Bunker Hill, Philbrick - B

                                         This is the telling of the story of Boston and its environs in the two-and-a-quarter years between the Tea Party in December of 1773 and the British evacuation of the city on March 17, 1776.  The most fascinating aspect of the book is the portrayal of the Americans as they transition from loyal subjects of the King to rebels. "The patriots had not wanted to create something new; they had wanted to preserve the status quo-the essentially autonomous community they had inherited from their ancestors-in the face of British attempts to forge a modern empire".  The Americans felt they were loyal subjects of the King, true Englishmen, covetous of their natural and God given freedoms, which they were unwilling to forego by paying Parliament's taxes. That those taxes were imposed to help pay for the imperial efforts in The French and Indian War was not a position acceptable to the Americans.
                                       The Bostonians were always somewhat detached from the motherland --after all, they were the descendants of religious emigres who had taken the drastic step of moving to Holland and the New World over theological differences. The British response to the Tea Party was a determined effort to punish and control the colony.  The new governor was Thomas Gage, who closed the port, implemented the Coercive Acts, and was met with a boycott of British goods. By the middle of 1774, Boston was cut off from the rest of the colony, which was in a state of outright civil disobedience.  Barricaded in the city with 3,000 troops, Gage asked for 20,000 more. He was instructed by London "to do something" to preserve the King's honor and he choose to try to confiscate the Americans' store of shot and powder at Concord. The sally to and from Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775  ended with 49 dead colonials and 64 dead British regulars.  Nine thousand citizens left the city which, before the later filling in of the Back Bay, was an isthmus with a narrow southern neck of land attached to the mainland. Fearing that the British would attempt to take Bunker Hill in Charleston, the Americans struck first. Overnight, they constructed defenses, which the British attacked on June 17th. The Americans were evicted, but at a heavy cost.  The British casualties were two-and-a-half times that of the defenders.  A few weeks later Washington arrived and a long, relatively inactive, siege began. When Henry Knox arrived from Lake Champlain with artillery, the Americans began firing, and the new commander, Gen. William Howe, struck a deal with Washington. If allowed to peaceably depart, they would not burn the city.  Months later, America declared her independence.