distance of about eleven miles. At that time it was the abiding place
of John Hancock and Samuel Adams who were stopping at the parsonage
of Rev. Jonas Clarke. It was then supposed that one of the objects
of Gen. Gage was to effect their capture, and that his other object
was the destruction of military stores at Concord. Possibly the
first intimation that Lexington had of the proposed hostile visit of
Gage's troops was communicated by a young man, Solomon Brown, who had
been to Boston, on market business, and on his return had passed a
patrol of British officers. There were ten of them, it was late in
the afternoon, or early evening of April 18, and they were riding
away from Boston towards Lexington, which seemed out of harmony with
their ordinary way of riding back to Boston at night. Mr. Brown
kept somewhat near them along the road for awhile, that he might
the better determine their intentions, allowing them to pass and
repass him several times. Having at last satisfied himself that their
mission meant more than a pleasure sortie into the country, he gained
the lead once more, and when out of their sight rode rapidly to
Lexington and reported his observations to Orderly Sergeant William
Munroe, proprietor of Munroe's Tavern.[65]
These ten officers riding in advance must have known that actual
hostilities were at hand, for they not only detained travelers on the
highway, but deliberately insulted a large number of the inhabitants
along the road. Three or four of them, at least, went far beyond the
behavior of military men in time of peace, for as they rode into
Lexington, they stopped at the house of Matthew Mead, entered and
helped themselves to the prepared family supper of brown bread and
baked beans. Mrs. Mead and her daughter, Rhoda, were within, and Mr.
Mead and two sons were absent. This Lexington home was at the corner
of Massachusetts Avenue and Woburn Street, where the Russell House
now stands.[66]
Quickly following Solomon Brown's message came a written one,
directed to John Hancock, sent by Elbridge Gerry, one of the
Committee of Supplies, then sitting at the Black Horse Tavern in
Menotomy. It was practically to the same effect, "that eight or nine
officers of the King's troops were seen, just before night, passing
the road towards Lexington, in a musing, contemplative posture; and
it was supposed they were out upon some evil design."[67]
Hancock at once replied to Gerry that it was said the officers had
gone to Concord, and that he would send word thither.[68]
But naturally it was surmised that the capture of Hancock and Adams
was intended, so a guard of eight men, under Sergeant William Munroe,
was stationed around the home of Rev. Jonas Clarke. About forty of
the members of Captain Parker's Company gathered at the Buckman
Tavern after the mounted officers passed through Lexington,[69] and
it was deemed best that scouts should be sent out to follow them.
Accordingly Solomon Brown, Jonathan Loring, and Elijah Sanderson
volunteered to act,--and they started about 9 o'clock in the
evening.[70] As we have previously written, they were ambushed and
captured at about 10 o'clock on the road towards Concord, in the town
of Lincoln, by the same ones they had set out to follow.
Soon after the arrival of Paul Revere between 12 and 1 o'clock in the
morning of April 19, with the intelligence of the starting of the
King's troops, Captain Parker assembled his company on the Common.
The roll was called and they were instructed to load with powder
and ball. One of the messengers who had been sent towards Boston,
returned and reported that he could not discover any troops on the
way out, which raised some doubts as to their coming. It was between
1 and 2 o'clock when they were dismissed with instructions, however,
to remain in the immediate neighborhood, for quick response to the
call of the drum. Many of them adjourned to Buckman's Tavern, and the
others, living in the immediate vicinity, returned to their homes.
Between daylight and sunrise Capt. Thaddeus Bowman rode up, and
reported that the regulars were near. The drum was beat, and Captain
Parker's little band assembled on the Common.
The soldiers of the King were but one hundred rods down the road.[71]
Bedford an adjoining town to Lexington, and about fifteen miles from
Boston, was alarmed on the evening of the 18th, by Nathan Munroe and
Benjamin Tidd, both of Lexington, who had been sent there by Captain
Parker because of the suspicious actions of the British officers on
their way to Concord. Munroe and Tidd aroused the town, and some of
the minute-men rallied at the tavern kept by Nathan Fitch, Jr., and
were there served with light refreshments. Captain Willson said:--
"It is a cold breakfast, boys, but we will give the British a hot
dinner. We'll have every dog of them before night."[72]
The larger Bedford rally was at the oak tree standing in the little
triangle a few rods west of the village, where the road to Concord
branches away from the road to Billerica.[73]
Munroe and Tidd continued their alarm to Meriam's Corner in Concord
and returned to Lexington in time to hear the first alarm bell in the
morning of the 19th, and witness the assembling of Capt. Parker's
Company. Munroe, being a member joined the ranks, and Tidd remained
on or near the Common and was dispersed with the rest.[74]
Josiah Nelson, living in the northeast part of Lincoln, was awakened
on the night of the 18th, by horsemen passing up the road. Rushing
out partly dressed, to ascertain who they were, he received a blow on
his head from a sword, cutting sufficiently to draw the blood. He was
seized and detained a little while by his British captors, and when
released had his wound dressed, and hurried to Bedford and gave the
alarm in that town also.[75]
Billerica, seventeen miles northwest from Boston, probably received
the alarm about two o'clock, and when the encounter on Lexington
Common took place few if any families but had heard the call to
arms.[76]
Concord, seventeen miles northwesterly from Boston was first aroused
by Dr. Samuel Prescott, between one and two o'clock in the morning
of the 19th. He had just escaped from the British, in Lincoln, at
the time they captured Revere. It was nearly three o'clock when the
alarm bell was rung, whereupon several posts were despatched, who
returning, brought the news that the regulars were indeed coming;
that they had reached Lexington, and killed six Americans, and then
started for Concord.[77] Capt. Minot's Company took possession of
the hill to the eastward above the meeting house, and Capt. Brown's
Company marched up the road to meet the enemy.[78]
Corporal Amos Barrett of Capt. David Brown's Company has left a
written statement that he thinks one hundred and fifty minute-men had
assembled. His Company resolved to go up the road towards Lexington
and meet the British. They accordingly marched a mile or a mile and
a half, when they saw them coming. They halted and awaited them, and
when they were within one hundred rods were ordered by their captain
to about face. They marched back to the village to the music of their
fife and drum, the British following, also playing their fifes and
drums.[79]
Brown's Company consolidated with Minot's, and both took up a new
position, a little farther north on the adjoining hill, back of the
town. The British were so many more in number, that it was thought
prudent to still farther retire. Accordingly the two companies
marched down the hill, over the North Bridge, distance three-quarters
of a mile from the village, and took a new and stronger position on
Punkatasset Hill, a little more than a mile from the village, but
clearly overlooking it. There they welcomed the reinforcements that
were arriving from the neighboring towns.
In Tewksbury, twenty miles northwesterly from Boston, the alarm was
given at about 2 o'clock in the morning. "The British are on their
way to Concord and I have alarmed all the towns from Charlestown to
here,"[80] were the words that aroused Capt. John Trull, from his
slumber, who in turn fired his gun to arouse Gen. Varnum, across
the Merrimack River over in Dracut, a signal previously agreed upon
between them. When Capt. Trull reached the village his men were
awaiting him and they at once started for Concord. There were two
other Tewksbury companies commanded respectively by Capt. Jonathan
Brown and Capt. Thomas Clark, who also responded to the alarm.
In Acton, twenty-one miles northwesterly from Boston, and the
adjoining town to Concord westerly, the alarm was given early in the
morning. Col. Francis Faulkner resided in South Acton. His son,
Francis, Jr., was lying awake and listening to the clatter of a
horse's feet drawing nearer and nearer. Suddenly he leaped from his
bed and ran to his father's room, adjoining, and exclaimed:
"Father, there's a horse coming on the full run, and he's bringing
news!"
His father had heard the horseman also, for he was partly dressed
with gun in hand. Across the bridge and up to the house came the
messenger.
"Rouse your minute-men, Mr. Faulkner, the British are marching on
Lexington and Concord." And away he rode to spread the news.
Col. Faulkner, without completing his dress, fired his gun three
times as fast as he could load, that being the preconcerted signal.
Very quickly a neighbor repeated it, and the boy, still listening,
heard a repetition many times, each farther away. Thus was Acton
aroused.
At the home of Col. Faulkner very soon assembled Capt. Hunt's
Company. Women were there, too, to help as they might. Stakes were
driven into the lawn, kettles hung, fires built, and a dinner for the
soldiers soon cooked. Some of the older boys were delighted to follow
on and carry it in saddle-bags, separately from the minute-men, with
instructions to take the field roads if the British should be found
occupying the highways. Col. Faulkner marched away with Capt. Hunt's
Company, to take command of the Middlesex Regiment, which he supposed
to be assembling at Concord.
The home of Capt. Davis, was about a mile westerly from the meeting
house in the centre of Acton, and about six miles from the North
Bridge in Concord. His Company were assembling rapidly, and when
about twenty had reported he was anxious to march. A man of serious
mien, he seemed particularly so on the morning of April 19. One
of his companions, speaking cheerily, perhaps lightly, was gently
reproved by the brave Captain, who seemed to have a premonition of
his own fate, and reminded the other of what the day might have in
store for them. They were about to proceed when he turned to his
wife, as if to speak, but he could only say:
"Take good care of the children."[81]
Then he turned and marched away with his little command. It might
have been seven o'clock when he started,[82] to the lively tune of
the "White Cockade" played by his fifer, Luther Blanchard, and his
drummer, Francis Barker.
When they reached the westerly part of Concord they must have learned
what the British were doing at the home of Col. Barrett, for they
left the highway and passed into the fields to the northward of the
Barrett home, stopping for a while a little way off to watch the
King's soldiers in their work of destruction of the military stores.
Continuing again, they marched through the fields until they came
out into the highway at Widow Brown's Tavern,[83] which was situated
across the river from Concord village, a mile away. From there they
proceeded by way of the Back Road, so called, to the high ground
now called Punkatasset Hill, rising about a quarter of a mile to the
westward of the North Bridge.
Other companies of militia and minute-men were already assembled
there, and Capt. Davis marched his men, who now numbered about forty,
to the left of the line, a position that had been assigned to him at
the muster a little while before.
From this position on Punkatasset, they looked down upon the gently
flowing Concord River; upon the old North Bridge which crossed just
in the immediate foreground; upon the red-coated soldiers who stood
grimly on guard at the nearer end; and beyond, up the river to
Concord village, three-quarters of a mile away, where curling volumes
of smoke seemed to indicate the burning of American homes.
In Chelmsford, twenty-three miles northwesterly from Boston, the
alarm was early given by a mounted messenger, upon which guns were
fired and drums beat. Minute-men met at the Alarm-post, a rock
standing where the hay-scales were placed in after years. Captain
Moses Parker's Company, and Captain Oliver Barron's Company, marched,
not in regular order, but in squads, and came into Concord at
Meriam's Corner and on Hardy's Hill in time for the pursuit.
In Dracut, twenty-five miles from Boston, the alarm was given soon
after two o'clock, by the firing of a gun by Capt. Trull across the
Merrimac River in Tewksbury, a signal previously agreed upon, which
aroused Gen. Varnum. Two companies marched immediately, one under
Captain Peter Coburn, and the other under Captain Stephen Russell.
They were, however, too remote from the scene of strife to meet the
British, but continued their rapid march to Cambridge.
Littleton, twenty-five miles from Boston, was alarmed in the morning
by the news of the British march on Concord. The messenger then
hurried over Beaver Brook Bridge, and into the towns beyond on his
mission.
Even in Pepperell, thirty-five miles northwesterly from Boston, the
alarm went, reaching there about 9 o'clock. Gen. Prescott gave orders
to the Pepperell and Hollis companies, to march to Groton, there to
join others of the regiment.[84]
Roxbury, the adjoining town to Boston, southwesterly, was naturally
the first town in that direction to know of the movement of the
British. William Dawes, the first messenger out of Boston, as we have
seen, passed through the town on his round-about-way to Lexington,
and must have delivered his first message there before 11 o'clock on
the evening of the 18th. There were three companies under the command
of Captain Moses Whiting, Captain William Draper, and Captain Lemuel
Child, respectively, who took active parts in the events of the 19th.
As they marched for the scene of strife many women and children fled
to other towns for greater safety.[85]
The news reached Dedham, ten miles southwesterly from Boston, a
little after 9 o'clock in the morning. It came by way of Needham and
Dover.[86]
Framingham, eighteen miles southwesterly from Boston, was alarmed
before 8 o'clock in the morning. A bell was rung, and alarm guns
fired, which assembled many of the two companies of militia and one
of minute-men, who started in about an hour. Captain Edget went on
foot the entire distance, and carried his gun. Those living in the
extreme south and west parts of the town followed on a little later.
Not long after the men had left, a report was started that negroes
were coming to massacre them all, which seemed the more frightful to
the women and children because of the absence of about all of the
able-bodied men. For those defenceless ones at home it was a terrible
day.[87]
Newton, seven miles westerly from Boston, was alarmed at early
dawn by a volley from one of John Pigeon's field-guns, kept at the
gun-house in Newton Centre, near the church.[88]
Sudbury, eighteen miles westerly from Boston, received its first news
by a messenger from Concord, eight miles away, who reported to Thomas
Plympton, a member of the Provincial Congress. Captain Nixon was
aroused by a messenger, who shouted:
"Up, up! the red-coats are up as far as Concord."
Captain Nixon started off at once on horseback.[89]
In Worcester, forty miles westerly from Boston, the people were
alarmed before noon by a messenger mounted on a white horse dripping
with sweat, and bloody from spurring. Driving at full speed through
the town he shouted:
"To arms, to arms! the war has begun!"
At the church the horse fell exhausted. Another was procured and
the news still went on. The bell rang out the alarm, cannon were
fired, and special messengers despatched to every part of the town to
summon the soldiers. In a little while 110 men, under Captain Timothy
Bigelow were paraded on the Green, and soon marched for Concord. They
were met on the way by the intelligence of the British retreat. So
they changed their course towards Boston.[90]
It would be interesting to know the full details of that messenger's
long ride, and just where in the westward it ended. His exhausted
horse, covered with bloody foam, falling in the street before the
church, must have been a spectacular sight, and one that spoke loudly
of that terrific ride, perhaps the longest one of all the messengers.
And we can safely imagine that all along his course, other
messengers, drawing their inspiration from him, rode into the north,
and into the south, bearing with them the news that he bore; and that
in turn their words were echoed by the gun-volley, the clanging bell
and the drum-beat.
The reveille had now been sounded in Essex, in Middlesex, in Norfolk,
and in Worcester Counties, and the minute-men were on their way to
the battle of April 19.
FOOTNOTES:
[60] Lewis and Newhall's History of Lynn, page 338.
[61] Deposition of Robert Douglass.
[62] Beneath Old Roof Trees. A. E. Brown.
[63] Hansen's History of Beverly, page 88; Hurd's Middlesex County,
II, page 1010.
[64] Journal of Thomas Boynton of Capt. Ames's Company, and Hurd's
History of Essex County, II., page 1572.
[65] In an article on the Munroe Tavern in the Proceedings of the
Lexington Hist. Soc., III., 146, Albert W. Bryant recites a tradition
that the information of ten British officers riding up the road was
given to Sergeant Munroe, who gave the first general alarm that
assembled Captain Parker's Company. A messenger later was sent down
the road on a scouting trip for the British, but who did not return.
A second was sent who did not return. A third was sent who also did
not return. A fourth was despatched who did return with the news
that the British Army was really marching on Lexington, and that
the previous messengers who had been sent down the road had met and
passed two or more British soldiers riding in advance of the main
body, who then closed in on them as prisoners. The horse of the
fourth messenger had become frightened at the two advancing Britons
and turned back in spite of his rider, who caught a glimpse of the
British front ranks on the march. [This last messenger was Captain
Thaddeus Bowman, F. W. C.]
[66] Our Grandmothers of 1775, by Miss Elizabeth W. Harrington in
Lex. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, I, 51.
[67] Rev. Jonas Clarke's Narrative.
[68] Life of Elbridge Gerry, by James T. Austin, page 67.
[69] Dep. of Joseph Underwood.
[70] Sanderson having no horse was offered one by Thaddeus
Harrington, which he accepted. Dep. of Elijah Sanderson.
[71] Dep. of William Munroe containing statement also of a British
prisoner.
[72] Brown's History of Bedford, page 24.
[73] Brown's History of Bedford, page 53.
[74] Deposition of Tidd and Abbot.
[75] Brown's History of Bedford, pages 218, 219.
[76] Hazen's History of Billerica, page 235.
[77] Diary of Rev. Wm. Emerson in R. W. Emerson's Discourse, and
Capt. Amos Barrett's Account of the Battle in True's Journal.
[78] Dep. of Capt. Nathan Barret and fifteen others of Concord, and
Dep. of John Hoar and seven others of Lincoln, present in Concord
before the arrival of the British.
[79] Capt. Amos Barrett's Account of the Battle.
[80] Drake's Middlesex County, II, 375-6.
[81] Deposition of his widow.
[82] Between one and two hours after sunrise. Deposition of his widow.
[83] Deposition of Charles Handley.
[84] Lorenzo P. Blood in Hurd's Middlesex County, III, 231.
[85] There is a tradition in the Greaton family that Mrs. Greaton
took her younger children and such articles as she could carry in a
cart and fled to Brookline; the older children walking beside the
vehicle. Drake's Roxbury, 61.
[86] Haven's Historical Address, page 46.
[87] Rev. Josiah H. Temple, in Hurd's Middlesex County, III, 624.
[88] Smith's Newton, 341.
[89] Hudson's Sudbury, 374-5, and Hudson in Hurd's Middlesex County,
II, 401.
[90] Lincoln and Hersey's History of Worcester, 97.
LIEUT.-COL. SMITH'S ADVANCE THROUGH CAMBRIDGE.
Let us now return to the King's soldiers under the command of
Lieut.-Col. Smith, whom we left on the shore of Charles River at
Lechmere Point in Cambridge. It was one o'clock on the morning of the
19th, before the column was fully under way.[91]
Lechmere Point then had but one house, which stood on the southern
slope of the hill, on the northern side of Spring Street, between
Third and Fourth Streets, and facing to the south.[92] Where the
troops landed, on Second Street, was sufficiently remote to be out
of sight and hearing, evidently the particular aim of the commanding
officer.
They proceeded cautiously, following an old farm-road around the
northeasterly slope of the hill, sometimes wading in the marshes that
bordered Willis Creek, and fording that stream, waist-deep, in the
vicinity of Bullard's Bridge.
Smith evidently thought that the noise of his soldiers tramping
across the bridge itself might attract attention. His soldiers found
the ford a long one, and the waters deep.[93]
Even thus early on the expedition was the British Army betrayed by
one of its own soldiers, if the tradition handed down by a Mrs.
Moore can be relied upon. Seventy-five years or more ago she related
to Rev. J. L. Sibley, who has stated accordingly, that she was then
living in Cambridge, a young girl, and that one of the soldiers was
taken sick after his landing at Lechmere Point, and accordingly
permitted by his commander to return by boat to Boston. He did
not immediately return, however, but made his way to the solitary
farm-house where Mrs. Moore was living. The occupants gained from
him the significance of his midnight presence, and it was considered
of sufficient importance to communicate speedily to their fellow
townsmen.
Bullard's Bridge crossed Willis Creek, near the present Prospect
Street, which runs from Cambridge to Somerville.[94] Later on the
Creek was called Miller's River. It was then a little tributary to
the Charles River, but has long since been filled in, and modest
dwellings, and more pretentious business establishments now cover its
upper area.
FOOTNOTES:
[91] A British officer in Boston in 1775 (See Atlantic Monthly,
April, 1877). In his Diary he places the time of starting at two
o'clock, and De Bernicre, in his report, at about two o'clock, but I
am compelled to compute it about one o'clock considering the distance
they had to march and the well known time they arrived at Lexington
Common, viz., almost eleven miles and reaching there at half past
four.
[92] E. C. Booth, in The Somerville Journal, April, 1875.
[93] Diary of a British officer in Boston in 1775.
[94] The interested reader should consult the map of Boston and
vicinity by J. F. W. Des Barres first published, May 5, 1775, and
reprinted in Shattuck's History of Boston, and the one by Henry
Pelham, first published in London, June 2, 1777, and reprinted in the
Siege and Evacuation of Boston. A study of them will enable one to
more fully understand the topography of the country about Boston at
that time.
LIEUT.-COL. SMITH'S ADVANCE THROUGH SOMERVILLE.
The invading army emerging from Willis Creek were now in Somerville.
They quickly arrived at Piper's Tavern, then standing in what is now
Union Square. It was after two o'clock, but the moon was shining
sufficiently bright for some of the soldiers to read the sign
aloud, which an awakened inmate heard. Up the present Bow Street
they marched, passing the Choate and Frost houses, continuing
along the present Somerville Avenue to Jonathan Ireland's house,
at the southwest corner of the present School Street. None of the
inhabitants just along there seem to have been disturbed. A few rods
farther lived Samuel Tufts on the westerly side of the road near the
present Laurel Street. He was casting bullets in a little hut back of
his dwelling, and being assisted by his negro, but neither of them
heard the tread of soldiers in the road. But yet a little farther
along, however, at the northwest corner of the present Central Street
lived the widow Rand. She was disturbed by the unusual noise in the
road, and came down stairs in her night-clothes to investigate. A hog
had been killed for her the day before, and she feared a midnight
thief. Upon opening the door she saw the soldiers, but hid behind the
rain-water hogshead until they had passed and then hurried across
the road to tell her neighbor Tufts of the unusual sight. At first
he could not believe the story, but with his lantern's aid saw the
many foot-prints in the road, and became convinced. Springing to his
horse's back he took a short cut bridle path to Cambridge, there to
spread the alarm.