On this day 250 years ago in Bedford, New Hampshire, Matthew Patten recorded in his diary recording death of his son John

I got an account of my Johns Death of the Small Pox at Canada and when I came home my wife had got a letter from Bob which gave us a particular account it informed us that he was sick of them at Chambike and that they moved him to Saint johns where they tarried but one night when they moved him to Isle of Noix where he died on the 20th day of June the Reason of moveing him was the Retreat of the army which was very preceipitate and he must either be moved or be left behind whether the moveing him hurt him he does not inform us but it seems probable to me that it did He was shot through his left arm at Bunker Hill fight and now was lead after suffering much fategue to the place where he now lyes in defending the just Rights of America to whose end he came in the prime of life by means of that wicked Tyranical Brute (Nea worse than Brute) of Great Britan he was 24 years and 31 days old

Although Matthew Patten in his grief wrote the date as June 20, his son John presumably died on April 20, 1776, in the prime of his life while “defending the just Rights of America.” We should honor the sacrifice of John Patten and his family today.

Breen, T. H., American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People, New York: Hill and Wang (2010) at 9-10; The diary of Matthew Patten of Bedford, N.H., Concord, New Hampshire: The Rumford Printing Company (1903) at 361 accessed at https://archive.org/details/diaryofmatthewpa00patt/page/360/mode/2up