Bunker Hill

to General John Thomas in which he tells Thomas to “judge whether this is designed to deceive or not” is in a February 7, 2012, auction lot description, http://www.nhinsider.com/press-releases/2012/2/7/rare-documents-artifacts-of-new-hampshire-representative-up.html. On the confusion emanating from Ward’s headquarters in Cambridge, see French’s
FYAR
, pp. 246–47. On the mechanics of firing a cannon, I have looked to Michael McAfee’s
Artillery of the American Revolution
, p. 16, and S. James Gooding’s
An Introduction to British Artillery
, p. 38. Peter Brown writes of the artillery officer swinging his hat around his head in his June 28, 1775, letter to his mother in
Diary of Ezra Stiles
, 1:595–96. Richard Ketchum in
Decisive Day
cites a June 22, 1775, letter that describes how the rebels fell to the ground when they saw the flash of the British cannon (p. 250); Ketchum also cites James Thacher’s account of how cannon balls “are clearly visible in the form of a black ball in the day, but at night they appear like a fiery meteor with a blazing tail,” and how “When a shell falls, it whirls around, burrows, and excavates the earth to a considerable extent” (p. 249). Prescott recounts how he “ordered the train, with two field-pieces” to go and oppose the landing of the British in his August 25, 1775, letter to John Adams in the appendix to
HSOB
, p. 395. French provides an excellent summary of the various descriptions of the rail fence in a footnote in French’s
FYAR
, p. 227. Howe describes the rail fence as “cannon proof” in his June 22–24, 1775, letter in
CKG
, p. 221.
    My account of John Stark is based on Caleb Stark’s
Memoir and Correspondence of General John Stark
, pp. 11–29, and Ben Rose’s
John Stark
, pp. 9–51. Frothingham in
HSOB
describes Andrew McClary as “of an athletic frame,” p. 186. Peter Brown tells of three men being cut in half by a single cannonball in his letter in
Diary of Ezra Stiles
, 1:595–96. Henry Dearborn tells of Stark’s insistence that they maintain a “very deliberate pace” across Charlestown Neck in “An Account of the Battle of Bunker Hill,” pp. 6–7. The description of Putnam’s “summer dress” is in Henry Dawson’s
Gleanings
, pt. 4, p. 157. Francis Jewett Parker describes Putnam as “one to whom constant motion was almost a necessity” in
Colonel William Prescott
, p. 18. James Wilkinson walked the battlefield with John Stark after the evacuation and his account, not published until 1816, was based on notes taken during that interview; in Charles Coffin’s
History of the Battle of Breed’s Hill
, Wilkinson describes how Stark directed “his boys” to build the stone wall at the Mystic River beach (pp. 9–17). Samuel Swett cites a Dr. Snow’s claim that “rivalry and jealousy” existed not only between Stark and Putnam but also between Stark and Reed in
History of Bunker Hill Battle
, supplement, p. 9; Swett also cites Reverend William Bentley’s claim that Stark said that if Putnam had “done his duty, he would have decided the fate of his country in the first action,” as well as Stark’s description of the redoubt as “the pen” and “the want of judgment in the works” (supplement, p. 9). Allen French discusses how “localism” was a persistent problem during the early days of the provincial army in
FYAR
, pp. 60–61.
Francis Parker in
Colonel William Prescott
writes of the presence of “too much intercolonial jealousy” among the provincial ranks (p. 20).
    David Townsend recounts his finding Joseph Warren at Hastings House in “Reminiscence of Gen. Warren,” p. 230. As Samuel Forman points out in a personal communication, Townsend, like William Eustis, was one of Warren’s medical apprentices, and in the months after Warren’s death, both Townsend and Eustis ended up paying Sally Edwards’s bills at the Ames tavern. Since Townsend’s is the only account we have of Warren at Hastings House on June 17, the possibility exists that Townsend was, in Forman’s words, “covering for Warren, who
maybe
did go to Dedham that morning.” Warren’s claim that he “should die were I to remain at home while my fellow citizens are shedding their blood for me” is in Samuel Swett’s
History of Bunker Hill Battle
, p. 25. Jeremy Belknap was told by Joseph Henderson, who was a clerk of “the board of war” during the battle, about how Warren “was very desirous to go” to Breed’s Hill and how he