John Pitcairn John Pitcairn ( 28 December 1722 – 17 June 1775 ) was a British Marine officer who was stationed in Boston , Massachusetts at the start of the American Revolutionary War . Life . Pitcairn was born in late December 1722 in Dysart , a port town in Fife , Scotland . His parents were the Reverend David and Katherine ( Hamilton ) Pitcairn . He entered the Royal Marines , was commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1746 , served in Canada during the French and Indian War as a Captain , and was promoted to Major in 1771 . In 1774 he arrived in Boston , Massachusetts , in command of 600 Marines to support the occupation . Major Pitcairn was respected by the citizens in Boston as one of the more reasonable officers in the occupying force . He was in command of the advance party when the first shot ( the original shot heard ' round the world ) was fired at Lexington , Massachusetts on 19 April 1775 , starting the Battles of Lexington and Concord . He had a horse shot out from under him , and lost a pair of matched pistols when the column ' s baggage was abandoned . American leader Israel Putnam carried them through the rest of the war . At the Battle of Bunker Hill Pitcairn commanded a reserve force of about 300 Marines . They landed at the south end of the Charlestown peninsula . When the first assaults failed , he led his men up the hill toward the American position , only to fall to a rifle shot , said to have been fired by a black former slave named Peter Salem . He toppled into the arms of his son , William , also a Royal Marine , who cried out , " I have lost my father ! " Some of the Marines tried to console the young officer , while others , overcome with emotion , moaned . Pitcairn was carried back to Boston , and died of his wound within hours . He is buried at the Old North Church in Boston . John Trumbull ' s painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill depicts his death , though with several errors and anachronisms . Since no known picture of Major Pitcairn survives , Pitcairn ' s son David Pitcairn was used as a model by Trumbull . The uniform depicted was not actually adopted by the Marines until the 1780s . Pitcairn is shown falling at the bunker at its capture from the American force , while he was shot starting the ascent of the hill . Pitcairn is also depicted in the scene of the Battle of Lexington in the U . S . Capital rotunda . Family . John Pitcairn was married to Elizabeth Dalrymple ( 1724 – 1809 ) , a daughter of Robert Dalrymple . Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific was named for his son , Robert , a midshipman in the Royal Navy . While on watch on a voyage led by Captain Philip Carteret , 15 - year - old Robert Pitcairn was the first to sight the unknown island on 3 July 1767 . A daughter , Catherine Pitcairn , married Charles Cochrane , a son of the 8th Earl of Dundonald and a first cousin of Admiral Thomas Cochrane , 10th Earl of Dundonald . Popular culture . Major John Pitcairn appears in " April Morning " , a 1961 novel by Howard Fast depicting the Battle of Lexington and Concord . Pitcairn is also a character in the novel " Johnny Tremain " . Pitcairn is a supporting antagonist in the video game " Assassin ' s Creed III " . Pitcairn supports the Templar goals of total world domination , and in this case , controlling the New World in the name of the Templars . In the game , he is killed on his horse by the protagonist , Native American half British Assassin Ratonhnhaké : ton , in a shot from high in the trees at the Battle of Bunker Hill .