General Warren
We must not leave the story of the Battle of Bunker Hill
without speaking of the brave General Warren. He was
indeed one of the bravest of the brave. He was a man
of wonderful talent, and from the very earliest
troubles with England had been one of the staunchest
patriots. When he learned that the British were
setting out to attack the colonists on Breed's Hill, he
started out at once across Charlestown Neck, amid
showers of British balls; and, on reaching the
redoubt, offered himself as a volunteer.
The poet makes him say to the colonists as the British
draw near:
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"Stand! the ground's your own my braves!
Will ye give it up to slaves?
Will ye look for greener graves?
Hope ye mercy still?
What's the mercy despots feel?
Hear it in that battle-peal!
Read it on yon bristling steel!
Ask it—ye who will.
"In the God of battles trust!
Die we may—and die we must;
But, oh, where can dust to dust
Be consigned so well,
As where heaven its dews shall shed,
On the martyred patriot's bed,
And the rocks shall raise their head.
Of his deeds to tell!"
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Throughout the battle, Warren was in the thickest of
the fight; and at the end, when the British had gained
the redoubt, he was one of the last to give up the
struggle. He was rallying the few remaining colonists,
when a British officer who knew him, and knew what a
power he was among his countrymen, singled him out and
shot him.
When General Gage heard that Warren was dead, he said,
"It is well; that one man was equal to five hundred
ordinary soldiers."
He had been an honorable citizen, a skilled physician,
a noble senator, and a brave warrior. The loss of no
one man, in the whole war was mourned more, perhaps,
than the loss of this hero, General Warren.
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