On the 16th day of June, 1775, at night after roll call, I was furnished with a shovel and ordered to march. I was ordered to Bunker Hill, to use my shovel in throwing up a breastwork. I was compelled to labor till daylight. As soon as we were discovered, the British ships and batteries opened a tremendous fire upon us; this they continued till about ten o’clock in the day, when they began to cross Charlestown Ferry.
Here they landed their forces and soon after set fire to the town, then formed their troops and marched on toward us. As soon as they came within gun shot, they began to fire upon us, but our officers, thinking it best to reserve our fire, we withheld it until they came within four or five rods of us, when we were ordered to fire, which we did.1
It seems remarkable that just a couple of months after the people of Charlestown opened their doors and cared for the wounded soldiers stumbling back from Concord, that those same soldiers would light fire to Charlestown.
And yet, that is exactly what happened.
To finish reading, please visit my Substack Newsletter, linked below.
Digging the Fortifications on Breed’s Hill