The Battle for Bunker Hill

Richard M. Ketchum

Jul 2017 · Pickle Partners Publishing

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Boston, 1775: A town occupied by General Thomas Gage’s redcoats and groaning with Tory refugees from the Massachusetts countryside. Besieged for two months by a rabble in arms, the British decided to break out of town. American spies discovered their plans, and on the night of June 16, 1775, a thousand rebels marched out onto Charlestown peninsula and began digging a redoubt (not on Bunker Hill, which they had been ordered to fortify, but on Breeds Hill, well within cannon shot of the British batteries and ships). At daybreak, HMS Lively began firing. It was the opening round of a battle that saw unbelievable heroism and tragic blunders on both sides (a battle that marked a point of no return for England and her colonies), the beginning of all-out war.

With impeccable scholarship, Richard M. Ketchum’s 1962 book describes the historic setting and importance of the battle, analysing the character and motives, as well as the many blunders, of responsible leaders on both sides. He gives a detailed and fascinating depiction of the battle, recapturing in graphic style each witness account.

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Richard M. Ketchum (March 15, 1922 - January 12, 2012) was a prominent American historian, writer and magazine editor.

Born in Pittsburgh, PA to George and Thelma Patton Ketchum, he graduated from Yale College in 1943 with a degree in American history. During World War II, Ketchum served as commander of a Navy submarine chaser in the Atlantic. Thereafter, he owned an advertising agency until 1951 and then began working at the U. S. Information Agency.

In 1956, Ketchum was hired by American Heritage Publishing Company in 1956 and worked there in various capacities until 1974. He then moved to Shelburne, VT, where he co-founded Country Journal, a magazine “offering a blend of the bucolic and the practical, particularly to city folk who had opted for the rural life” (New York Times). The magazine proved highly popular, reaching a circulation of 300,000. It was sold in 1984.

In addition to his 30+ articles for American Heritage Magazine, Ketchum was the author of numerous books, including The American Heritage Book of Great Historic Places (1965); The Winter Soldiers: The Battles for Trenton and Princeton (1973); The World of George Washington (1974); Saratoga: Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War (1997); Divided Loyalties: How the American Revolution Came to New York (2002) and Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign That Won the Revolution (2004).

Ketchum was married to Barbara Jane Bray (1921-2011) and passed away in Vermont in 2012 at the age of 89.