This video explains quickly and clearly the background necessary to truly understand what happened at the Battle of Bunker Hill. By early 1775 tensions between Britain and her colonies had escalated. The colonists began to mobilize for war, while the British Army in an event called The Powder Alarm secured gunpowder and cannon in anticipation of an uprising. Their confiscation of this gunpowder would play a decisive roll in the outcome of the Battle of Bunker Hill a bit later. On April 19, it all came to a head in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. After that historic engagement, the British retreated to their camp in Boston, and local militias prepared for future British attacks. Militiamen marched to defend Boston, some from as far away as Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and what is now the state of Vermont. British Commander-in-Chief General Sir Thomas Gage was under pressure to quash the colonial rebellion. By June, he had reinforcements and was ready to implement a new strategy. The British Army planned to launch an attack against the Americans on the heights north and south of Boston. Details of the attack were leaked, however, and a detachment of 1,000 Massachusetts and Connecticut soldiers—more of an armed mob than a military unit—gathered to defend a hill in Charlestown. The violent clash of these forces on what is mistakenly known as “Bunker Hill” signaled that the colonial revolt would not be easily extinguished.

American patriots were defeated at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but they proved they could hold their own against the superior British Army. The fierce fight confirmed that any reconciliation between England and her American colonies was no longer possible. This, along with The Battle of Bunker Hill Part I, clearly and succinctly explains what happened at one of the Revolutionary War's most important battles.