Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution

Nathaniel Philbrick's work Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution (#1,344) was originally published in 2013, but it is just as fascinating today, especially if you intend to watch Ken Burn's newest documentary on the American Revolution.  I thought I knew quite a bit about the Revolutionary history where I grew up, but reading this book opened my eyes to just how much I didn't know.

Philbrick introduces the reader to people, places and politics which led to the bloody battle of Bunker Hill (which actually took place on nearby Breeds Hill) and the British evacuation of besieged Boston less than a year later.  The descriptions he includes of the good, the bad and the ugly make these historical figures and events come alive on the page through their own words.

Mr. Philbrick also makes it clear how the outcomes of these events turned on the smallest details.  What if the patriots had had enough gunpowder at Bunker Hill?  What if General Gage authorized British attacks on key points like Dorchester Heights?  What if smallpox hadn't riddled the besieged city of Boston?  It is astonishing how fragile the American victory actually was!  His extensive notes at the end of the book are equally interesting, expanding on the text with references to pertinent web sites, etc.

I was constantly reminded of the places where I played growing up - Quarry Hill and the old Powder House in what is today Somerville, Massachusetts and was then Charlestown Without the Neck.  Coming out every year to watch Paul Revere ride by on his horse.  I was fortunate to have parents who were interested in history as well and brought us to visit the local sites.

It was interesting to read that John Quincy Adams refused to attend any of the memorials of the battle at Bunker Hill, including the dedication of the monument in 1843, because the memories of watching the actual battle with his mother when he was eight years old were too vivid and painful.  I have climbed that monument many, many times, but my most vivid memory is of a day in the 1980s when I was doing post graduate work at Northeastern.  We were to tour a neighborhood clinic adjacent to the monument so a few of the adult students took the opportunity to climb to the top.  We'll never forget overhearing one of the younger students earnestly explaining to the others with her that "This is where the Americans rolled the cannon balls down onto the heads of the British..."  Yikes!  Bunker Hill ought to be mandatory reading for them all!