sermon on the sacrifices of the dead and the duties of the living. "As the clouds darkened and the skies thundered, the voice of Parsons grew louder and clearer, like bugle notes summoning the good men and true to battle." When the news came of Lexington and Concord, Parsons stood in his pulpit to preach to the people of liberty and their rights. "As he closed his final appeal, his people hung breathless upon his words, and each seemed more anxious than the other to catch his ever utterance. 'Men of America, citizens of this great country hanging upon the precipice of war, loyalty to England lies behind you, broken by the acts of the mother country--a cruel mother, deaf to the voice of liberty and right; duty to freedom, duty to your country, duty to God, is before you; your patriotism is brought to the test; I call upon those ready to volunteer for the defence of the provinces against British tyranny to step into the 'broad aisle.'" Those who responded were the first volunteers to join the Continental Army and participate in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Parsons died on July 19, 1776, a few days after the Declaration of Independence. He was buried next to his mentor, George Whitefield, in the crypt under the pulpit from which he had preached for more than three decades. One son, Samuel Holden Parsons would rise to the rank of Major General in the Continental Army. Another, Jonathan, would participate in the Penobscot Expedition, the boldest naval adventure of the Revolution. A grandson, midshipman William Walter Parsons, would be taken prisoner by the British during the Penobscot Expedition. Sources Franklin Bowditch Dexter. "Jonathan Parsons." In "Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College," Volume I (1701-1745). New York, NY: Henry Holt & Company. Charles Samuel Hall. 1896. "Hall Ancestry" New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Charles Samuel Hall. 1905. "Life and Letters of General Samuel Holden Parsons." Binghamton, NY: Otseningo Publishing Company. Heimert, Alan. 1966. "Religion and the American Mind, from the Great Awakening to the Revolution." Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Alan Heimert & Perry Miller (eds.). 1967. "The Great Awakening. Documents Illustrating the Crisis and Its Consequences." Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill. George M. Marsden. 2004. "Jonathan Edwards: A Life." New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Jonathan Parsons. 1742. "A Needful Caution in a Critical Day. Or, the Christian Urged to