Bunker Hill

his men to hold their fire till they saw the enemy’s “half-gaiters” in Charles Coffin’s
History of the Battle of Breed’s Hill
, p. 13.
Philip Johnson remembered Putnam saying, “Don’t fire till you see the whites of their eyes,” in Samuel Swett’s
History of Bunker Hill Battle
, supplement, p. 17. Wilkinson describes how the Fusiliers advanced “as if not apprised of what awaited them,” in Charles Coffin’s
History of the Battle of Breed’s Hill
, p. 13. On the formation of the provincials behind the stone wall, John Elting writes, “Most of the American infantry originally seems to have been formed in the usual three ranks behind their defenses, each rank to fire in turn on order and then drop back to reload so that a steady fire could be maintained,” in
The Battle of Bunker’s Hill
,
p. 31. The description of “a continued sheet of fire” from the provincials is in a July 5, 1775, letter from an unnamed British officer quoted by French in
FYAR
, p. 239. A British surgeon named Grant writes in a June 23, 1775, letter that given the large number of men “wounded in the legs, we are inclined to believe it was their design, not wishing to kill them, but leave them as burdens on us, to exhaust our provisions and engage our attention, as well as intimidate the rest of the soldiery,” in
LAR
, p. 141; Grant also complains that the provincials charged their muskets “with old nails and angular pieces of iron.” Stark’s description of the dead at the beach being as “thick as sheep in a fold” is in Wilkinson’s account in Charles Coffin’s
History of the Battle of Breed’s Hill
, p. 13. Peter Thacher was the minister watching from the opposite shore of the Mystic River; his observations became the basis of the Committee of Safety’s account in the appendix to
HSOB
, pp. 382–83.
    Howe tells how the grenadiers disobeyed orders and stopped to fire at the provincial lines in his June 22–24, 1775, letter in
CKG,
p. 222. A provincial soldier’s claim that “there was no need of waiting for a chance to fire” comes from an account in the August 3, 1775,
Rivington Gazette
in the Appendix to
HSOB
, p. 397. Henry Dearborn tells how the provincials sought out the British officers in “An Account of the Battle of Bunker Hill,” p. 11. John Clarke’s account of the rebel sharpshooter who killed or wounded “no less than 20 officers” is in Samuel Drake’s
Bunker Hill
, pp. 48–49. John Chester writes of the disorder they found on Bunker Hill in a July 22, 1775, letter in the appendix to
HSOB
, p. 391. Samuel Webb writes of the terrifying scene as they descended “into the valley from off Bunker Hill,” in a July 11, 1775, letter in Frothingham,
The Battle-Field of Bunker Hill
, p. 33. The description of “an incessant stream of fire” from the provincials and of the futility of attempting to advance is from a July 5, 1775, letter from an unnamed British officer, quoted by French in
FYAR
, p. 239.
Samuel Swett in
History of Bunker Hill Battle
writes of how the regulars piled the bodies of their dead into a “horrid breastwork,” claiming that his information came from “Mr. Smith of Salem,” and was “unquestionable” (p. 37). An unnamed officer in a June 19, 1775, letter writes “we may say with Falstaff . . . that ‘they make us here but food for gunpowder,’ ” in
LAR
, p. 136. Samuel Swett writes about how Captain Ford brought up an abandoned cannon to the American lines in
History of Bunker Hill Battle
, p. 31; in the supplement to this work he also includes the testimony of several men who saw Putnam firing one of the abandoned fieldpieces (pp. 6, 16) as well as Amos Foster’s account of Hill, “a British deserter,” shouting “You have made a furrow through them!” (p. 14).
    According to Samuel Swett’s
History of Bunker Hill Battle
, Prescott was assisted by both Colonels Robinson and Buttrick (both of whom were at the North Bridge on April 19) when it came to running “round the top of the parapet and [throwing] up the muskets,” p. 34. Peter Brown writes of how the regulars “found a choky mouthful of us” in his June 28, 1775, letter to his mother quoted in
Diary of Ezra Stiles
, 1:595–96. Prescott writes in an August 25, 1775, letter of how he “commanded a cessation till the enemy advanced within 30 yards, when we gave them such a hot fire that they were obliged to retire nearly 150 yards,” in the appendix to
HSOB
, p. 396. The reference