CHAPTER XII.
THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.
160. More Regulars sent to Boston.—The battle of Lexington, fought as we have read, on the nineteenth of April, 1775, was a most momentous event, since it showed for the first time the resolute purpose of the Americans to draw the sword and defend themselves from British oppression. The news reached England near the end of May. Those Lexington muskets said plainer than words that the colonies would not submit to unjust taxation.
Fully aware that the situation was becoming serious, the British government sent a large number of fresh troops to reinforce the garrison in Boston. These came under the command of Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, and made in all an army of about ten thousand men.
161. A Patriot Army is gathered around Boston.—The patriots, too, were gathering in large numbers around Boston. They came by hundreds from all directions. Quite a large body was from Connecticut under Colonel (afterwards General) Israel Putnam. General Ward was commander of these forces until Washington arrived at Cambridge on July 3, 1775, and first took command of the American army under the old elm.
On the twelfth of June, General Gage issued a proclamation declaring all those in arms to be rebels and traitors, but offering pardon to all who would lay down their weapons and obey the British governor. Two, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, were excepted. Their patriotism had been too intense and outspoken to be forgiven.
Washington taking Command of the Patriot Army.
The American army, now nearly twenty thousand strong, formed a line of encampments in a great semicircle of sixteen miles, halfway around the city from Roxbury Neck to the Mystic River. They soon learned that Gage intended to break through the American lines into the country for a supply of provisions.
162. Plans to checkmate the British.—General Ward, having discovered that the British were planning to sally forth through Charlestown, determined to strike first and so defeat their project. It was decided to seize and fortify some suitable hill in Charlestown. Colonel William Prescott, a well-tried soldier of the French-Indian wars, and grandfather of Prescott, the famous historian, was ordered, on the sixteenth of June, to march that night with nearly a thousand men to Bunker Hill and throw up breastworks.