Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775

On 17 June 1775, colonial forces occupying hastily constructed works on Breed’s Hill faced repeated assaults by British regulars. The British eventually captured the position after the defenders exhausted their ammunition, but the victory cost them more than a thousand casualties.

The battle hardened attitudes on both sides. It showed that provincial soldiers could withstand disciplined troops, while the scale of British losses made commanders more cautious during the Siege of Boston. Patriot leader Joseph Warren was killed during the final retreat.

For books and historical fiction, the battle offers a concentrated setting of improvised fortification, smoke, heat, command confusion and close-range infantry combat. Nathaniel Philbrick’s Bunker Hill uses it as the climax of Boston’s transformation from political crisis to revolutionary war.