The slaughter was terrible.British officers hardened in war declared long afterward that they had never seen carnage like that of this fight.The American riflemen had been told to aim especially at the British officers, easily known by their uniforms, and one rifleman is said to have shot twenty officers before he was himself killed.Lord Rawdon, who played a considerable part in the war and was later, as Marquis of Hastings, Viceroy of India, used to tell of his terror as he fought in the British line.Suddenly a soldier was shot dead by his side, and, when he saw the man quiet at his feet, he said, "Is Death nothing but this?" and henceforth had no fear.When the first attack by the British was checked they retired; but, with dogged resolve, they re-formed and again charged up the hill, only a second time to be repulsed.The third time they were more cautious.They began to work round to the weaker defenses of the American left, where were no redoubts and entrenchments like those on the right.By this time British ships were throwing shells among the Americans.Charlestown was burning.The great column of black smoke, the incessant roar of cannon, and the dreadful scenes of carnage had affected the defenders.They wavered; and on the third British charge, having exhausted their ammunition, they fled from the hill in confusion back to the narrow neck of land half a mile away, swept now by a British floating battery.General Burgoyne wrote that, in the third attack, the discipline and courage of the British private soldiers also broke down and that when the redoubt was carried the officers of some corps were almost alone.The British stood victorious at Bunker Hill.It was, however, a costly victory.
More than a thousand men, nearly half of the attacking force, had fallen, with an undue proportion of officers.
Philadelphia, far away, did not know what was happening when, two days before the battle of Bunker Hill, the Continental Congress settled the question of a leader for a national army.On the 15th of June John Adams of Massachusetts rose and moved that the Congress should adopt as its own the army before Boston and that it should name Washington as Commander-in-Chief.Adams had deeply pondered the problem.He was certain that New England would remain united and decided in the struggle, but he was not so sure of the other colonies.To have a leader from beyond New England would make for continental unity.Virginia, next to Massachusetts, had stood in the forefront of the movement, and Virginia was fortunate in having in the Congress one whose fame as a soldier ran through all the colonies.There was something to be said for choosing a commander from the colony which began the struggle and Adams knew that his colleague from Massachusetts, John Hancock, a man of wealth and importance, desired the post.
He was conspicuous enough to be President of the Congress.Adams says that when he made his motion, naming a Virginian, he saw in Hancock's face "mortification and resentment." He saw, too, that Washington hurriedly left the room when his name was mentioned.
There could be no doubt as to what the Congress would do.
Unquestionably Washington was the fittest man for the post.
Twenty years earlier he had seen important service in the war with France.His position and character commanded universal aspect.The Congress adopted unanimously the motion of Adams and it only remained to be seen Whether Washington would accept.On the next day he came to the sitting with his mind made up.The members, he said, would bear witness to his declaration that he thought himself unfit for the task.Since, however, they called him, he would try to do his duty.He would take the command but he would accept no pay beyond his expenses.Thus it was that Washington became a great national figure.The man who had long worn the King's uniform was now his deadliest enemy; and it is probably true that after this step nothing could have restored the old relations and reunited the British Empire.The broken vessel could not be made whole.
Washington spent only a few days in getting ready to take over his new command.On the 21st of June, four days after Bunker Hill, he set out from Philadelphia.The colonies were in truth very remote from each other.The journey to Boston was tedious.
In the previous year John Adams had traveled in the other direction to the Congress at Philadelphia and, in his journal, he notes, as if he were traveling in foreign lands, the strange manners and customs of the other colonies.The journey, so momentous to Adams, was not new to Washington.Some twenty years earlier the young Virginian officer had traveled as far as Boston in the service of King George II.Now he was leader in the war against King George III.In New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut he was received impressively.In the warm summer weather the roads were good enough but many of the rivers were not bridged and could be crossed only by ferries or at fords.It took nearly a fortnight to reach Boston.
Washington had ridden only twenty miles on his long journey when the news reached him of the fight at Bunker Hill.The question which he asked anxiously shows what was in his mind: "Did the militia fight?" When the answer was "Yes," he said with relief, "The liberties of the country are safe." He reached Cambridge on the 2d of July and on the following day was the chief figure in a striking ceremony.In the presence of a vast crowd and of the motley army of volunteers, which was now to be called the American army, Washington assumed the command.He sat on horseback under an elm tree and an observer noted that his appearance was "truly noble and majestic." This was milder praise than that given a little later by a London paper which said:
