[savedbygrace]

John Adams called those Lees, "That band of brothers, intrepid and unchangeable, who like the Greeks at Thermopylae, stood in the gap in defense of their country, from the first glimmering of the Revolution on the horizon, through all its rising light, to its perfect day."

Is this the source of the phrase "Band of Brothers" made 'famous' by Spielberg's series? Or is it unrelated?

[SOLTC]

The earliest reference I remember for this phrase is:

William Shakespeare's, King Henry V
Act IV, Scene III

"We few, we happy few, we Band of Brothers, For he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhood's cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. "