300
��Blinker Hill.
��[May,
��It was, indeed, a strange episode in British history, in view of the British assertion of assured supremacy, when- ever an issue challenged that suprem- acy.
Clinton and Burgoyne, watching from the redoubt on Copp's Hill, realized at once the gravity of the situation, and Clinton promptly offered his aid to rescue the army.
Four hundred additional marines and the forty-seventh regiment were promptly landed. This fresh force, under Clinton, was ordered to flank the redoubt and scale its face to the ex- treme left. General Howe, with the grenadiers and light infantry, supported by the artillery, undertook the storming of the breastworks, bending back from the mouth of the redoubt, and so com- manding the centre entrance.
General Pigot was ordered to rally the remnants of the fifth, thirty-eighth, forty-third, and fifty-second regiments, to connect the two wings, and attack the redoubt in front.
A mere demonstration was ordered upon the American left, while the artil- lery was to advance a few rods and then swing to its left, so as to sweep the breastwork for Howe's advance.
THE ASSALTLT.
The dress parade movement of the first advance was not repeated. A con- test between equals was at hand. Vic- tory or ruin was the alternative for those who so proudly issued from the Boston barracks at sunrise for the suppression of pretentious rebellion. Knapsacks were thrown aside. British veterans stripped for fight. Not a single regi- ment of those engaged had passed such a fearful ordeal in its whole history as a single hour had witnessed. The power of discipline, the energy of experienced
��commanders, and the pressure of hon- ored antecedents, combined to make the movement as trying as it was momentous.
The Americans were no less under a solemn responsibility. At the previous attack, some loaded while others fired, so that the expenditure of powder was great, almost exhaustive. The few remaining cannon cartridges were eco- nomically distributed. There was no longer a possibility of reinforcements. The fire from the shipping swept the isthmus. There were less than fifty bayonets to the entire command.
During the afternoon Ward sent his own regiment, as well as Patterson's and Gardner's, but few men reached the actual front in time to share in the last resistance. Gardner did, indeed, reach Bunker Hill to aid Putnam in establishing a second line on that sum- mit, but fell in the discharge of the duty. Febiger, previously conspicuous at Quebec, and afterward at Stony Point, gathered a portion of Gerrishe's regiment, and reached the redoubt in time to share in the final struggle ; but the other regiments, without their fault, were too late.
At this time, Putnam seemed to ap- preciate the full gravity of the crisis,, and made the most of every available resource to concentrate a reserve for a second defence, but in vain.
Prescott, within the redoubt, at once recognized the method of the British advance. The wheel of the British artillery to the left after it passed the kne of the redoubt, secured to it an enfilading fire, which insured the reduc- tion of the redoubt and cut off retreat. There was no panic at that hour of supreme peril. The order to reserve fire until the enemy was within twenty yards was obediently regarded, and it
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