too much of that.

In consequence of this restricted diet the wounded from Bunker Hill died
in great numbers. Of the wounded American prisoners very few survived.
Some, as Washington heard, were operated on in the common jail, in which
most of them were confined, and where the chances of their recovery were
slight. They fared "very hard," said John Leach, who had opportunity to
know; not one of them survived amputation. As to the rest, there can be
no question that they were badly treated. Their doctor complained that
they had had no bread for two days; the Provost replied "they might eat
the Nail Heads, and knaw the plank and be damn'd."[130] Their more
fortunate fellow-prisoners, who were not taken in arms and who received
food from their families in Boston, sent the Bunker Hill prisoners what
comforts they could bribe the soldiers to take to them; but, says
Leach's diary, "they have no Wood for days together, to Warm their
Drink, and dying men drink them cold." By the 21st of September eighteen
out of twenty-nine prisoners had died in the jail.

Yet even the British wounded showed a high mortality. This was largely
on account of the food, which, although it was the best that was to be
had, was none too good for suffering men. The high death rate was in
part due to the American marksmanship, which caused many body wounds.
What with such wounds, and such food, and the unaccustomed heat, there
were so many deaths among the wounded that it was seriously stated that
the American bullets were poisoned.

There was, then, considerable discontent among the British soldiery. Of
it at one time the Americans took ingenious advantage. When the wind was
setting toward the British lines at Charlestown, the Americans at the
Medford lines scattered handbills that were driven to the British
sentries. On the bills was to be read a comparison intended to increase
British discontent. It ran:--

PROSPECT HILL BUNKER'S HILL
I. Seven dollars a I. Three pence a
month. day.
II. Fresh provisions II. Rotten salt pork.
and in plenty.
III. Health. III. The scurvy.
IV. Freedom, ease, IV. Slavery, beggary,
affluence, and and want.
a good farm.

These handbills thus coming into the hands of the privates were passed
about secretly, until the officers got wind of the devic