Bearing Arms reports that the musket first fired by a colonial at the Battle of Bunker Hill recently sold at auction for $492,000.

An anonymous buyer snapped up the historical item after it was put up for auction by the family of Private John Simpson, which had held onto the Dutch Type III musket over the centuries.

Via Le Sabot.

Four men have been charged with gun-trafficking charges in connection with gun sales in the BHA's Bunker Hill project earlier this year, the US Attorney's office reports. Read more.

The Globe reports the Boston Housing Authority is looking to renovate its Bunker Hill project in Charlestown by hiring a developer to add "hundreds of market-rate units to the 1,100 low-income units that are there now."

J.L. Bell explains why it took news of the Battle of Bunker Hill three days longer to reach New York than news of the Battle of Lexington:

The Provincial Congress delayed its report until its committee had a good sense of what had happened and/or could put a good spin on events.

Derek Beck, writing a book about the events of 1775, digs up photos taken of Joseph Warren's skull when his body was being moved in 1855 to Forest Hills Cemetery and uses them to show how Warren was not shot from behind while retreating, but rather facing the enemy front first:

Due to the low muzzle velocity of the musket, as evidenced by their extremely limited range, one can deduce that in order for a ball to pass entirely through the skull, the fatal shot was fired from close range.

There was a fundraiser at the Warren Tavern last night to help build a memorial to Irish children who died in Charlestown after fleeing the Famine in Ireland:

Between the years 1845-1850 at the height of An Gorta Mor, The Great Irish Famine, hundreds of Irish children were buried at the St. Francis de Sales Cemetery, on the north slope of Bunker Hill. Many of these children were born in Ireland but died shortly after their arrival on these shores. None of these children have a headstone or marker to mark their final resting place.

And let's not forget the British soldiers from the Revolution.

Matthew Gilbert writes...