Bunker Hill

“ Boston has just reason to be proud of Bunker Hill, and it was certainly a great stroke of enterprise to have the battle located there. Bunker Hill is dear to every American heart, and there are none of us who would not have cheerfully gone into the battle then if we had known about it in time. ”

“ Today there is a monumental spire on Bunker Hill, visible throughout much of the city. The willingness of the republican revolutionaries to take up arms and fire on their oppressors has left a cultural legacy that two full centuries have not effaced. Bunker Hill is still a potent center of American political symbolism, and the Spirit of '76 is still a potent image for those who seek to mold public opinion. ”

“ Another portage, and then away at full speed between wooded banks and green islands, to the nail works dam, where the air rang to the clatter of big hammers and pitchy black smoke was vomited skyward from huge stacks.
A brief dash through foaming shallows and rapids, with the hamlet of Fairview on one side and the wooded bluffs of Bunker Hill on the other, a swift glide into the shadows of the old Red Bridge—and then the Jolly Rovers were on the broad bosom of the Susquehanna. They shouted and laughed and waved their caps in the air for very joy. ”

“ At that moment a handful of men appeared on the top of Bunker Hill, coming from the direction of the Neck. More men followed them, and still more. In orderly fashion they marched toward the redoubt where they were greeted with a faint cheering.
“Looks like more of our lads had come to help,” said Gran, as she led them down the narrow stairs and into the taproom. Just as she had suspected, three water carriers waited there, and all the pails and tubs were empty.
“Gran,” whispered Sally Rose, “I—I just don’t think I can turn that windlass any more.” ”

“ To all Americans, Bunker Hill was a battle cry and an inspiration during the seven long years of war necessary to obtain our independence. To-day its memories should rekindle our patriotism and prompt us to recall the story of the men who there died that a new republic might be born. ”

“ Today, 110 years after its capstone was put in place, the Bunker Hill Monument stands as an impressive testimonial to the conservative judgment of its designer, Loammi Baldwin, and the painstaking fidelity of the man who supervised its construction, Solomon Willard. An engineer familiar with its maintenance states that there is no evidence of settlement, and that a check by surveyor’s transit revealed no signs of misalignment. ”

“ BUNKER Hill, Coos County. Bunker Hill is a community and post office in the south part of the city of Coos Bay, and is remarkable for the fact that it was not named for the historic spot in Boston. Prior to 1900 it was just another timbered hill rising above tidewater near the mouth of Coalbank Slough. It was called Bunker Hill because of the coal bunkers nearby and the application of the name came without formality. About 1906 the area was platted for homes by the Flanagan estate and the title Bunker Hill seemed natural. ”

“ Today, Bunker Hill Day is a huge neighborhood festival, with block parties and a skillfully routed parade which seems to pass every house on the hill. They who enjoy things most are the children of working people, not of the wealthy families that once lived in the sightly dwellings of Bunker Hill. Each boy or girl can give a visitor the story of the battle in detail, and recite the precise dimensions of the monument. (They collect from tourists for this information, for it is one way by which Charlestown youngsters get their spending money.) ”

“ No wonder that her heart grew faint when she thought of her boy as a Rebel,—aye, a rebel of ten times deeper dye than if he had been born of Southern blood, and reared on Southern soil, for the roof-tree which sheltered his childhood was almost beneath the shadow of Bunker Hill’s monument, and many an hour had he sported at its base, playing directly above the graves of those brave men who fell that awful day when the fierce thunders of war shook the hills of Boston, and echoed across the smoky waters of the bay. ”

“ At least, we’re leaving no living thing behind to burn.”
Kitty thought of all the living things who were left to their fate in that tiny fortress on the Hill.
Iron shot blasted the roofs about them, and balls of living flame burst in the street. All along their way the old wooden houses were beginning to catch fire. Just as they passed out of town and into the green country at the rear of Bunker Hill, Kitty looked back. Clouds of black smoke billowed upward from the docks, the warehouses, the dwellings, the shops in the market square. The church steeple lifted up one soaring pyramid of fire. ”

“ THE ROAD TO BUNKER HILL
[3] Chapter One
A NIGHT TO BE YOUNG “Nothing ever happens in this town,” said Eben Poore, dangling his long legs over the edge of the wharf, and looking down river to the open sea. The sky was pale, almost white above the long sand bar of Plum Island, he noticed, but the streets were growing dark behind him, and twilight had begun to gather round the warehouses and tall-masted ships by the waterside.
“No,” agreed Dick Moody, “nothing ever happens in Newburyport. Wish we could have a ‘tea party’ like they had in Boston a spell back. ”

“ There might have been a feeling of disappointment or displeasure on the part of the men standing waiting, waiting for an opportunity to be of the least possible service, as they saw Bunker Hill leave town to return with Limber Tim, but it had no expression.
The man who sat behind the silver faro-box no doubt felt this disappointment the keenest of any one.
When we feel displeased or disappointed at any thing, we are always saying that that is about the best that could be done. ”

“ So far we may have done very well, and our score should not greatly exceed an average of fours, but now comes Bunker’s Hill, to be played, as we will imagine, against a fair breeze. The drive is comparatively simple, but for the second we must hit a very full shot as straight as an arrow; the green is quite a small one, guarded on the right by a road and a wilderness of thick grass beyond, while in front and to the left is sand in abundance. To play short is the act of a coward, and there will be a certain splendour even in our failure, for it will be failure on a grand and expensive scale. ”

“ But the Revolutionary struggle had swept upon the country—the sound of the cannon at Bunker Hill had reached every hearthstone and vibrated in the heart of every patriot in New England, and the zeal which urged men to quit their homes for the battlefield found its way to the bosom of lonely Deborah Samson. ”

“ There was a noise of somebody dressing in the dark very fast, a hard oath or two, the scratching of a match, the lifting of a latch in the rear of a cabin, the sound of a man's boots scratching over the stones of a back trail that led to the Howling Wilderness, and then the door opened, and Bunker Hill led in instantly, went right up to Captain Tommy, took her hand in her own, and whispered in her ear. ”

“ One day, Bunker Hill, a humped-back and unhappy woman of uncertain ways, passed through the crowd in the Forks. Some of the rough men laughed and made remarks. This boy was there also. Lifting his eyes to one of these men at his side, he said:
"God has made some women a little plain, in order that he might have some women that are wholly good."
These things began to be noised about. All things have their culmination. Even the epizootic has one worst day. Things only go so far. Rockets only rise so high, then they explode, and all is dark and still. ”

“ Bunker Hill Monument.—On the crown of the hill and in the center of the old redoubt stands the splendid monument that tells of this famous struggle. The square shaft is of Quincy granite, thirty-one feet on each side at the base, fifteen feet at the top, two hundred and twenty-one feet in height. Inside, a stairway of two hundred and ninety-four stone steps leads to a room at the top, whose four windows command a view of wonderful extent and beauty. Just by the base of the monument we can see to-day a little grassy ridge, the slight remains of the breastworks of 1775. ”

“ Then came two blue-coated officers, Colonel Prescott and Colonel Gridley, then the rest of the detail, made up of Massachusetts and Connecticut men. Tom was not surprised when he saw that they took the Charlestown Road.
[132] “Bet they’re going to fortify Bunker Hill,” he told his friends. “They’re carrying entrenchment tools. Wouldn’t bother with them if the British had already struck. Must be we mean to get there first and beat them to it. You go back to the cart, and I’ll call round at headquarters again. We got to get that lead and start for Winter Hill.” ”

“ We passed the green hill on which stands Bunker's Hill Monument. It is inexpressibly grand in its massive simplicity, being only huge blocks of granite narrowing in such imperceptible proportion to the summit, that the pyramidal ending seems in perfect accord with the broad base. No railing surrounds it. There is no decoration or inscription: it stands alone in its majesty, sufficiently raised to be a landmark to the whole town. Our road led through Charlestown, where the seafaring population chiefly live close to the harbour. ”

“ The glacial wall is a rugged, uneven mass, with clefts and crevices, towering pinnacles and domes, higher than Bunker Hill monument, cutting the air at all angles, and with a stupendous crash sections break off from any portion without warning and sink far out of sight. ”

“ The sun was pouring down in the open streets. Little Bunker Hill felt hardly, somehow, that she had a right to be married out in the open day, in the fresh, sweet air, and under the trees; and Limber Tim preferred to be married where his partner had been married, and so it was that they had met in the Howling Wilderness as before. All was silence now, all were waiting for the Judge to begin. Up in the loft the mice nibbled away at their endless rations of old boots, and a big red-headed woodpecker pounded away on the wall back by the chimney without. ”

“ Every day Boston spreads out her environments just that way.
Bunker Hill monument is 221 feet in height, and has been entirely paid for. The spectator may look at the monument with perfect impunity, without being solicited to buy some of its mortgage bonds. This adds much to the genuine thrill of pleasure while gazing at it.
There is a Bunker Hill in Macoupin County, Illinois, also in Ingham County, Michigan, and in Russell County, Kansas, but General Warren was not killed at either of these points. ”

“ No man who fought at Bunker Hill remained so long a soldier of the United States. No man had so extended a record, and it was bright with honor from the beginning to the end. His pre-eminent reputation, as a disciplinarian and artillerist of the highest class, was uniformly maintained. He added to the sterner qualities required by professional duty a polished urbanity of manners, and a dignified and commanding aspect and bearing. His ashes rest beneath the sod of his ancestral acres in Salem Village. ”

“ Bun′ker Hill, an historic elevation in Charlestown, now a part of Boston, Mass. It is about 100 feet high, and is connected by a ridge with another smaller hill, called Breed's Hill. These hills are where the famous battle of Bunker Hill was fought between the British and American troops, June 17, 1775. The British had possession of Boston, and Generals Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne had just arrived from England with a large body of troops. The American militia and the volunteers were encamped at Cambridge, three miles from Boston. ”

“ The battle on the Plains of Abraham, which ended French rule on this continent, was fought by Englishmen with only slight American aid, but its consequences to Americans were assuredly momentous. As compared with Gettysburg, or Sedan, or Mukden, Bunker Hill was a mere skirmish, yet its fame is well founded, for it was the first formal stand against the British by an organized American soldiery, and in this and in the fact of American initiative in seizing and fortifying Breed’s Hill, it differed from the hasty gathering of patriots at Lexington and from the brief conflict at Concord Bridge. ”

“ Bunker Hill Monument now stands upon the spot where Prescott's redoubt was thrown up. II. Plowed Hill.—This fort was upon the summit of the eminence, commanding the Mystic River and the Penny Ferry. It was in a direct line from Charlestown Neck to Winter Hill, further northward. III. Cobble or Barrell's Hill.—In consequence of its strength, the fort on this hill was called Putnam's impregnable fortress. This was on the north side of Willis's Creek, in full view of Bunker and Breed's Hills, and commanding the whole western portion of the peninsula of Charlestown. ”

“ The garrison on Bunker Hill left it at about nine o'clock. Washington observed these movements, and the troops in Cambridge immediately paraded. Putnam with six regiments embarked in boats on the Charles River, and landed at Sewall's Point. The sentinels on Bunker Hill appeared to be at their posts, but, on approaching, they were observed to be nothing but effigies; not a living creature was within the British works. With a loud shout, that startled the retreating Britons, the Americans entered and took possession. ”

“ I had heard the muskets’ rattle of the April running battle;
Lord Percy’s [1] hunted soldiers, I can see their red coats still;
But a deadly chill comes o’er me, as the day looms up before me,
When a thousand men lay bleeding on the slopes of Bunker’s Hill. ”