BUNKER HILL.
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��BUNKER HILL.
��[The following narrative of the personal experience of Col. Bancroft at the battle of Bunker Hill is from advance sheets of " Sketches of Old Dunstable," and by the pen of the venerable John B. Hill, Esq., the historian of Mason, who, although eighty-two years of age, retains much of the fire and spir- it of youth. It was written from dictation in 1826, and is printed for the first time in the " Sketches of Old Dunstable," which work will soon be issued and for sale by George M. Elliott, 48 Central St., Low- ell, Mass., a limited number of copies, only, being printed,]
��On the night of the 16th of June, 1775, my company was ordered out with the detachment to take possession of the heights of Charlestown. This detach- ment consisted of three regiments com- manded by Col's Prescott, Bridge and Frye, and amounted in all to between 1000 and 1200 men. These regiments were principally from Middlesex county, Col. Prescott from Pepperell, Col. Bridge from Chelmsford, Col. Frye from Ando- ver. I was that evening on a court-mar- tial and could not get liberty to go with my company, but in the morning of the 17th General Ward granted me permis- sion to join my company, though the court-martial was not through. Soon af- ter I reached the hill our men left work and piled their intrenching tools in our rear, and waited in expectation of rein- forcements and refreshments, but neither reached us, if any were sent. The rein- forcements halted at Charlestown Neck. Whilst I was standing by the redoubt be- fore the action began, a ball from the Somerset passed within a few inches of my head, which seriously affected my left eye so that it finally became totally blind.
When the works were planned no cal- culation was made for the use of cannon, and of course no embrasures were left for them. But on the morning of the 17th two ship cannon were sent up and a platform with them. About ten o'clock the British troops began to make their appearance at the wharves in Boston. General Putnam, who had been incessant in his exertions through the morning to bring reinforcements, now rode up to us at the fort and says : " My lads, these tools must be carried back," and turned and rode away. An order was never obeyed with more readiness. From eve- ry part of the line volunteers ran an<j
��some picked up one, some two shovels, mattocks, etc., and hurried over the hill. When the pile of tools was thus removed I went through the lines to form an esti- mate of the number of men in the re- doubt, at the same time stating that those who had gone with the tools would come back, though I was by no means confi- dent that they would. I estimated the number then left in the redoubt at 150, but was afterward informed by one of the captains of Col. Frye's regiment that he counted them, and the whole number, in- cluding officers, was 163. I was not cer- tain that any reinforcements after this time came into the redoubt; thus the number of our effective force was very materially reduced. General Putnam had given his orders and gone, and nobody seemed to think it belonged to him to stop the men and execute the order in a proper way.
The artillery-men had all gone with the tools, and Col. Prescott came to me and said, " If you can do anything with the cannon I wish you would. I give you the charge of them." I directed the men to dig down the bank in order to form an embrasure, which they were forced to do with their hands, for the party that had carried off the intrenching tools had not left us a single shovel or mattock. Men never worked with more zeal. Many of them dug till their fingers bled. To loos- en the earth I loaded the cannon and fired into the gap, and they dug again, and I fired a second time. Both these balls fell in Boston, one near the meeting-house in Brattle square, the other on Cornhill, as I was afterward informed by Boston gen- tlemen.
By this time the British had landed. They learned that we had cannon on the right or most westwardly part of the fort, which was probably the reason they
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