On friday night June 17th 1775 Fifteen hundred of the provincials went to Bunker's Hill in order to intrench there and continued intrenching till saturday 10 OClock, when two thousand of the Regulars embarked from Boston, landed in Charlestown, plundered the town of all its valuable effects & then set fire to it in ten different places at once, then divided their Army, one part of them marched up in the front of the provincial intrenchment & began to attack the provincials, at long shot, The other part marched round the Town of Charlestown under cover of the smoke occasioned by the fire of the Town, in order to flank the provincials. The provincial Sentries discovered The Regulars marching up on their left wing; upon notice given by the Sentr[ies] to the Connecticut forces Capn Nolton [Thomas Knowlton] of Ashford with four hundred of sd forces immediately repaired to, and pulled up a post and Rail fence, carried the posts and rails to another fence & put them together for a Breast work, Capn Nolton gave orders to his men not to fire untill the Enemy were got within fifteen Rods and then, not till the word was given, It was observed that the first fire from Capn Nolton's men, did great execution, & put the Enemy into disorder, the action continued about two hours when the Regulars gave way upon their right wing and were pursued by the Connecticut forces, until General [Seth] Pomeroy ordered those who had been in action two hours to fall back & their places to be supplyed by fresh Troops, which Orders being mistaken for a direction to retreat, The Provincials upon the Right wing, began a retreat, which was communicated to the left wing the pri[nci]ple place of action, where Captns Nolton [John] Chester [James] Clarke and [Israel] Putnam [Jr.] with their Companies had drove the Enemy fifteen or twenty Rods back & being warmly engaged in the pursuit and on the point of pushing their Bayonets, were, not without difficulty, perswaded to retire, But the right wing having by mistaking the Orders already retreated, the left wing, to avoid being encircled, were obliged also together with the main body to retreat with precipitation across the causeway to Winter's Hill, in which retreat they were exposed to the Enemy's fire from their Shipping and floating Batteries, where the provincials sustained the greater part of their loss. The Enemy pursued the provincials to Winter's H[ill], their own Troops being reinforced by General [Israel] Putnam, renued the [Battl]e with spirit, repulsed the Enemy with great Slaughter, & pursued them till they got under cover of their Cannon from the Shipping, when the Regulars retired to Bunker's Hill, & the provincials to Winter's Hill, where after entrenching and erecting Batteries, on monday our Troops began a brisk fire upon the Regulars on Bunkers Hill and u[pon] their Ships & floating Batteries ー when the express came away
The number killed of the provincial troops betwixt forty and Seventy wounded a hundred and forty ー of the Connecticut forces Sixteen were killed, no Officer from Connecticut either killed or wounded except Lieut [Thomas] Grosvenor who was wounded in the hand ー a Col. or Lieut Col. from New Hampshire was killed ー It is said that Doctr [Joseph] Warren is undoubtedly among the slainー
The Provincials lost 3 Iron Six pounders, some in trenching tools and a few Knapsacksー
The number of Regulars who first attacked the provincials was two thousand, the number of provincials fifteen hundred, The Regulars were afterwards reinforced with a thousand men ー It is uncertain how great a number of the Enemy were killed or wounded, But Spectators who saw the whole action judged that there could not be less than four or five hundred killed; Mr Gardner who got out of Boston sunday Evening says that there were five hundred wounded men brought into that place the morning before he came outー
This Account was taken from Capn. Elijah Hide of Lebanon who was a Spectator on winter's Hill during the whole action
