USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lexington > History of the town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1868, Volume I > Part 17
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THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON
little devoted band do in the face of what they then believed to be twelve or fifteen hundred veteran troops? To attack them would, in a military point of view, be the height of mad- ness; to stand their ground in case they were attacked by such overwhelming numbers would be exposing themselves to certain destruction without any justifiable motive. Captain Parker and his men not only knew their danger, but they knew the great responsibility which rested upon them. They stood there not merely as soldiers, but as citizens, nay, almost as statesmen, having the destiny of the country in their hands. Their conduct on that occasion might affect, for weal or for woe, thousands that were to come after them. The patriots in the other Colonies had expressed a fear lest the people of Massachusetts, goaded on by oppression, might indiscreetly commit some overt act and so involve the country prema- turely in a civil war. The Continental Congress had recom- mended to the people of this Colony to avoid a collision with the King's troops, and in all cases to act only on the defensive.1 Hancock and Adams had recommended prudent measures; and though they foresaw that a conflict of arms was approach- ing, they were extremely anxious that when war should come, we could say with truth that the colonists were not the ag- gressors. Captain Parker, in his intercourse with Parson Clarke, had learned that patriotism was consistent with pru- dence; and that his duty to his country and to his God re- quired him to act only on the defensive. To have been the assailant under such circumstances would have been un- worthy of him as a military commander and as a patriotic citizen, and would justly have exposed him to the censure of a court-martial and the displeasure of every intelligent friend of the popular cause. Knowing his duty as a soldier and feeling the full weight of his responsibility as a citizen, Captain Parker ordered his men "not to fire unless they were fired upon." 2
who states that Parker gave the command, "Every one of you who is equipped, follow me; and those of you who are not equipped, go into the meeting-house and furnish yourselves from the magazines and immediately join the company." There- upon Wood counted the single line gathered at the northerly end of the Common, but as others came running in, Sergeant Munroe attempted to form a second line, and by his testimony and that of John Munroe, Ebenezer Munroe, William Tidd, and Lieutenant Gould, of the British forces, about sixty or seventy faced the British when the latter wheeled into line. See details of the battle as given in F. W. Coburn's The Battle of April 19, 1775, pp. 62-68. Ed.
1 Resolution of the Continental Congress, October 11, 1774.
2 That Captain Parker gave this command rests upon the testimony of his grand-
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At a short distance from the parade ground, the British officers, hearing the beat of the American drum and regarding it as a challenge, ordered the column to halt, prime, and load, when they moved forward in double-quick time directly upon the Americans as they were forming. Some of Captain Parker's men, unused to such trying scenes, and knowing their inability to resist successfully, for a moment faltered; Parker commanded every man to stand his ground till he should order him to leave it, and added that he would cause the first man to be shot down who should attempt to leave his post.1 At this moment the British rushed forward with a shout, led on by Major Pitcairn,2 who exclaimed, "Dis- perse, ye rebels; lay down your arms and disperse!" The Americans did not obey; whereupon he repeated the exclama- tion with an oath, rushed forward, discharged his pistol, and commanded his men to fire. A few guns were discharged; but as no execution was done, the Americans, supposing that they were loaded only with powder, stood their ground, but did not return the fire. The command to fire was repeated, and a general discharge from the front rank followed with fatal effect. The Americans, seeing some of their numbers killed and wounded, hesitated no longer as to their right to resist, and several of them immediately returned the fire of the British. Jonas Parker, John Munroe, and Ebenezer Mun- roe, Jr., and some others, fired before leaving the line. Cap- tain Parker, seeing several of his men fall, and the British rushing upon his little band from both sides of the meeting- house, as if to surround them, ordered his men to disperse. They did so; but as the British continued firing, several of the Americans returned the fire after leaving the field.3
The firing on the part of the Americans, and also on the part of the British, after the first two rounds, was scattering and irregular. As Major Pitcairn led the van, the responsibil- ity of the first firing rests solely upon him. From the best in-
son, Theodore Parker, and of Colonel William Munroe and others present at the battle. For a description of the sham battle in 1822, at which Colonel William Munroe, impersonating Captain Parker, used this command, and then said, "Them is the very words Captain Parker spoke," see Proc. Lex. Hist. Soc., Vol. I, p. 30. Revere's version of this command, as given in his Narrative, is, "Let the troops pass by and don't molest them without they begin first." Ed.
1 Depositions of Underwood, Douglass, and John Munroe. Ed.
2 Parson Stiles's Diary; Frothingham, Siege of Boston, p. 62. Ed.
3 Depositions of 1775; Gordon's Letter; Clarke's Narrative; Phinney's History; and Everett's Address.
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formation that can be obtained, it is not probable that Colonel Smith was upon the ground until after or at the moment of the fatal volley. Most of the accounts, and especially the British, which are the best authority on the question as to who was then in command, ascribe it to Pitcairn.1 As the light infantry, who were under the Major, were sent forward in advance of the grenadiers, and as the grenadiers under Smith did not join the column of infantry until the delay of the latter near the Common, the sole direction of the firing must have devolved upon Pitcairn in the first instance. It is probable that Smith, who was not far from the Common, hearing the first discharge, rode forward and arrived about the time the fatal volley was fired by the command of the Major. Smith may have been upon the Common before the scattering fire ceased, but was not at the commencement of the firing.2
The depositions taken in 1775, and subsequently during the lifetime of those who were actors in the scenes of that day, have preserved many interesting facts relative to the firmness, heroism, and noble daring of individuals on that occasion. Jedediah Munroe was wounded in the morning; but nothing daunted by the dangers he had encountered and the wound he had received, instead of quitting the field, he marched with his company towards Concord to meet the enemy, and fell in the afternoon a victim to his patriotism and bravery.3 On the first fire of the British in the morning, John Munroe, seeing no one fall, said coolly to his relative, Ebenezer Munroe, Jr., that they had fired nothing but powder. On the second dis- charge, Ebenezer replied, " They have fired something besides powder now, for I am wounded in the arm." He then dis- charged his gun at the British, receiving two balls from them in return - one of which grazed his cheek, the other passing between his arm and his body, leaving its mark in his gar-
1 See The Character of Major John Pitcairn, by Charles Hudson, Proc. Mass Hist. Soc., Vol. LXVII, January, 1880. Ed.
2 Several of the depositions taken in 1824, ascribe the command to fire to Colonel Smith. But though the deponents were on the field at the time and saw the officers who first rode forward, not knowing either of the officers, they could not tell one from the other. Pitcairn himself admitted that he was the officer in command at the com- mencement of the firing, though he knew that admission subjected him to the cen- sure of his own government.
3 Jedediah Munroe was armed that day not only with a musket, but with a long sword, or claymore, probably brought over by his ancestors from the Highlands of Scotland in the times of Oliver Cromwell. MS. Papers of Edmund Munroe, late of Boston.
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ment. John Munroe, after firing in the line, retreated a few rods, when he turned about, loaded his gun with two balls, and discharged it at his pursuers, the strength of the charge carrying away about a foot of the muzzle. William Tidd, second in command, was pursued by an officer, supposed to be Pitcairn, on horseback, up the Bedford road some thirty or forty rods, with repeated cries of "Stop, or you are a dead man." Tidd turned from the road into the lot, where he made a stand and discharged his gun at his pursuer, who in turn sought safety in flight. John Tidd remained upon the field so long that as he was leaving the Common a British officer upon horseback rushed upon him and struck him down with his cutlass; while he remained senseless from the effects of the blow upon the head, he was despoiled of his gun, cartridge- box, and powder-horn. This furnishes pretty good proof that he did not run on the first approach of the enemy.1
Joshua Simonds, with three others, had, on the approach of the British, gone into the church to obtain a supply of powder. They had succeeded in getting two quarter-casks from the upper loft into the gallery when the British reached the meeting-house. Two of them, Caleb Harrington and Joseph Comee, resolved at every hazard to escape from the house and join the company. Harrington was killed in the attempt, at the west end of the meeting-house. Comee, find- ing himself cut off from the company, ran under a shower of balls, one of which struck him in the arm, to the Munroe house (where Mr. John Hudson 2 now resides), and passing through the house made his escape at the back door. The third secreted himself in the opposite gallery; while Simonds loaded and cocked his gun, and lying down, placed the muzzle upon the open cask of powder, determined to blow up the British, should they enter the gallery, choosing to destroy his own life rather than fall into their hands.3
"History, Roman history," says Everett, "does not furnish an example of bravery that outshines that of Jonas Parker. A truer heart did not bleed at Thermopylæ. He was the next-door neighbor of Mr. Clarke, and had evidently imbibed a double portion of his lofty spirit. Parker was often heard to say that be the conse- quences what they might, and let others do what they pleased, he
1 Depositions of John Munroe, Ebenezer Munroe, and William Tidd; Everett's Address; Petition of John Tidd to the Legislature, January, 1776.
2 526 Massachusetts Avenue. Ed.
: A. E. Brown, Beneath Old Roof Trees, pp. 33-34. Ed.
LINE OF THEMMINUTE MEN
APRIL 19
775
STAND YOUR CROUND DONT FIRE UNLESS FIRED UPON BUT IF THEY MEAN TO HAVE A WAR LET IT BECIN HERE
AMOS MUZZEY JONATHAN HARRINGTON
S
COL. WILLIAM MUNROE CAPT. SAMUEL BOWMAN
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would never run from the enemy. He was as good as his word; - better. Having loaded his musket, he placed his hat, containing his ammunition, on the ground between his feet, in readiness for a sec- ond charge. At the second fire he was wounded and sunk upon his knees; and in this condition discharged his gun. While loading it again upon his knees, and striving in the agonies of death to redeem his pledge, he was transfixed by a bayonet; - and thus died on the spot where he first stood and fell." 1
In addition to Jonas Parker, whose death was thus remark- able, Isaac Muzzy, Robert Munroe, and Jonathan Harrington were killed on or near the Common, where the company was paraded. Robert Munroe, who thus fell a sacrifice to the law- less oppression of Great Britain, had, on a former occasion, perilled his life in her defence - having served in the French war and been standard-bearer at the capture of Louisburg in 1758.
"Harrington's was a cruel fate. He fell in front of his own house, on the north of the Common. His wife at the window saw him fall and then start up, the blood gushing from his breast. He stretched out his hands towards her, as if for assistance, and fell again. Rising once more on his hands and knees, he crawled across the road towards his dwelling. She ran to meet him at the door, but it was to see him expire at her feet." 2
Samuel Hadley and John Brown were killed after they left the Common, and Caleb Harrington in attempting to escape from the meeting-house. Asahel Porter, of Woburn, was not under arms. He had been captured on the road by the British that morning on their approach to Lexington; and in attempt- ing to make his escape, about the time the firing commenced, was shot down a few rods from the Common.3
In addition to the killed, nine, namely, Ebenezer Munroe, Jr., John Tidd, John Robbins, Solomon Pierce, Joseph Comee, Thomas Winship, Nathaniel Farmer, Jedediah Munroe, and a colored man called Prince, were wounded in the morning, and Francis Brown in the afternoon. Jedediah
1 Everett's Address.
2 Ibid.
3 Phinney's History and Deposition appended, and manuscript statement of Levi Harrington. The number killed that morning was eight, namely, Jonas Parker, Robert Munroe, Isaac Muzzy, Jonathan Harrington, Caleb Harrington, Samuel Hadley, and John Brown, of Lexington, and Asahel Porter, of Woburn. Three other Lexington men, Jedediah Munroe, John Raymond, and Nathaniel Wyman, were killed and one, Francis Brown, was wounded in the afternoon.
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Munroe, who was wounded in the morning, was killed in the afternoon. Several of the above received severe wounds.1
Of Captain Parker's gallant company, seven were killed and nine wounded on or near the Common, being a quarter part of the whole number assembled. This furnishes the most strik- ing proof of their bravery and the firmness with which they withstood the British fire. The history of the most sangui- nary battles, though continued for hours, rarely furnishes a percentage of loss equal to this. At the celebrated battle of Austerlitz, where the combined forces of Russia and Austria were so signally defeated and cut to pieces by Napoleon, the loss of the allies was only fifteen per cent; while here it was twenty-five. Brave and patriotic band! How shall we do jus- tice to your names and your memories! When a dark cloud overshadowed our country, and many a stout heart shrank back in dismay, you boldly stood forth in defence of our rights and offered yourselves a living sacrifice on the altar of freedom. Your firmness inspired the patriots throughout the Colonies - your blood cemented the union of the States. To you we are indebted, in no small degree, for the manifold blessings we now enjoy. A grateful country remembers your deeds of noble daring, and will transmit your names to the latest posterity.
The British suffered but little from the fire of the Ameri- cans. One man of the Tenth Regiment was wounded in the leg, and another in the hand. Major Pitcairn's horse was struck in two places.2 When Munroe and others fired from the line, the British were so enveloped in smoke by the volley they had just fired as to make them invisible to the Americans. This is undoubtedly one cause why more of their shots did not take effect. Some of the militia retreated up the Bedford
1 Farmer received a ball in his right arm, which fractured the bone, and disabled him for a long time: several pieces of bone were taken from his arm months after- wards. The Legislature made him a grant of £15 15s. for loss of labor and for surgical attendance. Comce was wounded in the left arm, and received a grant of £12 7s. Tidd, of whose wound in the head we have already spoken, was rewarded for his bravery and suffering by a grant of £4 10s. Ebenezer Munroe, Jr., was wounded in the arm, and remembered by a grant of £4. Francis Brown, who was wounded in the afternoon, received a ball in his cheek, which went nearly through his neck, where it lodged, and was extracted on the back of his neck, the year following. He received £12 2s. from the Legislature. Notwithstanding this severe wound, he lived fifteen or twenty ycars, and in 1776 commanded the Lexington Company. Nor must we forget the black man, Prince; he entered the Continental service, and served under Captain Edmund Munroc, in Colonel Bigelow's regiment.
2 Gage's Report; Depositions of Ebenezer Munroe and Abijah Harrington.
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road, but most of them across the swamp to the rising ground northwest of the Common. As soon as the Lexington com- pany had dispersed and the firing had ceased, the British troops1 drew up on the Common, fired a volley, and gave three cheers in token of their victory! They then took up their line of march for Concord, the next village, about six miles dis- tant, where they arrived without further opposition. The tarry of the British at Lexington was short, the whole period occupying not more than twenty or twenty-five minutes.2 Most of Captain Parker's company, who had withdrawn to no considerable distance, returned to the Common immedi- ately after the British had left for Concord, and made prison- ers of six of the regulars who were in the rear of the detach- ment. It was supposed that they had wandered from the main body for the purposes of plunder, or had gone into some of the houses on the road to obtain some refreshment, and were thus left behind. These prisoners were disarmed, put under guard, and conducted to Woburn Precinct, now Bur- lington, and from thence were sent to Chelmsford.3 There was another prisoner taken shortly after, on the road near the old Viles Tavern, not far from the Lincoln line. These were the first prisoners made in the Revolution.
The report of the bloody transaction at Lexington spread as on the wings of the wind, and the fact that the regulars had fired upon and killed several citizens was known not only in the neighboring towns, but to the distance of forty or fifty miles, in the course of the forenoon.4 The people immediately
1 "We formed with some difficulty; the men were so wild they could hear no orders." Lieutenant Barker, Atlantic Monthly, 1877. Ed.
2 They drank from Daniel Harrington's well. Drake, Old Landmarks and His- toric Fields of Middlesex, pp. 361-62. Edition, 1876. Ed.
3 Phinney's History; Gage's Letter, Mass. Hist. Coll., 4th Series; Ebenezer Mun- roe's, Sanderson's, Reed's, and Harrington's depositions; Ripley, A History of the Fight at Concord. Ed.
4 As a specimen of the speed with which the information of the events of that morning was circulated and the effect it produced upon the public mind, we will give an extract from Lincoln's History of Worcester: -
"Before noon, on the19th of April, an express came to the town, shouting as he passed through the streets at full speed, 'To arms! to arms! the war has begun!' His white horse, bloody with spurring and dripping with sweat, fell exhausted by the church. Another was instantly produced, and the tidings went on. The bell rung out the alarm, the cannon were fired, and messengers sent to every part of the town to collect the soldiery. As the news spread, the implements of hus- bandry were thrown by in the field, and the citizens left their homes with no longer delay than to seize their arms. In a short time the minute-men were paraded on the Green, under Captain Timothy Bigelow; after fervent prayer by the Rev. Mr. Maccarty, they took up their line of march. They were soon followed by as many of the train-bands as could be gathered under Cap- tain Benjamin Flagg."
This shows the spirit of the times; and as Worcester, at least thirty miles distant
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flew to arms, and half-formed companies and single individu- als were seen moving rapidly to the scene of action. The in- telligence that the British were on their way to Concord had reached that place between one and two o'clock in the morn- ing. Dr. Prescott, whose escape from the British officers has already been related, had given the alarm. The village bell and the alarm-guns woke the people from their slumbers. The Committee of Safety, the military officers, and the prom- inent citizens held a hasty consultation. Rev. Mr. Emer- son, their patriotic priest, was with them. The militia and minute-men were assembled, and expresses were sent towards Lexington to ascertain the approach of the King's troops. In the mean time the patriotic Colonel Barrett, to whose care had been committed the military stores in that place, was actively employed in removing them to places of safety. Some were secreted in the woods and some under rubbish about the buildings, as opportunity would permit or ingenu- ity suggest.
Concord is about eighteen miles from Boston. The village is situated on low, level ground, and is completely com- manded by the hills on either side. Between these hills, on the northwesterly and westerly side of the village, flows the Con- cord River in a serpentine channel with a sluggish current, approaching in some places within fifty rods of the houses, though generally at a greater distance. Across this stream in 1775, there were two bridges, known as the North and South Bridges. The North Bridge was some two hundred rods from the meeting-house. The west bank of the river at that place consists of low, wet ground, which is generally overflowed in the spring freshets. From the bridge the road was a causeway leading westerly over the low ground towards Acton. The road from the hill where the Americans assembled after leav- ing the village ran southerly till it met this causeway leading to the bridge at an acute angle. This bridge across the river was discontinued in 1793; the abutments and causeway, how- ever, are still to be seen. The North Bridge led to Colonel Barrett's, which was about two miles from the centre of the town. The road from Lexington enters Concord from the southeast, and runs along nearly a mile upon level land close to the foot of a hill which rises abruptly from thirty to fifty
from Lexington, received the tidings of the attack before noon, it shows the rapidity with which the alarm on that day was given.
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feet above the road, and terminates at the northeasterly part of the square. The top forms a plain which overlooks and commands the village. The liberty-pole stood upon the northerly part of this ridge of high land. "The town," says D'Bernicre, the spy sent out by General Gage, "is large, and contains a church, jail, and court-house; but the houses are not close together, but in little groups."
Reuben Brown, one of the messengers sent from Concord to obtain information, returned with the intelligence that the British had fired upon the Americans at Lexington and were on their way to Concord. This was soon after confirmed, with the additional intelligence that some half-dozen of the Ameri- cans had been killed.1 The militia and minute-men of Con- cord assembled on the Green near the meeting-house. They
1 John Hoar, and seven others of Lincoln, on the 23d of April, 1775, testify that on the 19th of April they "were assembled at Concord in the morning of that day in consequence of information received that a brigade of regular troops were on their march to Concord, who had killed six men at Lexington; about an hour afterwards we saw them approaching," etc. Captain Nathan Barrett, Lieutenants Jonathan Farrar, Joseph Butler, and Francis Wheeler, and Ensign John Barrett, and eleven others, all of Concord, testify on the same day as follows: "On Wednesday, the 19th instant, about an hour after sunrise, we assembled on the hill near the meeting-house in Concord, in consequence of information that a number of regular troops had killed six of our countrymen at Lexington, and were on their march to Concord; and about an hour after we saw them approaching to the number, as we imagined, of about twelve hundred." As these troops assembled at Concord "about an hour before the British arrived," and had at that time received information that the regulars had fired upon and killed six of their countrymen at Lexington, it is manifest that this information had been forwarded with the utmost dispatch, and hence must have been known to all the militia and minute-men before the firing at the North Bridge.
There is strong internal evidence in the depositions, that the intelligence of the slaughter of Captain Parker's men was early communicated to the citizens and to the military at Concord. The deponents had information that six of their countrymen were slain, which shows that the tidings must have been forwarded immediately, before the whole number had been ascertained. Timothy Minot, Jr., of Concord, testified that, after he heard of the regulars firing upon the Lexington men, he thought . it his duty to secure his family; and after securing them, to use his own language, "sometime after that, returning towards his dwelling, and finding that the bridge was guarded by the regular troops," stood as a spectator and "saw the Americans march down to the bridge where the firing commenced." The only authority we can find that even implies that the Americans at the North Bridge did not know of the slaughter at Lexington is that of Mr. Emerson, and his language may naturally be interpreted to imply nothing more than that they had not learned all the particulars, though they had heard of the main fact. Such an interpretation of his language will make it harmonize with that of Captain Barrett and sixteen other citizens of Con- cord. None can take an impartial view of the evidence without being satisfied that the Lexington slaughter was known to the Americans before a gun was fired at Concord. "That such a fact, so perfectly known to hundreds at Lexington about sunrise, on a day when so many were literally running from town to town, should not have travelled six miles in about five hours, cannot be believed." Adams's Address.
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