These facts serve to show not only the confusion of the day, but also
the bad judgment, to use no stronger phrase, of unseasoned soldiers. It
is fair to say that the hesitancy of some was offset by the heroism of
others. When Colonel Gerrish, who was later cashiered, could bring his
men no further forward than Bunker Hill, his adjutant, Christian
Febiger, a Dane, led a part of the command to the rail fence, and fought
bravely there. One of the captains of artillery, disregarding Gridley's
commands, took his two guns to Charlestown, and served one of them at
the rail fence. Other individuals named and unnamed, with or without
orders, went to the field, took post where they could, and fought for
their own hand. Yet these are scattered instances in the midst of too
many failures to obey. Those who did march down to the field of carnage,
with "no more thought," as one of them confessed, "of ever rising the
hill again than I had of ascending to Heaven, as Elijah did, soul and
body together,"--those who thus devoted themselves left many behind on
the safe side of Bunker Hill, or posted ineffectively behind distant
fences or trees. Of the thousand Americans who during this last pause in
the battle might have reached the post of danger, not enough arrived to
affect the result.

At last, while aides were still beating up for more support, and Putnam
himself was returning from a similar errand, Howe put his troops in
motion. This time the movement against the rail fence was but a feint;
and now for the first time the artillery of either side did effective
service in the battle. Against the protest of the artillery officers
that the ground was too soft to take better position, Howe ordered them
forward, and they loyally obeyed. They found a post from which they
could enfilade the breastwork, and at their first discharge of grape
sent its defenders into the redoubt for safety. It was the beginning of
the end. Prescott, as he saw the breastwork abandoned, and marked the
three advancing columns, saw that the redoubt was doomed.

And yet the day ought not to have been lost. Had Ward but sent a hundred
pounds of powder, the fight might have been won. But Prescott looked for
it in vain. Or had those men, whom he saw shooting at long range from
positions of safety, come forward to reinforce the defenders of the
redoubt, the scales might have been turned. But the fight was to end as
it had begun, with Prescott's small detachment still un