The 'Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes' attribution

The phrase 'Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes' is popularly associated with the American troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775), commemorated by the Bunker Hill Monument. Multiple contemporary and later accounts attribute the command to different officers-often Colonel William Prescott, but also to others-and historians continue to debate who actually spoke the words or whether a single utterance occurred. The monument and related interpretive materials note the association of the phrase with the battle while acknowledging the uncertainty in its precise attribution. The Bunker Hill Monument stands at Monument Square as a focal point for these commemorations.