1. The Battle of Bunker Hill was not actually fought on Bunker Hill.
Tasked on the night of June 16, 1775, with fortifying 110-foot-tall Bunker Hill on the Charlestown peninsula, which jutted into Boston Harbor, Colonel William Prescott instead directed the 1,000 patriots joining him to build an earthen fort atop neighboring Breed’s Hill, a shorter peak with a closer perch to the British under siege in Boston. Whether Prescott ignored orders or was simply ignorant of Charlestown’s geography is unknown, but the subsequent battle that unfolded was named for the original target—Bunker Hill—even though most of it occurred one-third of a mile south on Breed’s Hill.
2. The patriots sought to delay a British attack but instead provoked one.
Seeking to break the siege of Boston, the British planned to launch a massive attack on June 18, 1775, to seize the two promontories overlooking the city—first Dorchester Heights to the south and then Bunker Hill to the north. When patriot leaders received intelligence that an assault was imminent, they directed Prescott to fortify Bunker Hill as a deterrent. Prescott’s provocative action to instead occupy Breed’s Hill, within cannon shot of the Redcoats, forced the British to change plans, respond to the overt challenge and launch an amphibious assault on Charlestown.
