New England militiamen like Joseph Stebbins (1749-1816) of Deerfield, Massachusetts, owner of this tricorn hat, hurried to Boston and Cambridge following the news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. In June American commanders, led by General Artemas Ward (the Continental Congress had not yet chosen Washington to lead the army), ordered the troops to dig fortifications on Breed’s Hill in Charlestown. This proved to be a poorly-chosen site and became one of the bloodiest scenes of the American Revolution (1775-1783). British General William Howe chose to launch a frontal assault instead of circling behind the rebels to cut them off from the rest of the mainland. Three charges later the American army was out of ammunition and had fled across the narrow neck of the peninsula back to Cambridge. While the Americans lost the battle now known as Bunker Hill, the British army lost over 1,000 men taking this strategically insignificant site.