mg tools, under the command of Colonel William Prescott, gathered beneath the elms on Cambridge Common at six o'clock, June 16, 1775. Rev. Samuel Langdon, president of Harvard College, solemnly offered prayer. At sunset they were off on their silent march for Charlestown.

After they had crossed the Neck, men were sent to the town to patrol the shore and watch the British warships lying in the harbor, and the batteries on Copp's Hill on the other side. When Prescott had held a council of war, in which he was assisted by General Putnam, who came out voluntarily in the night for a couple of hours, he ordered a redoubt built upon the most exposed and advantageous position, afterward known as Breed's Hill. Here Colonel Gridley, the veteran engineer, marked out a redoubt, and, as the clocks in Boston struck twelve, the men were at work with the pickaxes and shovels. Prescott went down at night to survey the shore, and heard the men on the warships call, "All is well." By dawn the fortress, six feet high, had been raised. With surprise the British saw it. From ship and hill they opened fire upon it.

The tired garrison needed provisions and needed reënforcements. Major Brooks, afterward governor

of Massachusetts, was sent for them. General Putnam, after requesting reënforcements, hastened to the field. In the morning the lines were extended down toward the shore on the American left. A stone fence, with a stake fence in front, and with hay from the neighboring field thrust between, was used as a slight protection for the troops, while still farther a stone wall near the shore was hastily thrown together. Prescott commanded in the redoubt about eight hundred men; Captain Knowlton held the fence under Bunker Hill; Colonel Stark and Colonel Reed with their men filled in the spaces toward the shore; Dr. Warren, president of the Provincial Congress, and just appointed major-general, came to the redoubt with a musket, as did also the veteran of seventy years, Seth Pomeroy; Putnam, eager to help in any way, took his position at the fence. There were in all in the battle on the American side, about fourteen hundred men.

General Gates ordered out the flower of the British army for battle. They crossed in boats under General Howe, protected by the fire of the ships of war. The line of battle was formed with General Howe on the British right to advance against the wall, and General Pigot on the left to attack the redoubt. How many

soldiers there were in this first formation is not known. But with those who came across later the number of British troops who took part in the battle was about four thousand.

At three o'clock in the afternoon the advance began. The British troops in brilliant array marched boldly forward, as British troops can. The American yeoman, in shirt sleeves, behind the ramparts and walls, waited for them on that hot summer afternoon. They waited for them until they saw the whites of their eyes and recognized the men they had seen in Boston, until Prescott gave the word to fire. Then, with terrible carnage, they brought down so many of the enemy that the remainder turned and retired to the place where they formed. Now Charlestown was set on fire, and soon four hundred houses were burning. Again Howe formed his regulars in line, pushed the artillery forward, and advanced his men in valiant style. Again the result was the same, but with more bitter fighting. Clinton, from the Boston side, seeing the condition of affairs, came over with reënforcements. Now there was a longer pause, and there was hope that they would not advance again. But British pluck could not endure defeat. For the third time, with strengthened lines, they came on.

The American powder was well-nigh gone, and artillery cartridges had to be distributed. There had been but little powder in the whole army around Boston, and it had to be divided. This third time the Americans waited until the enemy were within twenty yards. The shock was dreadful, but that was the last. The enemy came over the corners of the redoubt. Stones were used against them, but these increased the enemy's hope. Prescott gave the word to retreat when powder really failed, and he and Warren were the last ones to leave the redoubt. Here Warren was shot down. The men at the wall, led by Stark, covered the retreat and retired slowly, Putnam tried to hold the men at the half-built defences on Bunker Hill proper, but ammunition had failed. All withdrew over the narrow neck, where a cannon on the other side, and reënforcements under Major Brooks, protected the retreating men. At five o'clock the British were in possession of Bunker Hill, after a loss of a thousand men. The Americans had twice driven back the British veterans, and with a loss of four hundred and fifty men had retired only when ammunition failed. In both of these orations on Bunker Hill, Webster tells in eloquent language of the glory and the consequences of the battle.

V

THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT

THE first monument on the hill was erected in 1794 to the memory of Dr. Joseph Warren, president of the Massachusetts Congress, and lately commissioned as major-general in the Continental Army at the time of the battle. A beautiful copy of this monument, made in marble, is now found within the Bunker Hill monument. The permanent monument was to have a nobler object, as Webster declares, with glowing eloquence in his orations, than the commemoration of the death of a martyr to the cause of liberty.

In 1824 certain citizens of Boston formed the Bunker Hill Monument Association, under the influence of William Tudor, Esq., who desired the erection of "the noblest monument in the world." The first president of the association was Governor John Brooks, the major that had been sent from the hill for reënforcements and supplies at the time of the battle. Daniel Webster, the second president, held the office at the time of the laying of the cornerstone.