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

¹

1. A famous command attributed to William Prescott, an American officer, at the Battle of Bunker Hill in the Revolutionary War . Prescott may have said “color” rather than “whites.”

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

²

1. Don't react to a situation too early. This saying comes from an order allegedly given by American officer William Prescott at the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War .

Notes

Prescott's command has become a proverb , meaning “Don't act before you have some chance of success.”