BOSTON, WHERE IT ALL BEGAN read the bumper-sticker slogan during our nation’s bicentennial. And it proclaimed the truth. That has me wondering what Republican gubernatorial nominee Mitt Romney has against two beloved local holidays, Bunker Hill and Evacuation Days.
Two weeks ago, at the Republican state convention in Lowell, Romney took potshots at these days of remembrance, lamenting the fact that "state workers can get six weeks a year in paid leave and 13 paid holidays" — including the two in question. (Romney is apparently willing to leave us Patriots’ Day.) To be fair, he couched his assault on these holidays as part of a general attack on patronage. And attacking patronage is indeed a venerable political tradition. Nevertheless, he let his rhetorical zeal get in the way of his understanding of history.
More than two centuries ago, the men and women of Massachusetts led the American colonies in resisting British tyranny. Fueled by a passion for individual rights and self-rule, they took up arms and died for their beliefs. The first chapter of our War for Independence began at Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775), continued at Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775) and ended at the evacuation of Boston by the British (March 17, 1776). These are events in our history that we ought never to forget. Why then does the Republican candidate for governor denigrate our holidays and what they symbolize?
After the April 19 battles at Lexington and Concord, the British soldiers retreated to Boston. Within days, thousands of local militia arrived to surround them. Just across the Charles River, on the Charlestown peninsula, were two hills overlooking Boston — Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill. If the Americans could move cannons onto those hills, they would be able to bombard the British and drive them from the town.
On June 16, 1775, a force of 1200 American militia under the command of Colonel William Prescott marched from Cambridge to Charlestown with orders to fortify Bunker Hill. For reasons that we still do not understand, Prescott’s men marched over Bunker Hill and dug in on Breed’s Hill (hence the confusion about the name of the battle forever after). The next day, June 17, as the British landed at the foot of the hill to dislodge the Americans, Prescott gave his men the immortal instructions, "Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes." Three times that afternoon, British regiments assaulted the American position. Twice they were repelled with devastating losses. Only on the third attack, when the Americans had run out of ammunition, did the Red Coats manage to take the hill. More than 1000 British soldiers were killed or wounded. It was the British Army’s costliest battle of the entire American Revolution. American general Nathanael Greene offered to sell King George III other hills at the same price.
At Bunker Hill, the colonists proved that they could fight. Abigail Adams, writing to her husband, John, who was then in Philadelphia representing Massachusetts at the Continental Congress, called it "the decisive day." Fifty years later, the Marquis de Lafayette — who had joined the American ranks as a major general in 1777 — arrived in Boston to lay the cornerstone for the monument that rises today on the site of the battle. That monument and the new bridge that it overlooks stand as reminders of that June 17.
A few weeks after Bunker Hill, General George Washington arrived to take command of the Continental Army. Under his direction, the Americans laid siege to Boston, in which 5000 British troops were trapped. It was a classic showdown. Because they controlled the sea lanes, the British could easily hold out, while Washington, with an untrained army, dared not attack an entrenched enemy. If the British could survive until spring, they might be reinforced, break out of the town, and squash the rebellion.
As Washington pondered ways to attack the British, Vermont’s "Green Mountain Boys" under the command of a rascal named Ethan Allen captured Fort Ticonderoga in "the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." The fort’s captured cannons were the answer to Washington’s dilemma. With those heavy guns, he could drive the British from Boston.
Washington ordered young Henry Knox, a former Boston bookseller, to go to Fort Ti and bring back the cannon. During the months of December 1775 and January 1776, Knox and his men used teams of oxen to drag these guns east through the heavy snows and across the steep hills of the Berkshires. This "noble train of artillery" arrived at Washington’s headquarters in Cambridge late in January 1776. On the night of March 4, 1776, militia led by General John Thomas of Kingston fortified Dorchester Heights on the south side of Boston and mounted Knox’s cannon. Remembering the costly assault against Bunker Hill, the British wisely decided that any attempt to take the heights in Dorchester would be too bloody to endure. After some negotiation, they agreed that if Washington guaranteed them a safe departure, they would not burn the town. The deal was struck, and on March 17, 1776, the British evacuated Boston. Evacuation Day was Washington’s first major victory. It buoyed the spirit of all Americans and gave us the courage to fight for independence.
Mr. Romney’s dismissal of this community’s commemoration of the Bunker Hill victory and Evacuation Day is disheartening. If he seeks to govern our Commonwealth, he ought to understand its history. America’s history is often found and celebrated in local places. In Utah, for example, residents celebrate Pioneer Day on July 24, to commemorate the date, in 1847, when Brigham Young and the Mormons reached the Great Salt Lake Valley. State offices close, and there is a round of parades and rodeos. Like the citizens of Utah, the people of Massachusetts are justly proud of their heritage and their contributions to American history. This is, after all, the place where it all began.
William M. Fowler Jr. is the director of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
