The question of who commanded during the day has been the subject of continued controversy, arising from the too large claims of partisans. Though there is much conflict of contemporary evidence, it seems well established that Col. William Prescott commanded at the redoubt, and no one questioned his right. He also sent out the party which in the beginning protected his flank towards the Mystick; but when Stark, with his New Hampshire men, came up to strengthen that party, his authority seems to have been generally recognized, and he held the rail fence there as long as he could to cover the retreat of Prescott's men from the redoubt. Putnam, the ranking officer on the field, Warren disclaiming all right to command, withdrew men with entrenching tools from Prescott, and planned to throw up earthworks on the higher eminence, now known as Bunker Hill proper, and near the end of the retreat he assumed a general command, and directed the fortifying of Prospect Hill. It is not apparent, then, that any officer, previous to this last stage of the fight, can be said to have had general command in all parts of the field. The discussion of the claims of Putnam and Prescott has resulted in a large number of monographs, and has formed a particular feature in many of the general accounts of the battle, the mention of some of which has for this reason been deferred till they could be placed in the appended note.[566]
A list of officers in the battle, not named in Frothingham's Siege, is given in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., April, 1873; and an English list of the Yankee officers in the force about Boston in June, 1775, is in Ibid., July, 1874. The Lives of participants and observers add occasionally some items to the story.[567]
This follows the reproduction of an engraving in J. C. Smith's Brit. Mezzotint Portraits, p. 1716, which is inscribed: Israel Putnam, Esq., Major-General of the Connecticut forces, and Commander-in-chief at the engagement on Buncker's-Hill, near Boston, 17 June, 1775. Published by C. Shepherd, 9 Sepr 1775. J. Wilkinson pinxt. (Cf. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xix. 102.) There is a French engraving, representing him in cocked hat, looking down and aside, and subscribed "Israel Putnam, Eqre., major général des Troupes de Connecticut. Il commandait en chef à l'affaire de Bunckes hill près Boston, le 17 Juin, 1775." Col. J. Trumbull made a sketch of Putnam, which has been engraved by W. Humphreys (National Portrait Gallery, N. Y., 1834) and by Thomas Gimbrede.
Cf. portraits in Murray's Impartial Hist. (1778), i. 334; Hollister's Connecticut; Irving's Washington, illus. ed., i. 413; and Geschichte der Kriege in und ausser Europa (Nürnberg, 1778).
For lives of Putnam, see Sabin, xvi. no. 66,804, etc. For his birthplace, see Appleton's Journal, xi. 321; Miss Larned's Windham County, Conn. Cf. B. J. Lossing in Harper's Monthly, xii. 577; Evelyns in America, 273; R. H. Stoddard in Nat. Mag., xii. 97.
JOSEPH WARREN.