Lexington Historical Society in Massachu-
setts. Considering the numbers involved and
the losses sustained, it had been a close call
for the British. Worse, they now found them-
selves at war.
For two months, nearly 15,000 colonial
militia bottled up Gage’s 8,000 redcoats in
Boston without further violence. The im-
passe broke on the evening of June 16, when
rebels seized the high ground near
Charlestown and began digging in. Gage,
fearful that cannons posted there would cut
off his access to the sea, ordered Gen.
William Howeto clear the heights in a dis-
play of British force. The ensuing Battle of
Bunker Hill, fought on June 17, 1775, caught
everybody by surprise. The American militia
stood its ground and inflicted horrendous ca-
sualties upon the neatly advancing British in-
fantry. Pitcairn and his marines were held in
the reserve until the third and final charge.
Ordered to advance, he pushed aside a re-
treating body of infantry, yelling, “Break and
let the Marines through!” The sea soldiers
then fought their way onto the parapet with
Pitcairn at their head, swinging his sword and
shouting, “Now, for the glory of the Marines!”
At that point the gallant major was shot down
and fatally injured. His wound has been tradi-
tionally ascribed to Salem Prince, a free
African American, who literally fired the last
shot of the battle. Pitcairn was subsequently
taken by his son, Lt. Thomas Pitcairn, to a
house back in Boston. General Gage also dis-
patched his personal physician, Dr. Thomas
Kast, to attend to his needs, but the patient
succumbed the following morning. To his last
dying moments, Pitcairn swore that he did
not fire the first shots at Lexington. He was
initially buried at the Old North Church,
Boston, and in 1791 his remains were shipped
to London for reinterment there. In the words
of one rebel, Reverend Ezra Stiles, Pitcairn
was “a good man in a bad cause.” A charm-
ing, if apocryphal, anecdote has survived
about his passing. When son Thomas ex-
claimed, “I have lost a father,” some nearby
marines responded, “We have all lost a fa-
ther.” Pitcairn’s devotion to duty and heroic
self-sacrifice were in the finest tradition of
the Royal Marines.Bibliography
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ganization, Training, Uniforms, and Combat Role
of the British Marines During the American Revo-
lution.Devon, PA: Dockside Press, 1993; Bracken,
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shohocken, PA: Combined, 1999; Fischer, David H.
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cairn.” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical
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The History of the Fife Pitcairns.Edinburgh: W.
Blackwood and Sons, 1905.PITCAIRN, JOHN