe. There is no more delicate task than 
 to divide among many heroes the honors of a battle-field, 
 and the rewards of devoted service. Yet the high-minded 
 will always appreciate the integrity of the motive which 
 seeks to distinguish between the places and the modes of 
 service, where those who alike love their country enjoy 
 the opportunity of securing the laurels of heroism and de- 
 votion. The council-chamber and the forum, and the 
 high place in the public assembly, offer to the patriot- 
 statesman the opportunity for winning remembrance and 
 honor to his name ; the battle-field must retain the same 
 high privilege for the patriot-soldier, for there alone can 
 he earn the wreath. Let the chivalry and the magna- 
 nimity of Warren forever fill a brilliant page in our his- 
 
51 
 
 tory, but let not a partial homage attach to him the honor 
 to which another has a rightful claim. It was no part of 
 his pure purpose, in mingling with his brethren on that 
 field, to monopolize its honors, and to figure as its hero. 
 It is enough that he stood among equals in devotion and 
 patriotism. Let it be remembered that he did not approve 
 the measure of thus challenging a superior enemy vv^ith 
 such insufficient preparation : — the more honorable, there- 
 fore, was his self-sacrifice, in giving the whole energy of 
 his will to falsify the misgivings of his judgment. Here, 
 then, is his claim, which, when fully allowed, leaves the 
 honors of that summit to the leader of the heroic band. 
 
 And while such was the issue at the redoubt, the left 
 wing, under Putnam, aided by some reinforcements which 
 had arrived too late, was making a vigorous stand at the 
 rail fence. But the retreat at the redoubt compelled the 
 resolute defenders to yield with slow and reluctant steps, 
 as their flank was opened to the enemy. Putnam pleaded 
 and cursed ; he commanded and implored the scattering 
 bands to rally, and he swore that he would win them the 
 victory. For his foul profanity he made a sincere con- 
 fession before the church and congregation of which he 
 was a member, after the war. On the day of the battle, 
 his great and consuming purpose was to fortify Bunker 
 Hill. To effect this, he passed and repassed between 
 Cambridge and Charlestown, sending for tools to the re- 
 doubt, where he does not appear to have been present 
 during the action, and endeavoring to rally the flying even 
 when there was no longer a hope. His furious ardor may 
 or may not have needed the control of deliberate judg- 
 ment, and of that essential characteristic of the soldier, 
 which is termed ' conduct.' His courage was unques- 
 tionable. I have fairly presented him and his services as 
 a careful examination of all the authorities within my 
 reach has enabled me to decide upon a point where wri- 
 ters better informed than myself have diflered. I cannot 
 regard Putnam either as the commander or the hero of 
 
52 
 
 the day ; and while I would speak with great diffidence 
 upon so delicate a point, I would still hope that my con- 
 chisions in reference to it partake as much of truth as I 
 am sure they do of impartiality. 
 
 Pomeroy likewise implored the men to rally, but in 
 vain. The last resistance at the rail fence restrained the 
 enemy from cutting off the retreat of the provincials. 
 Yet the enemy were in no condition to pursue, as they 
 were alike exhausted, and were content with the little 
 patch of ground which they had so dearly purchased. 
 The provincials retreated to Cambridge by the neck, and 
 by the Winter Hill road, taking with them only one of 
 the six pieces of artillery which they had brought to the 
 field. The battle had occupied about two hours, the pro- 
 vincials retreating just before five o'clock. The British 
 lay on their arms at Bunker Hill all night, discharging 
 their pieces against the Americans who were safely en- 
 camped upon Prospect Hill, at the distance of a mile. 
 
 Prescott repaired to head-quarters to make return of 
 his trust. He was indignant at the loss of the battle, and 
 implored General Ward to commit to him three fresh reg- 
 iments, promising with them to win back the day. But 
 he had already honorably accomplished all that his coun- 
 try might demand. He complained bitterly that the rein- 
 forcements, which might have given to his triumph the 
 completeness that was needed to make it a victory, had 
 failed him. A year afterwards, when he was in the 
 American camp at New York, he was informed how nar- 
 rowly he had escaped with life. A British sergeant, who 
 was brought into the camp, on meeting with Prescott 
 there called him by name. Prescott inquired how or 
 where he had known him. The man replied that he 
 knew him well, and that his acquaintance began at the 
 battle in Charlestown. Prescott had there been pointed 
 out to him as the commander, and in the first two attacks 
 he had singled him out and taken a deliberate aim. 
 Though his position at each time was so favorable as to 
 
53 
 
 convince him the shot would be fatal, yet Prescott had 
 been unharmed. On the third attack, impelled by the 
 same purpose, he had charged the commander at the 
 point of the bayonet, but the strong arm and the sword 
 of Prescott thrust aside the weapon, and the baffled ser- 
 geant concluded him to be invulnerable. Prescott kindly 
 presented the poor soldier with a gift of charity to relieve 
 his disappointment. The pierced garments of the hero, 
 preserved in his family, bear witness to the repeated 
 efforts of his foe. 
 
 The number of our troops in the action, including the 
 occasional reinforcements, and those who came only to 
 cover the retreat, did not exceed 4,000. Of these, 115 
 were killed and missing, 30.5 were wounded, and 30 were 
 taken prisoners; making our whole loss 450. Prescott' s 
 regiment suffered most severely. 
 
 The whole British loss was rated by the Provincial 
 Congress, on their best information, at 1500, but Gage 
 acknowledged only 1054, including 89 officers ; 226 being 
 killed, and 828 wounded. 
 
 Loud and agonizing was the mourning in Boston, when 
 the wounded were committed to the crowded hospitals ; 
 and the sympathies of the inhabitants were demanded 
 alike for friends and foes. 
 
 But though the sword was lifted against our fathers by 
 their own brethren, and in a cause which we must pro- 
 nounce to have been unrighteous and tyrannical, we feel 
 impelled to pay a just tribute to the bravery and gallantry 
 of the British officers and soldiers upon the field. To 
 march boldly forward, as they did thrice, and bare their 
 bosoms to the weapons of desperate men, was a trial of 
 their spirit which allows us to withhold from them no 
 praise or glory which we give to our fathers, save that 
 which belongs to our fathers as the champions of the bet- 
 ter cause. The highest honor we can bestow upon the 
 heroism of the enemy, is, in regretting that the King and 
 his ministers found such devoted servants. 
 
54 
 
 Such is but a faint delineation, in feeble words, of the 
 ac'ion which we commemorate. And now, if I were to 
 say that the intrenching and the defence of Breed's Hill 
 was the most important action in our revolutionary war, 
 the assertion might be set down to the account of a rhe- 
 torical exaltation of a theme committed to the hands of an 
 orator for a festive occasion — and rival claimants might 
 arise to vindicate the fame of our other battle-fields. Yet, 
 without a word or a figure of exaggeration, the battle of 
 June 17th may be placed first in importance in the calen- 
 dar of our conflicts. The whole protracted struggle was 
 decisively influenced by this, its opening contest. The 
 battle was fought by the provincials in earnest, with de- 
 termined spirit, with proud success, though not with final 
 victory, and therefore it gave the impulse of a good begin- 
 ning to the whole conduct of the war. Let us briefly re- 
 view its results, that we may weigh its importance. 
 
 This battle accomplished what, in all cases of strife and 
 discord, it is very important yet very difficult to accom- 
 plish — it distinguished the two contending parties, and 
 brought them to an issue. There were then several links 
 of union between England and the colonists, formed by 
 the various orders, classes and coteries then gathered in 
 this neighborhood, and by their diverse opinions. Some of 
 our most honored and disinterested countrymen, and some 
 of the British officers, engaged with extreme reluctance in 
 the hostilities. We had among us not only tories and re- 
 publicans, but timid and cautious hesitants, and attached 
 friends to the restricted exercise of royal authority. There 
 were moderate and immoderate men of both parties, neu- 
 tral and lukewarm doubters of no party. While reading 
 the history of the period, we readily imagine the thousand 
 social ties and domestic relations, the civilities of neigh- 
 borhood and the common interest in the land across the 
 water, which might well make it a difficult thing, a work 
 requiring time and even blood, to separate the people of 
 the province into two parties distinct at every point. Had 
 
bo 
 
 it not been for the affair at Lexington, it is probable that 
 matters might have remained quiet for some time longer, 
 and that the colonists would have wasted many more 
 words of petition upon the ministry. Even after that 
 battle, had the ministry expressed in strong terms their 
 disapprobation of Gage's measure, and adopted a concilia- 
 tory tone, the war might have been then averted. But 
 the affair of the 17th June at once put a stop to any fur- 
 ther halting between two opinions. 
 
 Again, that action was of primary importance from the 
 influence which it exercised upon our fathers, who, un- 
 known to themselves, had before them a war of protracted 
 length, partaking largely of reverse and discouragement. 
 They learned this day what they might do in the confi- 
 dence that God was on their side and that their cause was 
 good. That work of a summer's night, was worth its 
 price to them. They lacked discipline, artillery, bayonets, 
 powder and ball, food, and — the greatest want of all — they 
 lacked the delicious draught of pure, cool water for their 
 labor-worn and heat-exhausted frames. They found that 
 desperation would supply the place of discipline ; that the 
 stock of a musket, wielded with true nerves, would deal a 
 blow as deadly as the thrust of a bayonet ; and that a 
 heavy stone might level an assailant as well as a charge 
 of powder. As for food and water, the hunger they were 
 compelled to bear unrelieved, and they cooled their brows 
 only by the thick, heavy drops which poured before the 
 sun. Yet it was their opening combat, and proudly did 
 they bear away its laurels, even upon their backs, which 
 the failure of ammunition and of reinforcements compelled 
 them to turn to the enemy. Yes, they did show their 
 backs once to those whose backs they had already seen 
 twice ; and if they retreated once, it was only that they 
 might save their faces for later and bolder opportunities of 
 confronting the foe. It was their opening combat, and it 
 decided the spirit and the hope of all their subsequent 
 campaigns. They had freed themselves during the en- 
 
56 
 
 gagement from all that natural reluctance which they had 
 heretofore felt in turning their offensive weapons against 
 the breasts of former friends, yes, even of kinsmen. On 
 that eminence, the first bright image of liberty, of a free 
 native land, kindled the eyes of those who were expiring 
 in their gore, and the image passed between the living 
 and the dying to seal the covenant, that the hope of the 
 one, or the fate of the other, should unite them here or 
 hereafter. It was the report of that battle, which, trans- 
 mitted by swift couriers over the length and breadth of 
 the continent, would every where prepare the spirit to fol- 
 low it up with determined resistance to every future act 
 of aggression. How can we exaggerate the relative im- 
 portance of this day's action? Did it not in fact open the 
 contest, dividing into two parties, not only those deter- 
 mined for the ministry or the colony, but likewise all 
 timid, hesitating, reluctant neutrals? It was difficult 
 after this to avoid taking sides. Did it not at once render 
 all reconciliation impossible, till it should offer itself in 
 company with justice and liberty ? Did it not echo the 
 gathering cry which brought together our people from 
 their farms and workshops, to learn the art of war, that 
 terrible art, which grows more merciful only as it is the 
 more skilfully pursued 7 This day, then, needs no rheto- 
 ric to magnify it in our revolutionary annals. After its 
 sun went down, the provincials parted with all fear, hesi- 
 tation and reluctance. They found that it was easier to 
 fight ; the awful roar of the death-dealing arms associated 
 itself in their minds with all their wrongs, and all their 
 hopes, and with the sweet word of liberty. The pen with 
 which petitions were written had been found to be power- 
 less : words of remonstrance left no impression upon the 
 air. There was but one resource. From the village 
 homes and farm-houses around, amid the encouraging ex- 
 hortations, as well as the tearful prayers of their families, 
 the yeomen took from their chimney-stacks the familiar 
 and well-proved weapons of a life in the woods, and felt 
 
57 
 
 for the first time what it was to have a country, and re- 
 solved for the first time that they would save their country 
 or be mourned by her. 
 
 And if further evidence be needed in support of the high 
 importance which I have attached to this day's conflict, 
 let me refer to the effect which the announcement of it 
 produced in Great Britain, upon the ministry and the 
 people. One fact painfully evident to the student of our 
 revolutionary history, is, that the war was commenced by 
 the ministry and allowed by the people under the grossest 
 misapprehension of the character and courage of the in- 
 habitants of this province. Parliament was in a state of 
 perfect infatuation when it gave ear to the speeches that 
 advised the measures of the ministry, and represented the 
 enforcing of them as so easy a work. For though Parlia- 
 ment had been warned by all the local information of our 
 former Governor Pownall, by the philosophy of Burke, 
 and the tender appeals of Lord Chatham, that conciliatory 
 measures would be the only efficient measures, there was ei- 
 ther stupidity, folly or madness in the self-conceited persua- 
 sion, that a race of men who had left their native country to 
 escape oppression, would consent to be oppressed in a new 
 country redeemed by them from a wilderness, made hab- 
 itable by virtuous toil, and endeared as always free. The 
 last three English Governors of this province, and the min- 
 istry at home, had represented the American people as 
 wholly under the control of a few ambitious leaders, dema- 
 gogues or revolutionists, who, by exciting speeches, spread 
 enthusiasm among the multitude, cajoling and ffattering 
 them with the enticing word — liberty. It was alleged in 
 Parliament that the people would succumb, if their leaders 
 could be silenced. This battle proved that a people who 
 showed such a spirit, must be capable of originating some 
 enthusiasm in themselves, as well as of being cajoled into 
 it by others. They had been represented as cowards who 
 dared to fire a musket only at a Ions- distance, and from 
 behind a protection, and the people of England had been 
 8 
 
58 
 
 promised that one regiment of the King's troops should 
 sweep the provincials off the continent. But after this 
 battle the probability of such a result was reduced to this 
 simple rule of three ; if so many of his Majesty's regiments 
 were necessary to secure the square feet of ground occu- 
 pied by Charlestown peninsula, how many would be 
 needed to sweep the continent? 
 
 The people of England were instructed by this day's 
 news to estimate the bravery, the union, the determined 
 purpose of the colonists. On this point I deem it impor- 
 tant to enlarge. It was greatly in favor of our cause, that 
 the unpopularity of the war among the mercantile classes 
 of England, should be increased by such a representation 
 of its progress, as would induce the pride of the British to 
 listen at last to prudence. While the ministry flattered 
 the people with fables about our pusillanimity and poverty, 
 and called for new resources against us, promising that 
 each demand should be the last, only the report of such 
 poor success as attended their hostilities upon this penin- 
 sula, could open the eyes of the British nation to the 
 hopelessness of their measures. 
 
 The account of the battle transmitted by General Gage, 
 accompanied of course by numerous private letters, was 
 received in London July 25th. The General estimated 
 his loss at 226 killed, and 828 wounded. The ministry 
 were dismayed, and for a time kept back the official an- 
 nouncement from the Gazette. It was known, however, 
 that government despatches had been received, and in 
 order to draw forth their contents, some ingenious persons 
 wrote from their imaginations what purported to be an 
 account of the battle, and published it in the newspapers. 
 By this fictitious statement, the regulars were said to have 
 been defeated with great slaughter. Thus the adminis- 
 tration were obliged to prepare their own statement for 
 the Gazette as soon as possible. Even with a favorable 
 garb thrown around its announcement, the official account 
 shocked and alarmed the people. They waited with the 
 
69 
 
 utmost anxiety for the representation which the provin- 
 cials might give of the hattle, and to hear the measures 
 of the Congress. They changed their opinion of us when 
 they found tliat one square mile of our territory had cost 
 them more than a thousand men. As the news of the 
 engagement circulated in England, it called out popular 
 expressions which exhibited the general dissatisfaction 
 with the war. The official publications were made up 
 from the accounts of Gage, Howe and Burgoyne ; they 
 were replied to, even in London, with cutting sarcasm. 
 
 Burgoyne, writing to Lord Stanley, had asserted that 
 " the day ended with glory." To this it was well replied 
 that a few more equally glorious victories would ruin the 
 whole kingdom. He expressed regret in his letter that 
 his nephew, the brother of Lord Stanley, had not been 
 with him in the battery on Copp's Hill, as spectator of 
 the battle from a safe [and somewhat cowardly] position, 
 where two cannon-balls went a hundred yards above his 
 head. He described in glowing language the conflagra- 
 tion of Charlestown — "straight before us a large and 
 noble town, in one bright blaze" — the flames wreathing 
 the high timber spire of the church, the falling of whole 
 streets, the burning of vessels on the stocks, and the roar 
 of the cannon. The whole of his letter was ludicrously 
 criticised. 
 
 General Gage, writing to Lord Dartmoutn, the head of 
 the war department, concludes thus : " the rebels are not 
 the despicable rabble too many suppose them to be, and I 
 find it owing to a military spirit encouraged among them 
 for a few years past, joined with an uncommon degree of 
 zeal and enthusiasm, that they are otherwise." The 
 commentary of the newspaper critic on this remark, was ; 
 " The Americans are either the cleverest fellows in the 
 world at making strong lines in three or four hours, or 
 the most desperate enemy in defending them." The re- 
 port in London was, that General Gage was ordered not 
 to hazard another engagement till he was rehiforced. 
 
60 
 
 though it was doubted whether the provincials would 
 leave this at his option ; that he was ordered to depart 
 from Boston, after burning it, and to fortify himself upon 
 Rhode Island, whence he might make descents upon the 
 coast; and that 1000 stand of arms and 1000 Highlanders 
 had been sent to Quebec. So high did sympathy for us 
 rise in England, that on the 23d of August the King 
 issued a proclamation against all in his realms who 
 should aid, correspond with, or favor the rebels. It was 
 found that the revenue so unblushingly promised in Par- 
 liament, was to require a large outlay for its collection in 
 the colonies. Instead of receiving taxes from us, they 
 were obliged to send regiments of their own subjects, with 
 foreign mercenaries, and coals, faggots, vinegar, porter, 
 hay, vegetables, sheep, oxen, horses, clothing — to say- 
 nothing of munitions of war — across 3000 miles of water, 
 and even then, to anticipate, as the result proved, with 
 good reason, that some of their richest transports would 
 fall into the hands of these reluctant tax-payers. Some 
 of the Highlanders who were induced to enlist by the 
 representations of recruiting sergeants, were told that they 
 were to take possession of some vacant farms in this coun- 
 try, the owners of which had been driven into the inte- 
 rior. They even received certificates that when the 
 rebellion here was subdued, each of them should have a 
 clear title to two Inuidred acres of land for himself, and 
 fifty acres in addition for each member of his family. 
 
 By a resolution of the Provincial Congress at Water- 
 town, July 7th, the Committee of Safety prepared an 
 account of the engagement on the 17th June, to be trans- 
 mitted to Great Britain, for the sake of counteracting the 
 influence of any misrepresentations on the part of Gen. 
 Gage. The account was dated July 25, and sent to 
 Arthur Lee, at London, who caused it to be published in 
 the papers. But the sympathies and complaints of the 
 English people were not left to be excited merely by doc- 
 uments sent from this side of the water, and answered by 
 
61 
 
 well-freighted transports from Britain. The people were 
 made to witness some melancholy resnlts of the battle, 
 which brought its pictures of sorrow to their own doors. 
 On September 14th, a transport (the Charming Nancy,) 
 arrived at Plymouth, having left Boston August 20th. 
 On board were General Gage's lady, and 170 sick and 
 wounded officers and soldiers, with 60 widows and chil- 
 dren of the slain. The stench of the vessel was intolera- 
 ble, but the condition of its human cargo was awful. 
 Maimed and helpless, ragged and pined with sickness, 
 many of them hundreds of miles from their home in Ire- 
 land, — the sufferers, as they were landed and begged for 
 charity in the streets, presented a most deplorable and 
 wretched tale of the unnatural strife. Two more vessels 
 with similar cargoes, which left Boston at the same time, 
 were daily expected, and more were on their way. Thus 
 was Boston relieved of a part of its helpless victims, and 
 thus were the people of England most piteously besought 
 to spare the blood of their own kinsfolk, rather than to 
 make so fearful a sacrifice to national pride, to lust of 
 dominion, and to the wealth expected from the taxation 
 of the colonies. 
 
 Nor did the conduct of the battle, on the part of the Brit- 
 ish generals, escape severe scrutiny and censure. Plans 
 were stated, and alternatives imagined, by which they 
 might have secured a nearly bloodless victory. These 
 complaints were made with good reason. A ship of war, 
 some floating batteries, or the Cymetry transport, which 
 drew but little water, might have been towed into Mystic 
 river, and lying water-borne at low tide, (for during the 
 heat of the strife the water was at ebb,) would have 
 been within musket-shot of our left flank, and have ren- 
 dered the rail fence useless. The regulars might have 
 landed in the rear of the provincials, and thus have sur- 
 rounded them, have incapacitated the breastwork, cut off 
 a retreat, and occupied Bunker's Hill. Or, supposing it 
 was most in accordance with military rule and prudence 
 
62 
 
 that they should have landed as they did, in front, they 
 should not have advanced in an extended line, firing at 
 intervals, but formed into columns should have rushed 
 forward, reserving their fire for the redoubt, and charging 
 with the bayonet. Their first two attacks were disas- 
 trous to themselves, but harmless to us. The simple 
 truth seems to be, that the regular officers had a most des- 
 picable opinion of the provincials, and thought that the 
 smell of powder, the glancing of bright bayonets, and a 
 well deployed line, would frighten them into flight. 
 They were grievously mistaken. But after all, Avhen the 
 dear-won victory was theirs, why did they not pursue to 
 Cambridge under cover of their own ships, especially as 
 towards, and after, the close of the battle, Charlestown 
 was filled wilh British troops who were hurrying over 
 from Boston ? 
 
 Another result attending the news of the battle in Eng- 
 land, was the immediate recall of General Gage. Just 
 before the arrival of the news, despatches had been pre- 
 pared, yet not transmitted to him, in which his future 
 operations were directed. But these despatches, when 
 sent, were accompanied by another, in which he was 
 directed to give them to General Howe, who was to suc- 
 ceed him in the command, and in which he was advised 
 that it was his Majesty's pleasure that he should imme- 
 diately return to give information and counsel at home. 
 It is likewise a remarkable, but a very manifest fact, that 
 the disastrous character of this battle, the desperate cour- 
 age of the provincials, and the hopeless aspect which the 
 designs of the ministry began in consequence to wear, 
 completely unmanned General Howe, deprived him of all 
 energy in the conduct of the war, and entailed upon 
 him disgrace. 
 
 Such were the eifects produced by this battle upon our 
 enemies. They might be indefinitely enlarged upon, 
 traced out in British petitions and addresses to the 
 throne, in public opposition meetings held throughout 
 
63 
 
 the kingdom, in the reluctance of the soldiers to enlist in 
 that cause and the high bounty promised to their services, 
 and especially in the increasing number of the avowed 
 and secret friends of the colonies in England. 
 
 While such were the results of the battle on the other 
 side of the water, its effects upon our own army and cause 
 contribute to magnify its importance. I might trace out 
 the influence of that battle through the whole war, might 
 refer to the spirit and determination and self-respect 
 which it infused into the provincials. I might find in 
 every subsequent engagement of the war some individuals 
 who had learned their military elements on June 17. But 
 I will confine myself to a statement of its immediate 
 results which were favorable to our cause. Many of our 
 officers had received their commissions from Great Britain, 
 and were in the receipt of half-pay at the time of the 
 battle, which they of course resigned. 
 
 The British took possession of, and strongly fortified 
 Bunker and Breed's Hills, and posted their advanced 
 guards upon the neck. This division of their forces be- 
 tween the two peninsulas was in one point of view advan- 
 tageous to them, as it enlarged their quarters at a season 
 of the year when Boston, crowded as it was, and made 
 unwholesome by impure air, seemed as one large hospital. 
 The cool heights of Charlestown were a refreshing refuge ; 
 yet they were compelled to a great increase of their labor 
 in defending their works against an enemy so near to them, 
 who insulted and vexed them and made them feel the 
 degradation of their position. During the ensuing inclem- 
 ent winter, the troops in Charlestown were obliged to 
 live in tents and were exposed to great sufferings, and to 
 driving snow-storms. Neither did the possession of Charles- 
 town give the enemy any facility in obtaining supplies 
 of fresh provisions, in which the country abounded, but 
 of which they had enjoyed little, if any, since the battle of 
 Lexington. In this respect their condition was trying in 
 the extreme. They could procure no fresh meat, vegeta- 
 
64 
 
 bles, milk, or fuel, save what came in by water. The 
 provincials took the live stock and the hay off of the har- 
 bor islands, and intercepted many of the vessels entering 
 with supplies. In a letter from an officer in Boston to a 
 gentlemen in London, dated July 2.5, the writer says, they 
 felt themselves worse off than the rebels ; as to numbers, 
 hke a few children in a large crowd ; that the provincials 
 daily grew more bold, menacing insolently, and leading 
 the regulars to fear that, when the short nights came, the 
 threats would be executed. He adds, " They know our 
 situation as well as we do ourselves, from the villains that 
 are left in town, who acquaint them with all our proceed- 
 ings, making signals by night with gunpowder, and at 
 day, out of the church steeples. About three weeks ago, 
 three fellows were taken out of one of the latter, who con- 
 fessed that they had been so employed for seven days. 
 Another was caught last week swimming over to the 
 rebels with one of their General's passes in his pocket. 
 He will be hanged in a day or two." The writer adds 
 other instances of the boldness of the rebels in beating in 
 the advanced guard on the British lines at Roxbury and 
 destroying the guard-house, and in the pillaging and 
 destruction of the lighthouse by some yankees who landed 
 from boats, while a British ship of war lay becalmed 
 within a mile. 
 
 And what a cheering spectacle was set before the eyes 
 of our fathers when the American army, intrenching upon 
 all the beautiful and elevated hills which bound the semi- 
 circle around us, confined their enemy to these two penin- 
 sulas. There was no concealing the fact that the minis- 
 terial troops felt deeply the degradation of their situation, 
 and were dispirited by it to a degree that weakened their 
 moral and physical energies through the whole war. 
 From the best information that Washington, on assuming 
 his command July 3, could obtain, he rated the number of 
 the enemy at 11,500, while the provincials numbered 16,000 
 to 17,000. The sentries of the opposing forces stationed 
 
65 
 
 upon Charlestowii neck were near enough to converse to- 
 gether. Wc are forcibly reminded of that admirable trait in 
 the character of Washington — a scrupulous attention to mi- 
 nutiae — as well as of the spirit of patriotism which sustained 
 us under the war, by several of the '• orders" issued by our 
 General under these circumstances. He expressly forbade 
 that any post of peculiar responsibility, such as that of sen- 
 try or guard at the advanced lines upon Roxbnry or 
 Charlestown necks, should be committed to any other than 
 a native of this country, who had a wife and family in it, 
 and was known to be attached to its interests. " This 
 order is to be considered as a standing one, and the officers 
 are to pay obedience to it at their peril." 
 
 The contrast between the health, and the food, of 
 the regulars and of the provincials was extremely 
 tantalizing. Hand-bills were printed at Cambridge, and 
 sent on a favorable wind across the lines into the British 
 camp. On one of these, an address to the British soldiers 
 bears the following contrasted bills of fare, in the two 
 camps : — 
 
 Pkospect Hill. 
 I. Seven dollars a month. 
 II. Frnsh provisions and in plenty. I II. Rotten Salt Pork. 
 
 Bunker's Hill. 
 I. Threepence a day. 
 
 III. Health. 
 
 IV. Freedom, ease, affluence, and a 
 
 «rood farm. 
 
 III. The Scurvy. 
 
 IV. Slavery, beggary and want. 
 
 In reviewing the whole struggle whose opening contest 
 we this day commemorate, we have a duty to perform as 
 patriots and as christians ; let us hope that there be no 
 discord in our sentiments or purposes as we apply to our- 
 selves those two epithets. As patriots we would vindicate 
 our country, but as christians wc must regret the war, the 
 civil strife, the bloody conflict, so utterly irreconcileable 
 with the spirit and precepts of our religion. 
 
 In the English reviews of the conduct of the war on the 
 part of the Americans, we are to repel two principal 
 9 
 
66 
 
 charges made against our fathers. The first charge is of 
 old standing, the second is recent. 
 
 First. — It was said that Independence — absohite freedom 
 from EngHsh control — was from the beginning the secret 
 object of the American patriots, disguised for a time under 
 fawning expressions of loyalty, words of mere compliment 
 and hypocritical pretensions, and that this secret object 
 was cunningly developed by degrees and cautious pro- 
 cesses as the minds of the people were prepared. Of 
 course this charge is to be sustained or repelled only by doc- 
 umentary evidence. Independence can be shown to have 
 been the primary object of our patriots only by their own 
 statements, and it can be shown to have been their secret 
 object, only by the evidence of private papers, in which, 
 under the rose, they express themselves in direct opposi- 
 tion to their pretended sentiments in their public docu- 
 ments. Such evidence cannot be produced, it does not 
 exist, and it never did exist. The specific charge is false. 
 Undoubtedly some of the far-seeing patriots might have 
 imagined or anticipated the result of the contest in its 
 early stages — indeed not only did American patriots ima- 
 gine the result, but English patriots, the opponents of the 
 war in Parliament, particularly Lord Chatham, Mr. 
 Burke, and Governor Pownall, predicted the result. No 
 imputation of covert designs can rest upon our patriots. 
 There is a natural working towards the far-off but des- 
 tined result in the earliest stages of an action, and long 
 before the result is known or contemplated by human 
 agents. 
 
 Besides, let it be remembered that if there was a growth 
 and development in American resistance leading inevitably 
 to independence, so was there a growth and development in 
 British oppression, leading inevitably to tyranny. Ameri- 
 can measures of combination, of non-importation and non- 
 consumption, of providing minute-men and military stores, 
 and of collecting an army, ran exactly parallel with min- 
 isterial measures, in successive taxes, in quartering an 
 
67 
 
 army upon the province in time of peace, in interfering 
 with the General Court, in committing the payment of the 
 salaries of the Governor and Judges to the King, instead 
 of leaving it with the colonists, in taking the appointment 
 of the councillors from the people and giving it to the 
 King, in exempting several officials from the colony tax, 
 in fortifying Roxbury neck, in a long succession of insults, 
 and in a hostile incursion into the country. If the Ameri- 
 can patriots are to be accused of cherishing secretly the 
 purpose of independence, while in the early stage of the 
 conflict they spoke loyal words, why may not the British 
 be accused of cherishing secretly the intention of tyranny 
 while in the early stage of the conflict they spoke the 
 words of parental tenderness and protection '? When our 
 Declaration of Independence was known in England, there 
 were loud and insulting sneers upon the hypocritical pre- 
 tensions of our former Congressional addresses and peti- 
 tions to the King, and especially of that address, signed 
 by all the members, and called " the Olive Branch," 
 which was presented to the King, August 1775, and to 
 which no answer was returned. The Declaration was 
 spoken of as the removal of the veil, the disclosure of long- 
 cherished purposes, and the people of England were gen- 
 erally more inclined to the continuance of the war, than 
 they had been to its commencement. 
 
 Yet there is abundant evidence to prove that the result 
 of independence was at first far from the minds of the 
 great mass, deprecated by many, very slowly admitted to 
 the thoughts, kept at a distance by repeated and renewed 
 addresses and petitions, made familiar only by familiarity 
 with oppression, and at last independence was declared 
 with mingled feelings partaking of justice and exaspera- 
 tion, of despair and hope. Such, certainly, was the case 
 with the people, nor can it be proved that it was other- 
 wise with the leaders. Washington, in a letter to the 
 President of Congress, dated February 9th, 1776, five 
 months before the Declaration of Independence, gives 
 
68 
 
 evidence that even he thonjjht of peace upon other terms. 
 He says, " 1 am entirely ofyonr opinion, that, should an 
 accommodation take place, the terms will be severe or 
 favorable, in proportion to our ability to resist, and that 
 we ought to be on a respectable footing to receive their 
 armaments in the spring." 
 
 The second, the more recent charge, as observed by 
 Professor h^myth. '• the most serious charge that can be 
 hrouuht against the American lenders in this dispute,'" is, 
 that without the prospect of a fair chance of success, the 
 American leaders hurried their comitrymen into meas- 
 ures, regarded and punishable as rebellion. It is said 
 that the chance of success was not a fair one ; that though 
 the American leaders might have foreseen their ditticul- 
 tics, they could not have foreseen, they would not have 
 been justified in imagining, the failure of the British. But 
 wlio were the rulers, who were the leaders, that led the 
 people into these measures 7 They were not self-consti- 
 tuted advisers and demagogues, hurrying on the unthink- 
 ing and the unwilling. The leaders were led by the peo- 
 ple in this, our revolution ; they were called out, delega- 
 ted, appointed, by town meetings, and popular gather- 
 ings : they spoke the minds, and were the instruments oi 
 the people. The leaders did not commence hostilities. 
 The people passed the resolutions for non-importation and 
 non-consumption, which on our part brought on the trou- 
 ble, aud in a mass the)' chose, they cheered on. advised 
 and accompanied their leaders. And there was a fair 
 chance of succeeding in all that was attempted or ahncd 
 at, at first. The stamp act had been repealed on account 
 of the resistance which it met with, and it was hoped 
 that other otFensive measures Avould yield in the same 
 way. After a while, however, the leaders, in discharge 
 of their duty, did lead and advise. They urged on the 
 people, excited and encouraged them, as it was right they 
 should do. Tims patriotism, in reviewing that dreadful 
 civil contest, can justify the measures of our fathers, at 
 
69 
 
 least by the rules of war and the customs of nations. 
 They were blameless in the code of honor. 
 
 And how shall the Christian review that civil war^ that 
 conflict bet^veen brethren, decided by the flowing of 
 human blood ? To the principles of peace societies, lately 
 promulgated and advocated among civilized nations, we 
 must allow this much, that no complete vindication can 
 be made for any war or battle which shall be consistent 
 with the spirit and lessons of Christianity. The C^ospcl 
 of Jesus Christ will not countenance, or justify, or allow 
 a resort to arms. Yet, and here it seems to me that the 
 advocates of peace principles apply the instruments of 
 their reform too much to war itself, rather than to the 
 causes of war — yet Christianity not only refuses to justify 
 a resort to arms, but Christianity condemns the practice 
 of those wrongs which result in war. Condemning the 
 result, Christianity must of course condemn the more, the 
 successive steps which lead to that result. Here, then, is 
 the question — whether as Christians we shall not rather 
 deplore the accumulation of abuses which must necessarily 
 end in strife, than the strife itself If this be so, then, it 
 may be that war in some instances may be justified, in as 
 far as it is a result which cannot be averted, a result of 
 abuses which ought to have been restrained or redressed, 
 before it was too late. 
 
 There are persons among us who have lately raised 
 the question whether our revolutionary war was justifia- 
 ble on peace principles. In one point of view the ques- 
 tion provokes a smile. It is somewhat as if a man who 
 had crammed himself with a luxurious dinner, should 
 impede its digestion by doubting whether he had come 
 honestly by the dinner. In another point of view the 
 question is a serious one, as it involves the profoundest 
 principles of moral and political science. Yet let not the 
 indignation of the Christian fall so much upon the war, 
 Avhich may be the unavoidable result, as upon the wrongs, 
 the grievances, and the tyrannical oppression which neces- 
 
70 
 
 sarily end in the war. The profession of the soldier has 
 received undeserved abuse. Soldiers, indeed, do the fight- 
 ing, but it ought to be remembered that others besides 
 soldiers bring on the quarrel, and then leave it to soldiers 
 to be finished. 
 
 I can realize in my imagination the direful and accu- 
 mulated miseries of war ; but the question to be decided 
 when a war is to be hazarded, is, whether these miseries 
 are greater than the evils which are sought to be redressed 
 by a war. If there are miseries in war, there are miseries 
 likewise in slavish subjection, in the bondage of one terri- 
 tory and people to another territory and people, separated 
 from them by an ocean. England has now unwilling 
 tributaries and dependencies, with Ireland at the head of 
 the list. Ireland struggles in vain against unjust and 
 oppressive measures; we struggled with success, and 
 bore the miseries of war. Which people now enjoy the 
 preferable condition, the Irish or the Americans '? All the 
 accumulated miseries of war are felt at the time, yet they 
 do not avert the war. In the preparation of bandages 
 and the erection of hospitals, in the burying of the dead 
 on the battle-field, and in the houseless beggary of the 
 widow and the orphan, the miseries of war are sorely 
 felt at the moment, yet they do not avert the war. These 
 miseries are all neutralized by some pressing, some incit- 
 ing wretchedness or fear, which reaches deeper into the 
 heart. We cannot paint or imagine those miseries as the 
 sufferers experience them — they meet them in all their 
 horrors, yet they meet them knowingly, by choice, by 
 preference, before what they must endure to purchase 
 peace by submission. When the mother receives in her 
 village home the tidings that her husband and her eldest 
 son fell upon the last field of conflict, she will arm her 
 second son, and send him forth with sadness, yet with 
 free choice, to meet the perils of the next action. 
 
 And what patriot or Christian comparing the events of 
 this day, which have given it an imperishable title in our 
 
71 
 
 annals, with the prosperity and happiness with which we 
 now commemorate it, can fail to feel a glad and holy 
 influence working upon his heart 1 Our retrospect of the 
 past should enforce our duty as based upon our gratitude. 
 Patriotism is a word which we may hear everywhere, 
 and while the politician always uses it in justification of 
 his cause, let us remember that it is but a word which is 
 the common property of human mouths. But patriotism 
 as a moving impulse, working with spells of power on the 
 heart, and inciting to personal sacrifices for one's country 
 and one's posterity, has been forever vindicated as a real, 
 yes, a religious sentiment, by the contrasted prospects of 
 carnage once, of prosperity now, upon which the sun has 
 shone on that summit. It will require no strong effort 
 of the imagination to bring the slain of that battle to unite 
 in these our commemorative services. Their ashes and 
 their blood are always with us — they are mingled with 
 the soil and the verdure of the hill-top, and when liberty 
 is our theme, their spirits, which went forth from the clay 
 in a shout of glory for liberty, return again and exalt our 
 theme. And if they are with us, they ask but one ques- 
 tion, and look to us for an answer — it is this. We now 
 enjoy what they died in agony to secure for us. They 
 ask us if the inheritance is worthy of its purchase ? And 
 if it be worthy of the blood which purchased it, let us 
 ask ourselves if it be not worthy of the righteousness in 
 heart and life which is required to retain it ? 
 
 One word, in conclusion, of serious counsel, the place 
 where I stand, and the office which I discharge, alike 
 require that I should speak. I have been compelled to 
 use the term enemies, to express the relation which the 
 counsellors and the soldiers of the land of our fathers 
 once sustained towards the people of this republic. The 
 term enemies has now lost its meaning, as applied to 
 them — it comes into use only as the counterpart to our 
 designation of rebels. Let every feeling of enmity then 
 be banished from the present while we survey the past. 
 
72 
 
 If that monumental pillar, which is now so rapidly and 
 so boldly rearing its solid shaft towards the heavens, is 
 ever to excite hate or passion in any Briton or American 
 who shall gaze upon it, may the next flash of lightning 
 rend it into ruin ! Beneath its foundation are mingled in 
 quiet companionship the ashes of friend and foe, and as 
 closely are our national interests associated with the pros- 
 perity and the glory too, of the land of our fathers. I 
 may venture to illustrate the intimacy of this dependence 
 by the statement of a pleasing and a somewhat remarka- 
 ble fact. I have sought to pay a deserved tribute to the 
 heroic conduct of Colonel William Prescott. His son, 
 who bears his name, is known and respected by all who 
 hear me, as a Judge and a Counsellor. There is yet 
 another Avho bears that worthy name in connection with 
 public distinction. I refer to the author of that beautiful 
 and interesting history, which has been justly esteemed 
 abroad as the first literary production of our country. 
 Over the shelves of the library in which that history was 
 composed, two swords are now crossed in amicable union 
 — one was wielded in the redoubt upon yonder summit, 
 by the gallant Prescott ; the other, upon the same day, 
 was in the hands of Captain Linzee, commander of the 
 sloop of war Falcon, then lying at the foot of the hill. 
 Crossed as we may say upon that day, in deadly strife, 
 how have they thus been brought into amicable union? 
 The minister of God made harmony between them by 
 consecrating the vows of matrimony between the grand- 
 children of the combatants. Let the peace and good will 
 thus established between the leaders of the strife, while 
 the edges of their swords are blunted by their blades — 
 let this happy result, which is something more than an 
 emblem, be the pledge of mutual dependence and love 
 between the people of the nations whose imnatural con- 
 flict we now dismiss once more to the oblivion of the 
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