Academy1770 to 1775: From Boston to the Continental Army
Bunker Hill and the Case for Taking Up Arms
This lesson takes 14 minutes.
Objectives
- Date the battle: 17 June 1775, fought mostly on Breed's Hill
- Date the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms: 6 July 1775
- Date the Olive Branch Petition: approved on 5 July 1775 and signed on 8 July
- Date the King's proclamation of rebellion: 23 August 1775
Lesson
On 17 June 1775 the British army attacked provincial works on the Charlestown peninsula. The fight is called the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The redoubt the provincials built, and the monument raised later, stand on Breed's Hill.
The British took the field. Of about 2,400 British soldiers and Marines engaged, about 1,000 were killed or wounded. The provincials retreated, low on powder.
Congress answered in the same season with two papers that point in different directions. On 6 July 1775 it adopted a declaration of the causes and necessity of taking up arms. The text says the colonies had taken up arms, and it says why. The Olive Branch Petition was approved on 5 July 1775 and signed on 8 July. The petition asks the King to interpose and settle peace. It is not a declaration of independence. On 23 August 1775 the King issued a proclamation treating the colonies as in open rebellion and ordering subjects to suppress it. The petition was already in London; he refused to receive it. By the time the proclamation was issued, Bunker Hill had already been fought.