Bunker Hill

Painting depicting colonial and British forces engaged in hand to hand fighting inside an earthen fort
"Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775" by Alonzo Chappel, 1859.

Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.

 
 

"When the Arrows of death flew thick around me, I was preserv'd while others were suffer'd to fall a prey to our Cruel enemies..."

- Peter Brown to his Mother, June 25, 1775

 

On June 17, 1775, New England soldiers faced the British army for the first time in a pitched battle. Popularly known as "The Battle of Bunker Hill," bloody fighting took place throughout a hilly landscape of fenced pastures that were situated across the Charles River from Boston. Though the British forces claimed the field, the casualties inflicted by the Provincial solders from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire were staggering. Of the some 2,400 British soldiers and Marines engaged, some 1,000 were wounded or killed.

50 years after the battle, the Marquis De Lafayette set the cornerstone of what would become a lasting monument and tribute to the memory of the Battle of Bunker Hill. The ambitious project to construct a 221-foot tall obelisk built entirely from quarried granite took over seventeen years to complete. Dedicated in 1843, the Monument stands prominently atop Breed's Hill. Marking the site where Provincial forces constructed an earthen fort, or "redoubt," prior to the battle, this site remains the focal point of the battle's memory.

 

Battle, Monument, and Memory

 
Poster of the Bunker Hill Monument dedication with phone tour overlaid.
Remembering Revolution

This self-guided audio tour explores the legacy of the men who fought at Bunker Hill and the different memories the Monument evokes.

grid of 4 images. A pillar; partly constructed and finished Bunker Hill Monument; Group of people
Bunker Hill Memory

How have people remembered the Battle of Bunker Hill and the monument that commemorates it at different moments in history?

Painting of British soldiers in red coats marching up a steep hill, being attacked by other soldiers
The Battle of Bunker Hill

Learn about this "Decisive Day" through this video series and article.

A white obelisk, the Bunker Hill Monument, against a blue sky with a green tree in the foreground.
Building the Bunker Hill Monument

Discover the great lengths Bostonians went in order to construct the iconic monument memorializing the Battle of Bunker Hill.

 

 

 

Learn More about Bunker Hill

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    Last updated: May 24, 2023

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