Bunker Hill Flag-1775

On their retreat into Boston, British soldiers left the high ground around the harbor exposed.  A mistake British commander General Gage planned to rectify.  However, the Colonists got there first.  General Gage awoke on the morning of 17 June 1775 to find overnight the Colonists built fortifications on Bunker Hill and, closer to the harbor, Breed’s Hill. 

British forces lined up at the base of Breed’s Hill and attempted to fight European style, marching straight at the enemy.  The Colonists, on the other hand, employed an early version of trench warfare.  Two waves of British were mown down with massive causalities.  A third would have met the same fate, except the Colonists ran out of bullets.  Fighting degenerated into a bayonet battle, which put the Colonists at a disadvantage, having rifles with no bayonet attachments.  British forces were victorious, but so devastated as to be unable to break the Colonist’s siege of Boston.

In the early days of the Continental Army, troops served under individual militia flags.  One writer said, “banners were as varied as troops were motley.”  Militia flags were most often red, sometimes blue, and occasionally green.  The canton, or upper corner, was sometimes a pine tree, but more often the Cross of Saint George, often embellished with a pine tree or some other device.  The description of the blue flag most associated with the battle was passed down via oral history from a veteran of the battle.

Map maker, artist, and witness to the battle, John Trumbull, painted several variations of “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill”.  In one he painted blue flag with a pine tree in the canton.  Another version has a red flag. 

So, was the flag at the Battle of Bunker Hill blue or red?  Yes, absolutely!

Sources

Davis, Elliot, “American Painting, Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill” (2003) Boston: MFA Publications

Follows, Samuel. “Story of the American Flag” pp 16-17 (1908) Educational Publishing Company 

Lossing, Benson. “Pictorial Field Book of the American Revolution” pp 536-546 (1860) Harper Brother’s Publishing

Preble, George. “Our Flag, Origin and Progress of the Flag of the United States of America” pp.  137-139, (1872) Kessinger’s Legacy Reprint