Bunker Hill

of what he sees from his tent door on Boston Common is in
The Life and Services of General Lord Harris
, edited by Stephen Lushington, p. 39. Nathaniel Ames records “Public Fast for the times. Dr. Warren here” in the May 11, 1775, entry of his
Diary
, p. 280; Ames also indicates that the weather was fair on that day.
    Warren’s confidential May 10, 1775, letter to Gage in which he says “no person living knows, or ever will know from me of my writing this,” is in
PIR
, 3:2076. On the significance of the ceremony of the fast to New England and America in general in the eighteenth century, see Perry Miller’s “The Moral and Psychological Roots of American Resistance”; according to Miller, “New England clergy had so merged the call to repentance with a stiffening of the patriotic spine that no power on earth . . . could separate the acknowledgment of depravity from the resolution to fight” (p. 256). The May 12, 1775, reference to Congress debating “where there is now existing in this colony a necessity of taking up and exercising the powers of civil government, in all its parts” is in
JEPC
, p. 219. On May 10, 1775, the Congress considered accusations of disloyalty against Samuel Paine, who was accused of claiming “that those quartered in the colleges were lousy” (
JEPC
, p. 214). James Stevens tells of the difficulty Captain Thomas Poor had with his men in a May 10 entry in his
Journal
, p. 44. David Avery refers to the muskets being fired, “one out of our window,” in the May 8 entry of his
Diary
, p. 27. Amos Farnsworth’s reference to “ejaculation, prayers, and praise” is in the June 5–6, 1775, entry of his
Diary
, p. 82. Ezekiel Price speaks of the “high spirits” of the provincial soldiers in Roxbury in the June 7, 1775, entry of his
Diary
, p. 188. The unnamed British surgeon’s description of the provincial encampment in Cambridge is in a May 26, 1775, letter in
LAR
, p. 120. A June espionage report speaks of hearing officers “complaining much of the private men having the superiority over the officers, rather than the officers over the men,” in
PIR
, 4:2779. Allen French in
FYAR
includes the quote (from Benjamin Edwards) describing the Committee of Safety as “a pack of sappy-headed fellows,” p. 70. Abijah Brown’s complaints against the Provincial Congress are in
AA4
, 2:720–21. Joseph Warren’s May 17, 1775, letter to Samuel Adams, in which he talks about how “the strings must not be drawn too tight at first” when it comes to applying discipline to the provincial army, is in Frothingham’s
LJW
, p. 485.
    John Barker’s May 1, 1775, reference to the “Pretty Burlesque!” of the provincial claims of loyalty to the king is in his
Diary
, p. 40. Joseph Warren writes of the need for a “generalissimo” in his May 17, 1775, letter to Samuel Adams in Frothingham’s
LJW
, p. 485. Warren writes of his affection for the provincial soldiers in a May 26, 1775, letter to Samuel Adams in Frothingham’s
LJW
, pp. 495–96. John Eliot writes of Warren’s “influence” with the army and how “he did wonders in preserving order among the troops” in
Brief Biographical Sketches
, p. 473. Joseph Warren speaks of the “errors [the soldiers] have fallen into” in a May 26, 1775, letter to Samuel Adams in
LJW
, p. 496. Frothingham, in
HSOB
, cites an article in the June 8, 1775, issue of the
Essex Gazette
that refers to “the grand American army” (p. 101). Benjamin Church’s espionage report to Gage, in which he speaks of the “vexation” he feels at having been chosen to go to Philadelphia at the end of May, is in
PIR
, 3:1992–93. On Church’s return to the Boston area on the day of the Battle of Bunker Hill, see Clifford Shipton’s “Benjamin Church,”
SHG
, 13:388.
John Barker describes Israel Putnam’s brazen march into Charlestown in front of the guns of the
Somerset
in the May 13 entry of his
Diary
, p. 46. For an account of the incident at Grape Island on Sunday, May 21, 1775, see the article, probably written by Joseph Warren, that appeared in the
Essex Gazette
and is reprinted in Frothingham’s
LJW
, pp. 492–93, as well as Abigail Adams’s May 24, 1775, letter to John Adams in
Adams Family Correspondence
, edited by L. H. Butterfield, pp. 204–6. For my account of the Battle of Chelsea Creek, I have depended on
Chelsea Creek: First Naval Engagement of the American Revolution
, by Victor Mastone, Craig Brown, and Christopher Maio; and