Massachusetts soldiers dug positions on Breed's Hill. The British started to attack from across the river. The Americans had very little gunpowder. They were forced to wait until the British had crossed the river and were almost on top of them before they fired their guns. Their commander reportedly told them not to fire on the British until they saw the whites of their eyes.
The British climbed the hill. The Americans fired. A second group of British soldiers climbed the hill. The Americans fired again. The third time, the British reached the top, but the Americans were gone. They had left because they had no more gunpowder.
Peter Drummey, a librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society, reads part of a letter that a young soldier wrote to his mother.
"’I was in the fort when the enemy came in, jumped over the wall, and ran half a mile, where balls’ — that is, musket balls — ‘flew like hail stones, and cannon roared like thunder.’"
The British captured Breed's Hill. But Peter Drummey says the Americans still considered the battle a kind of victory.
"The paradox is, even though the American forces are defeated and forced off the hill, nevertheless the British casualties are so high it is at least a moral victory."
Even the young American soldier who fled the battle wrote to his mother that he would continue fighting for American independence.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25