Boston 1775 by Francis Russell

Author:Francis Russell [Francis Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History/United States/Revolutionary Period
ISBN: 9781612308296
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2014-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

One by one, the barges ground ashore at Morton’s Point. The redcoats, with haversacks and muskets, splashed through the shallows and up the beach. Then the barges returned to Boston for a second load, this time bringing the Royal Regiment of Artillery and General Howe. The landing, well protected by the guns of the Royal Navy, was made without opposition. A total of 1,550 British troops arrived in the first two waves.

From the shore, Howe observed Stark’s and Reed’s regiments on the crest of Bunker Hill, and as he watched, he noticed several detachments hurry downhill and move into positions along the flat land just above the Mystic River. Howe saw at once that these newcomers would block any chance he might have had to move his troops along the Mystic and seal off the provincials from the rear.

About 400 yards from the rough breastwork, Howe lined up four companies of his light infantry under the protection of a small bank. Then, after he had formed up his other troops and pushed three lines of infantry to the top of Morton’s Hill, he sent to Gage to ask for reinforcements. In the interval, the men broke ranks, unfastened their knapsacks, took off their helmets, and - securely out of rebel range - sat down in the grass to eat their dinner.

As he watched the redcoats pile ashore, Prescott realized that the most vulnerable spot in his lines was the gap where the breastwork ended in swampy ground short of the Mystic. In the breathing space now given him, he sent Captain Knowlton and his 200 Connecticut men to close the gap. He also sent Captain Gridley with his fieldpieces, but as soon as Gridley and his disheartened artillerists were out of sight of the redoubt, they changed direction and headed for the neck. Old Put stopped them near Bunker Hill. Gridley’s men insisted they were out of ammunition, but the suspicious Putnam inspected the ammunition chests, found them full, and angrily ordered the guns back to the firing line. When he turned his back, however, the gunners abandoned their pieces and fled the peninsula.

Captain Knowlton was made of sterner stuff. Determined, if somewhat uncertain of his orders, he moved his company back of the swamp some 600 feet behind the breastwork to a stone wall topped by fence railings that marked an old ditch. The wall ran parallel to the breastwork and extended 200 yards to the Mystic. His men tore down another rail fence and set it up just ahead of their own, filling the space in between with grass and brush. There was still a gap between the rail fence and the breastwork, a gap only partially taken up by the swamp. Here, Knowlton dug three small V-shaped trenches called fleches.

When John Stark, standing atop Bunker Hill, saw how much space Knowlton was attempting to hold with his few men, he led his own force down the hill on the double to reinforce them. Stark paused a moment to give his men “a short but animated address,” to which the troops answered with three cheers.

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