[412] Belknap (Papers, ii. 164) says the wind was southwest all day, and incommoded the British but not the intrenchment. There are some verses on the burning of Charlestown, attributed to Barlow. (Moore's Songs and Ballads of the Amer. Rev., 95.) For a supposed painting, see Mem. Hist. Boston, iii. 86.
[413] Fonblanque's Burgoyne, 154; C. Hudson, in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Jan., 1880. He was killed by a negro. (Livermore's Historical Research, etc., p. 119.) His body was taken to Boston and buried under Christ Church. There is said to have been a blunder subsequently in taking the wrong body to England. Sargent's Dealings with the Dead, i. 54; Drake's Landmarks of Boston, 207.
[414] When Elisha Hutchinson, in London, heard of the battle, he said: "If every small hill or rising ground about Boston is to be recovered in the same way, I see no prospect of an end to the war." (P. O. Hutchinson's Governor Hutchinson, p. 506.) Belknap (Papers, published by Mass. Hist. Soc., ii. 159) says the criticism on Howe for attacking in front was general. The royalist Jones, in his New York during the Revolutionary War (i. 52), charges the British general with obstinacy in this respect. Lee (Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department, 2d ed., p. 33) traces Howe's subsequent timidity in his conduct of campaigns to the lesson this battle taught him.
[415] Their loss was 150 killed, 270 wounded, and 30 taken prisoners,—450 in all.
[416] Their loss was 224 killed and 830 wounded,—1,054 in all, of which 157 were officers.
[417] Jones (N. Y. during the Rev., i. 55, 555) is characteristic upon the double-faced spirit of New York at this time.
[418] The news of Bunker Hill reached Philadelphia in a vague way, June 22. The cannonade at Boston Neck during the battle had been magnified into a second fight going on at the same time at Dorchester Point. (Adams, Familiar Letters, 70.)
[419] Sparks, iii. 11.
[420] The provincial congress of New York assembled on the 22d of May, and it soon became evident that some violent wrenching would be necessary to unloose the grasp which the loyalists had upon it. The Johnsons, with their Indian affiliations, were strong royalists, and the leadership of the family, by the death of Sir William in July, 1774, fell to his son-in-law and nephew, Guy Johnson. The motives which actuated the one remained with the other.
[421] This elm, now going to decay, has been often pictured: Amer. Mag. (1837), iii. 432; Harper's Monthly, xxiv. 729; Gay's Pop. Hist. U. S., iii. 410; Mem. Hist. Boston, iii. 110, etc.; Von Hellwald's Amerika in Wort und Bild, i. 73.