USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 34
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Percy's force was doubtless considered equal to every emer- gency. His own and Colonel Smith's commands comprised about half Gage's available strength, and included the flower of the army. The relieving troops passed on unassailed through
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Roxbury, Brookline, Little Cambridge, now Brighton, to Charles River. At this point they found the "leaves " of the bridge had been removed, but, the rest of the structure being unin- jured, they were soon found, replaced, and Percy, after being some time delayed, proceeded. The season was unusually early. The barley was waving in the fields, the pastures were green, and the men plucked branches from the cherry-trees, on which the buds were bursting into bloom. It was a warm and dry day, and the men suffered with the heat. An officer in the de- tachment observing, as they marched along, that the windows of the houses were all shut, remarked to his commander, that, in his opinion, they would meet but little opposition. "So much the worse," Lord Percy replied, " for we shall be fired on from those very houses."
Percy, having allowed breathing time to the troops, threw out his flankers, faced about, and commenced his retrograde march. Captain Harris, - the same mentioned in a previous chapter as Lord Harris, - senior captain of the 5th, Percy's own regiment, was ordered to cover the retreat. It was now about half past two in the afternoon.
The Americans were joined in the upper part of Menotomy by Dr. Warren and General Heath, who were the master-spir- its in conducting the attack from this point. The Earl adopted a savage expedient for clearing his way. Parties fell off from the front, entered the houses by the road, first plundered, and then set them on fire. For two miles, after descending into the plain of Menotomy, it was a continued scene of arson, pil- lage, and slaughter. The militia having assembled from the more populous towns near Boston, their numbers were greatly augmented, and the conflict here merged into the proportions of a battle. Led by Warren, and maddened by the sight of the burning dwellings, the fleeing women and children, and the stark bodies of aged men lying dead by their own hearth- stones, the patriots fell upon the British rear with fury. Har- ris was so hard pressed that half his company, with his lieuten- ant, Baker, were either killed or wounded. When accosted by Percy, the captain, with his grenadier-cap filled with water for
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the relief of the wounded, offered some of the precious beverage to the Earl, but his Lordship gratefully declined it. Warren had the pin struck from the hair of his earlock by a bullet at this time. A British officer had his bayonet-scabbard shot from his side, and Percy came near realizing his sombre appre- hensions, a musket-ball carrying away a button from his waist- coat. The cannon ammunition being expended, the pieces became a useless encumbrance. Smith is wounded, and Bernard of the Welsh has received a hurt. Chevy Chase, indeed !
ELIPHALET DOWNER'S DUEL.
Dr. Eliphalet Downer left his house in Punch-Bowl Village, in Brookline, early in the morning, first directing his wife and children to a place of safety. He then repaired to the front.
Coming in sight of the main body of the enemy advancing in their retreat, he suddenly encountered one of their flankers, who had stopped to pillage a house. At the same moment the soldier descried Downer, who instantly put himself in the duel- list's posture of defence, presenting his side to his foe. Both levelled their guns, and both missed. The antagonists then closed in deadly struggle. They crossed bayonets, each hoping by superior strength or skill to obtain the advantage. For the little time they looked into each other's eyes, gleaming with fero- city, and read there the bitter resolve to destroy, each knew the supreme moment had come. They lunged, parried, locked bay- onets, and with every muscle strained to its utmost tension strove for each other's life. Downer soon found he was no match for his adversary in dexterous use of the bayonet. He could only protract the contest, while all the time the main body was coming nearer. Gathering himself together for a desperate effort, Downer, with incredible quickness, reversed his firelock and dealt the Briton a terrific stroke with the butt which brought him to the ground. The blow shattered the breech of his gun, that had served him so good a turn. His blood was up, he had fought for life, his enemy was only dis- abled, and he finished him with eight inches of cold steel ;
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then, possessing himself of the soldier's arms as the spoil of victory, he hastily retreated to a safer position. When the battle was over, he found his forehead had been grazed by a musket-ball. General Heath, in noticing this combat, calls Dr. Downer " an active, enterprising man " !
A little about the bellicose doctor's subsequent career. He immediately joined the army as surgeon. His regiment having disbanded at the conclusion of the siege of Boston, he entered on board the privateer sloop Yankee, Captain Johnson, in a similar capacity. The sloop mounted nine guns, four on a side. In her first cruise in July, 1776, she fell in with two ships, the Creighton and Zachara, heavily laden with rum and sugar. These she took. Our surgeon, compelled to remain below, as- sisted in working the odd gun in the cabin.
Captain Johnson having sent a number of his men away with the prizes, the prisoners took advantage of the lenity with which they were treated, rose and possessed themselves of the sloop. Their captors, now prisoners, were taken to England, where they were treated with great rigor. Downer found friends, who obtained his removal from prison into a public hospital as an assistant, and in the course of a year made his escape to France. Not finding an immediate opportunity of returning to America, he entered on board the Alliance, then fitting out at a French port for a cruise in the Channel. She had the good fortune to capture eighteen prizes.
The Doctor then took ship for home, but on the passage had the ill-luck to again become a prisoner. The vessel in which he was fought for seven hours and a half, had both her masts shot away, and fired her last round before she surrendered. Downer was severely wounded in the action by a grape-shot. He, with his fellow-prisoners, becames inmates of Portsea Prison, near Portsmouth, where, to use the Doctor's own language, they were worse treated than if they had fallen into the power of savages.
The prisoners contrived to dig a hole under ground for a dis- tance of forty feet, their object being to pass under the prison- wall and into the street. This was effected with no other tool
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than a jack-knife, and a sack to carry away the earth, which was deposited in an old chimney and beneath the floor. Only one person at a time could work at the excavation, which had to be prosecuted at certain hours of the day, as the noise at night would have discovered them to the sentinel who paced directly above the workman's head. Once they were betrayed, but, the gallery being at length completed, they cast lots for precedence in the order of escape. The Doctor was rather corpulent, and when his turn came he stuck fast in the passage, completely blocking the way until it could be enlarged by the removal of more earth. Owing to the badness of the roads in that chalky country, made worse by rains, many of the fugitives were recap- tured and consigned to the black-hole. The Doctor's friends - for Americans had friends even then in the heart of England - concealed him till an opportunity offered for him to cross over to France, from whence he made his way to Boston after an absence of three years. Dr. Downer afterwards served as surgeon-general of the Penobscot expedition, that most melan- choly of failures. He was the grandfather of Samuel Downer of Boston.
As you go towards Lexington, at your left hand, nearly op- posite the Baptist Church, is an old house rejuvenated with white paint and bright with green blinds. Still, beneath this disguise, and in spite of the modern additions grafted on the parent structure, you may recognize it for a veteran by its mon- strous chimney and simple outlines. The house is somewhat back from the street, with the end towards it. It is the dwell- ing of Mr. Russell Teel.
We found in this house the mother of Mr. Teel, a sprightly, intelligent lady of eighty-one. She willingly related the tra- gedy that happened here on the 19th of April, 1775.
After the regulars had passed up to Lexington, a number of minute-men from the eastward, who had collected here, thought a good opportunity would occur to harass them on their return. To this end they made a small breastwork of casks, shingles, and such movables as they could readily obtain near the pres- ent gate and next the road. From behind this cover the pa-
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triots fired on Percy's van, but they had not taken into account the flank-guards moving across the fields parallel with the main body. Hemmed in between these two columns, the minute- men sought shelter within the dwelling.
" My grandfather, Jason Russell, then lived in this house," continued Mrs. Teel. " He had conducted his wife and chil- dren to the high hill back of the house, and was returning, when he was discovered and pursued, with the others, into the house. He was first shot and then bayoneted. The bloody stains remained until quite recently upon the floor, where he with ten others perished while in vain entreating mercy. Sev- eral Americans of this ill-fated band, which belonged to Lynn, Danvers, and Beverly, retreated into the cellar, and as they were well armed the British durst not follow them, but dis- charged several volleys into the entrance." Upon opening the door leading to the cellar, a dozen bullet-holes were plainly visible in the heavy cross-timbers. Jason Russell was an in- valid, and it is thought imprudently returned to his dwelling to save some articles of value.
Russell's old store, which is seen with a modern addition not far above the railway-station and on the same side of the main street, was entered by the regulars, who, after helping them- selves to the liquors which they found there, left all the spigots turned so as to waste what remained. Right in front of this store a soldier was mortally wounded, and in his agony begged his comrades to finish him.
Opposite the Unitarian Church, the successor of the several houses of the First Parish, is the scene of the following inci- dents. Two wagons had been despatched from Boston in the route of Percy's brigade, but at some distance in his rear. One contained ammunition, the want of which he had so miscalcu- lated on setting out, the other was loaded with provisions. A guard of seventeen men and an officer accompanied the convoy. Information reached Menotomy that these supplies were com- ing, and their capture was at once resolved upon. The young men were all in the main action then going on in Lexington, and this affair was managed by some of the elders, led, say
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the town traditions, by David Lamson, a half-breed, though Gordon claims this honor for Rev. Dr. Payson, of Chelsea.
A low stone-wall then extended in front of the present resi- dence of George Russell. The ground here falls off sharply towards the railway, forming a hollow in which was kept an old cider-mill. Behind this wall the patriots posted themselves, and when the train arrived opposite their ambuscade they rose to their feet, levelled their guns, and called out for the officer to surrender. For answer the drivers lashed their horses, upon which Lamson's party fired a volley, killing and wounding at least four of the escort, besides disabling several of the horses. The officer soon found himself alone and was made prisoner. Several of the guard ran to the pond, into which they threw their guns ; then, continuing their flight for half a mile along its westerly shore, they came to a little valley where they en- countered an old woman digging dandelions, to whom they gave themselves up. The wagons became the prize of the Americans.
We frankly admit the doubts which assailed us at first in regard to this old woman digging dandelions. On a day so un- favorable, with Percy's guns rumbling in the distance, the mus- ketry sputtering spitefully at intervals, the spectacle of Mother Batherick calmly digging early greens awoke in our mind a scepticism such as not unfrequently attends the announcement of natural phenomena. The relation being authenticated by persons of high credibility, we are no longer surprised that a squad of his Majesty's grenadiers gave themselves up to such an Amazon. And yet this woman lived and died in poverty. Her figure was tall and commanding, her eye piercing. She led her captives to a neighbor's house, and there delivered them up with the injunction to tell the story of their capture to their king. The home of John T. Trowbridge, the author, is the arena of Mother Batherick's exploit.
The old house which stood opposite the railway-station, on the spot now occupied by the residence of Mr. Pierce, was that of Deacon Adams, a leading man in the village. The dwelling was riddled with bullets, and a big elm standing near
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was spattered with lead, which the youth of West Cambridge were fond of cutting out and displaying as souvenirs. When the old house was pulled down, and the tree, rotten with age, was laid low, many of the leaden mementos were secured.
Another family of this name, so hateful to the British, lived higher up the road. Mrs. Adams was sick in bed, with a new- born infant at her side. The regulars forced open the doors, and, bursting into the room in which she was lying, one of the brutes levelled his bayonet at her breast. The poor woman, in an agony of fear, cried out, "For the Lord's sake do not kill me !" "Damn you !" ejaculated the brute. Another, more hu- mane, interposed, and said, "We will not hurt the woman if she will go out of the house, but we will surely burn it." Strength- ened by terror, Mrs. Adams arose, and throwing a blanket about her person crawled to the corn-house with her infant in her arms. Her other little children, concealed by the curtains, re- mained unsuspected under the bed which she had just left. The soldiers then made a pile of chairs, tables, books, clothing, etc., to which, after helping themselves to as much plunder as they could carry, they set fire. The flames, however, were extin- guished at the instant the troops had passed by. A relative of the family, from whom the writer received this narration, has a small Bible which the soldiers had used to kindle the fire at Deacon Adams's. It was much scorched, and although she did not say so much, we could easily see that the owner attributed the preservation of the house to the sacred volume.
At Cooper's whig tavern, now the site of the Arlington House, the king's troops committed similar atrocities. Two unresisting old men, non-combatants, were killed, their skulls crushed and their brains scattered about. More than a hundred shots were fired into the house. Farther on was the tory tav- ern, to which the British officers were accustomed to resort. At that time four houses stood near together between the Cam- bridge line and the railway-station in Arlington, all owned by families of the name of Winship. The couplet runs, -
"Jed' and Jeth', Jason and Jo' All lived in Menotomy Row."
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Only a single shot was inadvertently fired into the tavern which stood near the position of Mr. Abbott Allen's house. Winship kept here in 1772, and Lem. Blanchard later.
In the same strain the relation might be continued, but enough has been said to show that the severest fighting and most afflicting scenes took place in old Menotomy. Mrs. Win- throp, who passed over the ground shortly after the battle, says : --
" But what added greatly to the horrors of the scene was our pass- ing through the bloody field at Menotomy, which was strewed with the mangled bodies. We met one affectionate father with a cart, looking for his murdered son, and picking up his neighbors who had fallen in battle, in order for their burial."
It is probable that Percy intended to return as he came, but by this time he learned that Brighton Bridge had been effectu- ally disabled. Had this not been done, the villages of Old Cambridge, Brookline, and Roxbury would have each renewed the scenes of Menotomy. To have forced his way for eight miles farther might have been difficult, if not impossible, for Percy. Fortune, therefore, conducted the head of his column back through Charlestown by the way around Prospect Hill. At the old tavern in North Cambridge the officers may have hastily swallowed a mouthful of spirits. At six o'clock the British vanguard began to file across Charlestown Neck, and ranged themselves in battle line on the heights of Bunker Hill, where they remained until the next day. They were then re- lieved by the marines and the third brigade.
" Says our General we were forced to take to our arms in our own defence ; (For arms read legs, and it will be both truth and sense.)
Lord Percy (says he) I must say something of him in civility, And that is I never can enough praise him for his great agility."
We annex the whole account of this battle as it appeared in Draper's Boston Gazette of April 20, 1775, which is, we think, worthy of being numbered among the literary curiosities of its day : -
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON.
" Last Tuesday Night the Grenadier and Light Companies belong- ing to the several Regiments in this Town were ferried in Long
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
boats from the Bottom of the Common over to Phip's Farm in Cam- bridge, from whence they proceeded on their way to Concord where they arrived early yesterday. The first Brigade commanded by Lord Piercy with two pieces of Artillery set off from here Yesterday Morning at Ten o'clock as a Re-inforcement, which with the Grena- diers and Light Companies made about Eighteen Hundred men. Upon the people's having notice of this Movement on Tuesday night alarm guns were fired through the country and Expresses sent off to the different Towns so that very early yesterday morning large numbers were assembled from all parts of the Country. A general Battle ensued which from what we can learn, was supported with great Spirit upon both Sides and continued until the King's Troops retreated to Charlestown, which was after sunset. Numbers are
killed and wounded on both sides. The reports concerning this unhappy Affair and the Causes that concurred to bring on an En- gagement are so various that we are not able to collect anything consistent or regular and cannot therefore with certainty give our readers any further Account of this shocking Introduction to all the Miseries of Civil War."
The American accounts appeared in the form of hand-bills. One, printed in Boston, is embellished with a death's-head, and contains a list of the American killed and wounded. Another has at its head twenty coffins, bearing each the name of one of the slain. It is entitled,
" BLOODY BUTCHERY
BY THE
BRITISH TROOPS
OR THE
RUNAWAY FIGHT OF THE REGULARS."
"Being the PARTICULARS of the VICTORIOUS BATTLE fought at and near CONCORD, situated Twenty Miles from Boston, in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, between Two Thousand Regular Troops, belonging to His Britanic Majesty, and a few Hundred Provincial Troops, belonging to the Province of Massachusetts-Bay, which lasted from sunrise until sunset, on the 19th of April, 1775, when it was decided greatly in favor of the latter. These particulars are published in this cheap form at the request of the friends of the deceased WORTHIES who died gloriously fighting in the CAUSE OF LIBERTY and their COUNTRY and it is their sincere desire that every Householder in the Country, who are sincere well-wishers to America may be possessed of the same either to frame and glass, or otherwise to preserve in their houses, not only as a Token of Gratitude to the memory of the Deceased Forty Persons
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THE RETREAT FROM CONCORD.
but as a perpetual memorial of that important event on which perhaps, may depend the future Freedom and Greatness of the Commonwealth of America. To which is annexed a Funeral Elegy on those who were slain in the Battle."
In the burying-ground at Arlington we found a plain shaft of granite, nineteen feet high, standing over the remains of the fallen. The monument is protected by a neat iron fence, and has a tablet with this inscription : -
" Erected by the Inhabitants of West Cambridge A. D. 1848,
Over the common grave of Jason Russell, Jason Winship, Jabez Wyman and nine others Who were slain in this Town by the British Troops, on their retreat from the battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19th 1775. Being among the first to lay down their lives in the struggle for American Independence."
A plain slate gravestone at the foot of the obelisk has the following : --
" Mr Jason Russell was barbarously murdered in his own House by Gage's bloody Troops on ye 19th of April 1775 Ætat 59 His body is quietly resting in this grave with Eleven of our friends, who in like manner, with many others were cruelly slain on that fatal day. Blessed are y· dead who die in ye Lord."
The memorial was erected by the voluntary contributions of the citizens of West Cambridge ; the remains beneath the old slab being disinterred and placed within the vault under the monument, April 22, 1848. Nine of the twelve victims are unknown.
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HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
At Acton, on the 19th of April, 1851, a monument was dedi- cated to the gallant spirits belonging to that town who fell on the day of Lexington and Concord. The tablet bears the names of Captain Isaac Davis and of privates Abner Hosmer and James Hayward, provincial minute-men.
It was Davis's company which marched in the van to force the passage of the North Bridge. A halt and parley had occurred among the provincial soldiers. None, apparently, were desirous of occupying the post of honor and of facing the British muzzles. Davis, resolute, and ashamed of this ignoble conduct before the enemy, exclaimed, " I have n't a man that is afraid to go"; immediately suiting the action to the word by marshalling his men in the front. He appeared depressed, and had rebuked the gayety of some of his comrades who break- fasted with him on that, to him, fateful morning.
" 'T is the sunset of life gives us mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before."
Davis was a tall, athletic man, famed for courage and cool- ness. He was a gunsmith, and an excellent marksman. At the first volley he was shot through the heart. He leaped convul- sively in the air, and fell, still grasping his musket, over the causeway on the low ground. Hosmer was killed by the same fire. Hayward's more tragic death we have briefly alluded to. He was killed, during the pursuit, at the red house on the right as you descend Fiske's Hill, in Lexington, going towards Bos- ton. His adversary's ball perforated his powder-horn, which is still preserved ; but before he fired his last shot he had nearly expended the forty bullets with which he had set out.
The remains of these brave men were exhumed from the burial-ground, where they had lain for seventy odd years, and placed in the tomb at the base of the monument. The graves were then filled up, -the gravestones being left standing to tell the future visitor where they had first been interred. The bones were found remarkably well preserved. The orifice in Hosmer's skull through which the ball passed while he was in the act of taking aim was still distinctly visible. These relics
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were carefully placed in a coffin of three compartments and laid away beneath the monument, while the booming of cannon sounded a soldier's requiem.
Two mementos of the battles of Lexington and Concord may be seen in the Massachusetts Senate Chamber ; one is a Tower musket captured from a soldier of the 43d, the other the gun used by Captain John Parker on that day. These weapons were a legacy to the State from Theodore Parker, and were received by both branches of the Legislature assembled in joint convention. Governor Andrew made the address of pres- entation, during the delivery of which he exhibited much emo- tion, and as he concluded he pressed the barrel of the Revo- lutionary firearm to his lips "with effusion." This occurred in 1861, when the opening events of the Rebellion presented a certain analogy in the Governor's mind to the teachings of 1776. Many applauded, while not a few were disposed to ridicule his patriotic fervor.
An internecine war has raged ever since the event of 1775 between Lexington and Concord, as to which town might claim the greater honor of the day. As if there were not enough and to spare for both ! To Lexington belongs the glory of having assembled the first force to oppose the march of the king's troops, and of the first bloody sacrifice to liberty. At Concord the Americans first attacked the troops, and with numbers which rendered such a measure justifiable. Concord, too, was the object of the British expedition. The conflict raged during the day within the limits of six towns, each of which might fairly claim a portion of the credit due the whole. The his- torian will, however, treat the occurrences of the 19th of April as a single event, leaving to local chroniclers the care of sepa- rating the golden sands which make their peculiar portion of fame from the fused ingot. All will agree that no similar quantity of powder ever made so great a noise in the world as that burned on the Green at Lexington, and all along the old colonial highway.
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