Chapter 11

[148]His deposition April 24, 1775.

[149]MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington.

[150]His deposition.

[151]This gun descended to his grandson, Rev. Theodore Parker, who gave it to the State of Massachusetts. Bradford Smith in Lexington Hist. Soc. Proceedings, II, 145.

[152]Deposition of Abijah Harrington.

[153]Deposition of James Reed.

[154]Deposition of Ebenezer Munroe.

[155]Mt. Vernon Papers by Edward Everett, page 430. Everett, a member of Congress in 1826, secured a pension of $96 per year for Wood. Once, when the latter was in Washington he introduced him to President Jackson. See also the History of Woburn, by Sewall, who received his information from Wood's son. Also see the deposition of Wood.

[156]Deposition of E. Welsh.

[157]Deposition of Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, a British prisoner.

[158]U. S. Geological Survey, 1886.

[159]Deposition of Capt. Nathan Barrett and fifteen others, all of Concord.

[160]Diary of Rev. William Emerson.

[161]Deposition of Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, British.

[162]Deposition of Capt. Nathan Barrett and fifteen others.

[163]Capt. Amos Barrett's Account, who was then present as a member of Brown's Company.

[164]A British Officer in Boston in 1775.

[165]De Bernicre, the British authority who was present, states the time as being between nine and ten o'clock, but I follow Captain Barrett and fifteen others who state in their deposition that it was about two hours after sunrise.

[166]U. S. Geological Survey, 1886.

[167]Frederic Hudson in Harper's Magazine, May, 1875.

[168]Lieut.-Col. Smith's report.

[169]De Bernicre and Editor's Note to Diary of a British Officer.

[170]174/88miles, to be exact.

[171]Editor's Note in A British Officer in Boston in 1775, and Deposition of Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, British officer present.

[172]De Bernicre.

[173]De Bernicre.

[174]82/88mile to be exact.

[175]Frederic Hudson, in Harper's Magazine, May, 1875.

[176]Ripley, Rev. Ezra. History of the Fight at Concord.

[177]Ripley.

[178]The old mill-pond occupied a goodly portion of the land bounded by Lexington Road, Heywood, Walden, and Main Streets, the northerly corner almost reaching Wright's Tavern. Subsequently it was filled in and now stores and dwellings occupy its entire area.

[179]Ripley.

[180]U. S. Geological Survey, 1886.

[181]The road forming one side of the triangle, and leading from the bridge, has been discontinued and now appears only as a part of the river meadow.

[182]Lemuel Shattuck as quoted by Josiah Adams, page 27.

[183]Statement of Aaron Jones, a member, in Adams's Address, page 21.

[184]Affidavit of Amos Baker, a member.

[185]Survivors testified that both Major Buttrick and Capt. Davis used these words. See Ripley's History of the Concord Fight.

[186]Journal of Capt. David Brown, Commander of one of the Concord companies, as quoted by Adams, page 32.

[187]Ripley.

[188]Deposition of Bradley Stone.

[189]Depositions of Bradley Stone and Solomon Smith.

[190]Corporal Amos Barrett of Brown's Company indicates Davis's as first and his own company as third. The exact order of the other participating companies I am unable to give.

[191]Statement of Aaron Jones, a member, to Mr. Adams. See Adams's Address, page 21.

[192]Frederic Hudson.

[193]Doolittle picture. Adams, 1835. Frothingham, 1851.

[194]Deposition of Solomon Smith.

[195]Deposition of Solomon Smith.

[196]Frederic Hudson.

[197]Deposition of Amos Baker.

[198]A British Officer in Boston in 1775. See also Rev. Mr. Emerson's account, who speaks of the "marches and counter-marches for half an hour," and their "great fickleness and inconstancy of mind." Smith can hardly be blamed for nervousness at that moment with part of his eight hundred men at Col. Barrett's, five hundred Americans between, and another part of his force at the South Bridge.

[199]"Our company and most of the others pursued, but in great disorder." Deposition of Thomas Thorp of the Acton Company. "The loss of our Captain was the cause of much of the confusion that followed." Deposition of Solomon Smith of the Acton Company.

[200]Deposition of Solomon Smith.

[201]Sidney, Margaret. Old Concord, Her Highways and Byways.

[202]Rev. Mr. Emerson's Narrative.

[203]Sidney.

[204]De Bernicre.

[205]Sidney, page 23.

[206]Frederic Hudson. The Concord Fight in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, May, 1875.

[207]Ripley.

[208]Frederic Hudson.

[209]Charles Handley's Deposition.

[210]Deposition of Zechariah Brown and Thomas Davis, Jr., who buried the two soldiers in a common grave near where they fell. A memorial stone marks the spot.

[211]I have his name, but do not think it best to insert it in this narrative. Revenge was deeply impressed on his mind by the bitterness of public feeling against the mother country. He was too young to exercise proper judgment in separating the soldier from his King.

[212]See De Bernicre's Account.

[213]Deposition of Solomon Smith.

[214]De Bernicre.

[215]U. S. Geological Survey, 1886.

[216]Frederic Hudson.

[217]Frederic Hudson.

[218]Frederic Hudson.

[219]In the Diary of A British Officer in Boston in 1775, and who was with Smith in the Concord expedition, he writes of the return to Lexington and the expected reinforcements: "We had been flatter'd ever since the morning with the expectation of the Brigade coming out, but at this time had given up all hope of it, as it was so late."

[220]Petition of Martha Moulton, Concord, Feb. 4, 1776, to the Honorable Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay for recognition of her services on that occasion.

[221]Journals of Each Provincial Congress.

[222]De Bernicre thought there could not have been less than five thousand rebels on the hills about Concord. His anxiety greatly multiplied the real number.

[223]Massachusetts Archives.

[224]Rev. Edmund Foster and Ensign De Bernicre.

[225]U. S. Geological Survey, 1886.

[226]Frothingham's Siege of Boston. Rev. Mr. Foster's Account.

[227]Foster's Account.

[228]Stearns, Jonathan F. Bedford Sesqui-Centennial, page 26. Ripley, page 21, seems to think that Lane was wounded a little farther along at the Hartwell barn.

[229]Beneath Old Roof Trees, by Abram English Brown, page 221.

[230]Statement of Mr. George Nelson, near-by resident, who saw the remains and pointed out to me in 1890 the locations of the old and new graves.

[231]Standing until a few years ago, although in a shattered condition. It had been abandoned as a habitation for many years. A conflagration completed its destruction, and now only the scar of its cellar-hole, and a pile of bricks that formed its mammoth chimney and hospitable hearth, mark where it stood.

[232]Statement to me in 1890, of Mr. Nelson, owner of the old ruins with the surrounding fields, and who pointed out "The Soldiers' Graves."

[233]See his deposition in Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., but I do not find his name in any other place as a member.

[234]I am indebted to the great-grandchildren of Samuel Hastings, Cornelius and Charles A. Wellington, for this statement. They were residents of Lexington, but since both have died.

[235]See Massachusetts State Archives where twenty-eight miles is the distance charged for by most of his men.

[236]The sword and bullet were found by Mr. John Lannon about 1895, and from whom I obtained them. He was then as now owner of the farm. In removing a bowlder from his garden it was necessary to dig around it and on one side to a depth of about four feet. There he found the sword and a little of its rust-eaten scabbard, and quite likely in the grave by the side of its wearer. The bullet once round, now not half that, had struck the ledge rather than the American on its summit, and fell harmlessly at the base.

[237]Rev. Mr. Foster called it Benjamin's Tavern.

[238]De Bernicre's Account.

[239]The accoutrements were taken to Concord and later sold by auction. Capt. Nathan Barrett bought the pistols, beautiful ones, with elaborately chased silver mountings, with Pitcairn's name engraved thereon. Capt. Barrett offered them to Gen. Washington, who declined them, and then to Gen. Putnam, who carried them through the war. They were brought to Lexington on Centennial Day, April 19, 1875, for exhibition by Rev. S. I. Prime, D.D., on behalf of the owner, a widow of John P. Putnam, of Cambridge, N. Y., who was the grandson of Gen. Putnam and to whom they descended. Later Mrs. Putnam gave them to the town of Lexington and they are now on exhibition by the Lexington Historical Society (See Handbook of Lexington, 1891.) Rev. William Emerson of Concord, requested of the Third Provincial Congress, June 1, 1775, the use of a horse, probably Pitcairn's, which they granted specifying one captured from a regular by Isaac Kittredge, of Tewksbury, Capt. Nathan Barrett, and Henry Flint, of Concord, Mr. Emerson to pay a reasonable price for its keeping up to that time.

[240]Statement to me by the late Rev. Carlton A. Staples.

[241]U. S. Geological Survey, 1886.

[242]Statement of H. M. Houghton to the Rev. Carlton A. Staples, who so informed me. Mr. Houghton lived in that vicinity during his boyhood and furnished a roughly sketched plan to Mr. Staples.

[243]James Fletcher's History of Acton, in Hurd's History of Middlesex County.

[244]See Foster's Narrative.

[245]The exact spot was pointed out to me by the late Rev. Carlton A. Staples, Sept. 11, 1900, who received his information accompanied by a plan from H. M. Houghton.

[246]Diary of a British Officer in Boston in 1775, who was a member of the expedition.

[247]U. S. Geological Surveys, 1898, 1900.

[248]Foster's Account. E. P. Bliss gives the number as two, in Lexington Hist. Soc., I, 75.

[249]E. P. Bliss, in Lexington Historical Society, I, 75.

[250]C. Stedman. History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War. London, 1794.

[251]Percy's Report to Gen. Gage.

[252]The damage to the meeting-house by the cannon ball cost the Town of Lexington to repair £1 1s. Rev. C. A. Staples in Lexington Historical Society, I, 21.

[253]Ripley.

[254]Hudson's History of Sudbury.

[255]De Bernicre.

[256]"Father sent Jonas down to Grandfather Cook's to see who was killed and what their condition was and, in the afternoon, Father, Mother with me and the Baby went to the Meeting House, there was the eight men that was killed, seven of them my Father's parishoners, one from Woburn, all in Boxes made of four large Boards Nailed up and, after Pa had prayed, they were put into two horse carts and took into the grave yard where your Grandfather and some of the Neighbors had made a large trench, as near the Woods as possible and there we followed the bodies of thosefirst slain,Father,Mother, I and the Baby, there I stood and there I saw them let down into the ground, it was a little rainey but we waited to see them covered up with the Clods and then for fear the British should find them, my Father thought some of the men had best Cut some pine or oak bows and spread them on their place of burial so that it looked like a heap of Brush."I am indebted to the Lexington Historical Society, Proceedings, Vol. IV, page 92, for the above extract from a letter written by Miss Elizabeth Clarke, daughter of Rev. Jonas Clarke. It is dated from Lexington, April 19, 1841, and written to her niece, Mrs. Lucy Ware Allen, whose mother was Mary, another daughter of Rev. Mr. Clarke. The writer, Miss Elizabeth, was then in her seventy-eighth year. I am inclined to think that Asahel Porter, the Woburn man, was buried in his own town. Though killed near the Common he was not one of Capt. Parker's Company.

I am indebted to the Lexington Historical Society, Proceedings, Vol. IV, page 92, for the above extract from a letter written by Miss Elizabeth Clarke, daughter of Rev. Jonas Clarke. It is dated from Lexington, April 19, 1841, and written to her niece, Mrs. Lucy Ware Allen, whose mother was Mary, another daughter of Rev. Mr. Clarke. The writer, Miss Elizabeth, was then in her seventy-eighth year. I am inclined to think that Asahel Porter, the Woburn man, was buried in his own town. Though killed near the Common he was not one of Capt. Parker's Company.

[257]Frothingham's History of the Siege of Boston.

[258]William Gordon's History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America. N. Y., 1794. Vol. I, page 312.

[259]Rev. Isaac Mansfield, Jr., Chaplain of Gen. Thomas's Regiment, in a Thanksgiving Sermon in Camp at Roxbury, Nov. 23, 1775. See Thornton's Pulpit of the American Revolution, page 236.

[260]Edward Everett Hale in Memorial History of Boston. Vol. 3.

[261]West Cambridge on the Nineteenth of April, 1775, An Address by Samuel Abbot Smith, Boston, 1864, page 27.

[262]Frothingham's Siege of Boston.

[263]Edward Everett Hale in Memorial History of Boston, Vol. 3.

[264]Brown's Beneath Old Roof Trees.

[265]Smith's Address.

[266]Smith's Address. Some of the opposition newspapers in England were quite merry and some quite sarcastic over the surrender of six lusty soldiers to one old woman, and inquired, on that basis, how many British troops would it take to conquer America?

[267]Smith's Address.

[268]He signed his official report to Gen. Gage, "Percy, Acting Brig. Gen." So that was his title for April Nineteenth.

[269]See the rough or preliminary draft of his report to Gage.

[270]Smith's Address, pages 31, 32.

[271]To be exact, for I have measured the route over which he marched, it was 1574/88miles.

[272]In his report he states that he "drew up the Brigade on a height." Only Mount Vernon was easily accessible for such a movement. See also Doolittle's "A View of the South Part of Lexington," for confirmation.

[273]Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass. in 1775, page 686.

[274]Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass. in 1775, page 688.

[275]Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass. in 1775, page 688.

[276]A majority of the voters of Lexington in town meeting assembled have re-named a near-by street, "Percy Road," in commemoration of his visit on that Nineteenth of April. Almost any other foeman's name would have been better, if it is thus necessary to mark a growing feeling of respect and kindliness between two nations of kindred blood. Its older name was Mt. Vernon Street!The town has many street names in memory of that battle day, such as Adams, Clarke, Hancock, Muzzey, Revere. Percy Road starts from near the old Munroe Tavern. What better name could there be for this thoroughfare than Munroe Avenue, in memory of Sergeant William Munroe, or of his grandson James S. Munroe, who has generously left the Tavern to be forever open to the public for inspection.

The town has many street names in memory of that battle day, such as Adams, Clarke, Hancock, Muzzey, Revere. Percy Road starts from near the old Munroe Tavern. What better name could there be for this thoroughfare than Munroe Avenue, in memory of Sergeant William Munroe, or of his grandson James S. Munroe, who has generously left the Tavern to be forever open to the public for inspection.

[277]Lexington Historical Society Proceedings, III, 135.

[278]See Doolittle's "A View of the South Part of Lexington," for an idea of those burning Lexington homes.

[279]Lexington Historical Society Proceedings, III, 135.

[280]A carefully written newspaper clipping evidently from a Boston periodical, dated April 19, 1858, preserved in a scrap book once belonging to the Thomas Waterman collection of American History.

[281]Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass. in 1775.

[282]De Bernicre's Report.

[283]Heath's Memoirs, page 201.

[284]Then he had in mind to return by way of Roxbury, a longer march than to Charlestown.

[285]De Bernicre says the Light Infantry was in front, then the Grenadiers.

[286]Told to me by the venerable Charles Brown still living (1911) in East Lexington. His grandfather, Capt. Edmund Munroe, was an active participant in the events of April 19th.

[287]Heath's Memoirs.

[288]Bolton's Brookline. White's was the only company to file claim for pay, however. See Mass. Archives.

[289]Heath's Memoirs.

[290]Heath's Memoirs.

[291]Mrs. Lydia Peirce's statement in Smith's Address, page 33.

[292]Mrs. Almira T. Whittemore in Parker's Arlington, page 194. The tavern is still standing, or part of it, numbered 965 Massachusetts Ave., opposite Mt. Vernon Street.

[293]This little child lived into womanhood and became the wife of James Hill.

[294]Mrs. Adams's Deposition and Smith's Address, wherein he quotes Mrs. Thos. Hall, grand-daughter of Mrs. Adams, Rev. Mr. Brown's Sermon on James Hill, and S. G. Damon's article in The Christian Register, Oct. 28, 1854. The building, or part of it, is still standing (1912) being the ell of a building on the southerly side of Massachusetts Avenue, third house westerly from Bartlett Avenue.

[295]Born Jan. 25, 1717. Paige's History of Cambridge. The old grave-stone in the cemetery at Arlington calls him 59 years old.

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