How the Battle of Bunker Hill shaped the founding of the nation

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published June 17, 2025 at 5:41 AM HST

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In this Tuesday, June 28, 2016 photo, a flag flies full on a breezy afternoon at the Bunker Hill monument, which is located on Breed's Hill in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston. (Charles Krupa/AP)

Before the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress, before the Battle of Brooklyn, certain key conflicts set the stage for the American Revolutionary War. The Battle of Bunker Hill was one of them.

Tuesday, June 17, 2025, marks the 250th anniversary of the battle that took place just north of Boston, one that the Continental Army lost in the early days of the Revolution.

But Peter Drummey, chief historian at the Massachusetts Historical Society, tells Here & Now‘s Asma Khalid that the two-hour-long skirmish between the British and the Continental Army shaped the founding of America.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.