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Bunker Hill, a la Shmoop.

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One of the most decisive battles of the American Revolution was the Battle for Bunker Hill.

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Which was really fought on Breed's Hill, but we'll let that slide.

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Bunker Hill was an important battle, because it proved that the Americans could stand against the British.

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It gave them a sense of hope.

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British forces had planned to send troops from Boston to occupy the surrounding hills.

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The colonial troops, however, had spies everywhere.

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So William Prescott snuck twelve hundred American troops onto the hills.

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When the British found out, they were bloody ticked off.

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The British sent their armies against the Americans.

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And the Americans held them at bay.

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So they sent their forces again.

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And the Americans, yet again, held them at bay.

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By now the British lost a few good men.

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Stubborn as a mule, they decided to rush the hill again.

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Luckily for them, it was on this third charge that the Americans ran out of ammo.

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The British took the hill, but many Americans retreated and made it out alive.

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While it was technically a British victory, the hill wasn't really worth a tinker's cuss.

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The British suffered heavy losses at the battle.

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So heavy, in fact, that one British officer remarked,

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"A few more such victories would have surely put an end to British dominance in America."

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And the American forces knew that they had a chance of winning this crazy war.

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Given the effect on morale, do you think that the war might have ended differently

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if Bunker Hill had ended differently?

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Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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