1884.]
��Blinker Hill.
��301
��was not until a pressure upon three faces of the redoubt forced the last issue, that the defenders poured forth one more destructive volley. A single cannon cartridge was distributed for the final effort, and then, with clubbed guns and the nerve of desperation, the slow retreat began, contesting, man to man and inch by inch. Warren fell, shot through the head, in the mouth of the fort.
The battle was not quite over, even then. Jackson rallied Gardner's men on Bunker Hill, and with three companies of Ward's regiment and Febiger's party, so covered the retreat as to save half of the garrison. The New Hamp- shire troops of Stark and Reed, with Colt's and Chester's companies, still held the fence line clear to the river, and covered the escape of Prescott's command until the last cartridge had been expended, and then their deliber- ate, well-ordered retreat bore testi- mony alike to their virtue and valor.
THE END.
Putnam made one final effort at Bunker Hill, but in vain, and the army retired to Prospect Hill, which Putnam had already fortified in advance.
The British did not pursue. Clinton urged upon General Howe an imme- diate attack upon Cambridge ; but Howe declined the movement. The gallant Prescott offered to retake Bun- ker Hill by storming if he could have three fresh regiments ; but it was not deemed best to waste further resources at the time.
Such, as briefly as it can be clearly outlined, was the battle of Bunker Hill.
Nearly one third of each army was left on the field.
The British loss was nineteen officers killed and seventy wounded, itself a
��striking evidence of the prompt response to Prescott's orders before the action began. Of rank and file, two hundred and seven were killed and seven hundred and fifty-eight were wounded. Total, ten hundred and fifty-four.
The American loss was one hundred and forty-five killed and missing, and three hundred and four wounded. Total, four hundred and forty-nine.
Such is the record of a battle which, in less than two hours, destroyed a town, laid fifteen hundred men upon the field, equalized the relations of veterans and militia, aroused three millions of people to a definite struggle for National Independence, and fairly opened the war for its accomplishment.
NOTES.
Note i. The hasty organization of the command is marked by one feature not often regarded, and that is the readiness with which men of various regiments enhsted in the enterprise. Washington, in his official report of the casualties, thus specifies the loss : —
Colonel of Regiment. Killed. Wounded. Missing.
Frye, 10 38 4
Little, 7 23 -
Brewer, 12 22 -
Gridley, — 4 _
Stark, 15 45 -
Woodbridge, — 5 —
Scammon, — 2 -
Bridge, 17 25 -
Whitcomb, 582
Ward, I 6
Gerrishe, 35-
Reed, 3 29 1
Prescott, 43 46 -
Doolittle, 69-
Gardner, - 7 _
Patterson, -11
Nixon, 3 _ _
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