The Minute-man of the Revolution! He was the old, the
middle-aged, and the young. He was Capt. Miles, of Concord, who
said that he went to battle as he went to church. He was Capt.
Davis, of Acton, who reproved his men for jesting on the march.
He was Deacon Josiah Haynes, of Sudbury, 80 years old, who
marched with his company to the South Bridge at Concord, then
joined in the hot pursuit to Lexington, and fell as gloriously as
Warren at Bunker Hill. He was James Hayward, of Acton, 22 years
old, foremost in that deadly race from Concord to Charlestown,
who raised his piece at the same moment with a British soldier,
each exclaiming, "You are a dead man!" The Briton dropped, shot
through the heart.
James Hayward fell mortally wounded. "Father," he said, "I
started with forty balls; I have three left. I never did such a
day's work before. Tell mother not to mourn too much, and tell
her whom I love more than my mother, that I am not sorry I turned
out."--George W. Curtis.