Battle of Bunker Hill

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AMERICAN REVOLUTION BICENTENNIAL BRITISH ADVANCE ON BUNKER HILL Bunker Hill 1775 by Trumbull US Bicentennial IOc FIRST DAY OF ISSUE 02129 76 Commemorating Battle of 'BUNKER HILL 1975 philodelphio Fleetwood PHILADELPHIA76 Official First Day Cover TOWN.MA

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BRITISH ADVANCE ON BUNKER HILL Marching three hundred men abreast, British regulars marched up the hill into battle to the accompaniment of a steady drum beat. To conserve their precious powder, the patriots entrenched in the hilltop fortification were ordered, “Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" Nearly upon the crude Yankee fort, the British were greeted with a searing sheet of fire, and many fell dead. They turned, stumbling over fallen comrades, and regrouped back near the water's edge, only to charge again – and again. All the while Charlestown burned, with flaming church steeples barely visible through bellows of dense smoke. The British gained a Pyrrhic victory, suffering greater losses than they could afford. Their casualties numbered over 1000 while the Americans lost 450. The cachet shows Howard Pyle's The Battle of Bunker Hill courtesy The Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware.