Coming up Monument Avenue for a lifetime, you look up and you see the Bunker Hill Monument in all its grandeur, and if you are a thoughtful Charlestown resident, you sometimes think about what that monument represents.
Rarely, however, do you think that as you are going up Monument Street, that the remains of the brave men who died there are under your feet.
You come to the top of the street and the monument’s base widens everywhere. There is graded land and granite. Streets have been laid out and houses built.
All around, everywhere, you walk in this area, and underneath you, are the remains of the dead soldiers.
The Bunker Hill battlefield, historians point out, was covered up instead of being preserved.
The Bunker Hill battlefield today is indefinable. It is missing. It is essentially non-existent.
The millions who have come to visit here leave without the slightest idea of where exactly the battle took place, where the heroic men made their stand and where they died – or where they were buried.
A mock-up of the battlefield is not the same as walking the battlefield.
Erik Goldstein, a curator at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, created a small furor three weeks ago when his research led to the discovery that two dozen British who died at Bunker Hill in 1775, were likely buried in a 10-foot trench in the backyard of a home on Concord Street.
That piece led to a new understanding about what happened to the dead that day when American irregulars faced the might of the British Empire and held their ground until their ammunition ran out.
Many of the dead were buried where they fell, Goldstein surmises.
“The communal graves were easily recognizable by the ‘great number of rude hillock under which are deposited the remains of clusters of those deathless heroes who fell’ as late as March 21, 1776. These graves were accidentally opened from time to time in the early to mid-19th century, usually as a result of some sort of construction,” Goldstein writes, quoting from General Thomas Gage’s 25 June 1775 report to the Earl of Dartmouth, referring to the battlefield dead.
“One of the American graves, of those who defended the rail fence, was a trench near the line of the present day Elm Street, where it runs between Bunker Hill and Medford Streets,” Goldstein adds.
In other words, the dead are everywhere on Bunker Hill. The remains are all around.
Sometime in the fall of 1775, the British Army leveled the redoubt at the top of the hill.
After the British evacuated Boston, Goldstein writes, the battleground was allowed to return to its previous, natural state of open fields and marshy hollows interrupted by ponds, fences, and a few trees.
“The only notable change to the landscape of the hill was the erection of a monument on the spot where Joseph Warren fell, in the vicinity of the present intersection of Laurel Street and Monument Square,” Goldstein writes.
In 1822, Goldstein reports that scarcely the slightest trace of the redoubt thrown up by the Americans remains – apparently attesting to the fine job the British did of backfilling the site 47 years before.
In 1823, the Bunker Hill Monument Association sought to purchase the entire battlefield, and did, but failed to preserve the site’s integrity.
The organization broke ground for the foundation of the monument and work progressed slowly.
“By the late 1830s, the association was out of money and was forced to sell 11 of its 15 acres to fund the monument,” Goldstein writes.
That land was graded for the construction of streets and homes.
Sod was stripped and carted away.
“In memorializing the Battle of Bunker Hill with such an enduring marvel, the noble architects of the project largely destroyed the physical remains of the very event they sought to enshrine – an effect they never anticipated.
“The obelisk itself sits atop what is believed to be the site of the southwestern corner of the rebel redoubt, which in marking the spot has destroyed any trace of the feature.
“The paving and grading of Monument Square has principally removed not only a significant portion of the breastwork, but the earth on which the mortally wounded General Joseph Warren fell. And the sale of the rest of the battlefield for development has entombed any remaining features - and graves - below a thick veneer of concrete, brick and macadam,” Goldstein concludes.
At Gettysburg, for instance, the battlefield was preserved, almost in its entirety with Abraham Lincoln’s address towering over any monument that might have been built to commemorate what went on there.

A group of Vietnam Veterans and their supporters from the Abraham Lincoln Post 11, Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) at Memorial Hall in Charlestown will host a dedication ceremony for the newly erected Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Saturday, April 4, at 11 a.m. at Memorial Hall, 14 Green St.
The powerful granite monument, which stands almost six feet high by 10 feet long, is engraved with the names of the six men from Charlestown who were killed in action in Vietnam. The Memorial is the end result of months of planning and fundraising by a group of veterans who got together to honor their fallen brothers.
The guest speaker for the dedication is Lt. Col. John Collier (U.S. Army, Ret.) a decorated Vietnam Veteran and Townie who now resides in North Carolina. Other guests include Senator Anthony Galluccio, Representative Eugene O'Flaherty and Councillor Salvatore LaMattina.
The Abraham Lincoln Post 11, G.A.R., was founded by veterans of the Civil War and has been serving the veterans of Charlestown for 142 years. The memorial will stand on the front lawn of the post. All are welcome to attend the dedication.
If you would like further information, please contact Mr. Joseph Zuffante, Chairman of the Vietnam Memorial Committee, at 781-389-4006.

Congressman Mike Capuano
taking his shots and loving it

There is something about a man who finally frees himself.
Congressman Mike Capuano is such a man.
Referred to as a “bomb thrower” in last week’s Patriot-Bridge, Capuano, obviously, is more than that.
However, who among us is not aware that someone in the national government ought to be throwing bombs at the fools and thieves creating policy at our banks, in the automobile industry, and wherever in this society greed has overtaken common sense and honesty?
Capuano’s harsh talk and difficult questions asked of those who come before him in the Congressional Committee circuit is what we are now coming to expect of him, because if he doesn’t do it, who else is going to?
Some of us can listen to Congressman Barney Frank only for so long before losing interest in what he has to say.
Not so with Capuano, who seems to be hitting issues squarely and demanding answers from the bunglers who ruined the economy.
Not everyone in this district or in this community is on board with Capuano’s liberalism, but we are all on board with him when he hammers those responsible for bringing down the economy.
We are on board with him when he speaks out passionately about thievery and greed.
The new Mike Capuano is a step ahead of the man we have known for so long.
He is better now.
We are better for his representation in Congress during this crucial time in the national history.

Saving General Motors

Everyone in this community who comes from a working-class background understands unions and jobs, and, more importantly, what it is like to lose a job or stand in line collecting unemployment.
As the government determines whether or not to save General Motors, the president of General Motors has resigned.
Supposedly, the president asked him to do this.
Guess what?
When he resigned earlier this week, we learned he will receive a $23 million severance package.
Isn’t that beautiful?
The ship is taking on water. It’s up to the gunnels. The fate of General Motors hangs in the balance, and this guy is going to receive $23 million for presiding over the company’s demise.
What a country!

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