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by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian
INTELLIGENCE PROMPTS THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL
On the night of Jun. 16, 1775, Col. William Prescott, a tall, 49-year-old citizen-soldier, led about twelve hundred American militiamen to occupy key high ground on the Charleston peninsula overlooking British positions in Boston. Their presence was a result of intelligence indicating the British planned to occupy the same key terrain.
After the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, an army of 20,000 American militia under Maj. Gen. Artemas Ward surrounded Boston to prevent the British Army from conducting further attacks on the countryside. In May, Ward dispatched patrols to scout the high grounds on Charleston peninsula to the northwest of Boston and Dorchester Heights to the southeast. Both overlooked the city and commanded the harbor. At the time, however, Ward did not have adequate arms, artillery, and powder to defend the ground and left it unmanned.
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Thomas Gage, the British commander in Boston, also eyed the heights. He lacked enough troops to subdue rebellious New England, but on Jun. 12, 1775, he told his superiors in London he would “make an attempt upon some of the rebel posts, which becomes every day more necessary.” To do that, he would need the key terrain overlooking Boston. Together with three newly arrived major generals, Gage planned to secure the Charleston peninsula on Sunday, Jun. 18. Preceded by a naval and artillery bombardment, the British infantry would seize Bunker Hill and construct two redoubts. This position could be used as a base for a future attack on the American encampment at Cambridge.
Almost as soon as Gage had completed his plan, the Americans learned of it. Although the American spy network, known as the Mechanics, was missing two of its key leaders—both Paul Revere and Dr. Joseph Warren had escaped from Boston—it remained an active and viable network. The British leadership made their job much easier. The British officers, especially Maj. Gen. John Burgoyne, seemed incapable of keeping their mouths shut. In a town full of opposing agents and eavesdroppers, it proved a fatal weakness, as information flowed back to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, chaired by Dr. Warren.
Over the previous months, Warren’s committee had developed ties and shared information with other patriot committees. Their ties with Meshech Weare’s Committee of Safety in New Hampshire proved particularly beneficial. In December 1774, Warren warned Weare of a British plan to reinforce a garrison in New Hampshire. This allowed local militia forces to overpower the small British garrison and remove arms and munitions before reinforcements arrived. Now, on Jun. 13, Weare repaid the favor and warned that a New Hampshire gentleman “of undoubted veracity” had overheard the British commanders making plans to capture Dorchester and Charlestown.
On Jun. 15, Warren’s committee voted unanimously that “the hill called Bunker’s [sic] Hill in Charlestown be kept and defended.” Dorchester Heights would have to wait until more guns and powder could be stockpiled. With that, General Ward ordered Colonel Prescott to establish defenses on the Charlestown peninsula on the night of Jun. 16.
That night, Prescott and his men moved onto the peninsula, bypassed Bunker Hill, and moved to Breed’s Hill to the south. Under the cover of darkness, the men from Massachusetts and Connecticut constructed a strong redoubt on Breed's Hill, as well as smaller fortified lines across the peninsula. The next day, these defensive positions provoked the British to attack.
In the Battle of Bunker Hill, Prescott’s men repulsed the first two British assaults, inflicting heavy casualties, especially among the British officers. After the defenders ran out of ammunition, the British captured the redoubt on their third assault. The Americans retreated to the northwest over Bunker Hill and left the British in control of the high ground on peninsula. Gage’s troops, however, were in no position to follow up on their Pyrrhic victory.
Although the battle was a British tactical victory, it demonstrated that relatively inexperienced militia could stand up to regular army troops in battle. This realization led to more cautious British planning in the future. Moreover, the battle showed how intelligence allowed attentive Americans to fight on their terms by stealing a march on the British on the night of Jun. 16.
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| Date Taken: | 06.20.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.20.2025 16:40 |
| Story ID: | 501170 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 20 |
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