Gen. Burbeck, who was with the army at the time of the battle, says, the following is an accurate description of Col. Prescott:—“Figure to yourself a man of sixty, six feet high, and somewhat round-shouldered, sunburned from exposure, with coarse leather shoes, and blue stockings, coarse home-spun cloth small-clothes, a red waistcoat, and a calico banian, answering to the sack worn at the present day, a three-cornered hat with a red cockade, and a bandoleer, or belt, with a sword hung high up under the left arm. You will say that it is a complete caricature; but such was the fact, and such was the dress of the heroes who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill.”
“On the day of the battle,” Burbeck says, “Gen. Putnam rode between Charlestown and Cambridge without a coat, in his shirt sleeves, and an old white felt hat on, to report to Gen. Ward, and to consult on farther operations.”[18]
FOOTNOTES:
| [1] | The regular number to line the front of the redoubt would be 132. |
| [2] | The author’s mode of stating evidence, by this extract of a note out of a whole trial, equals the clergyman who fulminated the following text against the flaunting top-knots our foremothers wore on their heads:—“Top-knot, come down,” leaving out the other words of “Let him on the house-top not come down.” Colman, in his “Broad Grins,” describes a very large man as three single gentlemen rolled into one: our author has contrived to roll up most of Scammans’s officers, who testify in his case, into a single witness. Page 164. |
| [3] | Page 168. Note 1. |
| [4] | Hon. Daniel Sargent. |
| [5] | The author’s declaration, that Callender was tried for disobedience, 27th June, seems to be a poetic license. Ward orders the court-martial at that time, without the slightest intimation of such a charge. Fearing our readers’ incredulity, we have omitted hitherto another of our author’s mistakes: he sometimes, like St. Patrick, carries his head under his arm, instead of wearing it on his shoulders. |
| [6] | For an interesting description of Putnam, see Appendix. |
| [7] | Col. Putnam’s Letter. |
| [8] | Frothingham says there was another anonymous general there. No other army general was there; and, if a militia one was, though of no importance, we should have heard of it, from some one of the mass of witnesses who were present. |
| [9] | Of Canterbury. All the names we give are of the highest respectability: from their residences any one may inquire. |
| [10] | Of Killingley. |
| [11] | His pamphlet generally, especially page 13. |
| [12] | Of Canterbury and Oswego. |
| [13] | Shrewsbury. |
| [14] | Gloucester. |
| [15] | Letter of Capt. Holden, of Leicester. |
| [16] | Warren was at Ward’s quarters; and, on the British coming out, Ward called him from his bed, as he promised to do, to go to Bunker Hill without any known restriction. |
| [17] | The author says, Judge Prescott’s understanding and belief was, that the order to his father was in writing,—a very natural supposition for that eminent lawyer; but Ward had no adjutant-general to make out orders. His order to Col. Scammans on the 17th June was verbal: “Go where the fighting is.” And that to Prescott on the 16th was probably not more formal, or in writing: it could be only, “Go where the intrenching is.” (See Appendix.) |
| [18] | June 15, ’75, a committee of Mass. Congress report Little’s regiment
to have eight companies, 509 men, 382 of them with bayonets, and seven of
the companies at Cambridge. Little’s orderly book is extant. The British fired without aim, holding their guns below the shoulder, as, by reason of the recoil, they did in our war of 1812. We conclude, as we commenced, with expressing our belief in the intentional honor and honesty of the author. |
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.
—The transcriber of this project created the book cover image using the title page of the original book. The image is placed in the public domain.