The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 (65 page)

Despite Prescott's efforts, repelling this second assault consumed most of the remaining powder and bullets. Howe's troops had followed their officers up the hill, only to go down again after approaching in some cases to within a hundred feet of the Americans. The third assault, perhaps thirty minutes later, concentrated on the breastwork and the redoubt; no attempt was made against Stark on the beach or Knowlton along the rail fence. By this time, Howe had received reinforcements400 fresh troops, the 2nd Battalion of Marines and the 63rd Regiment. As in the second attack, his initial advance was made by columns -- he had remembered the doctrine of the textbooks -- and then for the final rush by lines. This time his artillery gave him support, pushing forward so as to deliver enfilade fire along the breastwork, and the infantry led by the grenadiers ran up the hill, bayonets flashing, voices shouting "push on, push on."
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Within the redoubt the Americans saved their

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bullets as long as they could and then opened up. Those on the right side of the redoubt aimed well and stopped Pigot's marines, who led his assault, killing, among others, Major Pitcairn of Lexington fame. The grenadiers, however, could not be stopped. The Americans ran out of ammunition. Minutes later the grenadiers entered the redoubt, some over the parapet, others from the rear. Most of Prescott's men escaped in a disorderly withdrawal from the redoubt, but at least thirty trapped within were bayoneted by British infantry eager to settle scores.
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The retreat that followed did not collapse into disorder. Knowlton from the rail fence and Stark moving up from the beach gave covering fire, moving backward to Bunker Hill as they did. The men at the breastwork had already pulled back under the raking from the artillery, and Prescott's troops found a shield in Knowlton and Stark. Yet they took heavy losses as they ran back toward Bunker Hill. Joseph Warren was killed as he left the redoubt; he may have been among the last to leave.

The British pursuit developed slowly, hampered by the confusion that ruled the redoubt. The troops on Breed's had won a victory but lost their integrity as units. Getting them sorted out and into formations from which pursuit might be conducted took time. General Clinton, who had been unable to contain himself in Boston and who had come Over to the peninsula in time to take part in the final assault on the left, took charge of the milling troops on Breed's and reorganized them for a move against Bunker Hill. But by the time he recovered order from disorder, the Americans were pulling back off the peninsula -- some simply running without direction or leadership, but most apparently in some rough order, under the command of desperate officers. By nightfall it was all over: the British held the ground all the way to Charlestown Neck. This victory, if it can be called that, cost them 226 dead and 828 wounded.
American losses were 140 killed, and 271 wounded.
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George Washington arrived in Cambridge on July 2, just two weeks after the battle of Bunker Hill. He did not exude confidence in himself or in American prospects. Though the performance of the militia against Howe's regulars heartened him, he did not feel certain that the Americans could win a war with Britain or even that they could force the British to an accommodation of American liberties. In fact, he had accepted his appointment with misgivings, registering his protests with Congress: "my Abilities and Military experience may not be equal to the extensive and important Trust." Washington hated the prospect of failure and what it would do to his "reputation," a word that appeared frequently in his letters at this time. To refuse the appointment, however, would tarnish his "honor," another word he used often, and which expressed one of his basic values. By refusing to lead, he would not only dishonor himself, he would, as he explained to his wife Martha-- "My Dearest" -give "pain to my friends." All these concerns -- doubts about American prospects, honor and reputation, regard for friends, uncertainty about his abilities -- set the ambivalence within him throbbing.
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For despite his apparent serenity, his massive dignity and gravity, and his obvious mastery of the problems of his life, Washington, a man now in middle age, still harbored many of the tensions and anxieties of his youth. Yet there was a difference. As a young man he had burned with desires after fame and fortune, the conventional goals of eighteenthcentury youth of his class. Their attraction for him may have exceeded normal bounds, though, perhaps because he was not so securely of the gentry as many of the young men around him. Now, in 1775, though his honor still concerned him, it was no longer an obsession. He would risk his reputation for the great cause.

Washington was born in 1732 to a planting family in Virginia whose founder had emigrated to the colony in the seventeenth century. Augustine Washington, the father of George, was of the gentry but he was not a major planter. The family's social credentials were good but not distinguished. Augustine Washington did not make his mark in politics, though he did serve as sheriff and as a justice of the peace, but he never sat in the House of Burgesses. At his death in 1743 he held around 10,000 acres of Virginia land.

After Augustine Washington's death, George lived with his older brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon.
His mother, Mary Ball Washington,

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did not make her sons' lives easy; she may have felt cheated by her husband's death. For whatever reasons, she brought more querulousness than comfort to her sons, with her complaints of her hard lot and of their neglect. George was not fond of her, but duty commanded that he listen to her and that he honor her. He heeded these commands and gave his mother respectful attention if not love.

As a youth, Washington was big and awkward. Everyone commented on the size of his hands, and his feet were also large and inevitably got in his way. Ease in company never came to him but he tried hard for it. Like other boys before and since, he turned to a book for help,
Youth's Behaviour or Decencie in Conversation Amongst Men
,
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a manual of conduct which contained precepts designed to smooth the way for rough-hewn boys:

In the Presence of Others sing not to yourself with a humming Noise, nor Drum with your fingers or feet. Shake not the head, feet or legs, rowl [roll] not the eyes, lift not one eyebrow higher than the other, wry not the mouth, and bedew no mans face with your spittle, by approaching too near him when you speak.
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Washington learned more than not to spit and scratch in company. Though his formal schooling was slight, he developed a good English prose style -- occasionally he wrote with power and fluency -- and he picked up more than an ordinary amount of mathematics. His ability in mathematics led him to surveying, and at sixteen he was a competent surveyor. This skill may have fed his passion for land, a passion he shared with most planters in Virginia. Surveying, he found, opened opportunities to speculate in land, especially in the West in 1748, where he worked as a surveyor and returned 500 acres richer. By the time he was twenty-one, he owned several thousand acres; he had leased Mount Vernon (which would soon be his), he was a major in the militia, and he was the surveyor of his county.

At this time Washington craved fame almost as badly as he craved land. And he was soon to attain it. The opportunity came in the growing struggle between Britain and France for the American West, especially that part of it around the forks of the Ohio River. The Ohio Company, owned by speculators in land, decided in 1753 to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio, the center of a vast area claimed by the company

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and by the French. The problem was how to get the French out. Washington, whose brother Lawrence owned stock in the Ohio Company, was sent by the governor of Virginia with a letter, demanding that the French leave the Ohio. Washington made the journey through the wilderness, received a polite rebuff, and returned to Virginia, where he wrote an account of his journey which so captivated the governor that he ordered it printed. This short narrative impressed men as far away as London, where it was reprinted. Things were looking up for Washington.

Having done one job well, Washington was given another the next year: command of an expedition which would hold the Ohio country for Virginia. This expedition ended in disaster. Washington and his men were captured by the French after a bloody fight, but Washington had performed well and emerged with his reputation unscathed. Of the battle Washington wrote to his brother, I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me there is something charming in the sound" -- a remark which made its way into the newspapers and which added to his fame.
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The next five years offered few charms. Washington was given command of the Virginia militia and ordered to defend the frontier. Unfortunately, to his mind, the main arena of the war had shifted elsewhere. Leading the militia was almost impossible, for the civilians who filled its ranks were impatient of authority and unreliable in almost every way. Washington dealt with them as well as he knew how and smoldered over what he considered neglect by Virginia and his majesty's army in America. Feeling neglected and facing great problems along the frontier, he responded, immature man that he was, by complaining frequently about his burdens and of slights by regular British officers, and by seeking preferment for himself in the form of a regular commission in the British army. The Washington of these years is not an attractive figure. He lusted after glory and reward and achieved neither, and he also failed to achieve serenity or perspective, both of which he needed more than reputation.

Late in 1758 Washington resigned his commission and returned to Mount Vernon. He soon married and turned to tobacco planting. His marriage to Martha Custis, a wealthy widow, was not one of great passion,

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