Peter T Young

June 21, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lelia Byrd

Within ten years after Captain Cook’s contact with Hawai‘i in 1778, the Islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China. The fur traders and merchant ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water.

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the US.

A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China and the Hawaiian Islands to Britain and the United States (especially New England).

One such boat was the Lelia Byrd. Between 1803 and 1805, she crossed the Pacific three times (over 20,000-miles of open ocean,) including numerous journeys up and down the American coastline from the Columbia River to Guatemala.

The Lelia Byrd was fitted out at Hamburg by Captain Richard J Cleveland of Salem, Massachusetts – he liked the boat: “Having … purchased a new boat, we took the first favorable opportunity to proceed down the river, and … put to sea on the 8th of November, 1801, in company with a dozen sail of ships and brigs … The superiority of sailing of the Lelia Byrd was soon manifest, as, at the expiration of four hours, but two of the number that sailed with us were discernible from the deck, having been left far astern.” (Cleveland)

June 21, 1803 marked an important day in the history of Hawaiʻi land transportation and other uses when the Lelia Byrd, an American ship under Captain William Shaler (with commercial officer Richard Cleveland,) arrived at Kealakekua Bay with two mares (one with foal) and a stallion on board.

Before departing to give these gifts to Kamehameha (who was not on the island to accept them,) the captain left one of the mares with John Young (a trusted advisor of the King, who begged for one of the animals.) “This was the first horse that ever trod the soil of Owhyhee (Hawaiʻi,) and caused, amongst the natives, incessant exclamations of astonishment.” (Cleveland)

Shaler and Cleveland then departed for Lāhainā, Maui to give the mare and stallion to King Kamehameha I. “When the breeze sprang up, though at a long distance from the village of Lahina (Lāhainā,) we were boarded by Isaac Davis … Soon after, a double canoe was seen coming towards us; and, on arrival alongside, a large, athletic man, nearly naked, jumped on board, who was introduced, by Davis, as Tamaahmaah (Kamehameha,) the great King.”

“Desirous of conciliating the good opinion of a person whose power was so great, we omitted no attention which we supposed would be agreeable to him. … after walking round the deck of the vessel, and taking only a very careless look of the horses, he got into his canoe, and went on shore.” (Cleveland)

“Davis remained on board all night, to pilot us to the best anchorage, which we gained early the following morning, and, soon after, had our decks crowded with visiters to see the horses. The people … expressed such wonder and admiration, as were very natural on beholding, for the first time, this noble animal.”

“The horses were landed safely, and in perfect health, the same day, and gave evidence, by their gambols, of their satisfaction at being again on terra firma. They were then presented to the King, who was told, that one had been also left at Owhyhee for him. He expressed his thanks, but did not seem to comprehend their value.” (Cleveland)

While Kamehameha “remarked that he could not perceive that the ability to transport a person from one place to another, in less time than he could run, would be adequate compensation for the food he would consume and the care he would require,” Hawaiʻi had a new means of transportation (as well as a work-animal to help control the growing cattle population (gifts from Captain Vancouver in 1793.)) (Cleveland)

Cleveland and Shaler left and continued trading between China and America. “A few days after my departure for Canton, Mr. Shaler sailed from thence, bound to the coast of California, where he arrived without accident. He had been on that coast but a few weeks, and had disposed of but a small amount of cargo, when, unfortunately, the ship struck on a shoal, and beat so heavily, before getting off, as to cause her to leak alarmingly. (Cleveland)

(T)o have attempted to reach the Sandwich Islands, while they could hardly keep the ship afloat in smooth water, would have been highly imprudent. There seemed, then, to be no other alternative, than to go to one of the desert islands in the neighbourhood, land the cargo, and heave the ship out, or lay her on shore. (Cleveland)

The tide did not ebb sufficiently to enable them to come to the leaks by laying her on shore; and in attempting to heave her keel out, she filled and sank. Fortunately, the water was so shoal as not to cover the deck; and she was again pumped dry. It was now evident, that they could not make such repairs as would allow them to prosecute the voyage; and to stop the leaks sufficiently, to enable them to reach the Sandwich Islands, seemed to be the only way to avoid the total loss of the property. (Cleveland)

The repairs they were able to make, were done in so imperfect a manner, as would have made it unjustifiable to attempt any other passage, than one, where they might presume on good weather and a fair wind all the way, like the one contemplated. With these advantages, however, it was not without incessant labor at the pumps, that they were able to reach the Sandwich Islands in 1804. (Cleveland)

An attempt to repair the ship, with the very inadequate means which were available here, was discouraging, from the great length of time it would require. No foreign vessel was procurable, to return to the coast with the cargo. To freight a ship with it to China, would have been easy; but then it would be transporting it to where the loss on a resale would be very heavy. (Cleveland)

In this dilemma, it was decided, as a choice of difficulties, to barter with Tamaahmaah the Lelia Byrd for a little vessel of thirty or forty tons, which had been built on the island. (Cleveland)

This was a negotiation of greater magnitude than the King had ever before participated in; and the importance of which was sensibly felt by him. (Cleveland)

Kamehameha was open to negotiation; he saw the benefit of the new style of boat coming to the islands and started to acquire and build them. The first Western-style vessel built in the Islands was the Beretane (1793.) Through the aid of Captain George Vancouver’s mechanics, after launching, it was used in the naval combat with Kahekili’s war canoes off the Kohala coast. (Thrum)

Encouraged by the success of this new type of vessel, others were built. The second ship built in the Islands, a schooner called Tamana (named after Kamehameha’s favorite wife, Kaʻahumanu,) was used to carry of his cargo of trade along the coast of California. (Couper & Thrum, 1886)

According to Cleveland’s account, Kamehameha possessed at that time twenty small vessels of from twenty to forty tons burden, some even copper-bottomed. (Alexander)

The king’s fleet of small vessels was hauled up on shore around Waikiki Bay, with sheds built over them. One small sloop was employed as a packet between Oahu and Hawaii. Captain Harbottle, an old resident, generally acted as pilot. (Alexander)

Shaler exchanged “Lelia Byrd,” with Kamehameha for the Tamana and a sum of money to boot. (Alexander) The cargo was received into his store, and when the schooner was ready it was all faithfully and honorably delivered to the person appointed to receive it. (Cleveland)

Mr. George McClay, the king’s carpenter, put in a new keel, and nearly replanked the Lelia Byrd in Honolulu Harbor. She afterwards made two or three voyages to China with sandalwood. (Alexander)

In 1809, the village of Honolulu, which consisted of several hundred huts, was then well shaded with cocoanut-trees. The king’s house, built close to the shore and surrounded by a palisade, was distinguished by the British colors and a battery of sixteen carriage guns belonging to his ship, the “Lily Bird” (Lelia Byrd), which lay unrigged in the harbor. (Campbell; Alexander)

Kamehameha kept his shipbuilders busy; by 1810 he had more than thirty small sloops and schooners hauled up on the shore at Waikīkī and about a dozen more in Honolulu harbor, besides the Lelia Byrd. (Kuykendall) Later, the Lelia Byrd finally sank near Canton. (Alexander)

The image shows the Lelia Byrd.

June 20, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Concrete No. 5

“Ship traps” describes a phenomenon where northern and southern swells, strong channel currents, strong consistent trade winds and fringing reefs force unsuspecting vessels into areas of harm – resulting in concentrated shipwrecks.

The north shore of the Island of Lānaʻi, locally referred to as “Shipwreck Beach,” is the best example of this phenomenon. Here, the channel acts as a funnel, depositing material directly onto Shipwreck Beach.

Any vessel that broke its moorings at Lāhainā would end up there; sometimes ship owners intentionally abandoned worn-out vessels there by simply casting them adrift upwind from the treacherous shore. (Naval Historical Center)

The first reported wreck occurred in 1824 when a British vessel named the Alderman Wood ran into the reef there. Two years later, an American ship, the London, sunk there with its cargo of gold and silver bullion. No one knows how much – if any – of the gold and silver was recovered. (Brost)

Known wrecks include: British ship Alderman Wood (lost 1824); American ship London (lost 1826;) Hawaiian schooner Onward (lost 1875;) Hawaiian schooner Mary Alice (lost 1884;) Hawaiian schooner Malolo (lost 1887;) Hawaiian schooner Golden Gate (lost 1901;) Hawaiian steamship Hornet (disposed 1927.)

In addition, other victims include, Hawaiian schooner Helene (disposed 1929;) Hawaiian vessel Manukiiwai (abandoned 1929;) private yawl Charlotte C (lost 1931;) private auxiliary Tradewind (lost 1934;) three US Navy steel LCM landing craft (lost 1940s;) Hawaiian barge Oregon Reefer (disposed 1954; US Navy oiler YO-21 (disposed 1957?) and US Navy barge YOGN-42 (disposed 1950s?.) (NOAA)

A constant reminder of Shipwreck Beach is the last one – from the US Navy, YOGN-42 – a number, not otherwise named. It is 375-feet long, with a beam of 56-feet and draft of 26-and-a-half feet.

Contrary to some of the reports on this vessel, it is neither a WWII Liberty ship nor was it even a motorized vessel. The ship sitting on the reef at Shipwreck Beach is actually a non-self-propelled Navy gasoline barge.

On September 28, 1942, Commander Service Force, Pacific Fleet requested that fuel carrying barges be acquired without delay to meet the serious fuel storage problem of the naval forces in the South Pacific.

The construction of these barges was such that they could be towed to the required locations and used for fuel storage, thus providing the needed fuel storage and expediting the turnaround of tankers serving those areas. (Roberts)

On October 24, 1942, the Auxiliary Vessels Board estimated that a minimum of six barges were needed and recommended that the Navy acquire the first six to be completed.

“Concrete No. 5” was put into service in June 1943 as “YOGN-42.”

On November 11, 1942 they asked for six more of these barges to meet the expanding fuel storage requirements in the South Pacific.

Most the vessels built by the Concrete Ship Constructors at National City, California eventually ended up as floating oil barges; two were sunk as blockships during the Allied invasion of Normandy (scuttled to create sheltered water at the landing beaches.) (Naval Historical Center)

Some saw life following the war; one became a restaurant and later a fishing pier. One became a ten-room hotel. Nine were sunk as breakwaters for a ferry landing at Kiptopeke, Virginia. Two more are made into wharves in Yaquina Bay, Newport Oregon. Seven are part of a giant floating breakwater on the Powell River, Canada.

During the war, YOGN-42 was sent to Espiritu Santo, as part of a forward staging area for US forces in Vanuatu in Oceania. While there, its tug, Tug USS Navajo (AT-64,) was sunk by Japanese submarine I-39, 150-miles east of Espiritu Santo.

YOGN-42 survived the war, but was stricken from the active register in 1949 and abandoned on Shipwreck Beach sometime after that. (Maly)

Shiprwreck-Beach

YOGN-42-Shipwreck Beach-Lanai

YOGN-42-Shipwreck Beach-HTJ

YOGN-42-Shipwreck Beach_HTJ

YOGN-42-Shipwreck Beach

YOGN-42_Shipwreck Beach

Shipwrecks-map-NOAA

Shiprwreck-Beach-Sign

Concrete Floating Breakwater-Powell River in British Columbia, Canada-Campbell

Walkway_at_Kiptopeke_State_Park, Virginia

Powell_River_Aerial, BC Canada

Concrete Fuel Barges as Floating Breakwater on the Powell River, Canada

Nine-Concrete Fuel Barges as Breakwater-Kiptopeke, Virginia

Concrete Fuel Barges as Breakwater-Kiptopeke, Virginia

Concrete Fuel Barges as Breakwater-Kiptopeke, Virginia-Rooney

Concrete Fuel Barges as Breakwater-Kiptopeke Virginia

Concrete Fuel Barge as Wharf Yaquina Bay, Newport, Oregon-2005

Concrete Floating Breakwater-Powell River in British Columbia, Canada-YOGN-82

June 19, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Slavery

Slavery is a terrible thing …

“Slavery has existed for millennia in varying forms in all parts of the world. Affecting all races, gender and age groups.”

“The oldest known slave society was the Mesopotamian and Sumerian civilisations located in the Iran/Iraq region between 6000-2000BCE.”

“Egypt was also another civilisation whose economy also depended on slavery.” (History Press, UK) “There were no slave markets and any transaction of buying or selling slaves had to be overseen by government officials.”

“There is also the famous biblical narrative of the Exodus whereby the Israelites were led to freedom by Moses with archaeologists theorising that this may have happened in the New Kingdom period (1550-712 BC).” (History Press, UK)

On the Americas continent, “The Maya [c. 250 – c. 1697 CE] and Aztec [1300 to 1521] took captives to use as sacrificial victims.” (Resendez)

Slavery existed in North America long before the first Africans arrived at Jamestown in 1619. (Harvard University Press) “Slavery was practiced by the Native Americans before any Europeans arrived in the region.”

“People of one tribe could be taken by another for a variety of reasons but, whatever the reason, it was understood that the enslaved had done something – staked himself in a gamble and lost or allowed himself to be captured – to warrant such treatment.” (Mark)

“Native American tribes were incredibly diverse, each with their own culture, and far from the cohesive, unified civilization they are often represented as under the umbrella term ‘Native American’ or ‘American Indian’.”

“Each tribe understood itself as inherently superior to others and although they would form alliances for short periods in a common cause, or for longer periods as confederacies, they frequently warred with each other for goods, in the name of tribal honor, and for captives, among other reasons.”

“Men, women, and children taken captive were then enslaved by the victorious tribe, sometimes for life”. (Mark) “Indigenous slavery long predated the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. … In the 15^th century, Portugal became the first European nation to take significant part in African slave trading.” (College of Charleston)

“By the 1480s, Portuguese ships were already transporting Africans for use as slaves on the sugar plantations in the Cape Verde and Madeira islands in the eastern Atlantic.” (Britannica)

“By the 16^th century, the Portuguese dominated the early trans-Atlantic slave trade on the African coast. … When English, Dutch or French privateers captured Portuguese ships during Atlantic maritime conflicts, they often found enslaved Africans on these ships, as well as Atlantic trade goods, and they sent these captives to work in their own colonies.” (LDHI, College of Charleston)

“There was a class of people in the Hawaiian Islands who were called kauwā, slaves. … The people who were really and in fact kauwā were those who were born to that condition and whose ancestors were such before them.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

“[T]he Paramount Chief (Ali’i Nui) fulfilled the role of father to this people … At the other extreme of the social order were the despised kauwā, who were outcasts …”

“… compelled to live in a barren locality apart from the tribesmen or people “belonging to the land” (ma-ka-‘aina-na), and whose only function and destiny was to serve as human sacrifices to the Ali’i’s war god Ku when a Luakini or war temple was dedicated in anticipation of a season of fighting.” (Handy & Pukui)

“When in need of a victim for human sacrifice at the war temple a priest would go to the boundary of the kauwā reservation and summon a victim. The man summoned could not refuse.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

Kepelino gives a description of kauwā under the title ‘The Slave Class,’ as follows: “The slaves or kauwā were people set apart from the rest and treated like filthy beasts. They could not associate with other men. They were called ‘corpses,’ that is, foul-smelling things.”

“They were not allowed to marry outside their own class. If they were married and bore children to one not a slave, then all those children would have their necks wrung lest disgrace come to the family and the blot be handed down to their descendants.”

“The slaves were considered an evil here in Hawaii. They increased rapidly, – a thousand or more there were. They continued to give birth from the time of their ancestors until the present time, they could not become extinct.”

“The slaves were so tabu that they could not bare their heads but must cover themselves with a wide piece of tapa with great humility and never look up.”

“They were so tabu that they were not permitted to enter the house-lot of other men. If they wished for anything they came outside the enclosure and spoke. But to the place of their Chief who was their master they were at liberty to go.”

“There were slave lands in every district of the islands, as, for example, Ka-lae-mamo in Kona on Hawaii, Makeanehu in Kohala, and so forth.” (Kepelino)

“When the ancient system of kapu was abandoned in Liholiho’s reign, the humiliation of the kauwā ended, and they merged with the maka‘ainana gradually over the years.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

June 18, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Queen Kapiʻolani’s Canoe

In April 1887, Queen Kapiʻolani and Princess Liliʻuokalani traveled to England to participate in the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. They first sailed to San Francisco, traveled by train across the North American continent, spent some time in Washington and New York; they then sailed to England.

Upon their return from Europe, Queen Kapiʻolani and her entourage stopped again in Washington, DC. At that time, they toured the National Museum, later to become the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. As a result of that visit, Queen Kapiʻolani gifted the museum with a Hawaiian outrigger canoe to add to their collection. (OHA)

“The royal yacht of Queen Kapiʻolani of Hawaii is in the National museum, and may be passed and re-passed without attracting the notice of the sight-seeker.”

“High against the eastern wall it is placed, and from the floor little can be seen except the small sail of straw. This royal boat was once a log, and with rude instruments was hollowed into the semblance of a canoe, making a craft 18 feet long and but 18 inches wide.”

“It is such a boat as the Hawaiians used long before Columbus sailed on his voyage to a new country, and it was in such a boat that the Hawaiians sailed from the western Islands in the Pacific to the Samoan islands.”

“The little craft is what is known as an outrigger canoe, and has a small float extended on arms from either side of the canoe. This plan renders it impossible for the boat to be upset.”

“The sail is of the rudest kind, made of plaited straw, supported on rudely-hewn masts. In the boat is a gourd to be used for bailing out the water and also a net with which to catch fish.”

“In such a boat the proud queen of the Hawaiians went forth, on the waters of her country to woo the cool breezes of the ocean. In the bottom of the boat is found the strangest thing of all, a small English flag of the commonest type, which the queen was wont to place in the stern of her pleasure boat.”

“… Liliʻuokalani was asked lately if she remembered this craft of her royal sister-in-law, and answered that she did most distinctly, and even related the circumstance which led to the boat being given to the museum.”

She noted, “I accompanied Queen Kapiʻolani on her visit to England in 1887, and on our return we stopped for some time in this city. One day I accompanied the queen and her party, consisting of Col. Boyd, Col Iaukea and Gen. Dominis, to the museum.”

“After looking around the different apartments the curator showed us a boat, something like a canoe, with a man at the bow, and asked the queen if our canoes were like that in Hawaii. The queen, said yes, and that she would be pleased to contribute one to the museum on her return to her own country.” (Washington Post; Decatur Daily, August 30, 1897)

When Queen Kapiʻolani sent this fishing canoe to the Smithsonian, it was already quite old. A hole at the bottom of the canoe suggests that it had hit a reef and would have been difficult to repair. (Smithsonian)

Outrigger canoes of this kind were formerly quite extensively used for fishing and other purposes by the natives in Hawaiʻi, in the Sandwich Islands, but in recent years they have been superseded by boats more conventional in their construction and better adapted to the needs of the fisherman. (Smithsonian)

This is an open, sharp-ended, round-bottomed, keelless dugout canoe, with low superstructure fastened to upper part of hull, and provided with small balance log lashed to the ends of two outriggers. It is rigged with a single mast and loose-footed spritsail. (Smithsonian) The canoe was added to the Smithsonian collection on January 25, 1888.

The canoe was refurbished for a subsequent display in the National Museum of Natural History exhibit “Na Mea Makamae o Hawaiʻi – Hawaiian Treasures,” 2004-2005.

Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education (SCMRE) collaborated closely with the National Museum of Natural History to restore a 19th-century Hawaiian outrigger canoe; it is reportedly the oldest existing Hawaiian canoe in the world.

In the years since Hawaii’s Queen Kapiʻolani presented the canoe to the Smithsonian, the boat’s wood had deteriorated. A SCMRE team, including a senior furniture conservator, restored the bow, stern and an outrigger boom and replaced the original coconut-fiber lashings. Wherever possible they used materials that were both handmade and native to Hawaii. (Smithsonian)

Throughout the years of late-prehistory, AD 1400s – 1700s, and through much of the 1800s, the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi. Canoes were used for interisland and inter-village coastal travel.

Most permanent villages initially were near the ocean and at sheltered beaches, which provided access to good fishing grounds, as well as facilitating convenient canoe travel.

Although the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi, extensive cross-country trail networks enabled gathering of food and water and harvesting of materials for shelter, clothing, medicine, religious observances and other necessities for survival.

These trails were usually narrow, following the topography of the land. Sometimes, over ‘a‘ā lava, they were paved with water-worn stones. Back then, land travel was only foot traffic, over little more than trails and pathways.

The image shows Kapiʻolani’s Canoe in the Na Mea Makamae o Hawaiʻi exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History, 2004–2005.

June 17, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

250 Years Ago … Battle of Bunker Hill

Following the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, colonial forces from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island formed a New England army to surround and contain the British forces occupying Boston.

To prevent British soldiers from conducting further attacks on the countryside after the march to Lexington and Concord, 20,000 provincial militiamen encircle Boston in the spring of 1775. The Charlestown peninsula and Dorchester Heights, commanding both the city of Boston and Boston harbor, lie abandoned. This has been referred to as the Siege of Boston.

Hoping to make the British “masters of these heights,” General Gage, in conference with Major Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne, plans to seize the neglected positions before the colonists do so.

News of Gage’s intent filters across from Boston and down from New Hampshire on June 15. Acting quickly on this intelligence, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety orders General Artemas Ward, commander of the colonial militia surrounding Boston, to race the British to the Charlestown peninsula, capture Bunker Hill, and then seize the Dorchester hills.

Colonel William Prescott and General Israel Putnam were the ranking officers in the expedition to Charlestown, however Prescott, being from Massachusetts, commanded the majority of the men.

The following day, Ward orders Colonel William Prescott, with the aid of one thousand colonial troops, to take and fortify Bunker Hill. Unknown to the British, Prescott and his troops arrive at the Charlestown peninsula that same night.

Prescott and other officers ultimately decide to bypass Bunker Hill, rising 110 feet and situated near the only route back to Cambridge, and instead give “orders to march” to Breed’s Hill, a smaller mount further south and within cannon range of Boston and British ships in the harbor. They built an earthen fortress 160-feet long and 30-feet high atop the hill. (Massachusetts Historical Society)

For generations many have argued over who ultimately chose where to fortify a position on the lower, more centrally located hill known today as “Breed’s Hill,” rather than the higher prominence known today as “Bunker Hill.”

But on that night, construction began sometime around midnight as hundreds of men with pickaxes and shovels constructed a fort atop the lower hill overlooking the settlement of Charlestown and the beaches along the Harbor. (NPS)

Astonished British generals wake on the morning of June 17 to discover the newly erected defenses. As the day continues, British ships bombard the untrained militia as they work, and Colonel Prescott walks the fortifications to raise morale. Thirsty and tired, the soldiers receive “no refreshment.” Back in Boston, Gage summons a war council.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, over 2,000 British soldiers, commanded by General Howe, land on the Charlestown shore. Continental snipers fire at the British as they march, and General Howe orders a combustible shell launched on Charlestown. Amid smoke and flames, local inhabitants flee their homes in order to escape “Charlestown’s dismal fate.”

From rooftops and hilltops, spectators watch Charlestown burn. The clear day affords views to residents as far off as Braintree, including Abigail Adams and eight-year-old John Quincy Adams, who later recalls,

“The year 1775 was the eighth year of my age. Among the first fruits of the War, was the expulsion of my father’s family from their peaceful abode in Boston, to take refuge in his and my native town of Braintree….”

“For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant children dwelt, liable every hour of the day and of the night to be butchered in cold blood, or taken and carried into Boston as hostages, by any foraging or marauding detachment of men …”

“My father was separated from his family, on his way to attend the same continental Congress, and there my mother, with her children lived in unintermitted danger of being consumed with them all in a conflagration kindled by a torch in the same hands which on the 17th. of June lighted the fires in Charlestown.”

“I saw with my own eyes those fires, and heard Britannia’s thunders in the Battle of Bunker’s hill and witnessed the tears of my mother and mingled with them my own, at the fall of Warren a dear friend of my father, and a beloved Physician to me.” (John Quincy Adams, National Archives)

British troops headed uphill, where they are frustrated by fences, pits, and tall grass. In dust and heat, the continental militia wait behind their walls. They hold fire until the British are in within 150 feet of the fortifications.

(Contrary to urban legend, there’s no evidence anyone ordered the men to hold their fire until they saw “the whites” of the enemies’ eyes. The writer Parson Weems seems to have invented this decades later.)

The Americans opened fire at about 50 yards, much too distant to see anyone’s eyes. However, one commander did tell his men to wait until they could see the splash guards – called half-gaiters – that British soldiers wore around their calves.) (Smithsonian)

“Heavy and severe Fire” decimates the thick British ranks. Recoiling from the first attack, General Howe relies on “the Bravery of the King’s Troops”.

He immediately ordered his stumbling and disordered soldiers to make a second charge, this time only at the hill and rail fence. Again the colonists slaughter the King’s troops with their fire.

An hour passed as the British recover from the two attacks. They receive 400 new troops from Boston. A third time, General Howe orders his soldiers, with the help of the reinforcements, to charge the breastworks and the rail fence.

Prescott’s men again waited until the last minute to open fire. This time, they are running out of ammunition and are soon overrun by the British; then they fought with rocks and the butts of their muskets.

No longer able to withstand the British attack, Prescott’s men retreat north over the road to Cambridge, as General Stark’s New Hampshire troops cover them in the rear.

One of the last to abandon the fort on Breed’s Hill, Joseph Warren was killed as he retreats, and he was mourned with “the tears of multitudes.” In total, 140 colonists are dead and 271 are wounded. Before dark, the British again command the Charleston peninsula, though 226 British lie dead and 828 are wounded.

Despite renewed British control of the peninsula, colonial forces still trap the British in Boston. As supply issues and shortages plague them, the British prepare for further military commitment to defeat the “poor and ignorant” colonists. Meanwhile, the colonies scramble to assemble more soldiers.

Britain replaced General Gage with General Howe in early October 1775, and two weeks after the battle at Breed’s Hill, on July 2, 1775, George Washington arrived in Cambridge to take command of the Continental Army. (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Getting the Names Straight

Popularly known as ‘The Battle of Bunker Hill,’ as noted, the battle actually occurred on Breed’s Hill.

The National Park Service, on their Boston National Historical Park website, notes that Historian Richard Ketchum stated,

To the south of [Bunker Hill], and connected to it by a lower, sloping ridge, was a height of land not sufficiently distinguished to bear any particular name. Some called it Charlestown Hill; others, considering it an appendage of Bunker Hill, referred to it by that title;

while some of the local people, out of deference to a farmer whose cattle grazed there, called it Breed’s. Its steep western flank, covered with orchards and gardens, leveled out near the settlement of Charlestown.

By 1775, the population of Charlestown hovered around 2,000 to 3,000 people with 400 structures in it, mostly situated on the south shore facing Boston. Bunker and Breed’s Hills, named after George Bunker and Ebenezer Breed, were mostly undeveloped with some farmhouses and pastures.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, also called the Battle of Breed’s Hill, (June 17, 1775), was the first major battle of the American Revolution, fought in Charlestown (now part of Boston) during the Siege of Boston.

Click the following link to a general summary about the Battle of Bunker Hill:

Click to access Battle-of-Bunker-Hill-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Battle-of-Bunker-Hill.pdf