The Battle of Bunker Hill

A leaked British plan, a midnight march, and by dawn a fort standing on the wrong hill, lower, closer, and impossible for the British to ignore. Whether that was a blunder or a dare has never been settled.

A beach as wide as a wagon, a burning town, and three British assaults walking uphill into massed fire until the defenders’ powder ran out and the bayonets came over the wall.

Britain won the hill and lost a fifth of an army taking it. The shock ended one general’s career, haunted another, fooled the losers into overconfidence, and handed Washington an army convinced of itself and almost out of powder.