Welcome to Prime Factors where we review each UK Prime Minister from Robert Walpole to Keir Starmer. We discuss their biography, highs and lows, and then rate them on a scale designed by a 10-year old before awarding the ultimate prize: Are they ”Known” or an ”Ice Cream Cone”?
The Battle of Bunker Hill (Boston Bedtime #2)
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The Battle of Bunker Hill (Boston Bedtime #2)
Episode Transcript
Joe: Hello, and welcome back to Prime Factors. I'm Joe, and I am still being quiet because it is bedtime. And I'm gonna surprise Abram with a second story tonight. This time about the Battle of Bunker Hill. Now, it should be called the Battle of Breed's Hill, but, you know, it didn't sound quite as nice. I'm gonna run downstairs and tuck him in now.
Joe: Hey, will you hold this?
Abram: I know your tricks.
Joe: I'm just telling you a regular bedtime story. There's nothing funny going on here. I just wanted to tell you a bedtime story while you're holding a microphone. Okay. Are you ready for your story?
Abram: Maybe.
Joe: Okay, Abram. Once upon a time, there was a country called Britain.
Abram: What is this Britain?
Joe: I don't know. They have weird prime minister things. It's very hard to understand.
Abram: Yeah.
Joe: But our last story, we talked about Paul Revere and the Battle of Lexington and Concord. But two months later, so we're talking July 16th, 1775, the British were there. The British had occupied Boston.
Joe: So after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the British had basically retreated all the way to Boston. But then they fortified Boston. They had the city under siege. The Americans controlled Cambridge, and they controlled Charlestown, which is the two towns right across the river to the north. And the Americans controlled all the way around. But they could not shake the British out of the city.
Joe: And worse, the British — they were getting reinforcements because more ships were arriving all the time with more troops. And the colonials, well, they heard that the British were going to try to break out. So when they got this news, they heard that the British were going to attack Charlestown, which right now is just, you know, it's a neighborhood of Boston. But at the time, Charlestown was another town across the river.
Abram: Named after King Charles?
Joe: Named after King Charles, of course.
Abram: I'm guessing the first.
Joe: Yeah. Charlestown was founded even before Boston. Charlestown was kind of like the original intended capital. But then they moved to the peninsula on the other side of the river, which was more defensible and also had better fresh water.
Joe: In any event, the colonials, the Patriots, they're like, okay, the British are going to be coming.
Abram: Aren't they a sports team?
Joe: Yes, the British are going to be coming. And so, under cover of darkness, a whole bunch of colonial soldiers snuck onto Bunker Hill and then snuck onto Breed's Hill, which is another hill. But they knocked it down and put it in the harbor.
Abram: They threw it in the water.
Joe: Exactly.
Abram: In the words of Jack Torrance.
Joe: They did. So in the cover of night, they snuck out and they started building fortifications on Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill. And so that as the sun rose and the British prepared to attack Charlestown, they discovered that it was well defended.
Joe: Now, some of that story is probably fake. The British actually did catch them, but one of the officers just ignored them. Whatever. But it's under cover of darkness. They built a fort.
Joe: And then the British attacked. They first attacked with cannons, and they brought up people, and the Americans, they pushed them back. And then the British attacked again, and they raced up the hill, but were pushed back by the fortifications once again.
Joe: But now the Americans were running out of ammo, and the British attacked for a third time and won. And they successfully captured the hill, and they successfully captured Charlestown. In fact, I think they burned Charlestown for some reason.
Joe: And the Americans lost. But the British, more than a thousand soldiers died, and the Americans had far fewer. And it was said that if the British continued to have victories like that, the war would be over and the Americans would win.
Abram: Huh.
Joe: But it did mean that the Americans needed to find a new way of forcing the British out of Boston. But that might have to be a different bedtime story. The end. How is that as a bedtime story?
Abram: Throw 'em in the water.
Joe: Boston. We throw our hills in the water.
Abram: And our tea.
Joe: And the tea. Yep. Hills, tea. We like throwing things in the water.
Joe: And so Bunker Hill is still there. And there's a huge monument to this battle. The Americans lost a general, which was sad. The British lost a lot of officers, which was also sad. And Breed's Hill, which is where most of the battle was fought, is now in the harbor.
Abram: They threw it in the water.
Joe: Abram, I hope you enjoyed this story. And we're gonna have one more Boston bedtime story, I think, before we put out the story of Lord North.
Abram: I did actually enjoy the recording of this one.
Joe: Bonus points for me.
Abram: Bonus!
Joe: All right, Abram. Good night.