James Monroe, the Last President to Serve in the American Revolution, Says Remembrances of It Are Closest to His Heart

On June 17, 1775, the British army under General William Howe, supported by Royal Navy warships, attacked the defenses the colonists had erected on Bunker and Breeds Hills. The British troops moved up Breeds Hill in perfect battle formations. Patriot leader William Prescott allegedly encouraged his men “not fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” Two assaults on the colonial positions were repulsed with significant British casualties; the third and final attack carried the position after the defenders ran out of ammunition. The colonists retreated to Cambridge over Bunker Hill, leaving the British in control of Charlestown but still besieged in Boston. The battle was a tactical victory for the British because they held the ground, but it proved to be a sobering experience, involving more than twice the casualties than the Americans had incurred, including many officers. The battle had demonstrated that inexperienced Continental militia could stand up to regular British army troops in battle, at a time when the British were considered to have the finest army in the world. It encouraged revolutionaries throughout America, and made the success of such a revolution actually seem possible.

In 1823, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, famed physician John C. Warren, and others co-founded the Bunker Hill Monument Association, which sought to memorialize that battle with a grand monument. They petitioned the Massachusetts House and Senate for recognition and support and a subsequent Act was passed giving both. Then began the work to draw interest, raise money, design the monument, and build it, a years-long effort that created the first major monument to the American Revolution, and the first public obelisk in the United States. In 1824 and 1825 they began notifying the public of their work, elected their officers, and then wrote a circular eliciting donations, and elected prominent men honorary members. They informed these men, and the responses the committee received back were from many great men of the era, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Oliver Wolcott, Joseph Story, and the Marquis de Lafayette.

When the Revolutionary War broke out, James Monroe was among the men who raided the Royal Palace of Lord Dunmore in Williamsburg. With the Royal Governor fleeing for his life, Monroe and his Patriot comrades succeeded in capturing 200 muskets and 300 swords, which were then donated to the Virginia Militia. By 1776, Monroe had dropped out of the College of William and Mary to join the 3rd Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army. He was in the battles for New York, and then was part of the legendary force that crossed the Delaware; he was wounded in the Battle of Trenton. Recovering from his wound, he was on the staff of Lord Sterling. He served in the Philadelphia campaign and spent the winter of 1777–1778 at the encampment of Valley Forge. After serving in the Battle of Monmouth, Monroe resigned his commission in December 1778. After taking over as governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson appointed Monroe to the rank of colonel, and Monroe established a messenger network to coordinate Virginia militia with the Continental Army and other state militias. Monroe is regarded as the last U.S. President who was a Revolutionary War veteran, since he served as an officer of the Continental Army and took part in combat. Monroe deeply identified with the Revolution and the great men with whom he became friends, like Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette. When his wife Elizabeth’s died in 1830, Monroe moved to New York City to live with his daughter. There he could be seen out walking, wearing the fashions of the Revolutionary era, like the three-cornered hat (called a cocked hat). He was therefore called the Last of the Cocked hats.

In March 25, 1825, just after Monroe left the White House, Edward Everett wrote Madison to inform him that he had been named an honorary member of the association. Monroe responded.

Autograph letter signed, Oak Hill, Va., May 23, 1825, to Everett, saying that remembrances of the Revolution are closest to his heart. “I regret very much that my attendance in Albemarle, whither I was called by private cares, prevented my receiving, in due time, your letter of the 29th of March, or it should have been sooner answered. The attention shown to me by the Bunker Hill Monument Association, in electing me an honorary member thereof, has been very gratifying to me, and I accept it, with all the sensibility which the very importance occurrence to the commemoration of which a monument is to be erected will always excite in my bosom.”  Framed, with frame having a scratch on one of the sides. Otherwise beautiful.