George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 8

[42] those of the enemy. From Prospect Hill he

Chap. XLII.} 1775. July.

took a comprehensive view of Boston and Charlestown. Of the latter town, nothing was to be seen but chimneys and rubbish. Above the ruins rose the tents of the great body of the British forces, strongly posted on Bunker Hill. Their sentries extended about one hundred and fifty yards beyond Charlestown Neck. On Breed's Hill there was a redoubt; two hundred men kept guard at Moultrie's Point; a battery was planted on Copp's Hill; three floating batteries lay in Mystic river; and a twenty-gun ship was anchored below the Charlestown ferry. The light horse and a few men were in the town of Boston; the remainder were on Roxbury Neck, where they were deeply intrenched and strongly fortified, with outposts so far advanced, that the sentries of the two armies could almost have conversed together.

Of the inhabitants of Boston six thousand seven hundred and fifty three still remained in the town, pining of sorrow; deprived of wholesome food; confined to their houses after ten o'clock in the evening; liable to be robbed without redress; ever exposed to the malice of the soldiers, and chidden for tears as proofs of disloyalty.

The number of the British army should have exceeded ten thousand men, beside the complements of ships of war and transports, and was estimated by the American council of war as likely to amount altogether to eleven thousand five hundred; yet such were the losses on the retreat from Concord, at Bunker Hill, in skirmishes, from sickness, and by desertion, that even after the arrival of all the transports, the commanding officer had never more than sixty