Grose, Collins and Ross and the taking of the Redoubt at Breed's Hill

Howe's plan was for the grenadiers of 5th and 52nd Battalions who had taken the worst of the previous two attacks against the rail fence, to wheel at the point where it would seem to the rebels they were almost committed . The 5th would overrun the three small fleches, the 52nd storm the northern part of the breastwork after it had been raked with grape by Howe's 6-pounders. The Light Infantry, now numbering only 150 to 200 men out of eleven companies, (including Grose in the 52nd), would protect the flank of the 6-pounders and in a feint against the fence, occupy the militia regiments stationed there. The marine battalions would take the breastwork and redoubt from the southern, Charlestown, side. Howe, impatient to begin less the mass of rebel reinforcements gathered on Bunker Hill came to the little fort's aid, ordered his attack before marines of the 2nd battalion were properly ready. As usual things did not quite go as planned. The men would not fight. 'The officers ... were observed to goad [them] forward ... with renewed exertion.' 1

The one hundred and fifty to two hundred officers and men left of the eleven light infantry companies approached the rail fence in a tight column. At 200 yards they deployed into a thin skirmish line meant to hold the New Hampshire and Connecticut rebels behind the rails should they try to help their comrades on the breastwork and in the redoubt. Howe's 6-pounders ripped into the breastwork forcing those militia behind it either to flee back to Bunker Hill or into the next door redoubt. A brief and savage artillery duel ensued between the British and two American cannon stationed at the gap between the breastwork. The British won by demolishing one of the Yankee's guns. The militia from the fence then took aim at the British gunnery, only to be distracted by a ragged volley from the light infantry which had advanced another fifty yards. Stark reduced their nuisance value by turning his long-range marksmen on their remaining officers. Again Grose was lucky and left unharmed, though not so all the British artillerymen. The rebels wounded all of their officers and nine of their men. The British gunnery's success was in no small measure due to the protection afforded them by the shattered band of light infantry. Young Francis Grose, near this battle's end, could finally hold his head up with some pride. And nothing would stop the rapid bayonet charge of the 5th Battalion on the breastwork, ditch and redoubt beyond.2

While the grenadiers attacked the breastwork and redoubt 'with great loss of men' from the right and rear, the marines advanced towards the redoubt from the left. In columns, with bayonets, under orders not to fire, a feat achieved 'with difficulty', they marched measuredly closer to the redoubt, the grenadiers to their left and both marine battalions formed into lines, the marine companies on the right of the line.Over the intervening fences, the line kept together. All the while the rebels, their 'ammunition being nearly exhausted, kept up a scattering fire.' Scattering it might have been, but for the British approaching the redoubt from whatever side, it was 'so heavy a fire that the oldest officers [said] they never saw such sharper action.' Man after man toppled to the ground. The marines were stopped briefly but the grenadiers grimly pressed on. Over the parapet and from the rear they burst into the redoubt. Ross's and Collins's companies were not in the forefront of the marine bayonet charge, begun again and gathering pace. First Lieutenant Jessie Adair of the Second Battalion led the charge up and over the parapet with a courage that inspired all. At his side, First Lieutenant John Shea, father of Captain John Shea of the yet-to-be-created New South Wales Marines, who would arrive in Boston the coming July as a Second Lieutenant, 'rece'd his mortal wound.' George Johnston's father, the deputy paymaster-adjutant, fell, 'much wounded.' Yelling, their brothers-in-arms followed, over the parapet and into the blinding smoke and dry dust of the redoubt that had allowed many of the rebels to flee. Experienced combatants though they were, many were shaken at 'the Horror within the Redoubt when [they] entered it. It was streaming with Blood and strewn with dead & dying men.' The marines, seamen used to hand-to-hand fighting as they boarded enemy ships or fired down from the tops of men-of-war, were appalled at the sight of 'the Soldiers stabbing some and dashing out the Brains of others, a sight too dreadful ... to dwell on.' Nowhere, though, is it stated that they did not join in the butchery.3

It is probably at this point, or soon afterwards, that Captain Robert Ross and Second Lieutenant David Collins lost their stomach for war. Collins would go into an administrative career, and Ross would, it has been suggested, lose his nerve. Here we see the origins of that Lieutenant-Governor Collins of Van Diemen's Land who stood for hours sniffing snuff, as close as he could be to convicts being lashed on the triangle, never leaving his post until each recreant had received his full measure of punishment. Here too, was planted that dark seed in the heart of Captain Ross, the New South wales Marine major renowned for his rage against his fellow men not of the marine service, masked only by a nervous garrulousness, the only saving graces in his life his bonding with fellow Scots and his love for his wife and children.4