The results of this battle were two fold. It
proved to the Americans that the British regulars were not invincible,
and it proved to the British that the American militia would fight.

[Footnote 1: General William Howe had come to Boston with more British
troops not long before. In October, 1775, he was given chief command.]

[Illustration: BOSTON, CHARLESTOWN, ETC.]

%134. Washington takes Command.%--Two weeks after this battle
Washington reached the army, and on July 3, 1775, took command beneath
an elm still standing in Cambridge. Never was an army in so sorry a
plight. There was no discipline, and not much more than a third as many
men as there had been a few weeks before. But the indomitable will and
sublime patience of Washington triumphed over all difficulties, and for
eight months he kept the British shut up in Boston, while he trained
and disciplined his army, and gathered ammunition and supplies.

%135. Montreal taken.%--Meanwhile Congress, fearing that Sir Guy
Carleton, who was governor of Canada, would invade New York by way of
Lake Champlain, sent two expeditions against him. One, under Richard
Montgomery, went down Lake Champlain, and captured Montreal. Another,
under Benedict Arnold, forced its way through the dense woods of Maine,
and after dreadful sufferings reached Quebec. There Montgomery joined
Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 1775, the two armies assaulted
Quebec, the most strongly fortified city in America, and actually
entered it. But Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, the attack
failed, and, six months later, the Americans were driven from Canada.

[Illustration: Bunker Hill Monument]

%136. The British driven from Boston, March 17, 1776.%--After eight
months of seeming idleness, Washington, early in March, 1776, seized
Dorchester Heights on the south side of Boston, fortified them, and so
gave Howe his choice of fighting or retreating. Fight he could not; for
the troops, remembering the dreadful day at Bunker Hill, were afraid to
attack intrenched Americans. Howe thereupon evacuated Boston and sailed
with his army for Halifax, March 17, 1776. Washington felt sure that the
British would next attack New York, so he moved his army there in April,
1776, and placed it on the Brooklyn hills.

%137. Independence resolved on.%--Just one year had now passed since
the memorable fights at Concord and Lexington. During this year the
colonies had been solemnly protesting that they had