USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
1 Also called Lecbmere's Point ; now East Cambridge.
heard a citizen exclaim, " The British troops have marched, but will miss their aim." " What aim?" demanded the earl. "The cannon at Concord," was the prompt reply. Percy hastened back to the province-house to relate the interview to Gage, who listened with astonishment, and declared him- self betrayed.
The Signal.
Warren also learns that the troops are embark- ing, and sends in great haste for Paul Revere and William Dawes. He tells them he fears Gage means to seize the persons of Hancock and Adams, and begs them to start for Lexington without a moment's delay. Everything depends upon their speed. They depart. In order to render the chance of success greater, Dawes is to go out over the neck while Revere tries the ferry. Dawes
TON
PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Midnight Call to Arms.
117
THE NIGHT ALARM IN MIDDLESEX.
passes the guard just in the nick of time to avoid being stopped by an order from the province-honse to shut the gates. Once clear of the sentinels, he bends over his horse's neck, digs the spurs into his flanks, and gallops off through the dark- ness. He has the farthest to ride, but no enemies are in his route. Revere now recollects his- sig- nals. If he is fated not to succeed, they, at least, will flash out the alarm. On leaving Warren he hurries to a friend and asks him to show the lights.1 He then goes home, puts on his riding- boots and surtout, and, without saying a word of his intentions to his wife, immediately quits the house. Two other friends are hastily summoned, when the three get into Revere's boat, and row with muffled oars swiftly across the river just as the moon is rising.
Revere's friend, be he whom he may, is tried and true. He knows the risk, but does not hesitate. Ten o'clock has struck from the belfries. Soon, high above the twinkling lights of the town, from the steeple of Christ Church the signals shine out strong and clear.2 The watchers at Charlestown see them. Revere leaps on shore, tells the news,
1 Who was this friend? The honor is claimed for Robert Newman, sexton of the North Church, and for Captain John Pulling, a stanch patriot. Both claims rest upon tradition, hut that of Captain Pulling seems the better supported by probability. The display of these signals, being one of the minor incidents of the Revolution, did not then have the celebrity it has since ac- quired, chiefly through the spirited poem of Mr. Longfellow ; nor did the person showing the signals risk more than imprisonment, since the British general was by no means prepared to inflict a severer penalty in the existing state of affairs. A tradition also exists in the Revere family, that while Paul and his two comrades were on their way to the boat it was suddenly remembered that they had nothing with which to muffle the sound of their oars. One of the two stopped before a certain house at the North End of the towo, and made a peculiar signal. An upper window was softly raised, and a hurried colloqoy took place in whispers, at the end of which something white fell noiselessly to the ground. It proved to be a woollen under-garment, still warm from contact with the person of the little rebel.
2 It having been recently questioned whether the signals were really shown from Christ Church or from the Old North, then standing in North Square, the subject has been thoroughly dis- cussed, with the result, we think, of confirming the long-estab- lished belief which connects this exploit with the English Church, now commonly called Christ Church, but then familiarly known as the North Church. The object being to display the signals not only where they would be seen at Charlestown, but also be invisible in the vicinity of the church itself, would have heen defeated hy hanging them in the belfry of the Old North, at a height probably not greater than sixty feet from the ground, and in the immediate vicinity of soldiers' barracks. Moreover, while two claimants appear for the honor of making the signals from Christ Church, not one has, so far as known, ever been named in connection with any other.
and is quickly in the saddle. He, too, spurs away for Lexington as fast as his beast can carry him.
The riders are on their way, the troops on theirs: the race for Lexington begins. Revere has scarcely gone two miles when a horseman starts out of the
Christ Church, Boston.
darkness and bars his passage. Another approaches. They close in upon him. He reins in his steed, turns quickly about, and dashes off down the road with the pursuers at his heels. One of them plunges into a pit : the other gives over the chase, while Revere, gaining the Medford road, rides on like the wind. He knows every foot of the way, and the moon is now up to light him on.
Revere thinks he will do a stroke of business in Medford. He rouses the captain of the minute- men, and sets the alarm-bells going. Then away over the bridge, with his horse's belly to the ground. Deacon Larkin's nag must prove his mettle this night. Whip and spur! He is ahead of Dawes, though he does not know it; ahead of Smith and Pitcairn, and will keep ahead too, if wind and muscle hold out. Shouting at every house he reaches, startling the affrighted inmates from their slumbers with his wild halloo, this strange herald of danger thunders on through the deserted street of Menotomy, clatters up the bare ledges at its limits, and scuds along the level way into Lexing- ton. At the village green he turns sharply to the right, gets over a quarter of a mile more, and sud- denly checks his horse before the old parsonage-
118
HISTORY. OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
house, where the two patriots are quietly in bed, | a pistol at his head, accompanied by the threat to and the guard dozing at the door. Revere dis- mounts. It is only midnight, and the grenadiers are still shivering where they disembarked. Dea- con Larkin's beast has done his twelve miles in an hour.
Revere's arrival puts the guard on the alert. Sergeant Munroe tells him not to make so much noise, he will disturb the household. "Noise !" echoes Revere, "you 'll have noise enough before long; the regulars are out !" Hancock puts his head out of a window and bids Revere come in. He is then admitted, and delivers his tidings to those they concern. Dawes has not yet come, but in the course of half an hour he too rides up to the door. The two messengers hastily swallow a few mouthfuls, and, as time presses, again take to the road. Adams does not believe Gage would send an army merely to take two men prisoners, and so Revere and Dawes are hurried away to Cou- cord, to secure the stores there.
Before Revere left Charlestown, Richard Devens, of the Committee of Safety, told him of the British officers who had been seen going towards Lexing- ton ou the previous evening. Revere is on the lookout for them. The two messengers are soon joined by young Dr. Samuel Prescott .of Concord, who rides on with them, while messengers are rousing the Lexington minute-men, and scouting the road below in order to give timely notice of the approach of the king's troops. The meeting- house bell strikes heavily in as the horsemen ride away out of town.
When Revere, Dawes, and Prescott are near the Brooks Tavern, half-way to Concord, they ride plump into the picket of officers. Revere tries to escape across the fields, but is stopped. Prescott leaps his horse over a stone-wall, gets clear, and gallops for Concord. Revere is interrogated with
scatter his brains in the road if he does not give true answers. He boldly avows his errand, and adds that the country is up in arms. Another prisoner tells his captors they are as good as dead men.
It is the officers who are now uneasy. One of the rebel couriers has escaped. Concord will be alarmed : so their general's object is defeated. They hear the meeting-house bell in Lexington. Where are the troops? Looking now to their own safety, they ride back towards Lexington, and when near the village order Revere to dismount, cut the saddle girths of the prisoners'1 horses, and gallop off towards Menotomy. Revere runs through the old burying-ground, across pastures, back to Clark's. By this time it is two o'clock in the morning.
At or near two in the morning one hundred minute-men were assembled in arms on Lexington Green. Captain John Parker ordered them to load with ball, and after keeping them some time under arms, as the scouts who had gone out came back without any news of the troops, and the morning was chilly, he dismissed them with the caution to be ready at the tap of the drum. Some went to the tavern at the angle of the Boston and Bedford roads, - just over the way, - some into neighbor- ing houses; and some to their homes. There may have been perplexity in accounting for the non-appearance of the regulars, but Revere's story -and he was in the tavern to tell it - was con- clusive as to the intended route of the British march. No one could know that at that late hour. it had only begun. When it did begin, the alarm had been given in Concord, and a force collected on Lexington Green to oppose it.
1 The three Lexington men taken the previous evening. They had heen searched, questioned, and "greatly abused," as they say.
THE BATTLES OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.
119
XVII.
THE BATTLES OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.
Ar two in the morning the troops, whom we left at Lechmere's Point, received the welcome order to move forward. They had first to wade across the overflowed marshes, up to the middle, before reaching the firm ground on the Charlestown side. They then pushed rapidly on, through what are now Milk and Beech Streets, to North Avenue and the Concord road. From village-steeple to vil- lage-steeple the signal of alarm was flying through Middlesex. Bonfires blazed, gunshots resounded on the air, fired apparently with no other purpose than to add to the general uproar. The country was up. The regulars marched without drum, trumpet, or ensigu, but every stride was accom- panied by the clang of distant hells or booming of warning guns ; while in the east a dull, ill-omened streak of red ushered in the day.
Smith had advanced only a few miles when he was met by the troop of officers retreating down the road. Sending an express back to Boston to notify the general of the situation, he detached Pitcairn with six light companies, and ordered him to push on and seize the bridges at Concord, while he followed with the grenadiers. Three or four countrymen stealing off to give intelligence were picked up by the vanguard. At the Black Horse an officer with a file of men was detached to search the house for members of the rebel con- gress. Gerry, Orne, and Lee had passed the night here, and now narrowly escaped capture by mak- ing a hurried flight to the fields.
When Pitcairn had gained some distance on Smith, he knew that a body of provincials was col- lecting in his front, but did not know exactly where. His orders were imperative not to fire unless fired upon. He galloped to the head of the column, repeating this order to the men.
Between four and five the drum is again beaten in front of the village tavern. No mistake this time. A breathless messenger has just come up the road; has seen the troops, and they must now be close at hand. About seventy of Parker's men answer the signal, form in double ranks, and
march to the green, back of the meeting-house. Some forty unarmed spectators, more curious than wise, are collected in the vicinity to see the sport. Parker turns to his men and gives this command : "Don't fire unless you are fired upon ; but if they want war let it begin here." The mo- ment contemplated by the Provincial Congress has come : there has been time enough to assemble a thousand armed men on this very spot; yet here are only seventy armed rustics to oppose six hun- dred trained soldiers. Something is wanting to give effect to orders and resolves, - something
++ To Concord
Clark's House
Common Militia
Jonathan Harrington
To Bedford #17
Church
Bucknam's Tavern
Vine Brook
Z
Percy's cannon
To Woburn #
To Boston w+
cannon
Monroe's Tavern
Russell & Struthers N.P.
Roads in Lexington, 1775.
that will turn hesitation into action, and make the timid fearless.
The simple topography of the scene of encounter at Lexington requires only a word of explanation. The troops marching up the Boston road would first come to a little hamlet situated near the
120
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
junction of the Woburn road, half a mile from Lexington Green. In the angle formed by these roads was a low eminence, since levelled. On the left of the Boston road was William Munroe's tavern. At the village the single road divided into two, - one to Concord on the left, one to Bedford on the right, - enclosing a triangular plot of grass-ground between. Near the apex of the triangle, which pointed towards Boston, stood the village meeting-house. Nearly opposite was Buckman's tavern, where Parker's men had just obeyed the signal to fall in. On the north or farther side of the green were two dwellings and a smith's shop.1
The British light-infantry is near enough to hear distinctly the drum ; is halted and ordered to load ; then to advance. When within seventy yards the leading platoons plainly see the Ameri- cans facing them. A few laggards are straggling towards the company on the green, a few poltroons straggling away from it. The sun is just rising clear and brilliant, -the sun of the Revolution. Pitcairn and two other mounted officers push their horses towards the Americans, when the whole column of redcoats, breaking into a run, rushes forward upon the devoted little band, huzzahing like madmen. Pitcairn, brandishing his sabre aloft, vociferates, " Disperse, rebels ! Down with your arms, villains ! Disperse !"
The sight of this lost bearing down upon them might well cause the hearts of the minute-men to beat faster. There was a moment's wavering, but they did not obey the haughty command. Parker sees that resistance is madness, and gives the order to disperse without firing. His men sullenly obey ; but while in the act one of the royal officers - Heaven knows whom ! - fires his pistol.2 In-
1 This first and most interesting of American battle-fields for- tunately retains its ancient features with so little change that the visitor sees ont only the village green, but the same honses with the bullet-holes made on the 19th of April, 1775. Monroe's tavern, Buckman's, the parsonage, with one of the houses, and the smithy on the north of the common, were all standing when the writer visited the spot.
2 The writer is of opinion that this officer was not Major Pitcairn, but one of the other mounted officers. Several of the minute-men stated on oath that Colonel Smith fired the pistol, but as Smith was not on the ground during the firing their tes- timony shows them to be ignorant of the persons of the royal officers. Smith was a very fat man, and much of this day's dis- aster is attributed to his unwieldiness. Piteairn was not a brutal, blood-thirsty wretch, as some sensational writers delight to represent him, but the reverse. The testimony to this fact, from Americans as well as Englishmen, is convincing. Revere heard and saw the shot, but was probably unable to tell who
stantly two or three shots are heard, then the fatal command, " Fire !" followed by a rattling volley from the British vanguard, stretched three of the minute-men dead upon the green. The remainder ran for shelter to the stone-walls behind them, from which they returned the fire. A soldier of the 10th was wounded ; Pitcairn's horse struck. Excited by this resistance, the regular troops pur- sned and drove those brave fellows from their hiding-places, with the loss of five more, making the whole number of slain eight. Having thus effectually dispersed the provincials, the light- infantry were re-formed on the green and celebrated their victory with repeated cheers. The soldiers were so wild that their officers could hardly make them hear any orders, causing a long delay, during which Colonel Smith came up with the grenadiers.
Edward Gibbon, member of parliament during the American War, said, " A single drop of blood
fired it, though he knew Major Pitenirn perfectly well. In the excitement and confusion which followed the rush of the British infantry, it is not strange that there were few accurate observ. ers. The English authorities concur in saying that the Ameri- eans fired first. The Americans, on the contrary, as positively assert that it was the regular troops. With such flat contradic- tion before him, it is difficult for a fair-minded historian to decide the question. The different accounts, English and American, have become so firmly rooted in the historical literature of both countries, that the writers of either nation will probably continne to affirm what they find such good authority for maintaining. It is puerile to brand the British aceounts as unworthy of belief, though we may prefer to believe our own. Pitcairn reports to Smith, Smith to Gage, Gage to the ministry, that the Americans fired first. Here, it is true, is but one authority, Pitcairn ; but all subordinate officers who were with the light-infantry say the same thing. On the other hand, thirty-four members of Parker's company unite in swenring, "Not a gun was fired by any person in our company on the regulars, to our knowledge, before they fired on us." Fourteen others say, "The regulars fired on the company before a gun was fired by any of our company on them." Timothy Smith, a spectator, "saw the regular troops fire on the Lexington company before the latter fired a gun." William Draper swears the regulars "fired before any of Captain Parker's company fired." The object of all these depositions was to show who fired first, not whether the Americans fired at all, - that faet was indisputable. It is quite probable that the pistol-shot, which so many coneur in saying was the first, was fired in the air to intimidate the Americans, or by accident, and was taken by the royal troops to be a signal to commence firing. It is incredible that the small band of provincials should have the hardihood to fire upon four times their own numher when expressly ordered not to do so. The whole affair on the green occupied but a few moments, -moments of great excitement and disorder. Pitcairn's intention was probably to disarm and dis- perse the provincials without bloodshed ; but such a purpose, however humane, demanded a cooloess in himself, an absolute control over his own soldiers, which he certainly did not possess. It is undeniable that Pitcairn tried to stop the firing after it began, and that both he and Smith deeply regretted it. Trifling circumstances on this day were stronger than men.
THE BATTLES OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.
121
may be considered as the signal of civil war." Civil war in America began on the green at Lex- ington. America's cause was at last sealed in the blood of her citizens. Now the tyranny under which Massachusetts had so long groaned was as nothing compared with the desire for vengeance. The wavering purpose of the colonies was fixed by this day's work. Hence Samuel Adams's memo- rable exclamation on hearing the British volley, " Oh, what a glorious morning is this !" Hence Jefferson's declaration, " My creed was formed on unsheathing the sword at Lexington."
The regular troops, now united in one body, marched briskly off for Concord. The Lexington people took up their dead and wounded; messen- gers were hurried off in every direction with news of the slaughter; Parker's company rallied for ac- tion, with the bitter determination to avenge their comrades ; Hancock and Adams had taken refuge before the firing in a neighboring wood, where they remained until the troops passed on. Revere, after witnessing the firing on the green, made off for the parsonage, rejoined the fugitive patriots, and went with them to Woburn.
Being a shire-town, Concord was a place of con- siderable importance in 1775. Besides being a seat of justice, it was the headquarters of the mili- tia for this section of the county. Colonel James
Barrett, custodian of the province stores, com- manded the regiment formed from Concord and the contiguous towns of Bedford, Acton, Lincoln, Sud- bury, etc. Besides this, a regiment of minute-men was in process of organization, of which Abijah Pierce of Lincoln was colonel, Thomas Nixon of Framingham lieutenant-colonel, and John Buttrick of Concord major. The organization was, however, far from complete ; nor is it probable the companies had ever paraded together under arms. Except such as had seen service in the French wars, they were soldiers ouly in name and in martial spirit.
When the royal troops were within two miles of Concord meeting-house they saw a gathering of country-people on a hill commanding the road by which they were marching. Ensign Bernicre, one of the officers who had formerly reconnoitred the town and roads, was with Colonel Smith. He doubtless indicated to his superior the importance of this hill ; for Smith, on approaching nearer, de- ployed on his right the six light companies, and ordered them to drive the provincials from their position. The light troops immediately formed in line, and advanced toward the heights, Smith mov- ing straight on with the grenadiers for the village. It was now about seven. The royal troops had marched at a rapid pace some fifteen miles alto- gether, the last six being over a rough, hilly road.
Carlisle
Punkatasset!,
Hill 34
The Great Meadows
Hunt House
Third Position of"
Americatis about 8 a.m
to intercep
L the British on their Retroat
Spencer
Fourth Position
of Americans 9 a.m D
Men to The bridge
Widow Brown's Tan
Capt, David Brown
Flanking Pot
Boston
Barrett
ยท Mill
Court House
Comme
-
Cot.James
Assabett R.
Daniel Bliss
DE Hod Route of British Troops Icom.
harp fight at 1236 p.in. 2 )
Tooka' Tavern'
Eight British killed
British Troops 8 & 9a.m.
Eban. Hubbard
Road to
Ephraim Wood,
Joseph Hosmer
South Bridge
Goose Pona
Amos Wogd'e
Sudbury R.
Road to Sudbury>>
onsthan Herwood Lincoln & East
LINCOLN
N
Lee's Hill
William Parkman
Mil Pond
Mill Brook
Barrett
Route of Sudbury Men to bridgev
6
CTICAOR ? S. m.
Liberty Polo
Irat Position of actes 6 12 a. John Mernome British
Berero fighting Ip.m. Three Americane killed Barn .
British Troops
8 & 9 a.m ..
Brook
igra Davie &
Rat.Wmn. Emerso
na Position of
Merriam's Corne
Ephraim Merriam
Mill Brook
Major John Buttrick
Worth Bridge her Bnitub
Elisha Jones
Humphrey Barrett
ing Parties of Americans
ad to Beaford
Walden Pond
Ruane'! & Struthers N.F.
Map showing Roads and Historic Localities of Concord.
The hill just mentioned was the remarkable topographical feature of Concord. It rose on the right of the road, to an elevation of from thirty to fifty feet above it, and extended for nearly a mile, to the farther end of the village. Along its summit was a tolerably level platean. On the crest
and slopes, opposite the centre of the village, was the ancient burial-place. Here, also, the patriotic men of the village had erected a liberty-pole, and had flung their ensign to the breeze. The Boston or Lexington road wound round the base of the hill, having the greater part of the village on its
Cap. Timothy Wheeler
Jitor Tavern"
yo British soldiers killed
Road to Lexington .
ade
w To Chelmsford & Westford
Concord R .
Sudbur
122
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
left, - not in a compact body, but in groups of houses, and in little neighborhoods. On entering the village, the traveller first came to the meet- ing-house, then to the public-house, which was
Wright's Tavern.
the alarm-post of the minute-men, then to Dr. Minot's residence, and then to the county court- house. He was now in the public square of the town, from which two roads diverged, one to Car- Jisle, the other to Acton and Sudbury. Both roads passed Concord River at the distance of about half a mile from the court-house, - that to Carlisle over the North, and that to Acton over the South Bridge. Possession of these bridges was of course indispensable to quiet possession of the town. Colo- nel Smith knew they were the two principal ave- nues leading into Concord, and had thought of it when hurrying off Pitcairn, below Lexington. We should add that the principal depot of provincial stores was supposed to be at Colonel Barrett's, two miles from the meeting-house, on the Sud- bury road.
What transpired in Concord up to the time the royal troops entered it may now be related. Hav- ing escaped from the picket, Dr. Prescott rode post-haste for home. Somewhere between one and two - some say later - the meeting-house bell awoke the startled inhabitants from their peaceful slumbers. The militia began forthwith mustering at Wright's Tavern. Word was sent to Colonel Barrett, who instantly set about hurrying off such of the stores as he was able, or secreting what he could not. He had not far from five hours in which to effect this object, and they were no doubt improved to the utmost. Messengers were de- spatched to the neighboring towns, guards posted at the bridges and on the Lexington road. In
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.