Who Was the Commander at Bunker Hill?

39 corps; and they are so well known yet, from their high character, and the public stations they held, that we need say no more of their testimony. Capt. Trevett will be recollected as the distinguished officer in the battle, and for a great number of years commander of the revenue cutter at Boston. Col. Popkin was born at Boston, of Welsh descent. He had been in Paddock’s corps, was a major in Greaton’s regiment, and in the battle of White Plains; at Saratoga as Aid to Gen. Lincoln; afterwards lieutenant-colonel of artillery under Crane, and left the army at the peace a colonel. He was a custom-house officer under Gen. Lincoln, in 1789, and remained in office till his decease, 1827, aged eighty-four. He w'as father of the learned, beloved, and respected Professor John S. Popkin, of Harvard University, for more than half a century past dear to all the friends of that institution, and whose sermons would do honor to any man. Page 30. 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.”* * 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.

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