Peter Salem took part in the battle of Concord on April 19, 1775.[citation needed] One week later, he enlisted in Captain Drury's company of Colonel John Nixon's regiment (6th Massachusetts Regiment). He served with his regiment in the Battle of Bunker Hill, where he may have fired the shot that killed British Marine Major John Pitcairn. (The shot was attributed to "a black soldier named Salem", who local historians identified as Peter Salem or Salem Poor.) Salem reenlisted in 1776, and fought again at the battles of Saratoga and Stony Point.[citation needed]

After the war, he lived near Leicester, Massachusetts and married Katy Benson in September 1783. He died in the poor house at Framingham in 1816 at the age of 66.[citation needed] A gravestone monument was erected in 1882 in Framingham in his memory.

Salem became well-known in American history because he is the black soldier shown in John Trumbull's famous painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill.[citation needed]

Due to his supposedly Islamic name, some Muslim Americans have suggested that Peter Salem was a Muslim. Others have accused proponents of the theory of historical revisionism. The basis for the theory appears to be local legend rather than solid historical record.