Our people were doing their best to gain Bunker hill, where were four or five hundred men of the American army striving bravely to cover our retreat by pouring a heavy fire into the red-coated ranks, and save for this aid we had never lived to gain Charlestown Neck.
After we had turned to run, and I did not do so until Hiram Griffin demanded fiercely that I must in order to save my life, I heard some one shout that Doctor Warren had been killed, and during two or three minutes, mayhap, even while I was putting forth my best efforts at running, did it seem as if it mattered little whether I escaped or not since that friend of the Cause, he who was ever the kindly gentleman and true son of the colony, had been killed even when the battle was at an end.
It was to my mind more like being murdered than having been killed in fair fight, and I shouted to those around me that we should turn about and avenge his death, when Hiram seized me by the shirt collar, forcing me on in front of him as he swore that unless I put forth my best efforts he would strangle me.
I was not the only one fleeing toward Charlestown Neck pursued by the lobster backs, who was much the same as crazy. We were mad with disappointment, frenzied by the thought that all this had come about because we lacked the means of finishing the battle as it had been begun.
And now right here let me set down what we afterward learned was the cost in blood of this engagement at Breed's hill. Our officers reported that one hundred and fifteen had been killed or were missing; three hundred and five wounded, and thirty taken prisoners, making in all a total of four hundred and fifty who had either given up their lives, or were suffering from wounds. The most serious of our losses, as it seemed to me, was the death of Doctor Warren. Colonel Gridley was wounded; but had been carried by our people from the field.
General Gage reported to the British Government that two hundred and twenty-six of his men had been killed; eight hundred and twenty-eight wounded, making in all ten hundred and fifty-four as against our four hundred and fifty. Among the British were killed eighty-nine officers.
About four hundred buildings in Charlestown were burned by the British, and the estimated money loss was six hundred thousand dollars.
I have put this in here lest I forget to make mention of the fact, that in what the Britishers set down as a victory they lost twice and a half as many men as we, and all that had been gained by this outpouring of blood were the hastily constructed works which we had thrown up on Breed's hill.
And now to continue my feeble attempt at telling what part we Minute Boys of Boston took in that terrible retreat.
I believe of a verity that had it not been for Hiram Griffin some, if not all, of us would have fallen into the hands of the lobster backs, for it is true that we were sadly confused—frightened if you choose to put it in such words, and had so far lost mastery of ourselves that but for his holding us up sharply to the work we would have come to grief.