Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/385

] most veteran soldiery; for, according to their own returns, their killed and wounded, out of a detachment of two thousand men, amounted to one thousand and fifty-four, and a large proportion of them officers. The loss of the Americans did not exceed four hundred and fifty. To the latter, this defeat, if defeat it might be called, had the effect of a triumph. It gave them confidence in themselves, and consequence in the eyes of their enemies. They had proved to themselves and to others, that they could measure weapons with the disciplined soldiers of Europe, and inflict the most harm in the conflict."

Beside several officers of distinction, the greatest loss which the Americans met with, was in the death of General Warren. He had only a few days before been commissioned as major-general, and was at the time president of the Massachusetts Congress, and chairman of the Committee of Safety. Leaving his post as presiding officer in the Congress, so soon as he heard of the meditated attack upon the Americans on Bunker's Hill, he hurried to the scene of action. When he entered the redoubt, the brave and able Colonel Prescott offered him the command, but he declined taking it, saying, "I am come to learn war under an experienced soldier, not to take any command." When his countrymen were compelled to retreat, he was the last to leave the redoubt, and immediately after, a ball struck him in the head, and he fell dead on the spot. His loss was esteemed a public calamity, and produced a profound impression throughout America, for no man of his age was more highly respected and beloved than Joseph Warren, "the brave, blooming, generous, self-devoted martyr of Bunker's Hill." Perpetual honor to his memory!

Immediately on taking command of the army, Washington made it a primary duty to ascertain its actual strength and position. He found that there were excellent materials for an army, but that they sadly lacked arms, ammunition, and military stores of every kind. He found them animated with great zeal, and prepared to follow him in the most desperate undertakings : but he soon perceived that they were unacquainted with subordination, and strangers to military discipline. The spirit of liberty which had brought them together, showed itself in all their actions. In the province of Massachusetts, the officers had