e shifting
provincials gave the regulars nothing to strike at. This was a pitched
battle, and the farmers had all but won it. The British were amazed by
the stubborn defence, and the rapidity and accuracy of the American
fire. The proportion of killed among the officers was greater than any
before known, and veterans admitted that the slaughter was worse than at
Minden, the deadliest of recent European battles. It is with reason,
then, that Boston still celebrates Bunker Hill. It was the first signal
proof of American courage, and forecast the success of the siege.
Indeed, it is not too much to say that Bunker Hill battle had influence
in deciding the outcome of the war. Howe, destined to be the leader of
the British forces, never forgot the lesson of the redoubt on Breed's
Hill, or of the flimsy fence of rails and hay. It was seldom that he
could resolve to send his men against a rebel entrenchment.

FOOTNOTES:

[92] Frothingham's "Siege," 123.

[93] Frothingham's "Siege," 126, and Sabine's "Loyalists," 707.

[94] Reports vary from eighty to three hundred feet.

[95] Dearborn's account of the battle, _Historical Magazine_ for 1864.

[96] Bancroft, v, 612.

[97] Ross's "Life of Cornwallis," quoted in Fonblanque's "Burgoyne,"
159.

[98] The picturesqueness of this scene has been remarked by many
writers. The best contemporary description is, of course, Burgoyne's.
"To consider this action as a soldier, it comprised, though in a small
compass, almost every branch of military duty and curiosity. Troops
landed in the face of an enemy; a fine disposition; a march sustained by
a powerful cannonade by moving field artillery, fixed batteries,
floating batteries, and broadsides of ships at anchor, all operating
separately and well disposed; a deployment from the march to form for
the attack of the entrenchments and redoubt; a vigorous defence; a storm
with bayonets; a large and fine town set on fire by shells. Whole
streets of houses, ships upon the stocks, a number of churches, all
sending up volumes of smoke and flame, or falling together in ruins,
were capital objects. A prospect of the neighboring hills, the steeples
of Boston, and the masts of such ships as were unemployed in the harbor,
all crowded with spectators, friends and foes alike in anxious suspense,
made a background to the piece; and the whole together composed a
representation of war that I think the imagination of Lebrun never
reached."--FONBLANQUE, "