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The Virginia Gazette Domestic News July 15, 1775
Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
What is this article about?
Letter relaying an account of the Battle of Bunker Hill: American troops on Breed's Hill repelled two British assaults before retreating; Charlestown was burned and Dr. Warren killed; British losses were heavy.
Quality green show the numbers
Measured from the scan
— how cleanly the OCR engine read the characters
- Mean ink quality
- 99.0% The length-weighted average confidence across the OCR lines — the mean of exactly the per-line scores whose tails the two figures below report. Typical is 99%.
- Illegible ink
- 0.0% Text sitting in OCR-detected lines that scored below 80% confidence — very shaky reads. Weighted by line length, so one long bad line counts for more than a short one.
- Uncertain ink
- 1.2% Text in lines that scored 80–90% — somewhat shaky reads.
- Matches source
- 96.65% How closely the served text matches the raw OCR of the same boxes, letter by letter, after collapsing spacing and case. This measures agreement, not correctness: the OCR is often wrong and the extractor corrects it, so 100% does not mean perfect, and a low figure usually means poor scan text was rewritten rather than that text was lost (length vs source shows loss).
- Length vs source
- 99.84% Below 100% means text was dropped from the OCR; above means text was added to make it read.
Assembled by the extraction model
— whether the stitched-together text holds up; catches layout and segmentation errors, which the scores above cannot see
- Transcription confidence
- 95.0% (typical 96%) How cleanly the extractor could assemble what it was given. Low here with clean ink scores points at layout analysis — the characters were read correctly but grouped or ordered wrongly.
- Comprehension
- 95.0% Whether the piece reads coherently start to finish. Can stay high while transcription confidence drops, when only part of the component is affected.
Clipping
Full Text
A LETTER to Major General DAVID WOOSTER, Esquire, at GREENWICH.
SIR, Fairfield, June 25, 1775, 12 o'clock
Captain Jonathan Maltre, who went express from here last Sabbath, has this day returned from Watertown, which place he left last Thursday at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and the intelligence brought by him being so direct, I thought it my duty to forward it to you, which is as follows: viz.
Copy of a letter from Mr. ISAAC LATHROP, one of the Provincial Congress at WATERTOWN.
BEFORE this reaches you, you will doubtless hear of the engagement last Saturday, between our troops and those of the army at Boston; but lest you should not be well informed, I will now undertake to give you as regular an account as can at present be obtained: Last Friday evening, a detachment from the camp at Cambridge, marched to Charlestown, and there took possession of Breed's Hill, about half a mile from the ferry, their entrenching tools not coming up in season, it was 12 o'clock before they began their works; as soon as day-light appeared, they were discovered from Boston, when the men of war at the ferry, the battery from Copp's Hill, and the floating batteries, kept up a cannonading and bombarding, which fortunately did but little execution, although our entrenchments were very far from being completed; this continued till about two o'clock, when a large army of between 4000 and 5000 (as we since hear from Boston) under the command of General Howe, landed on the back of the hill, and marched with great seeming resolution towards our lines: Our men reserved their fire till the enemy had advanced very near, when a general engagement ensued; the fire from our lines was so excessive heavy, and made such a terrible slaughter, as obliged the enemy twice to give way, although many of their officers stood in the rear with their swords pointed at their backs ready to run them through. Our men kept up a continual blaze upon them for about an hour with such execution as is scarce credible. The enemy then came on the flanks, marched up and forced their way over the ramparts, with fixed bayonets, cutlasses, and hand grenades, which obliged our little brave army, consisting only of about 1500 men at most, to retreat.
The town of Charlestown was fired in various parts during the action, and is now consumed to a wretched heap of rubbish. I kept my ground at Watertown; but what with the thundering of cannon and small arms, the conflagration of Charlestown, the waggons and horse-litters with the wounded men coming to the hospital in this town, and the streaming of expresses to and fro, exhibited such an awful scene, as I pray God Almighty I may never again behold. The brave and worthy Dr. Warren was killed, stripped, and buried within the entrenchment. Our numbers killed are not yet known, but by the best account I can obtain it will not much exceed 50, and the wounded short of 100. Several credible persons have since made their escape out of Boston, some of whom I well know. The latest out says, that upwards of 400 of the enemy were killed and wounded, with 84 officers, and 28 of our men were made prisoners, and the enemy had buried 42 of our dead. All agree that the loss of the enemy in killed and wounded, is more than 1000. General Howe says, you may talk of your Mindens, Fontenoys, &c. but he never saw, nor heard of such a carnage in so short a time. All the Surgeons in the army with what they could get in Boston, were not sufficient to dress the wounded. Although they were 24 hours night and day in removing them from Charlestown, with the assistance of many of the inhabitants of Boston, whom they pressed into the service, many died in the streets on their way to the hospital. N. B. Dr. Mather had his whole furniture, with his library, plate, &c. consumed in the fire at Charlestown. I have employed Mr. Samuel Penfield to go with this; if you think it proper to forward this account to New York, he will be ready to serve you. You will excuse my sending it open, as I think it is best for every one to know with what bravery our men have acted, and how God in his providence seems to appear for us. Mr. Penfield will also hand you a paper from Cambridge which contains some particulars.
I am, in the utmost haste, Sir,
Your friend and humble servant,
THADDEUS BURR.
SIR, Fairfield, June 25, 1775, 12 o'clock
Captain Jonathan Maltre, who went express from here last Sabbath, has this day returned from Watertown, which place he left last Thursday at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and the intelligence brought by him being so direct, I thought it my duty to forward it to you, which is as follows: viz.
Copy of a letter from Mr. ISAAC LATHROP, one of the Provincial Congress at WATERTOWN.
BEFORE this reaches you, you will doubtless hear of the engagement last Saturday, between our troops and those of the army at Boston; but lest you should not be well informed, I will now undertake to give you as regular an account as can at present be obtained: Last Friday evening, a detachment from the camp at Cambridge, marched to Charlestown, and there took possession of Breed's Hill, about half a mile from the ferry, their entrenching tools not coming up in season, it was 12 o'clock before they began their works; as soon as day-light appeared, they were discovered from Boston, when the men of war at the ferry, the battery from Copp's Hill, and the floating batteries, kept up a cannonading and bombarding, which fortunately did but little execution, although our entrenchments were very far from being completed; this continued till about two o'clock, when a large army of between 4000 and 5000 (as we since hear from Boston) under the command of General Howe, landed on the back of the hill, and marched with great seeming resolution towards our lines: Our men reserved their fire till the enemy had advanced very near, when a general engagement ensued; the fire from our lines was so excessive heavy, and made such a terrible slaughter, as obliged the enemy twice to give way, although many of their officers stood in the rear with their swords pointed at their backs ready to run them through. Our men kept up a continual blaze upon them for about an hour with such execution as is scarce credible. The enemy then came on the flanks, marched up and forced their way over the ramparts, with fixed bayonets, cutlasses, and hand grenades, which obliged our little brave army, consisting only of about 1500 men at most, to retreat.
The town of Charlestown was fired in various parts during the action, and is now consumed to a wretched heap of rubbish. I kept my ground at Watertown; but what with the thundering of cannon and small arms, the conflagration of Charlestown, the waggons and horse-litters with the wounded men coming to the hospital in this town, and the streaming of expresses to and fro, exhibited such an awful scene, as I pray God Almighty I may never again behold. The brave and worthy Dr. Warren was killed, stripped, and buried within the entrenchment. Our numbers killed are not yet known, but by the best account I can obtain it will not much exceed 50, and the wounded short of 100. Several credible persons have since made their escape out of Boston, some of whom I well know. The latest out says, that upwards of 400 of the enemy were killed and wounded, with 84 officers, and 28 of our men were made prisoners, and the enemy had buried 42 of our dead. All agree that the loss of the enemy in killed and wounded, is more than 1000. General Howe says, you may talk of your Mindens, Fontenoys, &c. but he never saw, nor heard of such a carnage in so short a time. All the Surgeons in the army with what they could get in Boston, were not sufficient to dress the wounded. Although they were 24 hours night and day in removing them from Charlestown, with the assistance of many of the inhabitants of Boston, whom they pressed into the service, many died in the streets on their way to the hospital. N. B. Dr. Mather had his whole furniture, with his library, plate, &c. consumed in the fire at Charlestown. I have employed Mr. Samuel Penfield to go with this; if you think it proper to forward this account to New York, he will be ready to serve you. You will excuse my sending it open, as I think it is best for every one to know with what bravery our men have acted, and how God in his providence seems to appear for us. Mr. Penfield will also hand you a paper from Cambridge which contains some particulars.
I am, in the utmost haste, Sir,
Your friend and humble servant,
THADDEUS BURR.
What sub-type of article is it?
Military
Rebellion Or Revolt
Death Or Funeral
What keywords are associated?
Battle Of Bunker Hill
Breed's Hill
Charlestown Burned
Dr. Warren Killed
What entities or persons were involved?
Thaddeus Burr
Isaac Lathrop
Dr. Warren
General Howe
Where did it happen?
Charlestown/Boston
Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Charlestown/Boston
Event Date
June 17, 1775 (Last Saturday)
Key Persons
Thaddeus Burr
Isaac Lathrop
Dr. Warren
General Howe
Outcome
american loss about 50 killed and under 100 wounded; british killed and wounded over 1000 including 84 officers; dr. warren killed; charlestown burned.