title: Decisive day;: The battle for Bunker Hill
author:  Richard M. Ketchum 
description: <div>Boston, 1775: A town occupied by General Thomas Gage's redcoats and groaning with Tory refugees from the Massachusetts countryside. Besieged for two months by a rabble in arms, the British decided to break out of town. American spies discovered their plans, and on the night of June 16, 1775, a thousand rebels marched out onto Charlestown peninsula and began digging a redoubt (not on Bunker Hill, which they had been ordered to fortify, but on Breeds Hill, well within cannon shot of the British batteries and ships). At daybreak, HMS Lively began firing. It was the opening round of a battle that saw unbelievable heroism and tragic blunders on both sides (a battle that marked a point of no return for England and her colonies), the beginning of all-out war.<br></div>
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  To my mother, Marianne Dennis Philbrick
  
  
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  [Also by Nathaniel Philbrick](Bunker_Hill_split_092.html#filepos1384602)
  
  [Title Page](Bunker_Hill_split_000.html#filepos210)
  
  [Copyright](Bunker_Hill_split_093.html#filepos1385655)
  
  [Dedication](Bunker_Hill_split_001.html#filepos300)
  
  [Epigraph](Bunker_Hill_split_003.html#filepos3595)
  
  [Preface: The Decisive Day](Bunker_Hill_split_004.html#filepos3786)
  
  [Part I:
  
  
  Liberty
  
  [CHAPTER ONE: The City on the Hill](Bunker_Hill_split_006.html#filepos17818)
  
  [CHAPTER TWO: Poor Unhappy Boston](Bunker_Hill_split_007.html#filepos72458)
  
  [CHAPTER THREE: The Long Hot Summer](Bunker_Hill_split_008.html#filepos120394)
  
  [CHAPTER FOUR: The Alarm](Bunker_Hill_split_009.html#filepos166775)
  
  [CHAPTER FIVE: The Unnatural
  Contest](Bunker_Hill_split_010.html#filepos225303)
  
  [Part II:
  
  
  Rebellion
  
  [CHAPTER SIX: The Trick to See It](Bunker_Hill_split_012.html#filepos286073)
  
  [CHAPTER SEVEN: The Bridge](Bunker_Hi