Military Series – Celebrating Peter Salem
Black service members have played invaluable roles in the U.S. military since the American Revolutionary War and today, continue to serve honorably and bravely in all branches of the Armed Forces.
Peter Salem Soldier of the American Revolutionary War
Photo credit National Museum of African American History and Culture
Peter Salem was an African-American from Massachusetts who served as a U.S. soldier in the American Revolutionary War. Born into slavery in Framingham, he was freed by a later master, Major Lawson Buckminster, to serve in the local militia. He then enlisted in the Continental Army, serving for nearly five years during the war. Afterwards, he married and worked as a cane weaver. A monument was erected to him in the late 19th century at his grave in Framingham.
Salem took part in the war’s first battles at Concord on April 19, 1775. He is on the roll of Captain Simon Edgell’s militia company from Framingham as having served four days from April 19, 1775. On April 24, he enlisted in Captain Drury’s company of Colonel John Nixon’s 6th Massachusetts Regiment.1
Salem would go on to fight at yet another famous Revolutionary War battle, the Battle of Bunker Hill. Although the British won this battle against the Continental Army, they suffered great losses and these losses steadied the Patriots’ determination to continue fighting. Salem is credited with having killed a crucial British officer, Maj. John Pitcairn, during the battle just as Pitcairn was gathering his troops and calling for the Patriots’ surrender.
His role in the battle was so prominent, in fact, that it is believed that Salem is included in John Trumbull’s famous 1786 painting, “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill.” 2
Sources:
1. https://wikipedia.org
2. https://www.uso.org
