Today is Bunker Hill Day

[82Rigger]

June 17th is, I believe, a legal holiday in Boston, and may be as well for all of Suffolk County.

I'm sure Rev can answer that for us.

Dr. Joseph Warren was killed. His body was identified some months later by his brothers and Paul Revere by means of artificial dentures (??) that Mr. Revere had made for Dr Warren.

Also killed was Royal Marines Maj. Pitcairn (of Lexington fame, "Disperse, you rebels! Damn you, why won't you disperse?").

Famous from this battle is, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes", although I've never learned who actually gave that order.

[revwardoc]

It was Col. William Prescott of the Massachusetts militia who said it, though some historians write that he actually said, "Don't fire until you see the color of their eyes."

Pitcairn was killed by Peter Salem, a freed slave who was born in Framingham, MA.

The battle was actually fought on the lower Breed's Hill but the maps used by the Brits at the time didn't show Breed's Hill, only Bunker's Hill.

It turned out to be the most costly battle of the Revolution for the Brits who suffered 50% casulties during the 3 assaults on the hill and more assaults on the beach along the Mystic River where over 90 British Light Infantry bodies where later counted.

Today Bunker Hill Day is a center of controversy since MA employees of Suffolk County and the State House have the day off with pay while everyone else has to work. Most of the MA citizenry are demanding that, due to the current economic conditions, it no longer be a paid holiday for such a minority of workers. The same goes for Evacuation Day, March 17 (St. Patrick's Day), which Suffolk County and State House employees also have as a paid day-off.

[82Rigger]

Although the Brits took the field, the victory was pyrrhic, for

the colonists learned that day that the greatest army in the world could be

stopped and even turned back. and made to pay dearly.

If I could choose ONE BATTLE of the Revolution to be witness to, it would be

this one, or Lexington.

I say Lexington because I wanna know who fired that damned shot!

[revwardoc]

Yeah, everyone wants to know that! There's a guy in Ashburnham, MA who says he has the "Shot Heard 'Round The World" pistol that was fired by Paul Revere from a 2nd floor window of the Buckman Tavern...except that when the shot was fired Revere, from his own deposition, was behind the Lexington militia and in the process of helping John Lowell carry a trunk full of important papers owned by John Hancock out of harm's way. Both sides say that it was the other side who fired the first shot but no one came forward to make the claim. Many speculate that it was a late arriving militiaman from another town who may have been killed in the course of the day's action, while others say it was a nervous Brit soldier who pulled the trigger of his Brown Bess accidentaly, but who knows.