Bunker Hill

Bunker Hill
, p. 22.
    Mercy Otis Warren claims that Joseph Warren chose “rather to die in the field than to grace the victory of his foes by the triumph they would have enjoyed in his imprisonment,” in
History of the . . . American Revolution
, p. 122. As Samuel Forman points out in
DJW
, given that he died with several important letters in his pocket, it’s highly unlikely that he sought death (p. 305). On the possible circumstances surrounding Warren’s death, see Frothingham’s
LJW
, pp. 517–20.
Based on a photograph that survives of Warren’s skull, in which the entry wound of the bullet is clearly visible, Samuel Forman has determined that Warren must have been killed by an officer’s pistol instead of a regular’s musket, thus making one of the accounts collected by Frothingham (in which an officer’s servant seizes his pistol and shoots Warren in the face) the likeliest of the many scenarios that have been attributed to Warren’s death, in Forman’s
DJW
,
pp. 303–4, 365–66. Samuel Swett cites the Reverend Daniel Chaplin and John Bullard’s claim that Prescott asked Putnam, “Why did you not support me?” in
History of Bunker Hill Battle
, supplement, p. 9. Prescott’s son relates that his father assured Ward that “the enemy’s confidence would not be increased by the result of the battle,” in Frothingham’s
Battle-Field of Bunker Hill
, p. 23. Howe writes that the victory at Bunker Hill was “too dearly bought” in his June 22–24, 1775, letter in
CKG
, p. 223. The reference to the soldiers being “charmed with General Howe’s gallant behavior” is in a June 19, 1775, letter written by an unnamed British naval officer, in
LAR
, p. 137. Swett attributes the detail that Howe “at last received a ball in the foot” to Dr. John Jeffries, in
History of Bunker Hill Battle
, p. 42. Charles Lee writes of the effect of this “murderous day” on Howe in Charles Coffin’s
History of the Battle of Breed’s Hill
, p. 8. Dr. John Jeffries’s account of identifying Warren’s body and Howe’s response are given in Samuel Swett’s
History of Bunker Hill Battle
, p. 58.
    Chapter Eleven— The Fiercest Man
    The reference to the vehicles used to transport dead and wounded British soldiers is from “Clarke’s Narrative,” in Samuel Drake’s
Bunker Hill: The Story Told in Letters
, p. 49. Peter Oliver’s description of the mortally wounded officer is in
OPAR
, pp. 127–28. Rufus Greene writes of the funeral of “Uncle Coffin” in a July 3, 1775, letter in
Journal of Mrs. John Amory
, p. 82. Jonathan Sewall writes of the omnipresence of death in Boston in a July 15, 1775, letter cited in French’s
FYAR
, pp. 337–38; French also discusses Clinton’s unsuccessful attempt to convince Gage to take Dorchester Heights, p. 260. The letter from the British officer who writes of how they “shall soon be driven from the ruins of our victory” is in
LAR
, pp. 140–41. Allen French in
FYAR
relates the account of the dying Lieutenant Colonel Abercrombie claiming that “we have fought in a bad cause,” p. 318. In a November 1, 1775, letter that appeared in the
Calendar of Home Office Papers
,
1773–1775
, edited by Richard Arthur Roberts, an unnamed correspondent in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, recounts a conversation with Margaret Gage “the day after that dreadful one, when you thought the lines so expressive,” then quotes the relevant passage from Shakespeare’s
King John
, p. 479. Gage writes of his wish that “this cursed place was burned” in a June 26, 1775, letter to Lord Barrington in
Correspondence of Thomas Gage
, pp. 686–67. John Warren writes of his desperate attempts to find out his brother’s fate at Bunker Hill in his diary, which is quoted in Edward Warren’s
Life of John Warren
, pp. 45–46; according to his son, the sentry’s bayonet thrust gave John Warren a scar “which he bore through life.” John Eliot writes of the “sincere lamentation and mourning” after Joseph Warren’s death in
Brief Biographical Sketches
, p. 473. Frothingham in
LJW
quotes Samuel Adams’s letter to his wife about the “greatly afflicting” news of Warren’s death (p. 521). John Adams writes of Warren taking on “too much for mortal” in a July 6, 1775, letter to James Warren in
Warren-Adams Letters
, 1:74; Adams continues in that letter: “This accumulation of admiration upon one gentleman, which among the Hebrews was called idolatry, has deprived us forever of the