# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lexington & Concord | Parker’s Revenge/Fiske Hill | Apr 19, 1775

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
BATTLE MAP | The American Battlefield Trust’s map of Parker’s Revenge at the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The American patriots were defeated at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but they proved they could hold their own against the superior British Army. The fierce fight confirmed that any reconciliation between England and her American colonies was no longer possible.

How it ended

British victory. The battle was a tactical victory for the British, but it was a sobering experience. The British sustained twice as many casualties as the Americans and lost many officers. After the engagement, the patriots retreated and returned to their lines outside the perimeter of Boston.

In context

By early 1775 tensions between Britain and her colonies had escalated. The colonists began to mobilize for war, while the British Army secured gunpowder and cannon in anticipation of an uprising. On April 19, it all came to a head in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. After that historic engagement, the British retreated to their camp in Boston, and local militias prepared for future British attacks. Militiamen marched to defend Boston, some from as far away as Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and what is now the state of Vermont.

British Commander-in-Chief General Sir Thomas Gage was under pressure to quash the colonial rebellion. By June, he had reinforcements and was ready to implement a new strategy. The British Army planned to launch an attack against the Americans on the heights north and south of Boston. Details of the attack were leaked, however, and a detachment of 1,000 Massachusetts and Connecticut soldiers-more of an armed mob than a military unit-gathered to defend a hill in Charlestown. Among the defenders were several enslaved and free African Americans as well. The violent clash of these forces on what is mistakenly known as "Bunker Hill" signaled that the colonial revolt would not be easily extinguished.

Before the Battle

The sheer number of militiamen gathered on the hills outside of Boston deeply troubles Gen. Thomas Gage and his newly arrived subordinates, Gens. William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne. On June 15 and June 16, the Patriots move forward to Breed's Hill on the Charlestown peninsula, where they prepare a fortified position that all but invites a British response. General John Stark from New Hampshire recognizes that the left flank of the fortified position is exposed along the south bank of the Mystic River. He and his men assemble a makeshift split rail barricade to blunt any flanking action employed by the British. When the British officers look out at what has been erected in the short span of one evening they are stunned. Gage knows he has to take action.

During the Battle

June 17. On this sultry afternoon, Gage and his commanders order British regulars and grenadiers to move across Boston Harbor and disembark in lower Charlestown, where Gage will force the rabble's hand with an assault. As the British move into position, the fatigued but spirited defenders are on the alert inside their hastily built fortifications.

Led by Gen. William Howe, King George's troops climb Breed's Hill in perfect battle formation. Legend has it that as they advance, American officer William Prescott cautions his men not to waste their powder, exclaiming "don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." When British troops near the redoubt, the patriots unleash a withering volley, creating an absolute slaughter. One patriot remarks afterward, "They advanced toward us in order to swallow us up, but they found a choaky[sic] mouthful of us." It is a veritable bloodbath as the British retreat back to their lines.

Once more the British push up the hill, stepping over the bodies of their dead and wounded comrades who lay "as thick as sheep in a fold," and again they receive another patriot volley. Finally, on the third try -and just when the patriots run out of powder and shot-the British succeed in breaking through the patriot works. Intense hand-to-hand fighting occurs inside the fortification. The British are victorious but at a cost. At some point in the struggle, a "black soldier named Salem" is credited with killing British Maj. John Pitcairn, the officer despised for allegedly ordering his men to fire on patriots during the battle of Lexington and Concord weeks earlier.

Aftermath

"Our three generals," a British officer wrote of his commanders in Boston, "expected rather to punish a mob than fight with troops that would look them in the face." The King's troops count 282 dead and another 800 wounded. Patriot casualties are less than half of the British total. British General Sir Henry Clinton is appalled at the carnage, calling it "a dear bought victory." Badly depleted, the British abandon plans to seize another high point near the city and ultimately evacuate Boston.

Though defeated, the Patriots are not demoralized. Those who choose to stay and keep the British bottled up in Boston become the nucleus of the Continental Army. The task of transforming the mob into a fighting force falls on the shoulders of Virginian George Washington, who assumes command in Cambridge, Massachusetts, within two weeks of the erroneously named Battle of Bunker Hill.

Bunker Hill: Featured Resources

Massachusetts | Apr 19, 1775 - Mar 17, 1776

Result: American Victory
Est. Casualties: 98
American: 19
British: 79

Massachusetts | Apr 19, 1775

Result: American Victory
Est. Casualties: 393
American: 93
British: 300

Massachusetts | Jun 17, 1775

Result: British Victory
Est. Casualties: 1,532
American: 450
British: 1,054

Related Battles

Massachusetts | June 17, 1775

Massachusetts | Apr 19, 1775 - Mar 17, 1776

Result: American Victory
Est. Casualties: 98
American: 19
British: 79

Massachusetts | Apr 19, 1775

Result: American Victory
Est. Casualties: 393
American: 93
British: 300

Massachusetts | Jun 17, 1775

Result: British Victory
Est. Casualties: 1,532
American: 450
British: 1,054

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The American patriots were defeated at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but they proved they could hold their own against the superior British Army. The fierce fight...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Situated at the confluence of Lake Champlain and Lake George, Fort Ticonderoga controlled access north and south between Albany, New York and Montreal, Canada. In the early days of the American colonies the lakes and rivers of the countryside acted as the highways and byways of the North America. Lake Champlain and Lake George combined to form a superhighway of sorts between New York and Canada. The lakes offered an attacker an avenue of advance, while a defender could fortify strategic points along the waterways.

On May 10, 1775, the American force silently rowed across Lake Champlain from present-day Vermont and captured the fort in a swift, late-night surprise attack. In reality, the fort had fallen into disrepair and the undersized garrison of some 45 British officers and men were taken wholly by surprise. The capture was the first offensive victory for American forces and secured the strategic passageway north and opening the way for the American invasion of Canada later that year. Allen received the lion's share of the credit for the victory and quickly moved onto capture nearby Crown Point. Between the two installations, the Americans secured seventy-eight cannon, six mortars, three howitzers, eighteen thousand pounds of musket balls, and some thirty thousand flints. The "Gibraltar of North America" gave Gen. George Washington the advantage he needed in fire power to force the capitulation of the British at Boston. Colonel Henry Knox over saw the extraction and delivery of Ticonderoga's guns to the American siege lines at Boston. Traveling through snow, over frozen rivers and lakes, Knox and his men delivered the guns in 40 days rather than his estimated sixteen or seventeen days. Regardless, this logistical feat lives on in the annals of American military history, and the American's opened an invasion route into Canada.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Situated at the confluence of Lake Champlain and Lake George, Fort Ticonderoga controlled access north and south between Albany, New York and Montreal, Canada. In the early days of the American colonies the lakes and rivers of the countryside acted as the highways and byways of the North America.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Declaration of Independence is one of the founding and most fundamental documents of the United States. On July 4, 1776, during the American Revolution, the Second Continental Congress adopted the famed document drafted by Thomas Jefferson that pronounced the independence of the thirteen states, previously the Thirteen Colonies. The Declaration was adopted at a point in time when Congress had determined that their grievances against Great Britain were irreconcilable and the majority in Congress agreed that independence was the best solution. The Declaration of Independence was a reaction to years of injustices waged by Great Britain that served to unify the Thirteen Colonies together under mutual frustrations. With Congress' adoption of the Declaration, unity was felt throughout the colonies, and the Thirteen Colonies took an important step toward becoming the United States of America.

By the time the Declaration was adopted by Congress, the American Revolution had already been going on for over a year. Even after the war broke out, there was no immediate movement toward independence; the war was more so a reaction to years of negative relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain. A decade before the war began, colonists were already at odds with the British Parliament in reaction to unfair taxation and oppressive regulations on the colonies. British measures such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Act imposed strict taxes on the colonists as a way for Great Britain to make up for the money lost from the Seven Years' War ( French and Indian War in North America). One of the colonists' main grievances waged against Parliament and these taxes was that there was no representation in Parliament on behalf of the colonies. As time went on, more colonists began to question the legality of Parliament's jurisdiction over the colonies at all, with some arguing that Parliament had no jurisdiction in the colonies because the colonies had their own legislatures.

Prior to the outbreak of the American Revolution, an important ruling body within the Thirteen Colonies was the Continental Congress, which had been formed as a reactionary measure to Great Britain's unjust measures. The Continental Congress consisted of a meeting of delegates from each colony to discuss actions that should be taken in response to Great Britain before, and later, during the war. At the Second Continental Congress in May 1775, while some delegates believed that independence was the best course of action, most delegates were not yet adamantly calling for independence.

The movement towards independence was jumpstarted by soldier and author, Thomas Paine, who published his pamphlet, "Common Sense" in January 1776, a powerful message that advocated for independence from Great Britain. "Common Sense" was widely published and accepted among colonists, igniting, or further fueling colonists' desire for independence. While some colonists still held out hope for reconciliation with Great Britain, punitive actions of King George and Parliament towards the colonies convinced many colonists that there could be no peace with the mother country.

In 1776, colonies began authorizing their delegates to vote for independence in documents such as the Halifax Resolves in North Carolina. Other colonies including Rhode Island and South Carolina denounced their allegiance to Great Britain and declared that the British Parliament and King no longer had jurisdiction in their colony. While some delegates, such as John Adams, spoke adamantly about the need for independence, other colonies held back, not yet willing to join the movement. On May 15, 1776, John Adams wrote a preamble calling for all colonies to suppress the rule of Great Britain and establish new governments within their individual colonies. Despite multiple colonies disagreeing with Adams' preamble and voting against it, Congress passed the preamble. On June 7 of that same year, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented a resolution, "The Lee Resolution," calling on Congress to declare independence. Congress postponed the adoption of Lee's Resolution for a few weeks and established the "Committee of Five" to draft a document announcing independence if Lee's Resolution should pass. The Committee of Five consisted of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. The men in the Committee consulted about the outline of the declaration and determined that Thomas Jefferson should write the first draft.

On June 11, 1776, Jefferson began to write his version of the Declaration of Independence, drawing on previous documents of significance, such as the Virginia Declaration of Rights and ideas from the enlightenment and John Locke to express his sentiments. On June 28, after making some changes as a group, the Committee of Five presented Jefferson's version of the declaration to Congress. Congress took the draft and made some significant changes to it, rearranging sentence structures, shortening the length, and significantly, removing a clause the blamed King George III for the slave trade in the colonies. The powerful ideas echoing throughout the Declaration were intended for a wide audience. The Declaration was not only meant to reach Americans and the King, but the general world as well. The document was meant to reach foreign allies and announce to the world that the colonies were now a new country.

The Declaration was structurally divided into three sections. The preamble outlined the rights of man and the right for the colonists to fight for their cause. The words of the preamble were meant to unite Americans under a realization that the future could be brighter if they continued to fight. The second section of the Declaration outlined the grievances against King George III to remind everyone of the tyranny that the King exercised over the colonists and thereby justify their fighting. The third section was the actual declaration of the independence of the thirteen colonies as free and independent states.

After some deliberation over a few days, Congress eventually voted to adopt the resolution of independence, and 56 men signed the Declaration. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved for printing and publication. The founding document continues to be a pillar of American rights and principles and a foundation of freedom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Declaration of Independence is one of the founding and most fundamental documents of the United States. On July 4, 1776, during the American Revolution, the Second Continental Congress adopted the famed document drafted by Thomas Jefferson that pronounced the independence of the thirteen states, previously the Thirteen Colonies.