four o'clock before
In the two attempts , he had discovered the weak place in the provincial line , -- the space between the redoubt and the low stone wall . In planning the third movement , he resolved to make a feint of advancing once more towards the wall , but would concentrate his attack upon the redoubt , and especially upon that portion of the line least defended . The summer sun , shining from a cloudless sky , was declining towards the western horizon . It was past four o'clock before the lines were ready . Once more the guns of the fleet hurled solid shot and shells upon the redoubt . Captain Brandon , looking from his housetop down upon the guns almost beneath him , saw a gunner ramming an inflammable shell into the cannon . The shell , with smoking torch , screamed across the river , aimed not at the bank of yellow earth on Bunker Hill , but at the houses in Charlestown .