King George (7 page)
Authors: Steve Sheinkin
P
eter Brown was one of about twelve hundred Americans who spent the night of June 16 on Breed's Hill, building a fort of earth and logs. “We worked there undiscovered till about five in the morning,” Brown later told his mother. After a tense and tiring night of work, the men were ready for bed. “Fatigued by our labor,” he explained, “having no sleep the night before, very little to eat, no drink but rum ⦠we grew faint, thirsty, hungry, and weary.”
eter Brown was one of about twelve hundred Americans who spent the night of June 16 on Breed's Hill, building a fort of earth and logs. “We worked there undiscovered till about five in the morning,” Brown later told his mother. After a tense and tiring night of work, the men were ready for bed. “Fatigued by our labor,” he explained, “having no sleep the night before, very little to eat, no drink but rum ⦠we grew faint, thirsty, hungry, and weary.”
But there was no rest in sight. When the sun rose, the British looked up at Breed's Hill. They were used to seeing cows and sheep grazing up there. Now, all of a sudden, there was a fort! They quickly began blasting cannons up at Breed's Hill. “The enemy fired very warm from Boston and from on board their ships,” Peter Brown reported.
Colonel William Prescott, the American commander on the hill, saw the rising fear in his men's eyes. Most of these guys had never been in a battle before. Prescott tried to keep them calm by walking up and down on the top of the fort's wallsâhe wanted to show them it was safe.
It wasn't safe.
A cannonball came bouncing into the fort and took off a man's head. “He was so near me,” Prescott remembered, “that my clothes were besmeared with his blood and brains, which I wiped off, in some degree, with a handful of fresh earth.”
None of the men had ever seen anything this awful before. It was about to get worse. The men looked down and saw more than two thousand British soldiers gathering below Breed's Hill.
T
he British starting marching up the hill. Colonel Prescott knew his men had only about fifteen rounds of ammunition each. Knowing they would have to make every shot count, Prescott gave the guys some famous last-second advice:
he British starting marching up the hill. Colonel Prescott knew his men had only about fifteen rounds of ammunition each. Knowing they would have to make every shot count, Prescott gave the guys some famous last-second advice:
William Prescott
“Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes.”
If you think the Americans had it bad, though, look at it from the British point of view. The British soldiers were now hiking uphill through thick grass, carrying 125 pounds of equipment under a blazing sun.
They were marching in nice, neat rows (making themselves easy targets) because the generals considered that the most “honorable” way to fight. And they were marching right up to the front of the American fort.
All over Boston, thousands of people stood watching from church steeples and the roofs of houses.
The British soldiers marched to within about one hundred feet of the fort, and they kept coming. Ninety feet, eighty feet, seventy ⦠then the American guns exploded. The British were blown backwards. A British officer named Francis Rawdon said: “They rose up and poured in so heavy a fire upon us that the oldest officers say they never saw a sharper action.”
The Americans cheered and waved their hats as the surviving British soldiers tripped down the hill.
The British officers told their men to turn around and attack again. They were driven back down the hill a second time. So the British charged up the hill a third time. And they finally captured the fort, though at an awful costâone thousand British soldiers were shot that day.
Even though most of the fighting took place on Breed's Hill, this battle became known as the battle of Bunker Hill. No one seems to know why. The important thing is that the Americans were proud of the battle of Bunker Hill (though when you get driven out of your fort, that counts as a loss). Facing those brutal British charges gave the Americans badly needed confidence. They really could stand toeto-toe with the British.
“T
he liberties of the country are safe!”
he liberties of the country are safe!”
That's what George Washington said when he heard the news from Bunker Hill. Like everyone else, he had been worried that untrained American volunteers would not stand their ground in the face of a fierce British attack. Now he knew better.
Then Washington got a look at his new Continental army. And he started worrying again.
Washington found about 20,000 men crowded into a stinky, dirty camp of tents and shacks. These guys were not used to doing laundry (they considered it women's work) so they just walked around in filthy, rotting clothes. There were serious shortages of guns, ammunition, and fresh food. And soldiers from different colonies were too busy fighting each other to think about attacking the British. That winter
one snowball fight between soldiers from Massachusetts and Virginia exploded into a thousand-man fistfight. Washington personally plunged into the mess and started yanking people apart.
one snowball fight between soldiers from Massachusetts and Virginia exploded into a thousand-man fistfight. Washington personally plunged into the mess and started yanking people apart.
As he tried to discipline his army, Washington found himself giving some strange orders. “The general does not mean to discourage the practice of bathing while the weather is warm enough to continue it,” Washington told his soldiers. “But he expressly forbids it at or near the bridge in Cambridge.” Why is that, General?
“It has been observed and complained of, that many men, lost to all sense of decency and common modesty, are running about naked upon the bridge whilst passengers, even ladies of the first fashion in the neighborhood, are passing over it.”
Yes, getting these guys to behave was going to be a real challenge.
M
eanwhile, the British army was still bottled up in Boston. There was very little to eat that winter, and nothing to do. Lieutenant Martin Hunter remembered one way the men tried to fight the boredom. “Plays were acted twice every week by the officers and some of the Boston ladies,” he said.
eanwhile, the British army was still bottled up in Boston. There was very little to eat that winter, and nothing to do. Lieutenant Martin Hunter remembered one way the men tried to fight the boredom. “Plays were acted twice every week by the officers and some of the Boston ladies,” he said.
George Washington
One night the British actors were about to put on a new “farce,” or comedyâit was a play that made fun of Americans as clowns and cowards. British soldiers dressed up as Americans and got ready to take the stage.
The Americans knew about the play (thanks to those spies again). They decided to have some fun. Just as the show was about to start, American soldiers started firing at a British fort in town.
Inside the playhouse, one of the British actors (dressed as an American) ran on stage and shouted for silence. He announced that the rebels were attacking! But the audience started laughingâthey thought this was part of the show.
“The whole audience thought that the sergeant was acting a part in the farce,” Martin Hunter reported, “and that he did it so well there was a general clap, and such a noise that he could not be heard again for a considerable time.”
The soldier kept shouting that this was a real attack. Finally realizing the danger, the audience members all stood up and started racing around in a panic, jumping over chairs, stepping on fiddles. The actors called out for water to wash the makeup off their faces. When they got out to the fort, they realized they had been tricked. The Americans were not really attacking Boston.
T
he next time it wasn't a trick.
he next time it wasn't a trick.
On the morning of March 3, 1776, British general William Howe (who had taken over command from General Gage) pulled out his telescope and looked up at some nearby hills called Dorchester
Heights. He saw cannons pointing down at him. “These fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months!” cried Howe.
Heights. He saw cannons pointing down at him. “These fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months!” cried Howe.
Actually, it had taken more than one night to get those big guns in place. These were the cannons captured that May by Ethan Allen at Fort Ticonderoga. Washington had wanted the guns in Boston, so he sent Colonel Henry Knox to go get them. Knox was an enormous twenty-five-year-old bookstore owner who loved to read books about cannons. In the Continental army, that made Knox a cannon expert (they didn't have any real experts).
Using sleds and teams of oxen, Knox and his men pulled about sixty cannons three hundred miles from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. Washington had them placed on Dorchester Heights.
Suddenly General Howe decided it was time to leave town. The truth is, it's no fun living in a city with huge guns pointing down at you. The British sailed out of Boston on March 17, 1776.
And they never came back.
When Washington happily reported the good news to Congress, he included a special note to John Hancock, whose Boston mansion had been used by British officers. “I have a particular pleasure in being able to inform you, Sir,” wrote Washington to Hancock, “that your house received no damage worth mentioning. Your furniture is in tolerable order and the family pictures are all left entire and untouched.”
The only bad news was that someone had stolen Hancock's backgammon set.
A
writer named Mercy Otis Warren celebrated the liberation of Boston by writing a new play called
The Blockheads
. It was a comedy about the British army in Boston, and she gave the British characters silly names like General Puff and Mr. Shallow. In the play, cowardly British officers were terrified of the Americans. Here's a sample:
writer named Mercy Otis Warren celebrated the liberation of Boston by writing a new play called
The Blockheads
. It was a comedy about the British army in Boston, and she gave the British characters silly names like General Puff and Mr. Shallow. In the play, cowardly British officers were terrified of the Americans. Here's a sample:
General Puff:
You see, gentlemen, our situation. Our enemies are gaining on us hourly! One night more perhaps will make us their prisoners!
You see, gentlemen, our situation. Our enemies are gaining on us hourly! One night more perhaps will make us their prisoners!
Mr. Shallow:
Why will you desire us to go to battle? Are you for seeing another Bunker Hill ⦠?
Why will you desire us to go to battle? Are you for seeing another Bunker Hill ⦠?
Mercy Otis Warren's good friend Abigail Adams was hoping there would be more good news to celebrate in 1776. She was convinced that it was time for the colonies to officially declare independence from Britain. In fact, she was wondering what her husband, John, and the other members of Congress were waiting for. “I long to hear that you have declared an independency,” wrote Abigail. John replied:
“
As to declarations of independency, be patient.
”
As to declarations of independency, be patient.
”
How long would Abigail have to be patient? That's the next story.
John Adams
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