The Battle of Bunker Hill

So I did my presentation on the battle of bunker

hill, which was basically the first major battle during the

Revolutionary War besides um the initial battles at Lexington and

concord, which basically started the war.

So it took place in Charleston mass, which is right

outside of Boston on June 17 1775.

But the structure that was being constructed by the colonists

that initially alarmed the British troops was, it began construction

on the 15th of Jam.

Again, it was during the American Revolution.

So the battles took place between members of the 13

colonies and Great Britain.

It was a British victory, but at the end of

the day, it was an estimated 1500 casualties.

So that's like over two thirds of the British troops

that were there.

In regards to the american leaders and the troops.

Um troops were coming in from massachusetts, Rhode island Connecticut

and new Hampshire.

Um There were multiple generals that were leading the battle

and that played a pretty big part in determining the

outcome to one of which was Colonel William Prescott, who

famously said, don't fire until you see the whites of

their eyes.

Um He said this because the american troops were actually

running out of ammunition during the battle and he wanted

to make sure that they were kind of maximizing casualties.

So he said, don't shoot at them until they're closer,

that you can actually hit them.

Another major figure on the american side was General joseph

Warren. Um He was an american casualty actually, but he

was a really prominent leader in the revolution and he

was actually gaining a lot of popularity when he was

killed. General joseph Warren um or general john Stark was

from New Hampshire and he was the general that basically

ordered his troops to construct a barricade along the Mystic

river which um kind of blocked them from british troops

entering um up Breed's hill.

That way.

He wasn't a general anything.

He was actually um I think he was enslaved at

the time, but there was a militiaman named Peter Salem

who was famous for killing john Pitcairn.

Um And Pitcairn actually led the last wave up Breed's

Hill um which was the last strike during the battle.

So yeah, that was kind of huge on the american

side. Also fighting for the Continental Army was Israel Putnam.

Um And he led the troops coming in from Connecticut.

He ultimately was the one to send reinforcements to the

front of the line to fend off the line of

british troops coming in by p got who, I think

ultimately this, the way that he fought off was one

of the ones that was considered like the most influential

um in America America's gaining more casualties on the other

side. The british general who was in command of the

troops that initially um started this battle was thomas gage.

His goal was basically to gain occupancy of Dorchester Heights,

bunker hill in retail, which was where the american troops

were set up William.

How was another british general who was put in charge

of the troops that kind of led this attack to

um he and General Piggott kind of went up onto

the Continental Fort from Breed's Hill and through the Mystic

River. But when how did so, he was actually meant

with like intense pressure by the militiamen, which he wasn't

expecting. Ultimately, the battle was started because general gage felt

like he needed to gain control of the rebellion in

the colonies.

Um after the initial battle at Lexington and concord again,

his main goal was to occupy the areas surrounding boston.

Um but when he noticed that the Continental Army had

started building forts on Breed's Hill, he became extremely concerned

and decided that he needed to take really spoke to

action against that.

Despite the Continental Army being relatively inexperienced, um they didn't

really have much defense, they kind of didn't have a

ton of weaponry and they were running low on ammunition.

The militiamen were able to slow the attack down and

make sure that it was done in three waves instead

of just initially giving up.

Um once the militiamen exhausted all the ammunition that they

had left, this was during the third wave and after

that they actually engaged in hand to hand combat.

Um This kind of took place as I think it

was Pitcairn's troops, we're coming in and kind of breaking

into the fort at this point.

Um when the british troops entered into the fort, the

colonists decided that they needed to retreat back to Cambridge.

They had run out of ammunition at that point.

So there was really no point in continuing This is

when it was kind of declared that it was a

British victory because they did gain access to breed's hill,

but it did come with mass casualties on their side,

like far more than on the American side.

I believe the Americans only had about 450 casualties again.

This initially started on april 1917 75 when the battle

at Lexington and concord ensued.

Um, this was initiated by john Pitcairn, which is why

he plays such a relevant role in the battle of

bunker hill to ultimately, after the battle at Lexington and

concord, um, it kind of sparked more of a rebellion

among the colonists and that just became more prevalent as

june was approaching.

On June 12, the colonists got word that the British

troops were planning on occupying the hills outside of Boston.

And this is when they decided that they needed to

get a head start from the 15th to the 16th.

Um in 17 75 the continental troops started to 45

position on Breed's Hill.

Um they constructed different barricades just to make sure that

um they british troops couldn't come in from the Mystic

River as well.

The initial target wasn't to set up on Breed's Hill

that um Prescott actually wanted the troops to be set

up on bunker hill and they're not really sure why

exactly. It didn't go as planned.

When general gage of the british troops realized that um

a barricade was being constructed along the Mystic River, he

ordered the advance of the british troops up into boston

harbor. Uh, This is when general how pushed the first

wave of british troops up Breed's hill, but this was

unsuccessful. At this point, a second wave ended coming up

breathes hill and the same thing happened.

It was kind of just shut down by the colonists,

like I mentioned before during the third wave, led by

Pick Karen, um, the colonists ended up running out of

ammunition and at that point they engaged in hand to

hand combat.

This is when british troops kind of entered into the

four and the colonists sort of decided that they might

consider retreat.

At that point, the columnist do decide to retreat back

to Cambridge.

Um, and the british troops do end up occupying Breed's

Hill. Despite the long battle, some key points in this

battle were that William Prescott did end up accidentally fortifying

retail instead of bunker hill.

So we don't really know um, what advantages the colonists

might have had if they had chosen bunker hill over

retail because the colonists were so inexperienced as well, they

didn't really expect to um kind of make it as

far as they did in this battle.

So even though that they ran out of ammunition and

couldn't maintain a stronghold on Breed's Hill, um it was

still a huge morale boost because they ended up defending

themselves through three waves of attack.

Um Ultimately, the five themes of geography do play a

role in how the battle of bunker hill kind of

shaped out to what it was, location wise, the characteristics

of direction, distance and approximately uh, did end up shaping

the way both sides of um The playing field.

Kind of one about this in regards to absolute location.

This specific location of boston became really desirable point of

control for both militaries.

Um, the geographic benefits it had due to the proximity

of water um kind of drove its interest in regards

to relative location.

Um the unclear direction of Colonel Prescott, his military essentially

misjudged the location of bunker hill.

They were using relative location to judge their movements and

ended up setting up military for on breed's hill, but

that wasn't what they intended to do.

Um We won't know how the outcome would have changed,

but if they had been on bunker hill, they could

have had other advantages.

Um because of the height differences in the house, the

place of the battles occurrence also kind of shaped um

its geographic influence as well.

In regards to human characteristics, the culture during the Revolutionary

War time period in the colonies.

Um, I kind of had a unique influence on the

way that these interactions were shaped between colonists and british

occupants essentially affected the attitudes that they had towards each

other and it kind of made them both hostile towards

each other as well.

Physically speaking.

The fact that the battle took place in a close

proximity to water influenced the ways that the british troops

kind of infiltrated the forts.

So when they went in through the Mystic River, this

might not have been possible.

They could not have been as successful if this wasn't

an option for them.

Its proximity to water also kind of um added to

its appeal for both sides, it made it an easy

port to get to going along with that.

The landscape was hilly, so it made the battlefront um,

a point of interest for both armies.

They were both attracted to the fact that these points

and the places that they were setting up for its

on did have advantages given that they could defend themselves

easier at that height.

Ultimately, this influenced the way the battle was fought by

both sides and the reasons why it was fought.

Uh They both thought that this place in particular was

specifically desirable for their cause and had advantages for them

in regards to human environment interaction.

Both sides were using the resources that they found from

the landscape to the advantage when they were fighting with

each other.

So they both decided to take advantage of the waterways

to gain access to certain areas.

And this is also why they were so interested in

um maintaining control over this area.

They were using the train to maintain their positions of

powers over the other military forces as well.

Um It was affecting where the battle was being fought

because it kind of gave this location more ideal location.

They were also attracted to this area because boston was

a city that had recently or Was more of a

major city in the 13 colonies.

On top of its locational advantages, it was also the

heart of the revolution.

So um both sides felt that if they could control

that um it would influence the speed at which the

revolution was picking up really just the ways that they

found that they could interact with the environment in this

location kind of influenced their attitudes on protecting it and

maintaining domination over it.

In regards to regions, there were political, physical and vernacular

regions that were influencing this battle as well.

Politically speaking, it was taking place between the 13 colonies

in Great Britain.

So the different political opinions due to the regional differences

created in the colonists and the occupants that were loyalists

created tension and kind of sparked a little bit of

rebellion for the colonists.

Ultimately, they had different political reasons for why they were

engaging in more, but at the end of the day,

they still wanted to, or at least they felt that

it was both are valuable on both of their parts

to engage in war.

Like I mentioned before, just the physical region boston, not

appeal of being in boston um, kind of sparked uh,

an incentive for battle in this area as well geographically

speaking, if the area didn't have the, um, with physical

landmarks and political ideologies that were coming out of this

area, um, it might not have been as impactful to

have thought here.

This also ties into the vernacular region of New England,

which was essentially just the heart of the rebel activity

for the american revolution.

Ultimately having battles centered in New England created more distress

among the loyalists and colonists in the region.

It led to a greater amount of violence that came

out of it, um, but it also kind of sped

up the process of the american revolution as well.

The Battle of Bunker Hill

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