The result at Bunker Hill was a
vindication of his belief.
As Putnam had all along declared, it was in the nature of an
impossibility for sixteen thousand armed men to besiege ten thousand
other armed men without something happening partaking of violence. The
war was "on," there was no doubt of that, why then hesitate at warlike
measures? Still the commander-in-chief hesitated and paltered, while
Putnam fumed, but labored hard.
What Putnam had advocated as the highest strategy, the seizing of some
height commanding the British position, was forced upon the irresolute
commander-in-chief by the British themselves. Shortly after General
Gage's four thousand soldiers had been reenforced by six thousand more,
under Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, the Americans learned that the enemy
intended to take and fortify the heights of Charlestown or Dorchester
themselves. As it was then the sixteenth of June, and their move was to
be made on the eighteenth, there was no time to lose if they were to be
forestalled; so orders were issued by the Committee of Safety,
sanctioned by a council of war, for taking possession of Bunker Hill in
Charlestown.
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