Bunker Hill

that they were on the verge of permanently alienating themselves from their beloved king, they would begin to rethink this deluded adventure and plead for a reconciliation.
    As it so happened, Washington had already acted to strengthen the solidarity and resolve of his troops. January 1 was the first day of the new Continental Army, and to help celebrate this historic event, he replaced the large red flag previously raised by Israel Putnam on the heights of Prospect Hill with the “Union flag,” the red, white, and blue British standard that combined the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew. Created by King James in 1606 to symbolize his role as ruler of both England and Scotland, the Union flag had become, in recent years, a symbol of colonial unity in the face of British oppression. By raising the Union flag, Washington was announcing his army’s transition from a provincial to a truly continental army, and the ceremony was accompanied by the firing of thirteen guns and “the like number of cheers.”
    The works at Prospect Hill were the equal of any fortification in Boston and had the advantage of being situated on a broad outcropping with a commanding view of the Mystic River and all of Boston Harbor. Soon after the fighting at Noddle’s Island, Israel Putnam’s men had transformed the schooner
Diana
’s seventy-six-foot mainmast into a flagpole, and it was from this towering section of tar-stained pine that the Union flag of the Continental Army proudly waved.
    Washington soon learned that the “redcoats” on Bunker Hill and in Boston construed the raising of the Union flag not as a “compliment to the United Colonies,” but as “a token of the deep impression the speech had made upon us, and as a signal of submission.” “I presume,” he wrote, “they begin to think it strange that we have not made a formal surrender of our lines.” In actuality, the King’s Speech had the opposite effect on the American soldiers. When the broadsides eventually made their way from Roxbury to Cambridge, they “excited,” it was reported, “the greatest degree of rage and indignation . . . as proof of which, [a copy of the speech] was publicly burnt in the camp.”
    Washington was amused by the “farcical” nature of the confusion over the Union flag, but it also spoke to the uncomfortable ambiguity that still lingered over their cause. They might prefer to interpret the flag as representing unity among the colonies, but that did not change the fact that what we call today the Union Jack was a British flag. At some point, the Americans, if that was what they intended to call themselves, must have a flag of their own.
    —
    On the night of January 8, Faneuil Hall was jammed with playgoers. Present that evening were the cream of the British army, including commander in chief General William Howe. Although the siege had devolved into a stalemate and no orders had been received from the ministry since the fall, there were signs that military operations against the rebels might soon move in other and more productive directions. Back in December, General Burgoyne had departed for London, intent on finding a new role for himself that might bring about a decisive British triumph. In a few weeks’ time, General Clinton was to depart on a secret mission to the south. For now, the officers and their wives were gathered for the premiere of a play Burgoyne had completed before leaving for England: a comedy titled
The Blockade of Boston
.
    The curtain rose to thunderous applause as out stepped the figure of George Washington “in an uncouth gait, with a large wig, a long rusty sword, attended by a country servant with a rusty gun.” Before General Washington could get a word in edgewise, a sergeant suddenly appeared on the stage and shouted, “The Yankees are attacking our works on Bunker Hill!” This inspired more laughter and applause as the audience “clapped prodigiously.”
    Not until General Howe himself stood up and shouted, “Officers to your alarm posts!” was it realized that the sergeant was no actor. “A general scene of confusion ensued,” a playgoer recounted, “[officers] immediately hurried out of the house to their alarm posts; some skipping over the orchestra, trampling on the fiddles; and in short, everyone making his most speedy retreat, the actors (who were all officers) calling out for water to get the paint and smut off their faces; women fainting, etc.” The story