In order to prevent General Gage from penetrating into the country, which was his intention, congress recommended to the council of war completely to blockade him in Boston; for which purpose, Colonel Prescott, with a detachment of 1,000 men, including a company of artillery and two field-pieces, was ordered to march at nightfall of June 16th, and take possession of Bunker’s-hill, an elevation just within the peninsula of Charlestown, and commanding the northern approach to Boston, which city it overlooked. By some mistake, however, they proceeded to Breed’s Hill, a lower height and still nearer to Boston. With the utmost silence and despatch they laboured all night, and before morning had thrown up a considerable redoubt, capable of defending themselves from the fire of the enemy. Great was the astonishment of the British the next morning, and a fire was immediately opened upon them from the ships in the river. The work, however, went on uninterruptedly, when, about noon, 3,000 picked men, under command of Generals Howe and Pigot, embarked in boats and landed at the foot of Breed’s Hill, and advanced slowly in two columns; the artillery in the meantime being directed against the works. At this critical moment no system prevailed in the American army; the same troops who had been at work all night were still in the intrenchments; neither General Warren nor Israel Putnam, though on the ground, had troops under their command; forces which had been ordered thither had not arrived and the stock of ammunition was very small.
It was a splendid summer’s afternoon, when the British advanced up the hill. Clinton and Burgoyne were stationed on a height in Boston to watch the action; and all the surrounding eminences, spires of churches, and roofs of houses, were crowded with spectators, awaiting anxiously, though with opposing interests, the result of the approaching conflict. Slowly and uninterruptedly advanced the British, until within about ten rods of the redoubt, when such a deadly fire assailed them that their ranks were mown down, the whole line broken, and they fell back in disorder. Again they were rallied and brought back to the charge by their officers, but again were repulsed with loss. Infuriated by defeat, and in consequence also, it is said, of shots being fired from a house on the left, Gage ordered Charlestown to be set on fire; the wooden buildings burned rapidly and the tall spire of the meeting-house was wrapt in flame; 2,000 people at least being thus rendered houseless. Amid the terrors of the burning village, the British regulars made a second and yet a third attack, and this time with better success. The ammunition of the provincials began to fail, and the British artillery, now brought up to the breast-work, swept it from end to end, while three simultaneous attacks carried it at the point of the bayonet. Courage now could avail nothing, and the provincials under Colonel Prescott made good their retreat across Charlestown Neck, exposed to an incessant fire from the shipping, and entrenched themselves on another height still commanding the entrance to Boston. The British took possession of Bunker’s Hill. This defeat the Americans esteemed as a victory; in England the victory was considered little less than a defeat, and General Gage was in consequence superseded by Sir William Howe, brother of Lord Howe, who perished before Ticonderoga. Of 3,000 British engaged in this conflict above 1,000 fell. The loss of the Americans was in about the same proportion; out of 1,500, 450 were killed and wounded, but among the former was General Warren, whose loss caused the deepest regret to his country.
This second encounter, in which undisciplined troops had so bravely withstood the flower of the British army, raised still higher the hopes and confidence of the Americans. The English discovered also that they had no insignificant enemy to deal with.
The day before the battle of Bunker’s Hill, the Provincial congress at Philadelphia, having voted to raise an army of 20,000 men, proceeded to elect George Washington, then present as delegate from Virginia, to the rank of commander-in-chief. The northern colonies had resolved, in order to secure the adherence of the South, to choose a southern commander, and the superior wisdom of Providence guided them in the selection. God provides the man for the work, and Washington was the appointed agent of a great people’s emancipation. Divine wisdom, and not that of man, guided the choice. Washington, with great modesty and dignity, accepted the appointment, declining all compensation for his services beyond the defrayment of expenses. At the same time that Washington received the command in chief, Artemas Ward, of Massachusetts, Colonel Lee, formerly a British officer, Philip Schuyler, of New York, and Israel Putnam, of Connecticut, then with the camp before Boston, were appointed major-generals, and Horatio Gates adjutant-general.
Washington, accompanied by a number of ardent young men from the South, soon appeared in the camp and assumed command. He found excellent materiel for an army, but great want of arms and ammunition as well as deficiency of discipline. The troops, now amounting to 14,000 men, were arranged in three divisions; the right wing under General Ward, at Roxbury; the left, under Lee, on Prospect Hill; and the centre at Cambridge, where were Washington’s head-quarters. The post of quarter-master-general was given by Washington to Mifflin, the young Quaker of Philadelphia, who had accompanied him as aide-de-camp; and Robert Harrison, a lawyer of Maryland, was chosen by him for the important office of his secretary, the duties of which he faithfully performed for several years. Among the new companies which now joined the camp was one from Virginia, led by that same village wrestler, Daniel Morgan, who was hired by Benjamin Franklin to aid in the removal of stores for Braddock’s army, and in whose defeat he was wounded. The British, thus hemmed in at Boston, suffered greatly from want of provisions.
While Washington was occupied in organising his army and endeavouring to introduce order and discipline among troops unaccustomed to subordination, congress was employed in providing the necessary means for the support of the war. A declaration of war was also issued, in which the causes and necessity for taking up arms were set forth. This document, which was ordered to be read from every pulpit in the colonies, asserted that their cause was just, their union perfect. “Our internal resources are great,” said the declaration, “and if necessary, foreign aid is undoubtedly attainable.” “Nevertheless,” it went on to say, “we have not raised armies with the ambitious design of separating from Great Britain. We have taken up arms in defence of the freedom which is our birthright. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their renewal shall be removed.”
The importance of keeping on good terms with the Indians at this critical juncture was not overlooked; and three boards were established for the management of Indian affairs. An armed body of Stockbridge Indians, the last remains of the New England tribes, was already with the camp at Boston; and overtures were made to the Six Nations. Louis, the chief of the French Mohawks, a half-blood Indian, received a commission as colonel, and at the head of an Indian troop faithfully served the American cause.
The first complete line of postal communication was established at this time by congress, amid its multifarious concerns, and Benjamin Franklin was appointed post-master-general, with power to appoint deputies for the conveyance of the mail from Falmouth in Maine to Savannah in Georgia.
While the British army was blockaded at Boston, and the highway to Canada opened for the Americans by their possession of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, it was resolved by congress to invade and possess themselves of that province, and thus counteract the movements of Sir Guy Carleton, the governor, who was evidently under orders from England to attack the colonies from the north-west. Two expeditions were therefore sent out—the one under Generals Schuyler and Montgomery, by way of Lake Champlain; the other by the Kennebec, under General Benedict Arnold; the whole of these forces amounting to about 3,000 men.
On the 10th of September, Schuyler and Montgomery appeared before St. John’s, the most southern British fort in Canada, but finding it too strong for attack, retired to the Isle aux Noix, 115 miles from Ticonderoga, which they fortified, and where Schuyler issued circulars to the Canadians, inviting them to join the Americans and assert their liberty. But soon after hastening to Ticonderoga for reinforcements, he fell sick, and the whole command devolved upon Montgomery.