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Event · Significance tier 2

June 17, 1775

Battle of Bunker Hill

British troops drove colonial forces from Breed’s Hill after repeated assaults, suffering casualties that demonstrated both imperial power and the cost of using it.

Category
armed conflict
Episode relations
1

Episode coverage

Episode 2

set piece · spoken: caption verified

Visual check: sequence context

Why this coverage: The film gives sustained treatment to Breed's Hill, the British assaults, casualties, Joseph Warren, and the battle's strategic consequences under the remembered name Bunker Hill.

Caption entry: 00:12:51.337 · 00:25:48.280

Reviewed sequence context: ep2-cue-02-bunker-hill

Why it matters

A British battlefield victory strengthened American confidence, shocked British leadership, and destroyed easy expectations of a short suppression.

Why this tier

The battle reshaped strategic expectations and political attitudes on both sides of the Atlantic.

Counterfactual test: A quick, low-cost British success might have preserved confidence in coercion and reduced the symbolic military authority of the colonial forces.

Evidence trail

  • episode-2-srt-local
  • pbs-episode-2-guide

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