The Decisive Day has come on which the fate of America depends...

This high ground of Breed's Hill bound the American colonies to the cause of independence. An open field once located here commanded this entire area. On the night of June 16, 1775, two month after the fighting at Lexington and Concord, 1,200 colonial militiamen quickly built a small earthen fort. As dawn broke on June 17, the fort stood in clear view of the British army in Boston. British cannon from ship and land opened fire. Some 2,200 British soldiers crossed the Charles River and assaulted the hill. After several bloody attacks, the British troops overran the colonists. The British forces won this ground, but it cost nearly half their men.

Cambridge, Massachusetts · United States