Lexington and Concord, MA 6/29/14

We arrived at the Minute Man National Historical Park in Lexington, MA.  The visitor center sits back in the woods near a quiet pond.

Things we didn’t know (or have forgotten) about the American Revolution:

1)  Paul Revere had company when he rode from Boston to alert the Minute Men that “the British are coming!”  (And he actually said something more like, “The Regulars are out!”)  He crossed the Charles River, then rode west while William Dawes, a member of Boston's militia, took a land route further south.  They met up on this road to Lexington…

and went to a home where John Hancock and Sam Adams were staying in order to alert them. 

They may have stopped here at the Hartwell Tavern near Lexington; three of the Hartwell sons joined the militia on Lexington Green that night.

As Revere and Dawes rode past Lexington, they encountered Dr. Samuel Prescott, a physician on his way home to Concord, who agreed to help sound the alarm.  Shortly thereafter they were stopped by a British patrol in about this spot.

Dawes and Prescott escaped; Dawes rode back to Lexington and Dr. Prescott rode through the backwoods to spread the alarm in Concord.  But Paul Revere was captured, interrogated, and his horse confiscated.  After a few hours he was released to walk back to Lexington.   

 

2)  In the early days of the colonies, there was little military presence, so all able-bodied male citizens were required to serve in militias under the control of royal governors.  They used this standard manual written for the British army.  The militia, originally formed to protect Britain's interests in the colonies, formed the bulk of the army that won colonial independence.      

3)  Less than 100 members of the Massachusetts militia faced 700 British soldiers on Lexington Green early on the morning of April 19, 1775.  This small group dispersed when fired upon by the British.  But by the time the British army reached this, the North Bridge at Concord... 

several hundred militia men had amassed.  When the British opened fire, the militia returned fire, an act of treason against the British government that Emerson would immortalize as "the shot heard round the world." 

4)  Confronted by the growing ranks of colonial militia (eventually numbering 4,000) many British soldiers panicked.  They regrouped in Concord and began to retreat.  A short distance outside of Concord, at Meriam's corner, the British slowed in order to cross a stream.  At that point they were ambushed by the militia and a running 20-mile-long battle ensued back to Boston.

Meriam's Corner in a sketch from the late 18th- or early 19th-century.  The stream is in the woods on the right.

Meriam's Corner and the swampy stream today.

We spent the afternoon in Concord paying respects to other heroes.

The Wayside, owned by the family of Louisa May Alcott and, later, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Larch Trail, often walked by Hawthorne near his home.

Sleepy Hollow cemetery.

 Ralph Waldo Emerson's gravesite.

 Louisa May Alcott's gravesite.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's gravesite.

Henry David Thoreau's gravesite.

Ephraim Wales Bull's gravesite.
In 1843, Bull began breeding grapes in Concord from a native strain that could thrive in the cold New England climate. His epitaph "He sowed, others reaped" refers to the fact that he sold seedlings to competing growers who raised their own crops of his Concord grapes, and thus realized little profit.

 

  

A huge swamp near Sleepy Hollow cemetery.

 

 

A glimpse of Walden Pond (the park was closed at the time) near Concord.

After surviving yesterday’s bridge collapse, we had our own Thanksgiving feast.