]
Meantime more British troops, under the command of General Howe, arrived
in Boston, making an army of ten thousand men. Believing they could be
forced to leave the town by cannon planted on Bunker Hill, the Americans
decided to occupy it.
On the night of June 16, therefore, shortly before midnight, twelve
hundred Americans marched quietly from Cambridge and, advancing to Breed's
Hill, which was nearer Boston than Bunker Hill, began to throw up
breastworks.
[Illustration: Prescott at Bunker Hill.]
They worked hard all night, and by early morning had made good headway.
The British, on awaking, were greatly surprised to see what had been done.
They turned the fire of their war vessels upon the Americans, who,
however, kept right on with their work.
General Howe, now in command of the British army, thought it would be easy
enough to drive off the "rebels." So about three o'clock in the afternoon
he made an assault upon their works.
The British soldiers, burdened with heavy knapsacks, and suffering from
the heat of a summer sun, had to march through tall grass reaching above
their knees and to climb many fences.
Behind their breastworks the Americans watched the scarlet ranks coming
nearer and nearer.
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