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 hing 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, behed 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 hey and severe Fire from the Enemy” for “”Ten Minutes or a near Quarter Hour.” In the chaos of the moment, Bell observes, Pitcairn may he 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 he fired on Pitcairn. Or maybe none did. Americans may he 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.