Fought on June 17, 1775, Bunker Hill was the first major battle of the Revolution after Lexington and Concord. Neighboring Breed’s Hill was strategically important to the American colonists, allowing them to command Boston’s Inner Harbor and the Charles River. When the colonists got word that the British planned to take Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill in order to launch an attack, 1,000 Massachusetts and Connecticut soldiers, including free and enslaved African Americans, quickly took Breed’s Hill and dug in for a fight. General Thomas Gage’s 2,100 British troops attacked Breed’s Hill repeatedly, only taking the hill on their third assault, after the Americans ran out of ammunition. The British victory came at a high cost—the British suffered over 1,000 casualties, while the colonists sustained only 450 casualties.