2019 Battle of Bunker Hill Commemoration Monday June 17, 2019

Speech offered by Brett P. Reistad, National Commander of the American Legion on

Monday June 17, 2019

Good morning:

During my year as national commander of The American Legion, I’ve visited many battlefields and historic sites. Just this month, I visited Normandy, Flanders Field and Bastogne. I spent last December 7th at Pearl Harbor. And while each of those battles was much more costly in terms of American lives that were lost, they were not more important than what happened in Charlestown. Massachusetts on June 16th and 17th, 1775.

For Bunker Hill sent a message to the world and certainly to Mother England that there is a new force to be reckoned with a force that would one day become the United States of America.

Bunker Hill was not a military victory. Indeed the British would eventually take the territory known as Breeds Hill, despite that battles name.

Bunker Hill was a moral victory. It sent a message to the Colonial Army that even the mighty British Army was NOT invincible even if they can take a hill in battle. They would not break the spirit of those yearning for freedom.

Throughout the Revolution and many more times in American history America would overcome odds and eventually win wars that most objective observers would think that we would lose.

Although the source of the statement is disputed, the legendary order to NOT fire until you see the whites of their eyes could easily have been recited again at Gettysburg, Bastogne or Tet.

And while historians quibble over whether William Prescott, Israel Putnam or someone else was the true source of the quote, the battle also proved that African Americans could play a pivotal role in defending America with several enslaved and freed black soldiers fighting for freedom in a land that was not yet free for all.

General John Thomas, who commanded the Massachusetts troops at Roxbury would write of his black soldiers, I look upon them in general equally serviceable with other men, for fatigue and in action; many of them proved themselves brave.-end quote.

We are a nation of underdogs “ragtag plucky colonies who had no business calling themselves a country much less an eventual superpower!

But it really all started right here at Bunkers Hill.

Notice that the Preamble of The American Legion Constitution calls for us to make right the master of might  It does not say the reverse for Might is NOT ALWAYS RIGHT. The British were the mighty ones, but it was the brave colonists who believed in a dream and that through faith and valor they would prevail.

Bunker Hill helped convince George Washington that perhaps his task ahead was not as impossible as some believed. While the British would win Bunker Hill, it would suffer double the casualties of the outgunned American militia. It gave Americans hope. Later generations could fight in subsequent wars even when the odds seemed equally hopeless.

Bunker Hill also taught us a lesson about Americanism a founding pillar of our American Legion. On June 17, 1825, Massachusetts representative Daniel Webster spoke at the dedication of the cornerstone at the Bunker Hill Monument. In a speech for the ages, Congressman Webster spoke about our responsibilities and duties as Americans.

He said quote “It is for Americans, more especially, to nourish a nobler sentiment, one more consistent with their origin and more conducive to their future improvement. It is for them more especially to know why they love their country; and to feel that they love it, not because it is their country, but because it is the palladium of human liberty “the favored scene of human improvement. It is for them, more especially, to examine their institutions; and to feel that they honor them because they are based on just principles. end quote.

One of those principles indeed, an institution that I take very personally is honoring our war dead. Few of America’s martyrs receive the fame or recognition that they deserve, which is why events such as this are so important.

It’s important to hear about men like Dr. Joseph Warren. The Boston physician became a major general but preferred to fight from the front, like an ordinary soldier. He did not want some command post far from the action. Instead, he died from a bullet to the face in the final assault.

This ladies and gentlemen is one of the many stories of heroism that occurred on Breed’s Hill, better known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.

These are the stories that The American Legion hopes that all Americans will share with their children and generations to follow.

For without heroes willing to die on our behalf, there is no freedom. There is no Independence Day. There is no United States of America. There is no American Legion.

We must never forget these heroes.

Thank you and God Bless America. P. Reistad

National Commander

The American Legion