~~~Additions added in April 2024~~~
~ Today's posting is a sort of 'Reader's Digest' collection of descriptions, quotes, and commentary concerning the people involved in the Battle of Lexington & Concord.
It is not, by any means, meant to be a comprehensive account.
Of course it isn't - this is only a blog post.
But my objective here is to give the reader an idea of what the men and women of that time went through on such a fateful day. A 1st person you are there account of occurrences on a date which truly should live on in infamy, but, unfortunately, does not in most parts of these United States.
But my objective here is to give the reader an idea of what the men and women of that time went through on such a fateful day. A 1st person you are there account of occurrences on a date which truly should live on in infamy, but, unfortunately, does not in most parts of these United States.
In fact, if you mention April 19th, 1775 to most outside of Massachusetts, you'll find they haven't a clue as to what occurred.
Well, maybe we should start spreading the word. Maybe, just maybe, in our own small way, we can get the news out, and the celebrations of the beginning of the founding of the United States can be...well...celebrated.
Or at the very least commemorated.
Or at the very least commemorated.
Today's post might be a good start ~
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| On April 18, 1775, one day before the outbreak of the battle of Lexington and Concord, Munroe Tavern was one of the meeting spots for colonials. |
Gordon S. Wood - Revolutionary War historian and author.
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As is quoted in the book Boston and the Dawn of American Independence by Brian Deming:
Back in 1760, no one could imagine the American colonies revolting against Great Britain. The colonists were not hungry peasants groaning under the whip of brute. They lived well. Land was cheap, wages were good, opportunities abounded. They were English Christians who loved their king, adored British institutions, and modeled their governments, courts, laws, and lives after what they had known in Britain. While many Americans had been in the New World for generations, they felt themselves British, and England was still "home."
Obviously, this description does not include the blacks living here in slavery at the time.
Yet in the space of just 15 years, the sturdy bonds of affection and loyalty frayed and snapped. The Americans cobbled together a ragtag army to take on not an impotent crumbling kingdom, but a rising, rich, and powerful empire. What a curious turn of events.
So then, let us witness Boston, as it was, just days before the Revolution began:
(From the book The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson - pp 44, 45):
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| Boston Evening-Post |
Daily life plodded on. Goods smuggled or stockpiled before the port closing could be found for a price, including candles for five shillings a pound in the Faneuil Hall market, along with indigo and a few hogshead of sugar. Greenleaf's Auction Room sold German serges, Irish linens, and Kippen's snuff by the cask. Harbottle Dorr's shop in Union Street advertised spades, Smith's anvils, and brass kettles, "none of which have been imported since the port was shut up." A vendor near swing bridge offered fish hooks, cod lines, and "nails of all sorts." With spring coming on fast, W. P. Bartlett's shop in Salem sold seeds for crimson radishes, yellow Spanish onions, tennisball lettuce, and several kinds of peas, including black-eyed, sugar, blue union, and speckled. "Choice cayenne cocoa" could be found on Hancock's Wharf, and pearl dentifrice---reputedly invented by the Queen's dentist "for the preservation of the teeth"---was peddled in a shop on Ann Street.
Auction houses sold the furniture of distraught residents determined to move---to England, to Halifax, deeper into New England, or just away. Mahogany tables, featherbeds, and looking glasses went for a song. For those who preferred to dance away their troubles, an unlikely new school in Boston offered lessons in minuets, hornpipes, and English country steps "in the most improved taste."
Freeholders (property owners) gathered for meetings in Faneuil Hall. The town agreed to borrow 600 pounds to buy grain for the almshouse poor. A report in late March noted that thirty-eight smallpox patients were quarantined on a hospital scow (a ship) in the Charles River, "some distance from the wharf." The Freeholders voted to continue a recent ban on inoculations; many now feared that it posed a greater risk of epidemic than natural infection. Any household with sick inhabitants was required to display a large red flag on a six foot pole or incur a fifty pound fine. For those intent on inoculation, newspapers advertised the services of a private hospital in New York...
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| Straight-last buckle shoes |
So, let us begin our journey back in time, to a command that was sent from Lord Dartmouth to General Gage on Friday, April 14, 1775 concerning events from the Americans of late - events against the Crown:
The violence by those who have taken up arms in Massachusetts have appeared to me as the acts of a rude rabble, without concert, without conduct, and therefore I think that a small force now, if put to the test, would be able to conquer them...
Dartmouth also directed Gage “to arrest and imprison the principal actors & abettors in the Provincial Congress whose proceedings appear in every light to be acts of treason & rebellion.”
Gage lost no time putting Dartmouth’s orders into effect. On April 18 he sent the following orders to Lt. Col. Francis Smith of the 10th Regiment: “A Quantity of Ammunition and Provision together (with) numbers of Cannon and small Arms having been collected at Concord for the avowed purpose of supporting a Rebellion against His Majtys Government, you will march with the Corps of Grenadiers and Light Infantry put under your Command with the utmost Expedition and Secrecy to Concord; where you will seize and destroy all the Artillery and Ammunition Provisions Tents & all other Military Stores you can find. . . .”
The captured gunpowder and flour were to be dumped into the river, tents burned, salt pork and beef supplies destroyed. Enemy field guns should be spiked or ruined with sledgehammers.
Smith’s troops—seven to eight hundred strong, with an additional fourteen hundred to join them later on—left Boston that night for what promised to be an uneventful thirty-mile march through Lexington to the storehouse at Concord and back.
A number of other people left Boston on that night, allowing for one of the most important occurrences in American history to occur with an event in which many today laugh or scoff at. However, what happened on the night of April 18, 1775 was nothing to laugh or scoff at:
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| Paul Revere & William Dawes speak with Messrs. Adams and Hancock |
Now, I
would hope that you know the story of Paul Revere's ride. No, not the
Longfellow version, but what really happened. Though popular lore later credited Revere with a stirring battle cry---"The British are coming!"---a witness quoted him as warning in a bit more of a common manner, "The Regulars are coming out!"
And then, after he made his warnings in Lexington and spoke with Adams and Hancock, Paul Revere, with William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, again ventured out but never made it to Concord - - he was, instead, captured by the British Regular Army roughly in between Lexington and Concord, and
then eventually let go after the sound of musket fire and warning bells coming from the direction
of Lexington.
Samuel Prescott, of the three, was the only one to make it to Concord.
If not, please click HERE.
As for the occurrences of that night and what happened in Lexington the following morning, we hear from Elijah Sanderson, who was a Patriot and Minuteman that lived in Concord. He tells of his determination to gather intelligence for the Americans in the following written statement that was originally printed on April 28, 1825 and describes how he was captured with Paul Revere:
"On the evening of the 18th of April, 1775, we saw a party of officers pass up from Boston, all dressed in blue wrappers. The unusually late hour of their passing excited the attention of the citizens. I took my gun and cartridge box and thinking something must be going on more than common, walked up to John Buckman's tavern near the meeting house.
If not, please click HERE.
As for the occurrences of that night and what happened in Lexington the following morning, we hear from Elijah Sanderson, who was a Patriot and Minuteman that lived in Concord. He tells of his determination to gather intelligence for the Americans in the following written statement that was originally printed on April 28, 1825 and describes how he was captured with Paul Revere:
"On the evening of the 18th of April, 1775, we saw a party of officers pass up from Boston, all dressed in blue wrappers. The unusually late hour of their passing excited the attention of the citizens. I took my gun and cartridge box and thinking something must be going on more than common, walked up to John Buckman's tavern near the meeting house.
Before we continue with Mr. Sanderson, let's learn a little about taverns. Taverns were the pulse of 18th century urban life, and their importance to the local community cannot be overstated. These "publick houses" (or 'ordinaries,' as they were also known) have played an important part in social, political, and even military life, though we see them taking more of a back seat in their role in our Nation's history. The Buckman Tavern of Lexington, Massachusetts was also one of the rallying places of the Minute Men in the early morning hours of April 19, 1775.
The following comes mostly from the book "Taverns of the American Revolution" by Adrian Covert:
Established in 1713, it was early in the morning of April 19, 1775, when the Buckman Tavern was headquarters to one of the most significant events in American history, for it was close to midnight on April 18 when Paul Revere came into Lexington, loudly calling out the warning, we are told, that the British Regulars were coming out and the farmers and shopkeepers should leave their warm beds and prepare to muster as citizen-soldiers, for the Regular Army had left Boston in force to seize and destroy military supplies in Concord. Upon his arrival, Revere went straight to the Jonas Clarke parsonage to warn a sleeping John Hancock and Samuel Adams where, in hearing the commotion outside, the sentry requested he not make so much noise. "Noise!" Revere cried out, "You'll have noise enough before long! The Regulars are coming out!"
Soon after Revere and William Dawes arrived in Lexington, Samuel Adams and John Hancock fled for safety. Everyone knew what to do upon hearing the warning. Literally within minutes, men throughout the town were dressing hastily and reaching for their muskets, while wives packed a few provisions in their shoulder bags; the local militia were soon rallying at Buckman's under the leadership of Captain John Parker, who ordered the militiamen into formation outside the tavern on Lexington Green. Parker told the men that upon the arrival of the British Regulars, not to "meddle or make with said Regular troops unless they should assault or molest us," in which case they should "disperse and not to fire."
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The Lexington Militia began to gather up their accouterments at a reenactment. |
As the Redcoats had not yet made it to Lexington, the men eventually went into the tavern, emptying their firelocks beforehand, as etiquette would have, before passing through the entry, to await the arrival of the British troops, for it was common practice at the time to not enter a tavern with loaded musketry.
Now, many people do not know that at this same time in these wee morning hours of April 19, while the militiamen gathered inside Buckman's, Paul Revere, in an attempt to get to Concord after leaving Lexington, was captured by British scouts. It was not just Revere being held, but a few other men as well. But Paul Revere was known amongst the British scouts, and he was roughed up a bit, and threatened with having his "brains blown out" if he didn't tell them the truth about what he knew of the Patriot's plans. Luckily a short time after, upon hearing gunfire coming from the direction of Lexington, the British scouts, in order to move much more quickly to warn their commanders of the coming events from the information they had extracted from Revere and the other riders, set their captives free, though taking their horses. The gunfire the Redcoats heard came from the militiamen emptying their firelocks before entering the tavern, as mentioned above, and not from a skirmish between the two groups, as they had thought.
Elijah Sanderson continues: After some conversation among the citizens assembled there, an old gentleman advised, that some one should follow those officers and endeavor to ascertain their object. I then observed, that if any one would let me have a horse, I would go in pursuit. Thaddeus Harrington told me I might take his, which was there.
It had been rumoured, that the British officers had threatened, that Hancock and Adams should not stay at Lexington. They had been boarding some time at Parson Clarke's. We set out in pursuit. Just before we got to Brook's in Lincoln, while riding along, we were stopped by nine British officers, who were paraded across the road. They were all mounted. One rode up and seized my bridle, and another my arm, and one put his pistol to my breast, and told me, if l resisted, I was a dead main. I asked what he wanted. He replied he wanted to detain me a little while. While (I was) under detention they look two other prisoners, one Allen, a one-handed peddler, and Col. Paul Revere.
They kept us (prisoners) in the middle of the road, and rode on each side of us. We went toward Lexington.
When we had arrived within fifty or one hundred rod of the meeting house, Loring (as he afterwards informed me) told them, 'The bell's a ringing, the town's alarmed, and you're all dead men.' They then stopped—conferred together. One then dismounted, and ordered me to dismount. (T)hen mounted, they rode in a good smart trot on toward Boston. We then turned off to pass through the swamp, through the mud and water, intending to arrive at the meeting house before they could pass, to give information to our people. Just before they got to the meeting house, they had bolted, which led us to hope, we should get there first; but they soon started off again at full speed, and we saw no more of them.
Sanderson went on: In short time after, the drum beat, and I ran out to the common, where the militia were parading. The captain ordered them to fall in. I then fell in. I was all in the utmost haste. The British troops were then coming on in full sight. I had no musket: having sent it home, the night previous, by my brother, before I started for Concord-and, reflecting I was of no use, I stepped out again from the company, about two rods, and was gazing at the British, coming on in full career. Several mounted British officers were forward—I think, five—The commander rode up, with his pistol in his hand, on a canter, the others following, to about eight or ten rods from the company perhaps nearer, and ordered them to disperse. The words he used were harsh. I cannot remember them exactly. He then said 'Fire' and he fired his own pistol, and the other officers soon fired, and with that the main body came up and fired, but did not take sight.
Let's also take this opportunity to see what happened to Mr. Revere, in his own written words, after he made it back to Lexington following his failed attempt to go to Concord (this being a combination of two accounts, one written in 1783, and the other, more well known, written in 1798):
I went to the tavern. The citizens were coming and going; Some went down to find whether the British were coming; some came back; and said there was no truth in it. I went to sleep in my chair by the fire.
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| Inside of the actual Buckman's Tavern~ Taverns were the pulse of 18th century urban life, and their importance to the local community cannot be overstated. These "publick houses" (or 'ordinaries,' as they were also known) have played an important part in social, political, and even military life, though we see them taking more of a back seat in their role in our Nation's history. |
Definite word reached the men inside Buckman's, just before sunrise, that the Regulars were not too far out of town, and Captain Parker's company of militiamen prepared themselves for whatever event that might occur.
The firearms of these militiamen were as varied as the men themselves, and, as noted in David Hackett Fischer's Paul Revere's Ride, many men on this early April 19th morn armed themselves with weapons not designed for war. One man carried a "long fowling piece, without a bayonet, a horn of powder, and a seal skin pouch, filled with bullets and buckshot." Some carried arms of great antiquity. You see, most towns expected individual militiamen to supply their own weapons, and acted only to arm those who were unable to arm themselves. The most common types of firearms at Lexington & Concord were the long-barreled export fowler and the New England musket (as was carried by John Parker).
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| Writing of the occurrences of April 18, 1775 |
They loaded again as soon as possible. All was smoke when the foot fired. I heard no particular orders after what the commander first said. I looked and seeing nobody fall [th]ought to be sure they couldn't be firing balls and I did not move off. After our militia had dispersed, I saw them firing at one man, (Solomon Brown,) who was stationed behind a wall, I saw the wall smoke with the bullets hitting it. I they knew they were firing balls.
After the affair was over, he told me he fired into a solid column of them, and then retreated. He was in the cow-yard. The wall saved him. He legged it just about the time I went away. In a minute or two after, the British music struck up, and their troops paraded and marched right off for Concord."
“Mr. Lowell (a clerk to John Hancock) asked me to go to the tavern with him, to get a trunk of papers belonging to Mr. Hancock. We went up chamber, and while we were getting the trunk, we saw the British very near, upon a full march. Before we left the house, I
saw the ministerial troops from the chamber window. We made haste - we hurried toward Mr. Clark's house, and had to
pass through our militia, who were on a green behind the Meeting House, to the
number as I supposed, about 50 or 60, I went through them; as I passed I heard
the commanding officer speak to his men to this purpose; ''Let the troops pass
by, and don't molest them, without they begin first.'' I had to go across road; but had not got half gunshot off when the ministerial troops appeared in
sight, behind the Meeting House. They made a short halt, when one gun was
fired, which appeared to be a pistol. I heard the report, turned my head, and saw the smoke in front of the
troops. Then I could distinguish two guns. They immediately gave a great shout, ran a few paces, and then a continual roar of musketry, I could first distinguish irregular firing, which I supposed was
the advance guard, and then platoons; at this time I could not see our militia, for they were covered from me by a house at the bottom of the street...(then) we made off with the trunk."
Without fully realizing it at the time, Mr. Revere witnessed the very beginnings of the first real battle for America's fight for Independence.
The following description comes from the various book sources utilized throughout this text. It is in this narrative we find ourselves in the midst of that first great skirmish::As British Colonel Francis Smith approached the town, it became clear that the countryside had been alerted and the element of surprise lost. As the Regulars rounded a gentle turn in the road, the Village of Lexington came into view.
As the Regulars came closer, they saw Captain Parker's militia near the northeast corner of the Common, hurrying into line. One militiaman turned to his captain and said, "There are so few of us it is folly to stand here."
Captain Parker turned to his men and replied, "The first man who offers to run shall be shot down!" And then he said, "Stand your ground! Don't fire unless fired upon! But if they want to have a war, let it begin here!"
The mood was dark. Nearly everyone believed that this was no mere drill or demonstration. On both sides, there was a strange and fatal feeling that bloodshed was inevitable. To his men Captain Parker said, "Let the troops pass by. Don't molest them without they being first."
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| Lexington Common Don Troiani painting |
Just as the Regulars were forming on the Common, Paul Revere and John Lockwell had emerged from the Buckman Tavern with John Hancock's trunk. Their route took them directly through the ranks of soldiers.
The men studied the red-coated soldiers, only yards away. To men on both sides, time itself seemed to stop---a temporal illusion that often occurs in moments of mortal danger. When the mind moves at lightning speed, the world itself seems to slow down.
As the Regulars came closer, an officer was heard to say, "Damn them! We will have them!"
Men on both sides heard the cry from a Regular officer say, "Lay down your arms, you damned rebels!" And militiaman John Robbins heard the foremost officer yell, "Throw down your arms, ye villains, ye rebels!" Jonas Clarke heard an officer say, "Ye villains, ye rebels, disperse, damn you, disperse!"
Captain Parker later testified, "I immediately ordered our militia to disperse and not to fire."
Though some scattered, some remained.
Some also began to move backwards and to both sides. Jonas Clarke wrote, "Upon this, our men dispersed, but not so speedily as they might have done." In the confusion, some of the militia did not hear the order and stayed where they were. None of the militia laid down their arms.
A shot rang out---some say they saw a cloud of white smoke in front of the Regulars. Others say it came from near the tavern. For our reenactment I had our historic gun presenter hide behind a tree and fire a shot. As David Hackett Fischer wrote, "We shall never know who fired first at Lexington, or why. But everyone on the Common saw what happened next. The British infantry heard the shot, and began to fire without orders. Their officers could not control them.
Then came, as Paul Revere later wrote in a deposition, a "continual roar of musketry" along the British line.
The British firing made at first a slow irregular popping sound. Then suddenly there was a terrible ripping noise like the tearing of a sheet as (they) fired their first volley. Then one British soldier turned and fired toward a man behind a wall. "I saw the wall smoke with the bullets hitting it. I knew they were firing balls."
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| The battle begins - - Lexington Common |
"I immediately ran, and a volley was discharged at me, which put me in imminent danger."
Heavy lead musket balls flew in all directions, making a low whizzing noise which sounded to some like a swarm of bees. The Common was shrouded in dense clouds of dirty white smoke. One militiaman remembered, "All was smoke when the Foot fired." Another recalled that, "the smoke prevented our seeing anything but the heads of some of their horses." '
From the book Paul Revere & the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes, we get an up-close and personal view of this battle from a citizens point of view:
"Aunt Lydia had been hanging out of an upper window to watch. A bullet whizzed by her head and hit the barn. "What's that?" They told her a bullet and she'd best take care of herself. And Jonathan Harrington, shot through the chest, was able to crawl the few yards to his own door and die there. Jonas Parker, brought to his knees by the British fire, had been finished off by a bayonet.
Two of the wounded were carried to Reverend Clarks'. Miss Dolly remembered that the one who had been grazed insisted that he was killed, and the one who had been really wounded "behaved better."'
Heavy lead musket balls flew in all directions, making a low whizzing noise which sounded to some like a swarm of bees. The Common was shrouded in dense clouds of dirty white smoke. One militiaman remembered, "All was smoke when the Foot fired." Another recalled that, "the smoke prevented our seeing anything but the heads of some of their horses." '
From the book Paul Revere & the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes, we get an up-close and personal view of this battle from a citizens point of view:
"Aunt Lydia had been hanging out of an upper window to watch. A bullet whizzed by her head and hit the barn. "What's that?" They told her a bullet and she'd best take care of herself. And Jonathan Harrington, shot through the chest, was able to crawl the few yards to his own door and die there. Jonas Parker, brought to his knees by the British fire, had been finished off by a bayonet.
Two of the wounded were carried to Reverend Clarks'. Miss Dolly remembered that the one who had been grazed insisted that he was killed, and the one who had been really wounded "behaved better."'
A few Americans managed to get off a shot or two.
Some of the men were determined to stand their ground and fight back.
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| Shots fired at Lexington! |
"As he lay on the ground, they run him through with the bayonet."
The Redcoats were able to pass through with relative few obstacles and carried on with their march to Concord.
So, the essential facts about the Battle of Lexington are well known: On April 19, 1775, a British force marching toward Concord, Massachusetts, encountered the Lexington militia drawn up on the town green. The British commander ordered the militia to disperse. Shots were fired, then a ragged volley from the British. Some of the militiamen returned fire but those who weren’t killed or wounded were driven off. Eight of the militiamen were killed and ten were wounded. One British soldier was wounded. This battle— barely a skirmish by most standards—was the first exchange of gunfire in the Revolutionary War. Questions about the battle remain, including who fired the first shot and how much resistance the militia offered before dispersing. Evidence about these questions is limited and some is conflicting.
Since photography was not invented until decades later, there are no photographs of the Battle of Lexington. The first depiction of the battle was created by two young militiamen, Ralph Earl and Amos Doolittle. Neither witnessed the battle. However, they visited the site a few weeks later, spoke with participants, and created a sketch of the battle. Earl probably drew the picture — he later became an accomplished artist. Doolittle, a Connecticut silversmith, took the drawing and engraved it on a printing plate. He published the engraving in December 1775. The original drawing was probably lost or destroyed.
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| ~Perhaps the most authentic depiction of the Battle at Lexington~ One of the first things that occur to any viewer is that the militiamen in the engraving don’t look very organized and aren’t particularly heroic. Most are leaving the scene. The British are delivering an organized volley. None of the Americans is returning fire. A few are looking toward the British but most are fleeing, leaving the green scattered with dead and wounded men. |
It is said that Earl and Doolittle chose this moment because not only did witnesses describe the scene to Earl and Doolittle and the two artists tried to depict the battle as faithfully as possible, but they wanted to depict the Lexington militiamen as victims of British tyranny and oppression. The fact that they sought to convey was that the Lexington militia had been drawn up on the Lexington Green and were shot down by British soldiers. The reaction the artists sought to illicit from people who saw the engraving was outrage. They clearly hoped that outrage would win people for the patriot cause.
Between the news of the event and, perhaps to a lesser extent, it worked.
As soon as the patriots dispersed, the detachment of Regulars pushed on toward Concord, six miles distant. As the British troops disappeared into the west, the people of the town gathered on the Common. There was, at first, a sense of shock, a terrible numb and empty feeling of cruel and bitter loss. The result of this British charge left eight Americans dead, nine wounded, and a musket hole in the door of the Buckman.
Some of the men who survived now wore bloody bandages. A few had faces and shirts blackened by powder stains.
The people of Lexington asked themselves, who were these arrogant men in their proud red coats? By what right did they act as they did?
This goes right along with the story that Mary Hartwell of Lincoln, who was a witness to the events, liked to tell her grandchildren.
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| Dawes, Revere, and Prescott |
Violet made it to Mary and Sam Hartwell's house, and Mary took over and relayed the message to Smith's house.
Bells were rung, thus the Lincoln Minutemen were warned in time, and arrived at the North Bridge before the British soldiers got there.
(from the Minuteman National Park Service website as well as the Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution by Benson J. Lossing.)
From Sudbury, we hear of the awakening of the town as the events of the day unfolded:
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| I must warn Master Plympton that the Regulars are on the march! |
"An
express came from Concord to (the home of) Thomas Plympton Esq., who was then a member of the
Provincial Congress, in that the British were on their way to Concord - between
4 and 5 o'clock in the morning. The sexton was immediately called on the bell
ringing and the discharge of Musket which was to give the alarm. By sunrise the
greatest part of the inhabitants were notified. The morning was remarkably fine
and the inhabitants of Sudbury never can make such an important appearance
probably again."
Thomas Plympton had a son named Ebenezer Plympton. Ebenezer is listed on the muster role as a private in Captain Aaron Haynes' Company of Militia (North Militia 1775) which was part of the Alarm Company that marched to Cambridge by Concord during the Lexington Alarm on the nineteenth of April, 1775. He was also part of Captain Asahel Wheeler's company in 1777.
Thomas Plympton had a son named Ebenezer Plympton. Ebenezer is listed on the muster role as a private in Captain Aaron Haynes' Company of Militia (North Militia 1775) which was part of the Alarm Company that marched to Cambridge by Concord during the Lexington Alarm on the nineteenth of April, 1775. He was also part of Captain Asahel Wheeler's company in 1777.
After the War, Ebenezer continued to serve his town as his ancestors had
before him, for he was a Deacon as well as the town Magistrate (the judge of a
police court) of Sudbury.
This very same Plympton House, pictured above, now sits inside historic Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, restored to its original 18th century charm.
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| Josiah Walpole Hall |
Now let's take a rare opportunity to actually look into the eyes of two men who were indeed a part of that first day's battle (taken from the book, The Last Muster - Images of the Revolutionary War Generation by Maureen Taylor).
Twenty two year old minuteman Josiah
Walpole Hall, upon hearing the warning muskets and bells, traveled the road from Walpole to Concord, Massachusetts, in the early hours of April 19, 1775, to deliver the message that General
Gage's regulars were crossing the Charles River to march to Lexington to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock for treason and
then to Concord to seize the
cannon and military stores there.
During the war that followed, Hall
served in Colonel Joseph Read's Regiment.
He died at South Walpole, Massachusetts, at the age of 101
He died at South Walpole, Massachusetts, at the age of 101
As for this next fellow, I am not sure, but I do suspect that there was a relation between this Jonathan Harrington and the Jonathan Harrington mentioned earlier, who had died at the door of his home:
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| Here is a daguerreotype of Jonathan Harrington from the early 1850s. You are looking into the eyes of history - the eyes that actually saw the Battle of Lexington and Concord! (from the collection of the Lexington, Massachusetts Historical Society) |
And from the above-mentioned book, The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution (published in 1850, by the way), we hear more about Mr. Harrington. You see, author Benson Lossing realized
that people of his generation knew about the battles fought in their own
regions, but very little about the battles outside of their area, and he
considered it important to capture that information prior to its being lost. Lossing
sketched landmarks as they existed at the time of his travels to make sure that
they were recorded for the "admiration and reverence of remote
posterity." The result of his travels is this three-volume set, which
includes in-depth interviews with veterans, including Jonathan Harrington.
Lossing, I have read, was awed to be in the company of a man who was present at the first battle of the Revolution, and in his own words wrote of his excitement:
Lossing, I have read, was awed to be in the company of a man who was present at the first battle of the Revolution, and in his own words wrote of his excitement:
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| Here is the sketch of Jonathan Harrington drawn by historian and author, Benson J. Lossing, in October 1848. The signature is Mr. Harrington's. |
"I hastened to East Lexington to visit
Jonathan Harrington, an old man of ninety, who played the fife when the minute
men were marshaled on the Green upon that memorable April morning. He was
splitting fire-wood in his yard with a vigorous hand when I rode up; and as he
sat in his rocking-chair, while I sketched his placid features, he appeared no
older than a man of seventy. His brother, aged eighty-eight, came in before my
sketch was finished, and I could not but gaze with wonder upon these strong old
men, children of one mother, who were almost grown to manhood when the first
battle of our Revolution occurred! Frugality and temperance, co-operating with
industry, a cheerful temper, and a good constitution, have lengthened their
days, and made their protracted years hopeful and happy. The aged fifer apologized for the rough appearance of his signature, which he
kindly wrote for me, and charged the tremulous motion of his hand to his labor
with the ax. How tenaciously we cling even to the appearance of vigor, when the
whole frame is tottering to its fall! Mr. Harrington opened the ball of the
Revolution with the shrill war-notes of the fife, and then retired from the
arena. He was not a soldier in the war, nor has his life, passed in the
quietude of rural pursuits, been distinguished except by the glorious acts
which constitute the sum of the achievements of a GOOD CITIZEN.
I wonder if Lossing asked Harrington to play a tune on the fife? I certainly would have asked if that had been me!Now we read of another one who was "there" - - in 1843, Mellon Chamberlain interviewed an old Rev War soldier known as Capt. Levi Preston as to what he did and thought sixty eight years before, on April 19, 1775, during the battle of Lexington & Concord. And here is the answer he received (written in Chamberlain's own words):
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| Capt. Preston |
"Captain Preston, why did you go to the
Concord fight, the 19th of April, 1775?"
The old man bowed beneath the weight of years, raised himself upright, and turning to me said, "Why did I go?"
"Yes," I replied; "my histories tell me you men of the Revolution took up arms against 'intolerable oppressions.'"
"Yes," I replied; "my histories tell me you men of the Revolution took up arms against 'intolerable oppressions.'"
"What were they? Oppressions? I didn't feel
them."
"What, were you not oppressed by the Stamp
Act?"
"I never saw one of those stamps, and always
understood that Governor Bernard put them all in Castle William. I am certain I
never paid a penny for one of them."
"Well, what then about the tea-tax?"
"Tea-tax! I never drank a drop of the stuff; the boys threw it all overboard."
"Then I suppose you had been reading
Harrington or Sydney and Locke about the eternal principles of liberty."
"Never heard of 'em. We only read the Bible, the Catechism, Watt's Psalms and Hymns, and the Almanack."
"Well then, what was the matter? And what did
you mean in going to the fight?"
"Young man, what we meant in going for those
red-coats was this: we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They (the British) didn't mean we should."
Moving on...
At Concord’s North Bridge, the British Regulars turned and looked up the hill in amazement at the men coming toward them. Leading the way down from Punkatasset Hill to confront the British troops at the bridge were the minutemen of Acton, Massachusetts, who were one of the few companies to be fully equipped with bayonets and cartridge boxes that allowed a greater rate of fire than powder horns. Behind the Acton company were minutemen from other towns, followed by the militia.
 | |
| Slowly the British Regulars
began to understand that this was no rural rabble confronting them. |
It
has been questioned whether or not “The White Cockade” was played on
April 19th, 1775. A deposition from Charles Handley, a 13
year old boy who was at the Widow Brown’s tavern a mile from North Bridge, clearly
states that he heard it as the Acton Company passed the tavern: “They marched
quite fast to the music of a fife and drum,” he said many years later, “I
remember the tune, but am not sure of its name…I think it was called ‘The White
Cockade.’” Handley then whistled the notes, which were verified by the
listener to be the tune in question. This seems to be the only eyewitness
account of a specific tune being played at a specific time.
Hmmm...I wonder where Jonathan Harrington fits in with all of this...
Hmmm...I wonder where Jonathan Harrington fits in with all of this...
 |
| Could this be Phebe Emerson? |
When the enemy approached the town, the Americans then collectively retired across the North Bridge to the high ground beyond it, and then waited for the reinforcements from the adjacent counties.
Concord resident, Phebe Bliss Emerson, the minister's wife, was deeply frightened. According to family tradition, Phebe was "delicate," a euphemism that commonly referred to a mental state rather than a physical condition. She had heard the alarm from her African slave, Frank, who came running into her chamber with an axe in his hand, shouting that the Redcoats were coming. Mrs. Emerson turned white as a Concord coverlet and fainted away on the spot. When she revived, she looked around for her husband and saw him outside in the yard helping people of the town who had gathered in front of the Old Manse (their home). Phebe Emerson rapped sharply on the windowpane to get her husband's attention, and told him that, "she thought she needed him as much as the others."
(From the Diaries and Letters of William Emerson and taken as written from "Paul Revere's Ride" by David Hackett Fischer)
As the Regulars drew near, the throb of their drums could be heard.
The enemy halted near the meeting-house, sent parties of troops to various places in the town in search of publick stores, and detached men to take possession of the bridge, over which the militia had retreated.
The militiamen were ordered to load their weapons. Many had done so already; some deliberately double-shotted their muskets. There were strict orders not to fire unless the British fired first. It was agreed by the leaders that if the fighting began, which was felt to be inevitable, the Regulars must start it.
The Regulars at the bridge never imagined these 'country people' would dare to march against the King's troops.
Suddenly a shot rang out.
Captain Walter Laurie saw with horror that one of his own Regulars had fired without orders. Then two other British soldiers fired before he could stop them. Then the front ranks of British troops discharged a ragged volley, much in the same manner as in Lexington. The infantry fired high, and most of their volley passed harmlessly over the heads of the militia. Thaddeus Blood remembered that "their balls whistled well." Captain Davis of Acton was killed instantly by a ball that pierced his heart. The arterial blood squirted from his wound, and drenched the men beside him. Private Hosmer was shot dead with a bullet to the head. Still the Americans came on steadily with a discipline that astonished their enemy.
As men began to fall around him, Major Buttrick of Concord turned and cried, "Fire, fellow soldiers, for God's sake, fire!"
The New England muskets rang out with deadly accuracy by aiming carefully and firing low. Of eight British officers at the North Bridge, four were hit in the first American fire, and at least three privates were killed. On top of that, nine others were wounded.
Recent hours of practice on the training field had made a difference.
"The infantry fired high, and most of their volley passed harmlessly over the heads of the militia."
Historically at Concord, the Regulars found themselves caught in a trap. The New England minutemen and militia were deployed in two long files curving down the hill along the causeway. Many men in that formation had a clear shot. The British soldiers were packed in a deep churning mass; only the front rank could fire. The loss of officers compounded the confusion.
To the amazement of the American militia, the Regulars suddenly turned and ran for their lives. It was a rare spectacle in military history.
A picked force of British infantry, famed for its indomitable courage on many a field in battle, was broken by a band of American militia.
British Ensign Lister wrote, "The weight of their fire was such that we was obliged to give way, then run with the greatest precipitance."
The British light infantry ran pell-mell back toward Concord center, defying their officers and abandoning their wounded, who were left to painfully drag themselves away.
The American militia watched, less in exhilaration than in what seems to have been a kind of shock, as the Regulars disappeared in the distance, followed by wounded men "hobbling and a-running and looking back to see if we was after them."
Notes from nearby Acton from Hannah Davis, wife of Isaac:
 |
| On this spot... |
I assisted in carrying some of the dead into the meeting house.
In the afternoon I saw the reinforcement come up under Lord Percy. I then had no musket; and retired to Easterbrook’s Hill, whence I saw the reinforcement meet the troops retreating from Concord. When they met, they halted some time. After this, they set fire to Deacon Boring's barn—then to his house—then to widow Mullikan's house—then to the shop of Nathanial Mullikan, a watch and clock maker—and to the house and shop of Joshua Bond. All these were near the place where the reinforcements took refreshments. They hove fire into several other buildings. It was extinguished after their retreat.
During the day the women and children had been so scattered and dispersed that most of them were out of the way when the reinforcements arrived.
I now own the musket, which I then owned and which my brother had that day, and told me he fired at the British with it."
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| "Retreat of the British From Concord" by James Smilie Concord must have been such a chaotic state on that April 19th in 1775. |
From British
officer Lieut. Col. Smith, who took part in the skirmish at Lexington and Concord, describing the return back to Boston in a letter to the Massachusetts Governor Gage:
Boston, April 22, 1775
"While at Concord we
saw vast numbers assembling in many parts; at one of the bridges they marched
down, with a very considerable body, on the light infantry posted there. On
their coming pretty near, one of our men fired on them, which they returned; on
which an action ensued, and some few were killed and wounded. In this affair, it appears that after the bridge was quitted, they scalped and otherwise
ill-treated one or two of the men who were either killed or severely wounded, being seen by a party that marched by soon after.
At Concord we found
very few inhabitants in the town; those we met with both Major Pitcairn and
myself took all possible pains to convince that we meant them no injury, and
that if they opened their doors when required to search for military stores, not the slightest mischief would be done. We had opportunities of convincing
them of our good intentions, but they were sulky; and one of them even struck
Major Pitcairn.
On our leaving
Concord to return to Boston, they began to fire on us from behind the walls, ditches, trees, etc., which, as we marched, increased to a very great degree, and continued without the intermission of five minutes altogether, for, I
believe, upwards of eighteen miles; so that I can't think but it must have been
a preconcerted scheme in them, to attack the King's troops the first favorable
opportunity that offered, otherwise, I think they could not, in so short a time
as from our marching out, have raised such a numerous body, and for so great a
space of ground. Notwithstanding the enemy's numbers, they did not make one
gallant effort during so long an action, though our men were so very much
fatigued, but kept under cover.
 |
| "Our men had had very few good opportunities of getting good shots at the Rebels, as they hardly ever fired but under cover of a stone wall, from behind a tree, or out of a house" |
I have the honor,
etc.
F. Smith, Lt-Col. 10th Foot."
F. Smith, Lt-Col. 10th Foot."
Here is a portion from the Diary of Lt. Frederick Mackenzie of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (one of the oldest infantry regiments in the British Army), telling of his own similar experience:
19 April
During the whole of the march from Lexington the Rebels kept an incessant irregular fire from all points at the column, which was the more galling as our flanking parties, which at first were placed at sufficient distances to cover the march of it, were at last, from the different obstructions they occasionally met with, obliged to keep almost close to it. Our men had had very few good opportunities of getting good shots at the Rebels, as they hardly ever fired but under cover of a stone wall, from behind a tree, or out of a house; and the moment they had fired they lay down out of sight until they had loaded again or the column had passed. In the road indeed in our rear, they were most numerous and came on pretty close, frequently calling out, "King Hancock forever!"
Few or no women or children were to be seen throughout the day. As the country had undoubted intelligence that some troops were to march out, and the Rebels were probably determined to attack them, it is generally supposed they had previously removed their families from the neighbourhood...
 |
| "They did not fight us like a regular army, only like savages behind trees and stone walls, and out of the woods and houses, where in the latter we killed numbers of them." |
Next we have a portion of a letter to Boston Governor Gage from Brigadier General Percy Hugh of the 5th Regiment of Foot:
Boston, 20 April, 1775
As all the houses were shut up and there was not the appearance of a single inhabitant, I could get no intelligence concerning them till I had passed Menotomy, where I was informed that the Rebels had attacked His Majesty's troops, who were retiring, overpowered by numbers, greatly exhausted and fatigued, and having expended almost all their ammunition. And about 2 o'clock I met them retiring through the town of Lexington.
As soon as they saw us begin to retire, they pressed very much upon our rear-guard, which for that reason I relieved every now and then. In this manner we retired for 15 miles under an incessant fire all around us, till we arrived at Charlestown between 7 and 8 in the evening, very much fatiqued with a march above 30 miles, and having expended almost all our ammunition.
 |
| It was a very precarious retreat to Boston for the Regulars Photo courtesy of the Boston Discovery Guide |
There is a story generally known around the Lexington/Concord area of a middle aged man named Hezekiah Wyman. In fact, on that fateful day - April 19, 1775 - it's said that Hezekiah turned 55 years of age. As the story goes, upon hearing of (or possibly witnessing) the occurrence on the village green where the townsmen of Lexington were over run by the Regulars, he saddled up his old white mare and, against the wishes of his wife, galloped on a course toward Concord. It did not take long before he met with a column of British infantry then fired at a Regular who advanced toward him, bringing the soldier down. Being highly visible - he was described as a "tall, gaunt" man with long gray hair - he became known as "Death on a Pale Horse" by those who saw him and grew to fear the sight of this crack shot, for he would jump off his horse, steady his aim with his musket, take a deliberate shot and hit his mark, then jump back on his mare to find a new position.
Hezekiah Wyman died in 1779.
The man was a real person...but some say his story is a myth...hmmm...
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| Off to fight...Concord |
She said: "Your grandfather, who
was sergeant, left the house, joining the neighbors as soon as the alarm
reached us. I did up the chores at the barn, and cared for the children as well
as I could in my anxiety. When thus occupied, a colored woman who lived near us
came in to spread the news of the approach of the British, but was afraid to go
farther; so I said, "If you will take care of my baby, I will go and give
the warning." I started for a neighbor's house, glancing down the road, and saw such a sight as I can never forget. The army of the king was coming up
in fine order, their red coats were brilliant, and their bayonets glistening in
the sunlight made a fine appearance; but I knew what all that meant, and I
feared that I should never see your grandfather again, although I then knew
nothing of their bloody work at Lexington.
"'I saw an occasional horseman dashing
by, going up and down, but heard nothing more until I saw them coming back in
the afternoon, all in confusion, wild with rage, and loud with threats. I knew
there had been trouble, and that it had not resulted favorably for that
retreating army. I heard the musket-shots just below, by the old Brooks Tavern, and trembled, believing that our folks were killed. Some of the rough, angry
soldiers rushed up to this house and fired in; but fortunately for me and the
children, the shots went into the garret, and we were safe. How glad I was when
they all got by the house, and your grandfather and our neighbors reached home
alive!'"
The scenes that followed the alarm, when it reached other homes in the town, were in some respects like those at the home of Samuel Hartwell. Says Mr. Farrar, a grandson of Captain Samuel of the company of militia, and the owner and occupant of one of the Farrar dwellings on the old homestead, "My grandfather was on his way to mill in the early dawn when he heard of the trouble. Throwing his saddle-bags containing the grist over a wall, he made haste to rally his men, and went on to Concord."
From the book "Soldier of the American Revolution" by Denis Hambucken and Bill Payson:
 |
| I started for a neighbor's house, glancing down the road, and saw such a sight as I can never forget. The army of the king was coming up in fine order, their red coats were brilliant, and their bayonets glistening in the sunlight made a fine appearance Picture courtesy of the Boston Discovery Guide |
The scenes that followed the alarm, when it reached other homes in the town, were in some respects like those at the home of Samuel Hartwell. Says Mr. Farrar, a grandson of Captain Samuel of the company of militia, and the owner and occupant of one of the Farrar dwellings on the old homestead, "My grandfather was on his way to mill in the early dawn when he heard of the trouble. Throwing his saddle-bags containing the grist over a wall, he made haste to rally his men, and went on to Concord."
From the book "Soldier of the American Revolution" by Denis Hambucken and Bill Payson:
On paper, the militias were outclassed by the better trained, better equipped British Army. They possessed, however, a few significant advantages. The word "aim" was not part of the British army's vernacular. In the tradition of European warfare, large battalions faced off on open terrain, needing only to point their muskets in the direction of enemy formations to achieve effective fire. Americans were superior marksmen, being accustomed to firearms and hunting from childhood. From a long history of conflicts from Native Americans, they had learned to adopt a more modern style of guerrilla warfare. Americans fought best in wooded terrain where they could engage in fighting retreats and make the most of the familiar ground to find cover and take careful aim.
The people, here as elsewhere, had become
so alarmed by premonitions of evil that this morning's intelligence was enough
to cause them to believe that neither life nor property was safe within the
range of the invading army. Says Mr. Farrar, "The Concord families living
nearest to our home fled this way for safety, and with my grandmother and
others of the family left this house, and took refuge in 'Oaky Bottom,' a
retired piece of forest land about one-half mile in the rear of the house, still known by that name in our community. Grandmother in her haste had
sufficient self-possession to think of the cattle tied in the barn. These she
let loose, desiring to save them from the flames that she expected would be
kindled by Gage's army. She took her babe, Samuel (the third), in her arms, the
large family Bible, a loaf of bread, and a looking-glass, with what little
silver she had, and bade farewell to the old dwelling, never expecting to
gather her family about her again beneath that ancestral roof. Every little
while they would venture out far enough to look over the hill to see if the
soldiers had set the house on fire."
To
appreciate the situation of these people and others, one must
place themselves in thought back to that April morning, having in mind the many
real threats and the more unwarranted alarms that had emanated from the army at
Boston.
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| marker photo courtesy of Find-a-Grave |
On Lexington Green, eleven year old Elizabeth Clarke, the daughter of
Reverend Jonas Clarke, watched as the dead were gathered up and laid in
plain pine boxes "made of four large boards nailed up. After Pa had prayed, they were put into two large horse carts and took into the graveyard (where he) and some of the neighbors had made a large trench as near the woods as
possible, and there we followed the bodies of the first slain, father
and mother, I and the baby. There I stood, and there I saw them let down
into the ground. It was a little rainy, but we waited to see them
covered up with the clods. And then for fear the British should find
them, my father thought some of the men had best cut some pine or oak
boughs and spread them on their place of burial so that it looked like a
heap of brush."
Upon seeing they were at a loss, Major General Francis Smith and Major John Pitcairn ordered a return to Boston, which devolved into a rout as the British were attacked from all sides by swarms of angry Minute Men along what is now known as Battle Road. When they reach Lexington, Parker’s men took their revenge for the violence suffered that morning, firing on the British regulars from behind cover. For the next 12 miles, the British were continually ambushed by Minute Men shooting from behind trees, rock walls, and buildings.
 |
| Colonel Barrett's house and how it looks today. |
Four companies of light infantry marched to Colonel Barrett's house and mill (James Barrett was Colonel of the Concord, Massachusetts militia. His farm was the storage site of all the town of Concord's militia gunpowder, weapons and two pairs of prized bronze cannons, according to secret British intelligence), which only a few weeks earlier had indeed been an important arsenal. But since April 7, when Paul Revere carried his first warning to Concord, the town had been hard at work, moving military supplies to safety. Much material had been sent to Sudbury, Stow, and other places. What remained was hidden with high cunning. At the last minute, Colonel Barrett's sons plowed a field on his farm, planted weapons in the fresh furrows, and covered them over again. The British soldiers passed by without a second thought, little suspecting the crop that has been sown there. British Ensign De Berniere wrote in frustration, "We did not find so much as we expected." In fact, they found scarcely anything at all.
 |
| British Burning Patriots' Goods in a Bonfire at Colonel Barrett's House (From a print given to me) |
The British troops took their time at Barrett's house. After the long night march, they were tired and hungry, and several demanded breakfast from Mrs. Barrett. She gave them food and drink, saying coldly, "We are commanded to feed our enemy if he hungers." They offered to pay. When she refused, the soldiers tossed a few shillings into her lap. She told them, "This is the price of blood."
I've read nothing about the Redcoats burning anything, by the way.
At three-fifteen pm, Brigadier Hugh Percy ordered his troops, now eighteen hundred strong, back to Boston.
Looting began even before the column cleared Lexington. In light infantry slang, "lob" meant plunder taken without opposition; "grab" was booty taken by force. "There never was a more expert set than the light infantry at either grab, lob, or gutting a house," a British officer later acknowledged. Lieutenant Barker complained in his diary that soldiers on the return march "were so wild and irregular that there was no keeping 'em in any order...The plundering was shameful." Sheets snatched from beds served as peddler's packs to carry beaver hats, spinning wheels, mirrors, goatskin breeches, an eight-day clock, delftware, earrings, a Bible with silver clasps, a dung fork. "Many houses were plundered," Lieutenant Mackenzie wrote. "I have no doubt this enflamed the Rebels...Some soldiers who stayed too long in the houses were killed in the very act of plundering."
Every mile brought heavier fire. "We were attacked on all sides," wrote Captain Glanville Evelyn, whose King's Own company accompanied Percy, "from woods and orchards and stone walls, and from every house on the road...They are the most absolute cowards on the face of the earth." The day's bloodiest fighting erupted in Menotomy---street to street, house to house,. room to room. Here twenty five Americans and forty British would die, with scored more wounded. "All that were found in the houses," Lieutenant Barker wrote, "were put to death."
 |
| There and back with approximate times |
Over a hundred British bullets perforated Cooper's Tavern while the innkeeper and his wife cowered in the cellar. Two unarmed patrons were killed upstairs , according to a deposition, "their brains dashed across the floor and walls." At the Jason Russell house, Danvers militiamen piled up shingles as a breastwork in the yard only to be outflanked and caught in a British cross fire. Some fled into the house as balls poured through the windows, "making havoc of glass." Russell was shot on his doorstep and bayoneted nearly a dozen times. Timothy Munroe ran for his life and escaped, despite a bullet in the leg and buttons on his waistcoat shot away. Eight militiamen who barricaded themselves in the cellar survived after shooting a Regular who ventured down the stairs, but others upstairs were killed, perhaps executed. A dozen bodies later were laid side by side in the south room, their blood soaking the plank floor.
"We retired for fifteen miles under an incessant fire, which like a moving circle, surrounded and followed us wherever we went.," Percy would write the following day. "It was impossible not to lose a good many men."
Rather than returning via the only bridge over the Charles River, he ordered the column to pivot left onto Kent's Lane and head for Charlestown. The route would require ferrying his men into Boston, but Somerset and other war ships would offer protection. As he suspected and later confirmed, a large rebel force had tossed the bridge planks into the Charles and militiamen waited in ambush behind barricades. Had the columns not veered away, a senior British general later concluded, "there would have been an end that day of British government in America."
Although
Mary Hartwell had good reason for entertaining vindictive feelings
towards the invading army, her actions proved that her better nature soon
prevailed. She said, "I could not sleep that night, for I knew there were
British soldiers lying dead by the roadside; and when, on the following
morning, we were somewhat calmed and rested, we gave attention to the burial of
those whom their comrades had failed to take away. The men hitched the oxen to
the cart, and went down below the house, and gathered up, the dead. As they
returned with the team and the dead soldiers, my thoughts went out for the
wives, parents, and children away across the Atlantic, who would never again
see their loved ones; and I left the house, and taking my little children by the
hand, I followed the rude hearse to the grave hastily made in the
burial-ground. I remember how cruel it seemed to put them into one large trench
without any coffins. There was one in a brilliant uniform, whom I supposed to
have been an officer. His hair was tied up in a cue."
 |
| Burying the British Dead |
For more than a
century this common grave remained unmarked, until the people of the town, considering the events of that day with a forgiving spirit, erected a memorial stone over the resting-place of the unknown dead.
I would like to add a few words from Todd Andrlik, the author of a fantastic book, Reporting the Revolutionary War:
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| New-Hampshire Gazette Friday, April 21, 1775 |
On the morning of April 19, the news grew grim: royal troops had fired on a militia company on Lexington Common, killing eight. At midday, people learned that those British regulars were searching Concord, destroying the Provincial Congress's supplies and cannons. Another exchange of fire at Concord's North Bridge left dead on both sides.
As soon as the royal troops left Concord, the Middlesex County militia began a concerted counter-attack. The regulars met their reinforcements in Lexington, and the combined force struggled east to Charlestown through growing hostile fire. By the end of the day, about 3,800 militiamen had seen action against about 1,500 regulars. More than 270 British were left dead, wounded, or missing; for the Americans, only ninety-four.
American newspapers formed a consensus that one goal of the British army's march had been to arrest Massachusetts political leaders, particularly John Hancock and Samuel Adams. (British) General Gage described his aim as destroying rebel supplies in Concord; his orders and private files, made available in the 20th century, confirm this."
Of course, we now know that warning Adams and Hancock of possible arrest was not the case for the march that night, though that pretty much was the general consensus of the patriots at that time.
From the New-Hampshire Gazette Friday, April 21, 1775:
PORTSMOUTH, April 20, 1775
I'm not sure who wrote the following letter to a British officer in Boston - the writer, a woman, is only known as C.S. of Philadelphia.
Here is an excerpt:
Sir--we received a letter from you--wherein you let Mr. S know that you had written after the battle of Lexington, particular to me--knowing my martial spirit--that I would delight to read the exploits of heroes. Surely, my friend, you must mean the New England heroes, as they alone performed exploits worthy fame--while the regulars, vastly superior in numbers, were obliged to retreat with a rapidity unequalled...though we consider you as a public enemy, we regard you as a private friend...
I tremble at the thoughts of war; but of all wars, a civil one: our all is at stake; and we are called upon by every tie that is dear and sacred to exert the spirit that Heaven has given us in this righteous struggle for liberty.
I will tell you what I have done...I have retrenched every superfluous expense in my table and family; tea I have not drank since last Christmas, nor bought a new cap or gown since your defeat at Lexington, and what I never did before, have learnt to knit, and am now making stockings of American wool for my servants, and this way do I throw in my mite to the public good. I know this, that as free I can die but once, but as a slave I shall not be worthy of life.
I have the pleasure to assure you that these are the sentiments of all my sister Americans. They have sacrificed both assemblies, parties of pleasure, tea drinking and finery to that great spirit of patriotism that actuates all ranks and degrees of people throughout this extensive continent. If these are the sentiments of females, what must glow in the breasts of our husbands, brothers and sons? They are as with one heart determined to die or be free.
All ranks of men amongst us are in arms. Nothing is heard now in our streets but the trumpet and drums; and the universal cry is "Americans, to arms!"
We are making powder fast and do not want for ammunition.
Your sincere friend,
C.S.
Folks, to me it's reading these first-hand accounts that make the past come to life like nothing else can. The primary sources - the words of the people from the past who were there - show us that those who we read about were more than just a history lesson; they are more than sketches in a school book. They were living, breathing humans, the same as we are today. Whereas we have the comfort of knowing the outcome, they didn't.
But, to me, looking at their times through their eyes, their thoughts, and their actions bring them back to life here 250 years afterward.
And this is what I try to do during reenactments: I do my best to emulate those who we just read about - and so many others - so that the visitors may feel they are actually speaking to one from the 1770s.
Until next time, see you in time - -
Postscript - - - -
Many times, when I write postings like this, I listen to period-appropriate music to help set the mood. And on the shelf directly above my computer monitor are replicated artifacts and photos that also help to give me my so-called "muse."
Here is the listing the of songs I put onto a various artist 18th century "mix tape" that I listen to often (remember cassettes? Yes, I still love 'em!):
In the Good Old Colony Days
White Cockade
Come Haste to the Wedding
A Toast
Buttered Peas
There Was a Jolly Miller
Fish & Tea
General Washington
Girl I Left Behind Me
Of All the Simple Things
Going to Boston
Death of General Wolfe
Here He Comes! The Hero Comes!
Dog & Gun
President's March
Farewell to Old Ireland
The Drum
Massachusetts Hop
Fancy Minuet
Lovely Nancy
Poor Polly
Lady Washington
Rock of Ages
Good Morrow To Your Night Cap
Johnny Cock the Beaver
Funeral Dirge #1 and #2
Hangman Slacken Your Rope
Stony Point
Billy Broke Locks
A Minuet By the Reverend Mr. Bacon
Soldier Will You Marry Me
Orpheus
The Swallow
Lord Howe's Jig
Barbara Allen
Argeers
Yankee Doodle
Soldier's Joy
Derby Ram
Home Sweet Home
Buttermilk Sky
Amazing Grace
Over the Hills and Far Away
Johnny Toddy Was a Soldier
George Washington: Music For First President by David & Ginger Hildebrand
Over the Hills and Far Away by David & Ginger Hildebrand
Reflections by 1st Michigan Fife & Drum
Colonial America by Hesperus
Colonial Traditions - various Artists
In the Good Old Colony Days by Linda Russell
To read more about the Revolutionary War through original artifacts, click HERE
To learn more about how our colonial ancestors lived, click HERE
To learn more about how our colonial ancestors traveled, click HERE
To learn more about how our colonial ancestors cooked and what they ate, click HERE
The narratives and quotes that make up today's post came from the following books:
The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson
Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer
Reporting the Revolutionary War by Todd Andrlik
Paul Revere & the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes
The Last Muster - Images of the Revolutionary War Generation by Maureen Taylor
The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution by Benson J. Lossing
Beneath Old Roof Trees by A.E. Brown
Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America by Hezekiah Nile
BLOODY NEWS
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| Bloody News! (taken from Andrlik's book) |
Early
this morning, we were alarmed, with an Express from Newbury-Port, with
the following Letter, to the Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence
in this Town.
SIR, Newbury-Port, April 19, 1775.
THIS
Town has been in a continental Alarm since Mid-day, with Reports of the
TROOPS having marched out of Boston to make some Attack in the
Country---The Reports in general concur, in part, in having been at
Lexington---And it is very generally said they have been at Concord. ---
We sent off an Express this Afternoon, who went as far as Simons' at
Danvers, before he could get Information that he thought might be
depended upon--- he there met two or three Gentlemen who affirmed, the
Regular Troops and our Men had been engaged chief of the Morning, and that it is supposed we had Twenty-five Thousand Men engaged against
Four Thousand Regulars; that the Regulars had begun a Retreat--- Our
Men here are setting off immediately---- And as the sword is now drawn, and first drawn on the Side of the Troops, we scruple not, you will give the readiest and fullest Assistance in your Power --- And send this Information further on---- In Behalf of the Committee for the Town,
Your humble Servant,
JAMES HUDSON, Chairman
News as it happened...
News as it happened...
I'm not sure who wrote the following letter to a British officer in Boston - the writer, a woman, is only known as C.S. of Philadelphia.
Here is an excerpt:
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| Letter writing |
I tremble at the thoughts of war; but of all wars, a civil one: our all is at stake; and we are called upon by every tie that is dear and sacred to exert the spirit that Heaven has given us in this righteous struggle for liberty.
I will tell you what I have done...I have retrenched every superfluous expense in my table and family; tea I have not drank since last Christmas, nor bought a new cap or gown since your defeat at Lexington, and what I never did before, have learnt to knit, and am now making stockings of American wool for my servants, and this way do I throw in my mite to the public good. I know this, that as free I can die but once, but as a slave I shall not be worthy of life.
I have the pleasure to assure you that these are the sentiments of all my sister Americans. They have sacrificed both assemblies, parties of pleasure, tea drinking and finery to that great spirit of patriotism that actuates all ranks and degrees of people throughout this extensive continent. If these are the sentiments of females, what must glow in the breasts of our husbands, brothers and sons? They are as with one heart determined to die or be free.
All ranks of men amongst us are in arms. Nothing is heard now in our streets but the trumpet and drums; and the universal cry is "Americans, to arms!"
We are making powder fast and do not want for ammunition.
Your sincere friend,
C.S.
~ ~ ~
And yet, there is still more about the occurrences on this date of infamy:
When sixty-nine year old Benjamin Franklin landed in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, he seemed to be a man without a country. He had spent most of the last two decades living in London, working to find ways to keep the colonies and England bound together. His son, William, the governor of New Jersey, was an outspoken Loyalist.
What Franklin could not have known as he stepped off the ship on that day in early May of '75 is that he had stepped right into the Revolution. The first shots had been fired while he was still at sea. He immediately accepted an appointment as one of Pennsylvania's five delegates to the Second Continental Congress, becoming the oldest and most famous representative, which made him quite happy.
What brought him back home to Philadelphia began a couple years earlier, in 1773, after the Tea Act was passed. That's when Franklin published several provocative essays, among them, "Rules By Which A Great Empire May be Reduced to a Small One." His purpose was to "hold up a looking-glass in which some ministers may see their ugly faces, and the nation its injustice."
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| Benjamin Franklin |
At the same time he tried to convince the colonists to have patience.
But among the final steps to preserve the uneasy alliance was his decision to secretly forward inflammatory letters written by American Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson. In December, 1772 Franklin anonymously received a number of letters that had been written to the British government by Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts. The letters urged the British to send more troops to suppress the American rebels and Franklin felt that his fellow revolutionaries should be aware of the letters’ content. He circulated them secretly under the condition that they not be made public.
Despite Franklin’s wishes, John Adams published the letters in the Boston Gazette in June, 1773. The Bostonians were furious and Hutchinson was forced to flee the country. The British government desperately sought who had leaked the letters. When three innocent men were accused in December, 1773, Franklin stepped forward and admitted his part in the affair. Franklin was then summoned to appear before the Privy Council, where he was accused of illegally disclosing private correspondence. While these hearings were taking place, news of the Boston Tea Party reached England and Franklin bore the brunt of growing British anger toward the colonies. On January 29, 1774, he stood before thirty four of the highest-ranking British government officials, including Lord North. In a dramatic conclusion, he was vilified by the council, that had said he was "the actor and secret spring by which all of the Assemblies motives were directed," and his actions had caused a "whole province set in flame."
By the time the hearing was done, Franklin's reputation in England had been shattered. To Franklin, who cared so deeply for England and reveled in the respect he had earned there, this attack on his character was a huge personal insult.
Dismissed in England and distrusted by Americans, Franklin sailed home. People would often refer to going to England as "going home." But with the Hutchinson affair, Franklin had become a passionate patriot. His loyalty was now to America and he went home - and this time for him, "going home" meant Philadelphia.
It was while he was at sea when the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord.
For his entire life up to this point Benjamin Franklin considered himself to be a strong British Patriot, and truly wanted the colonies and the Mother Country to be one with each other.
Franklin's Loyalist son, William, reached his own conclusion that he would remain a staunch Loyalist, no matter the consequences of his father. Every colonist, at some point, had to decide if they were going to remain loyal to the crown or support the independence movement, and for many, that was a difficult decision.
Franklin and his son remained amicable initially, but once the War broke out in earnest, no healing of the rift between them could be had. As Ben Franklin wrote, "Nothing has ever hurt me so much and affected me with such keen sensation, as to find myself deserted in my old age by my only son; and not only deserted, but to find him taking up arms against me, in a cause wherein my good fame, fortune and life were all at stake."
Franklin never forgave his son.
Most of the above on Benjamin Franklin came directly from the book, Legends & Lies: The Patriots, though with interjections interspersed included. I felt that this story was a very important one that should be told about the man who many, if not most, consider to be America's greatest citizen.
~ ~ ~
Folks, to me it's reading these first-hand accounts that make the past come to life like nothing else can. The primary sources - the words of the people from the past who were there - show us that those who we read about were more than just a history lesson; they are more than sketches in a school book. They were living, breathing humans, the same as we are today. Whereas we have the comfort of knowing the outcome, they didn't.
But, to me, looking at their times through their eyes, their thoughts, and their actions bring them back to life here 250 years afterward.
And this is what I try to do during reenactments: I do my best to emulate those who we just read about - and so many others - so that the visitors may feel they are actually speaking to one from the 1770s.
Postscript - - - -
Many times, when I write postings like this, I listen to period-appropriate music to help set the mood. And on the shelf directly above my computer monitor are replicated artifacts and photos that also help to give me my so-called "muse."
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| Top left: a painting of the 1750s Daggett House and Windmill that now sits in Greenfield Village. Bottom left: a replica of the 1775 powder horn originally belonging to William Waller. On top of the powder horn: a replica "tin" betty lamp - one of the popular lighting apparatus of the 18th century. Middle: a replica of one of the two signal lanterns hung in the Old North Church steeple on the night of April 18, 1775. Middle right: a Miller beer mug from 1991 depicting Paul Revere's ride. Bottom right: a small pottery depiction of Paul Revere's house. |
Here is the listing the of songs I put onto a various artist 18th century "mix tape" that I listen to often (remember cassettes? Yes, I still love 'em!):
In the Good Old Colony Days
White Cockade
Come Haste to the Wedding
A Toast
Buttered Peas
There Was a Jolly Miller
Fish & Tea
General Washington
Girl I Left Behind Me
Of All the Simple Things
Going to Boston
Death of General Wolfe
Here He Comes! The Hero Comes!
Dog & Gun
President's March
Farewell to Old Ireland
The Drum
Massachusetts Hop
Fancy Minuet
Lovely Nancy
Poor Polly
Lady Washington
Rock of Ages
Good Morrow To Your Night Cap
Johnny Cock the Beaver
Funeral Dirge #1 and #2
Hangman Slacken Your Rope
Stony Point
Billy Broke Locks
A Minuet By the Reverend Mr. Bacon
Soldier Will You Marry Me
Orpheus
The Swallow
Lord Howe's Jig
Barbara Allen
Argeers
Yankee Doodle
Soldier's Joy
Derby Ram
Home Sweet Home
Buttermilk Sky
Amazing Grace
Over the Hills and Far Away
Johnny Toddy Was a Soldier
The artists performing the above listed tunes are Linda Russell, Kevin Roth, David & Ginger Hildebrand, Hesperus, J. Eberhart, Dean Shostak, Colonial Traditions, 1st Michigan Fife & Drum, Oscar Brand, John Townley, and a CD entitled Music of the American Revolution.
Here are a few links to purchase some of my favorite period music:George Washington: Music For First President by David & Ginger Hildebrand
Over the Hills and Far Away by David & Ginger Hildebrand
Reflections by 1st Michigan Fife & Drum
Colonial America by Hesperus
Colonial Traditions - various Artists
In the Good Old Colony Days by Linda Russell
And for a very good movie (considering its age) on the occurrences of Lexington & Concord, check out April Morning:
"This is simply a gem of a
movie based on Howard Fast's excellent 1962 novel of the first day of
hostilities between colonists and Britain.
There may have been bigger
blockbusters made about the American Revolution (The Patriot, etc.) but this under- rated 1988 film is a
true classic, capturing the quintessential decency of American colonial village
life in Lexington and the developing tensions and conflict on that fateful day
of 19th April 1775.
April Morning is also effective because
it does not glamorize war or demonize the redcoats. In fact, a Patriot and a
Redcoat are both seen, at various stages, to be scared witless by the whiff of
grapeshot and of battle. Yet overall, in what is truly a momentous day for the
villagers of Lexington and Concord, we see how the events mature a young
colonist, and this is brilliantly illustrated at the end of the film when he
leads his family in prayer for their food and life. This very subtle approach
makes it evident that the boy, like colonial America, is gone forever and has
been replaced by a decent man who would, with humility, be worthy of his
emerging new leadership role-in young America."
Discover BOSTON by visiting THIS site
Click > Minuteman National Park Service < for the Minuteman website
Click >Find-a-Grave< website for the Lexington dead marker photo
To learn more about Paul Revere's ride, click HERETo read more about the Revolutionary War through original artifacts, click HERE
To learn more about how our colonial ancestors lived, click HERE
To learn more about how our colonial ancestors traveled, click HERE
To learn more about how our colonial ancestors cooked and what they ate, click HERE
Researching the 18th century - Click HERE
Men's clothing, hair, and language of the 18th century, click HEREThe narratives and quotes that make up today's post came from the following books:
The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson
Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer
Reporting the Revolutionary War by Todd Andrlik
Paul Revere & the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes
The Last Muster - Images of the Revolutionary War Generation by Maureen Taylor
The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution by Benson J. Lossing
Beneath Old Roof Trees by A.E. Brown
Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America by Hezekiah Nile
The American Revolution Institute
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| Did you hear the news from Boston? I read in the Virginia Gazette there was a battle between the King's Regulars and some Rebels... |
For the book "Liberty: Don Troiani's Paintings of the Revolutionary War" please click HERE
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More books - yay! (Because my "yet to read" stack isn't tall enough) haha
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