The Revolutionary War’s first major clash between American Patriots and British Redcoats was at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The events leading up to it, as well as military strategies and overall logistics, are included in Nathanial Philbrick’s “Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution.” However, what makes his telling of this event stand out among countless histories on the subject are the people highlighted.
Philbrick explains in the preface: “I hope to provide an intimate account … of two charismatic and forceful leaders (one from Massachusetts, the other from Virginia), [and] also the story of two ministers (one a subtle, even Machiavellian, Patriot, the other a punster and a loyalist); of a poet, Patriot, and caregiver to four orphaned children; of a wealthy merchant who wanted to be everybody’s friend; of a conniving traitor whose girlfriend betrayed him; of a sea captain from Marblehead who became America’s first naval hero; of a bookseller with a permanently mangled hand who after a 300-mile trek through the wilderness helped to force the evacuation of the British; and of many others.”
