Breed/ Bunker Hill Monument

Monument Sq, Charlestown, MA 02129

This is actually immortalized with the wrong name due to a poem. However there have been disagreements about the names of these hills since the 1600s.

“Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes” was believed to have been uttered at the battle. The ill-equipped colonists faced the powerful British Army during this famous battle on June 17 1775 and was one of the first times the colonial forces held their own against the British army. While the British claimed victory it was because the patriots ran out of weaponry and abandoned the post. The British 1,054 casualties compared to 450 Americans. This depleted their army enough to abandon plans to seize another high point near the city and ultimately evacuate Boston. In early 1775 after the loss at Lexington-Concord British Commander-in-Chief General Sir Thomas Gage was under pressure to quash the colonial rebellion. The Army planned to launch an attack against the Americans on the heights north and south of Boston. Details of the attack were leaked, and a detachment of 1,000 MA and CT armed men gathered to defend a hill in Charlestown. In one night, they had fortified their position on Breed’s Hill and assembled a makeshift split rail barricade to blunt and flanking action over the south bank of the Mystic River; which astounded the British. It took three advances to break the patriot volley and only because they were running out of powder and shot.

The monument was dedicated on June 17th, 1843, 68 years after the famous battle took place however both battle and monument are named after the wrong hill. The monument is on the actual site of the battle which is Breeds hill.

-Source Links-

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-story-of-the-battle-of-bunker-hill-36721984/

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-battle-of-bunker-hill.htm

https://www.nps.gov/places/breeds-hill.htm

http://genealogytrails.com/mass/bunkerhill.html