
A Dear-Bought Victory
The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, 1775-1776
Savas Beatie (Publisher)
Published on 26. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-61121-783-4 (ISBN)
Description
Bunker Hill's costly clash reshaped strategies and attitudes as British hands faced unforeseen American resolve.
"I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price we did Bunker Hill," Nathanael Greene wrote to the governor of Rhode Island after the battle of June 17, 1775.
Fought on Breed's Hill outside Boston, Massachusetts, the Battle of Bunker Hill proved a pyrrhic victory for British forces. Confident in their ability to overwhelm the New England militia that opposed them, long lines of neatly uniformed British infantry and marines swept uphill toward a quickly built earthen redoubt defended by a motley collection of farmers, shopkeepers, and tradesmen.
"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" the colonials urged each other--or did they? By the end of the fight, the British gained the summit and Colonial forces scattered. One of the patriot leaders, Dr. Joseph Warren, lay dead--one of the first martyrs of the American Revolution. But for the British, the scene was far, far worse: it would be the largest number of casualties they would suffer in any battle of the Revolution. As British General Henry Clinton commented afterward, "A few more such victories would have surely put an end to British dominion in America."
The siege of Boston would continue, but the sobering lesson of Bunker Hill changed British strategy--as did the arrival soon thereafter of a new commander-in-chief of Continental forces: General George Washington.
In A Dear-Bought Victory: The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, 1775-1776, historians Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt separate fact from myth as they take readers to the slopes of Breed's Hill and along the Boston siege lines, illuminating the clash of arms, personalities, and decisions behind a battle that continues to hold a place in popular memory unlike few others.
"I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price we did Bunker Hill," Nathanael Greene wrote to the governor of Rhode Island after the battle of June 17, 1775.
Fought on Breed's Hill outside Boston, Massachusetts, the Battle of Bunker Hill proved a pyrrhic victory for British forces. Confident in their ability to overwhelm the New England militia that opposed them, long lines of neatly uniformed British infantry and marines swept uphill toward a quickly built earthen redoubt defended by a motley collection of farmers, shopkeepers, and tradesmen.
"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" the colonials urged each other--or did they? By the end of the fight, the British gained the summit and Colonial forces scattered. One of the patriot leaders, Dr. Joseph Warren, lay dead--one of the first martyrs of the American Revolution. But for the British, the scene was far, far worse: it would be the largest number of casualties they would suffer in any battle of the Revolution. As British General Henry Clinton commented afterward, "A few more such victories would have surely put an end to British dominion in America."
The siege of Boston would continue, but the sobering lesson of Bunker Hill changed British strategy--as did the arrival soon thereafter of a new commander-in-chief of Continental forces: General George Washington.
In A Dear-Bought Victory: The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, 1775-1776, historians Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt separate fact from myth as they take readers to the slopes of Breed's Hill and along the Boston siege lines, illuminating the clash of arms, personalities, and decisions behind a battle that continues to hold a place in popular memory unlike few others.
More details
Series
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
249 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-61121-783-4 (9781611217834)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Daniel T. Davis is Principal, Interpretation and Special Projects at the American Battlefield Trust. He is a graduate of Longwood University with a bachelor's degree in public history. Dan has worked as a ranger/historian at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and is the author or co-author of many books on the Civil War. This is his first book in the Emerging Revolutionary War Series. Dan is a native of Fredericksburg, Virginia.