which he used on this occasion
he afterwards penitently acknowledged in church. He retired only when
the pursuers were close behind, but went no further than Prospect Hill.
There, seizing on the chance which so long had been denied him, without
orders he collected men and commenced another redoubt. The next day he
was found there, unwashed, still digging, and ready for another battle.

Prescott returned to Cambridge, reported at headquarters, and offered if
given sufficient troops to retake the hill. But Ward was afraid of his
own position, and would not sanction the attempt.

The British loss was very heavy, about one thousand and fifty, of whom a
quarter were killed, while ninety-two among the dead were officers.
Pitcairn was carried to Boston, and died there. Colonel Abercrombie was
killed, and many others of lesser note. As soon as it was possible the
wounded officers were conveyed to Boston for medical attendance, and we
have in Major Clarke's narrative a dismal picture of one sad procession.
"In the first carriage was Major Williams, bleeding and dying, and
three dead captains of the fifty-second regiment. In the second, four
dead officers; then another with wounded officers."

The Americans, at first discouraged by their defeat, in the course of
time came to regard it as a victory. This it certainly was not, yet it
had all the moral effect of a British defeat. The regulars learned that
the provincials would stand up to them. "Damn the rebels," was the
current phrase; "they would not flinch."[102] Many of the officers felt
called upon to explain, in letters home, the reason for the defeat. The
American rifles, argued one, were "peculiarly adapted to take off the
officers of a whole line as it advances to an attack." They reasoned
that the redoubt, whose perfection when examined was astonishing, must
have been the work of days. As to the comparative uselessness of the
British cannon, it was explained by the nine-pound shot (some say
twelve) sent for the six-pounders. Said one newspaper: "It naturally
required a great while to ram down such disproportioned shot; nor did
they, when discharged, fly with that velocity and true direction they
would have done, had they been better suited to the size of the
cannon."[103]

But aside from a few such absurdities, the body of the army and the
British public recognized at last that they had formidable antagonists.
This was no such fight as that on the 19th of April, when th