[BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL]. Manuscript document, "Return of the Officers Non Commissioned Officers, & Privates killed and Wounded of His Majestys Troops at Charles Town 17th June 1775. [Boston, c. 24-25 June 1775*].

Two pages, 319 x 197mm. (toned at margins on recto from matting).

A contemporary manuscript return of the British killed and wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill. A rare survival, likely penned by one of William Howe's aides-de-camp, listing the number of officers and enlisted casualties by regiment. While the battle ended with the victorious British overrunning the American positions on their third uphill charge — they succeeded only when their opponents exhausted their ammunition —forcing them to abandon the Charlestown Peninsula. But the battle was won at an enormous cost as summarized in the present manuscript: "1 Leiut. Col: 2 Majors 7 Capts. 9 Lieuts. 15 Segts. 1 Drumr. 191 Rank & file killed — 3 Majors 27 Capts. 32 Lieuts. 8 Ensgs 490 Segts. 12 Drummers 706 Rank & file Wounded." Following the battle, General Henry Clinton remarked in his diary (paraphrasing Pyrrhus of Epirus), "A few more such victories would have shortly but an end to British dominion in America." By contrast, the American forces lost 140 killed and 310 wounded. Among the dead was Dr. Joseph Warren, President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, who volunteered as a private three days before the battle (his commission as Major General had yet to take effect).

Provenance: the descendants of Major Thomas Austin (1794-1881) — gifted to the consignor, and in-law of the Austin family.
__________
* On 18 June, Howe ordered "A Return of the Kill'd wounded & Missing in the Different Corps in the late Action of the 17th to be given as soon as possible. The Officer to me mentioned Nominally in these Returns." Benjamin Franklin Stevens, ed., General Sir William Howe's Orderly book, at Charlestown, Boston and Halifax, June 17, 1775 to 1776, 26 May… (London: Benjamin Franklin Stevens, 1890), 9. A similar list appeared in the 25 July 1776 issue of Drewery's Derby Mercury which matches the postscript of the present manuscript that notes that "1 Capt. 1 Lieut. dead since of their wounds." The newspaper account notes the names of the two officers: "Cap[t. Downe of the 5th Regiment, and Lieut. Higgins, of the 52nd died of their Wounds on the 24th Instant."