Share This Article
250 years ago on June 17th, 1775, the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought and the phrase “don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes” was made famous. Officers Colonel John Nixon and Major Cudworth had both been promoted from Captains, who led the Sudbury Militia on April 19th, two months prior. The provincials tried to hold two hills in Charleston, which had strategic importance due to their commanding view of Boston, as seen from the NPS webcam.
The British won the battle, but they paid a terrible price. Sudbury was represented by over 100 men, who had enlisted in the Massachusetts army, in two regiments, one was led by Nixon. There is a wealth of information in Hudson’s History of Sudbury. See Chapter XXI. One thing Hudson got wrong was the start of the Siege of Boston. It did not begin, as he says, after Bunker Hill. It started on April 19th, with most of the Sudbury Militia staying on in Cambridge for days and then being reinforced by others. Sudbury played a part in ending the siege, which this humble historian hopes to elucidate in time.
