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In 1775, the Americans marched past Bunker Hill and fortified Breed’s Hill instead. No one knows why they chose a position on the lower hill, but that is where the militias constructed their fort in Charlestown before the battle on June 17.  Confusion about the name of the hill where the battle occurred goes back to the battle itself. Colonel William Prescott’s orders were to fortify Bunker’s Hill, but he chose Breed’s Hill instead. A detailed map of the battle prepared by British Army Lt. Page further compounded the problem by reversing the names of the two hills. Over time, everyone forgot about Breed’s Hill, and the famous battle became known by the name of its steeper neighbor.

Fifty years after the battle, the Marquis De Lafayette set the cornerstone of what would become a lasting monument and tribute to the memory of the Battle of Bunker Hill. It took more than 17 years to complete the 221-foot granite obelisk that now stands at the top of Breed's Hill, marking the site where patriot forces constructed an earthen fort prior to the British attack.

There is much lore and contradictory anecdotal material about the death of Maj. John Pitcairn at Bunker Hill, but no air-tight evidence about who actually fired the fatal shot—or shots—that killed him. His death was celebrated by the patriots, who vilified him for ordering his Redcoats to fire on the Lexington militia during the Battle of Lexington and Concord, so there was great interest in discovering the hero responsible for his demise. In 1787, Dr. Jeremy Belknap, founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, attributed the deed to “a negro man belonging to Groton.” Samuel Swett, writing a study of the fight in 1818, recounted that Pitcairn exclaimed “the day is ours,” when “a black soldier named Salem, shot him through and he fell.” Swett later added that “a contribution was made in the army for Salem and he was presented to George Washington as having slain Pitcairn.”

In 1826, Emory Washburn, writing in the Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal, claimed that a man from his town shot the major at Bunker Hill and his name was Peter Salem. Peter Salem crops up again in 1847 in William Barry’s history of Framingham, the place of Salem’s supposed death. The only problem is that there was another Salem at Bunker Hill—Salem Poor. On December 5, 1775 thirteen colonial offers—including William Prescott, commander at Breed’s Hill—sent a petition to the Massachusetts General Court asking for recognition for “A Negro Man called Salem Poor” who “in the late Battle of Charlestown, behaved like an Experienced officer, as Well as an Excellent Soldier.” Could this man be the “black soldier named Salem”? We don’t know. Perhaps the identities of the two “Salems”—Peter and Poor—merged over time into one man who killed an evil British officer.

J. L. Bell, writing in the Journal of the American Revolution, cites the above sources when considering the Salem issue, but he also includes British versions of the account, which differ from those by Americans. Writing only four days after the battle, Lt. John Waller, adjutant of the first Marines battalion, remembered Pitcairn death’s as occurring before he climbed the fortification on Breed’s Hill where his men “received very heavy and severe Fire from the Enemy” for “”Ten Minutes or a near Quarter Hour.” In the chaos of the moment, Bell observes, Pitcairn may have been hit by multiple shots from various patriot muskets. Among the heroic African American soldiers fighting with the Americans at the Battle of Bunker Hill, one or more may have fired on Pitcairn. Or maybe none did. Americans may have skewed or simplified what actually occurred on Breed’s Hill, and the killing of an arrogant British officer by a disenfranchised black man made for a good story.