The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, 17 June 1775; 1786

Oil on canvas; 65.1 x 95.6 cm (25 5/8 x 37 5/8 in). Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.

According to Joseph J. Ellis (Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence, 2013): Warren had bravely stood his ground at Bunker Hill until the redcoats overwhelmed his redoubt; he had been shot in the back of the head as he turned to escape, and then his dead body had been bayoneted by several British soldiers caught up in the heat of battle. The next day, an execution squad that was finishing of the American wounded made a point of decapitating Warren and displaying his head on a spit, thereby ensuring his martyrdom.

Jefferson biographers express astonishment that the apprenticeship with Wythe lasted five full years, 1762 - 67, at a time when almost no one studied law for more than two. Patrick Henry studied not more than six weeks, or so at least he told Jefferson, and Wythe for one was so convinced of the inadequacy of Henry’s training he refused to sign his license. Jefferson’s years under Wythe, years of virtually uninterrupted reading, not only in the law but also in ancient classics, English literature, and general political philosophy, were not so much an apprenticeship for law as an apprenticeship for greatness.

— Fawn M. Brodie

Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History (1974)