In 1836, the “Battle Monument” to commemorate “the First organized
Resistance to British Aggression” had been erected “in Gratitude to God
and Love of Freedom” on “the spot where the first of the Enemy fell in
the War which gave Independence to the United States.” Thirty-three years
later, on the Nineteenth day of April, with its threefold patriotic
memories for Concord,[K] the people gathered on the village common to see
their new memorial to valor. The inscription on one of its bronze tablets
declared that
THE TOWN OF CONCORD
BUILDS THIS MONUMENT
IN HONOR OF
THE BRAVE MEN
WHOSE NAMES IT BEARS:
AND RECORDS
WITH GRATEFUL PRIDE
THAT THEY FOUND HERE
A BIRTHPLACE, HOME OR GRAVE.