On this day 250 years ago on Ploughed Hill in Charlestown (now called Mount Ursuline in Somerset), Massachusetts, Continental Army troops commanded by Brigadier General John Sullivan were bombarded by British cannon in fortifications they had erected the day before. The British fired cannon from their nearby fortifications on Bunker Hill and from two floating batteries in the Mystic River, but were unable to drive the Americans from these advanced fortifications built to tighten the noose around Boston. Because of the shortage of gunpowder, the Americans fired only one shot from their cannon, but it was well aimed and sank one of the floating batteries. Two companies of Pennsylvania riflemen aided by Indians who I presume were from the Stockbridge company of Mohegans advanced close to the British lines and “killed and wounded a number of the enemy.” However, four Americans were killed that day on Ploughed Hill, and three were wounded, one mortally. The dead were Adjutant Augustus Mumford, the first soldier from Rhode Island killed in the Revolution, a “soldier,” an “Indian” and one other not identified by name that I can find in my research. The mortally wounded soldier was Private William Simpson, who would be the first soldier from Pennsylvania to die from combat in the Revolution.

Sources: https://guides.bpl.org/c.php?g=800717&p=10424693; https://www.golocalprov.com/lifestyle/gerald-carbone-the-rhode-islanders-on-ploughed-hill; https://archive.org/details/paulluntsdiaryma1775lunt/page/10/mode/2up; https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-move-onto-ploughed-hill-and-poor.html; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=243062; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ6cYOQzsNw