3 THE SECOND ADVANCE ON THE BUNKER'S HILL REDOUBT. From a Drawing by Howard Pyle. By permission of the proprietors of "Scribner's Magazine." " the day; and thirdly, from the heat of the enemy's fire. The Major answered him that soldiers should innure themselves to all manner of hardships, not to regard either heat or cold: For my part, at present,' (says he), 'I have enough to do to mind my duty which I shall do to the utmost of my power.' Soon after, they were both of them shot through the body and died instantly." Besides Major Pitcairn the Marines lost Major Short, Captain Stephen Ellis, Lieutenants Richard Shea and William Finnie, and seventeen men killed. Captains Thomas Avarne, Stawel Chudleigh and David Johnstone, and Lieut. Ragg and fifty-seven men wounded, all belonging to the 1st Battalion. The Grenadier and Light Infantry Companies of the 2nd Battalion lost Captain Archibald Campbell, Lieutenant Francis Gardiner and five men killed; Captain George Logan, Lieutenants John Dyer, Alexander Brisbane and thirty men wounded. Richard Shea, though only a Lieutenant, was really a veteran, so slow could promotion be in those days. Clarke says he had thirty-six years' service, and the writer in the "Scots Magazine," already quoted, says he left no less than nine children, "the eldest a Lieutenant in the same Corps now on his passage to Boston; the remainder with his disconsolate widow at Plymouth." Lieut. Clarke gives a few more interesting notes of the battle :-"A full halfhour after the Americans were dislodged from their intrenchments," he says, and it was generally supposed that no enemy were at hand, Lieutenant Dutton, of the Thirty-eighth Regiment, being much afflicted with the gout, and severely fatigued with the engagement, sat down on the grass to change his stockings, and while so doing, was alarmed by his servant telling him two men were approaching with fire-locks, who were not of the King's troops. The servant expressed an apprehension of their intention being hostile, which Mr. Dutton laughed at, and replied he supposed they were coming to surrender and give up their arms; but his incredulity proved fatal to him, for they were no sooner within a convenient space than they lodged the contents of their muskets in the bodies of the hard-fated Lieutenant and servant, notwithstanding that the King's troops were within fifty yards of him when he lost his life, and some of the Light Infantry quite close to him; however, they were instantaneously sacrificed to his much-injured Clarke gives us some account also of the scenes in Boston subsequent to the engagement in which so many valuable lives had been lost. "As soon as the news of the battle being over, reached Boston, those persons who style themselves 'Friends to Government,' instantly sent out every sort of carriage they had, as coaches, chariots, single-horse chaises, and even handbarrows, to the water-side, to assist in bringing to Boston, the wounded and killed officers and soldiers to their respective homes; likewise all the physicians, surgeons and apothecaries of Boston, instantly attended the wounded officers, and gave them every assistance in their power. "Then followed a melancholy scene of several carriages, with the dead and dying officers; in the first of which was Major Williams (52nd) bleeding and dying, and three dead captains of the Fifty-second Regiment; but he lived till the next morning." "The second contained four dead officers, then another with wounded officers; and this scene continued until Sunday morning, before all the wounded private men could be brought to Boston." "These soldiers who fell in the field were instantly buried there, and on Monday morning all the dead officers were decently buried in Boston, in a private manner, in the different churches and church-yards there. Lieutenant-Colonel Abercrombie (22nd) and Major Pitcairn1 were buried in the King's Chapel." The body of the latter officer was afterwards brought to England for interment. The greater part of the victorious troops bivouacked on the field of battle that night, and the following day the General ordered that :-"The troops will encamp as soon as the equipage can be brought up. Tents and Provisions may be expected when the Tide admits of transporting them to this side. The Corps to take the duty at the intrenchments near Charles Town Neck alternately.' The troops on the Bunker's Hill side were reinforced from Boston by the 2nd Battalion of Marines, four Line Regiments and a Company of Artillery with six guns. Though well beaten, the Americans had by no means given up their hopes of ousting the British Garrison from Boston. They recommenced operations by BUNKER'S HILL. Shewing Ruins of Charles Town and the Camps of Generals Howe and Clinton. From a Sketch taken from Boston just after the Battle by an 1 Vide Note VII. burning the lighthouse at the entrance of the harbour and took prisoners the workmen sent to repair it, as well as a party of Marines who had been quartered there for their protection. Repulsed from the Charles Town Peninsula they set to work to entrench themselves on the Dorchester Heights south of the town, mounted a considerable number of guns there, and to prepare a more than ordinarily warm reception for the British troops should they attempt to assault their fortifications, they provided over a hundred hogsheads filled with stones and chained together, to roll down upon them. Their numbers continued to increase, and Boston was completely isolated. Within the town-to judge by the Garrison and Battalion orders-things were not going well. Offences against discipline seem to have been very prevalent as well as offences against property. Thos. Owen and Hy. Johnston privet soldiers in H.M. 59th Regt. of Foot" were "tryd " "for having Broak into and Robd the stores of Mrs. Coffins, store keeper of Sundry goods," and were sentenced "to suffer Death by Being hangd By the Neck Untill ye are Dead." Again Thos. McMarn, privet soldier in H.M. 43rd Regt. of foot, and Izabella, his Wife," were were "tryd " for receiving sundry stolen goods, "Noing them to be such." The Court sentenced "the said Thos. McMarn to receive 1,000 lashes on his Bare Back with ye Cat of Nine tails," and "the said Isebella McMarn to receive 100 lashes on her Bare Back at the Cart Tail."1 Nor was the crime of desertion infrequent. To quote once more from "Clarke's Narrative":"As it was imagined that the Americans would give great encourage ment to the King's Troops to induce them to desert, by offering them lands to cul tivate; it has its effect on some, as upwards of one hundred of the Eighteenth Regiment, or Royal Irish, deserted, and are still with them; two or three of these indeed returned to the regiment, as the Americans had not performed their agreement.” "The Quarter-master Sergeant of the Thirty-eighth Regiment went off with about forty pounds of his Captain's money, and has been appointed a LieutenantColonel in their service, and is one of the most active men they have." "A Corporal from the Marines on board the Lively Man of War, also deserted, and had been appointed Captain and Adjutant." The inhabitants were generally disaffected, but there remained a residuum of Loyalists for two or three Volunteer Corps were formed to assist the Garrison. There were the "Royal North British Volunteers," the "Loyal American Association," and the "Loyal Irish Volunteers."2 General Gage, shortly after the Battle of Bunker's Hill issued "A New Order of Battle "3 in which he re-arranged his troops in five Brigades, but having done so does not appear to have attempted to take the offensive in any way, but to have remained passively on his defence while the rebels completed their lines of investment. At length, in October, he 1 The Garrison and Battalion Orders were dictated probably to N.C.O's., and in those pre-Board School days the spelling was naturally eccentric. 2 Vide Note VIII. 3 Vide Note IX. |