men behind the intrenchments could
see the whites of their eyes, they were met by a withering fire that
tore their ranks asunder and sent them back in disorder, utterly routed
by their despised foes. In time they form and advance again but the
result is the same. The demonstration of superiority was not a success.
For a third time they form, not now for dress parade, but for a
hazardous assault. This time the result was different. The patriots had
lost nothing of courage or determination but there was left scarcely
one round of powder. They had no bayonets. Pouring in their last volley
and still resisting with clubbed muskets, they retired slowly and in
order from the field. So great was the British loss that there was no
pursuit. The intensity of the battle is told by the loss of the
Americans, out of about fifteen hundred engaged, of nearly twenty per
cent, and of the British, out of some thirty-five hundred engaged, of
nearly thirty-three per cent, all in one and one half hours.

It was the story of brave men bravely led but insufficiently equipped.
Their leader, Colonel Prescott, had walked the breastworks to show his
men that the cannonade was not particularly dangerous. John Stark,
bringing his company, in which were his Irish compatriots, across
Charlestown Neck under the guns of the battleships, refused to quicken
his step. His Major, Andrew McCleary, fell at the rail fence which he
had held during the day. Dr. Joseph Warren, your own son of Roxbury,
fell in the retreat, but the Americans, though picking off his officers,
spared General Howe. They had fought the French under his brother.

Such were some of the outstanding deeds of the day. But these were the
deeds of men and the deeds of men always have an inward significance. In
distant Philadelphia, on this very day, the Continental Congress had
chosen as the Commander of their Army, General George Washington, a man
whose clear vision looked into the realities of things and did not
falter. On his way to the front four days later, dispatches reached him
of the battle. He revealed the meaning of the day with, one question,
"Did the militia fight?" Learning how those heroic men fought, he said,
"Then the liberties of the Country are safe." No greater commentary has
ever been made on the significance of Bunker Hill.

We read events by what goes before and after. We think of Bunker Hill
as the first real battle for independence, the prelude to the
Revolution. Yet