Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill | Richard M. Ketchum

Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill | Richard M. Ketchum | Highly informative and extremely entertaining

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Decisive Day: The ...

	Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill Richard M. Ketchum Owl Books, 1999 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

a history lovers delight.

mr ketchum writes history that is as enjoyable as any novelists work. great prose and wonderful narrative drive make this a page-turner that should not be missed by anyone who loves history. the battle for bunker hill and the prinicipal participants involved are brought to life vividly before the readers eyes, page after page. a sheer delight to read.

Highly informative and extremely entertaining

Whether you are interested in this battle or merely in a good book to read on a boring day, this book I highly recomend.

This Man Can Write.

The Battle of Bunker Hill was a most singular event. It signified a complete break with Mother England: physically, mentally, and morally. It was a point of no return, a rupture which would never be healed.

Bunker Hill was a remarkably savage battle. As battles go, it was not particularly large affair. Twelve hundred Americans fought twice as many British. Yet, as the author points out in his introduction, nearly half of the British and one third of the Americans fell. It was a slugfest from which neither side ran, one whose ramifications still define us to this day.

Richard Ketchum has written a winner. He presents both sides views and is quite sympathetic to each. His prose is clear, precise, and compact. His maps and depictions are excellent. You will not find a more complete, fairer rendering of this event. You can almost hear the sound of battle and smell the gun powder.

This is an altogether excellent effort penned by a gifted writer.

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A Standard for all interested in the Revolutionary War

There are so many books out there on the Revolutionary War it is hard to know where to turn. Richard Ketchum presents the war in a way that is both interesting and educational. I admit though that in some of his backstory on the British Parliament and the political situation in England does drag on a bit, but if you hang on you will be treated to a terrific series of books that shine a light on the greatest moments in American history.

Bunker Hill Reprise

Another book on Bunker Hill is hardly needed for the Revolution. Still, Ketchum seems to have done a better job here after his plodding Saratoga debut. At 200+ pages, Ketchum has learned to condense and concentrate his plot more. Saratoga was well over 500 + pages with the crux of the action not starting until page 300! Still, Ketchum rambles along and digresses a few times in this work. What the book lacks is an appendium showing the order of battle for both sides. This was also lacking in Saratoga. Ketchum is clearer with his descriptions of British regimental names and numbers, something that was often sloppy in the last book. Some of the details about topography are slow and unclear. Fortunately there are a few maps and pictures to clarify. This also is an improvement.

Once the action gets going Ketchum can give us a good running narrative. There is little here that is not already known. For the British the battle was to prove the first of many missed opprtunities during the first years of the war. Had Howe listened to Clinton the whole American force could have been bagged on the peninsular where the battle was fought. We see here the beginnings of the Howe - Clinton debates which were to see repeated lost British opportunities. Clinton could have landed behind the Americans with 500 men and sealed the fate of Prescott, Old Putt and the whole lot! That he didn't was the problem that would plaque British strategy throughout the war.

The battle appears as one of extremes. First the British are slaughtered as they try vainly to assault the American position, until on the third try they break in and then the Americans are likelwise slaughtered by British bayonets and muskets. The battle amply demonstrates that if the British had pursued a more realistic strategy the Americans would have been doomed. Prescott, Old Putt and Warren were all ameteurs. They lead from the front, and could not plan anything coherrently. It is unfortunate that Howe allowed himself through hubris to fight the battle on their terms. Put rebel militia behind breatsworks and they will fight hard. Have them out in the open and they will run even harder! Subsequent events in the war would prove this maxim largely correct.

Both sides came away with important lessons from this early battle. Howe would never risk another frontal assault against fortified American lines. This would cost him complete victory a year later at Long Island and elsewhere. The Americans too came to rely too heavily on the militia as the answer to all their problems. Time and time again America militia would run in future battles dooming their side to defeat. Bunker Hill was important because it brought all these issues to the fore for the first time. Ketchum also should learn to write more direct, less digressive history. Both his understanding and ours of the American Revolution will improve as a result.

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reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5

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