INTRODUCTION
ESSAY
TIMELINE
10 ACCOUNTS
Abigail Adams  
John Quincy Adams  
Peter Brown  
William Prescott
J. Waller  
Nathaniel Ober Diary  
James Warren  
Joseph Palmer  
General Burgoyne  
Broadside Account  
BIOGRAPHIES
MAPS & VIEWS

View of Attack
View of Attack on
Charlestown

Panorama of Boston
Panorama of Boston,
1775

August 25, 1775 Letter from William Prescott to John Adams

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Description

Letter, August 25, 1775, from Colonel William Prescott in camp at Cambridge to John Adams in Philadelphia. Prescott, a native of Groton, Massachusetts, and veteran of the French and Indian Wars, gives John Adams, then serving in the Continental Congress, a brief "state of the facts" of the "Action at Charlestown"—the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Prescott commanded the Patriot forces that fortified the heights in Charlestown overlooking Boston. Although the British onslaught ultimately forced his men to retreat, Prescott exhibited throughout the "prudence and courage" that he praised in his subordinates.

See Peter Brown's letter to his mother, June 25, 1775, for an enlisted man's account of the same events.

 


 

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