manded; ” but, recollecting that he could not claim the command, altered it into “ conducted.” And he was authorized to claim to have been the conductor of the battle, and to have conducted it with great skill and discretion. Air. Frothingham thinks, that, “ in a military point of view, it would be difficult to assign a just motive to either party for this conflict." We place in our Appendix the declaration of the proscribed patriot Adams on the subject, which will justify Gen. Ward, and satisfy every one on this point. But, notwithstanding Gen. Ward’s use of the word “ con- ducted,” he probably intended to say that Warren was the conductor or commander of Bunker Hill Battle, knowing that he was on the field, vested with all the rights and authority of a major-general; — which was literally true, notwithstanding Frothingham’s mistake in supposing that Warren told Prescott, as a reason for not assuming the com- mand, that he had not received his commission. This is a mistake of fact and law: Warren, according to Gen. Heath, said not one word about his commission, and his want of one did not diminish his rights of office; a point that has been settled by the Supreme Court of the United States. It was not so extraordinary for Ward to call Warren the commander, as for Gen. Humphreys to do so in his life of Putnam, whose Aid he had been. Both, doubtless, were ignorant of the fact, that Warren refused to exercise any command on the occasion. It was not generally known till published by Gen. Heath, twenty years after the battle. Martin the chaplain, who was present the night before and during the battle, says, “ The Americans took possession of the hill under Prescott.” This is taken by Frothingham from Stiles’s Diary ; and the reason why Stiles does not quote Martin as saying they were under Putnam likewise is, doubtless, because he had just before entered the same fact in his diary from the all-sufficient authority of Gen. Green. Martin says, that he urged Prescott in vain to send for Putnam and a reinforcement; that Prescott and he differed, even to quarrel, about the reinforcements ; and that he ordered one of the men oil himself to Gen. W ard, which brought Gen.
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