The Battle of April 19, 1775 / in Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville and Charlestown, Massachusetts

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In a little cemetery at West Fairlee, Vt., is a memorial stone which reads "Wm. Cox, died July 27, 1838, Aged 88. He helped steep the tea in the Atlantic." His name seems to have been overlooked by historians, so I mention it here.

[2] Lossing's History of the United States, page 226.

[3] Frothingham's Rise of the Republic, page 326.

[4] Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, cols. 238, 240.

[5] Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, col. 154.

[6] Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, col. 215.

[7] Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, col. 355.

[8] Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, cols. 442, 443.

[9] Hansard's Parliamentary History, XVIII, col. 446.

[10] See their "advice" to constables and to tax collectors Oct. 14, 1774, not to pay moneys collected by them to the royal treasurer of the province, Hon. Harrison Gray (Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 19) and their "recommendation" to towns, Oct. 28, to direct their constables and tax collectors to pay such moneys to their appointee as Receiver General, Henry Gardner (Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 38.)

[11] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 230.

[12] Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 18.

[13] Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 22.

[14] Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 23.

[15] Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 29.

[16] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 29.

[17] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 30.

[18] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 32.

[19] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 34.

[20] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 35.

[21] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 35.

[22] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 41.

[23] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 45.

[24] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 48.

[25] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 90.

[26] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, page 92.

[27] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, pages 115, 116.

[28] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, pages 505, 509.

[29] Journals of Each Provincial Congress, pages 146-7.

[30] Frothingham's Rise of the Republic of the U. S., page 330.

[31] Frothingham's Rise of the Republic of the U. S., page 318.

[32] Hale in Memorial History of Boston, III, 79.

[33] This list I make up from a document from among the Swett papers, and an article in the Atlantic Monthly, April, 1877, entitled A British Officer in Boston in 1775. The Swett MS. is interesting as giving the distinctive uniforms as follows:

Fourth or King's Own, red faced with white; 5th, Lord Percy, red faced with blue; 10th, red faced with green; 17th, Light Dragoons, red faced with yellow; 22d, Gen. Gage, red faced with white; 23d, Gen. Howe, red faced with blue; 38th, Gen. Piget, red faced with yellow; 43rd, red faced with light buff; 44th, red faced with yellow; 52d, red faced with white; 59th, called the Pompadours, red faced with crimson; 63d, red faced with yellow; 64th, red faced with black; artillery, blue faced with red; Marines, red faced with white.

Some of these were encamped on the Common.

[34] Heath's Memoirs, written by himself. Boston, 1798. Page 11.

[35] Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Mass., page 114.

[36] Rev. Mr. Gordon, of Roxbury, wrote a very interesting account of the commencement of hostilities which was published in the North American Almanack for 1776. He speaks of one of their practice marches, on March 30, when about 1100 men marched to Jamaica Plain, by way of Dorchester and back to Boston, about five miles. On this particular march the soldiers amused themselves by pushing over stone walls.

[37] Frothingham's Siege of Boston, page 56.

[38] Holland, pages 7, 8.

[39] Holland, page 9.

[40] Holland, page 9.

[41] Known also as the Black Horse Tavern.

[42] Frothingham, page 10.

[43] Frothingham's Siege of Boston.

[44] Diary of a British Officer in Boston in 1775.

[45] Boston Sunday Globe, Apr. 19, 1908. Article on Lanterns Hung in the Steeple.

[46] Goss, E. H., Life of Paul Revere.

[47] Full moon April 15. Moon rose on April 18, at 9.45 P. M. Low's Almanack for 1775.

[48] She was an ancestor of John R. Adan, and lived in the Ochterlong-Adan house at the corner of North and North Centre Streets. Goss, Life of Paul Revere.

[49] Goss, Life of Paul Revere.

[50] Capt. John Pulling, Jr., was son of John and Martha Pulling. Born in Boston, Feb. 18, 1737. Resided on corner of Ann and Cross Streets in 1775. Died in 1787. Goss, Life of Paul Revere.

[51] In Somerville on Washington Street, near Crescent Street.

[52] Now Broadway and Main Street, in Somerville, and Main Street in Medford.

[53] Bedford Road is now called Hancock Street and a newer road to Bedford is called Bedford Street. The old parsonage is still standing, though moved from its original location to a few rods across the street.

[54] Revere's ride was 12 ⁸⁶/₈₈ miles and Dawes's ride was 16 ⁶¹/₈₈ miles.

[55] Unfortunately no poet has ever thought the ride of William Dawes a sufficiently thrilling one for a place in poetic literature. When he left the farm house he rode into obscurity. For the incidents in Lincoln that he took part in, I am indebted to his granddaughter, Mrs. Mehitable May Goddard, as narrated in Henry W. Holland's book, William Dawes and his Ride With Paul Revere.

[56] Tradition says that Deacon Larkin's horse died from the effects of the strenuous ride of Revere, but it is probable that his second rider may have been equally or more of a contributory cause, as Revere's ride was not long and fast enough to kill a horse in sound condition.

[57] Holland.

[58] It has sometimes been written that Hancock and Adams first went to a little wooded hill southeasterly from the parsonage overlooking Lexington Common, and perhaps half a mile away, and where they remained concealed until after the British had passed, and that Adams, looking down upon that first scene of bloodshed expressed himself as above quoted. But I cannot reconcile that statement with Revere's own version of the flight wherein he speaks of going with them two miles and then returning for Hancock's trunk at the Buckman Tavern, and which he succeeded in getting just before the British arrived there at five o'clock. Thus Adams could not have witnessed the opening scene on Lexington Common.

[59] Revere's Narrative. Otherwise quoted as "Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they want war, let it begin here." Lexington Hist. Soc. I, 46.

[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.

[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.

[95] E. C. Booth in The Somerville Journal, April, 1875.

[96] Francis H. Brown, M.D., in Lexington Historical Society Proceedings, III, 101.

[97] House still standing, (1912) and numbered 54 Massachusetts Avenue.

[98] Samuel A. Smith's Address at West Cambridge, page 17.

[99] House still standing on the northerly side of Massachusetts Avenue, numbered 417, nearly opposite Whittemore Street. Arlington Past and Present, Parker, page 141.

[100] Statement of Mrs. Hill, daughter of Bowman, in Smith's Address, page 18.

[101] Smith, 18.

[102] Lieut.-Col. Smith's Report.

[103] A. R. Proctor, who heard it from William Hill and told it to Mr. Smith. The shop stood front of the residence occupied by James Schouler in 1864. Smith, West Cambridge Address, page 19.

[104] Mrs. Almira T. Whittemore in Parker's Arlington, 194-5.

[105] Mrs. Henry Whittemore's Statement, Smith's West Cambridge Address, 20.

[106] Deposition of Wm. Munroe who states that he saw about two hundred cartridge ends dropped by the soldiers when loading.

[107] Deposition of William Munroe, reciting a statement to him by a British prisoner.

[108] Deposition of Captain John Parker.

[109] Article by Elizabeth S. Parker in Lexington Historical Society, I, 47.

[110] "William Dimond. Died July 29, 1828. Aged 73." Inscription on his gravestone in Peterboro, N. H. See article in the Boston Globe, Sept. 23, 1903, speaking of him at length as the drummer in Capt. Parker's Company. See also the deposition of Sylvanus Wood who called him William Dimon. See also list of Capt. Parker's Company in Boutwell's Oration at Acton.

[111] Deposition of Sylvanus Wood.

[112] Deposition of Sylvanus Wood.

[113] Deposition of William Munroe.

[114] Depositions of Nathaniel Parkhurst and thirteen others, and of Nathaniel Mulliken and thirty-three others.

[115] Depositions of John Munroe, of Ebenezer Munroe, and of William Tidd. Also of Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, of the Fourth or King's Own Regiment, taken prisoner at Concord.

[116] Depositions of Robert Douglass and of Joseph Underwood.

[117] Deposition of William Draper.

[118] Historical Memoirs of the 52nd Regiment copied in Evelyn's Memoirs, pages 56-7.

[119] Depositions of Thomas Fessenden and of John Robbins.

[120] When this scene was re-enacted in 1822, William Munroe, Orderly Sergeant under Parker that morning, repeated the words of Captain Parker as above quoted, and added: "Them are the very words that Captain Parker said." Report of the Committee on Historical Monuments and Tablets, 1884. Paul Revere heard Captain Parker say: "Let the troops pass by and don't molest them without they begin first." See Revere's Narrative.

[121] Deposition of Captain John Parker.

[122] Rev. Jonas Clarke.

[123] Deposition of Thomas Fessenden.

[124] The English contention is that the Americans fired first. See letter of W. S. Evelyn, who was with Percy; De Bernicre's Account, and Lieut.-Col. Smith's Report. It seems to me of but little moment as to who fired first. The council of war, convened by Gen. Gage, April 18, wherein it was determined to march out and destroy the public stores of Massachusetts was the first real hostile act and could only lead to war. Major Pitcairn has denied that he authorized that first shot. I believe him to have been gruff and profane, but honest, brave, and faithful to his King. He died from wounds received in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

[125] Depositions of William Draper; of William Munroe; of Simon Winship; of John Munroe; and of John Bateman, a British soldier.

[126] Deposition of William Wood.

[127] MSS. narrative of Levi Harrington, a youthful spectator.

[128] Deposition of John Munroe.

[129] Deposition of John Munroe.

[130] MSS. narrative of Levi Harrington, and Deposition of John Munroe.

[131] MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington.

[132] Deposition of William Munroe.

[133] MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington.

[134] MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington.

[135] Phinney's History of the Battle of Lexington.

[136] Deposition of Ebenezer Munroe.

[137] MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington.

[138] Deposition of William Tidd.

[139] Miss Mary Merriam, ninety years of age in 1887, reported to Edward P. Bliss, that she had heard her father say (and he was thirteen years old when the battle took place) that on that morning some who would not stand up for their country believed the British would not fire on them. They were at the Tavern. The British fired on them, however, and they promptly retreated to the cellar and attic. Edward P. Bliss in Lexington Hist. Society Proceedings, I, 71.

[140] Depositions of William Munroe, minute-man, and of Elijah Sanderson, spectator. Also statement of Rufus Merriam, spectator, then in his thirteenth year, to Rev. A. B. Muzzey. Young Merriam overheard Buckman's remonstrance. Muzzey's Battle of Lexington, page 6. MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington.

[141] MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington; Deposition of Abijah Harrington.

[142] MSS. Narrative of Levi Harrington, who, however, erroneously names them John Parker and Isaac Hadley.

[143] A British officer in Boston in 1775, De Bernicre's Account, Report of Lieut.-Col. Smith, Statement of a British Prisoner as recited in Ebenezer Munroe's Deposition.

[144] A British Officer in Boston in 1775.

[145] Rev. Jonas Clarke, an eye-witness of this incident.

[146] At 5.19 A. M. Astronomical Diary and Almanack for 1775, by Nathaniel Low.

[147] From a patriotic resolution passed in Town Meeting in December, 1773. Hudson's History of Lexington, page 92.

[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] 1 ⁷⁴/₈₈ miles, 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] ⁸²/₈₈ mile 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 those first 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.

[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 15 ⁷⁴/₈₈ miles.

[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.

[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.

[296] King's Address and Smith's Address. The old home is still standing though removed a few rods back from its original location.

[297] It stood easterly of the present (1911) Town Hall. When the railroad went through, part of the house blocked the way and therefore the whole had to be demolished. The grand old elm that shaded the yard was destroyed in a gale and a smaller one now takes its place.

[298] Statement of F. H. Whittemore. Smith's Address, pages 43, 44.

[299] Cutter's Arlington and Paige's Cambridge.

[300] Deposition of Rachel Cooper.

[301] Smith's Address, page 52.

[302] King's Address, page 14.

[303] Dr. B. Cutter's Statement in Smith's Address, page 47.

[304] Paige's History of Cambridge, page 414.

[305] See Thanksgiving Sermon in the Camp at Roxbury, Nov. 23, 1775, by Rev. Isaac Mansfield, Jr., Chaplain to Gen. Thomas's Regiment. Mr. Mansfield fully believed such plans to have been made and states that his information came so direct that he could not hesitate to accept it but did not feel at liberty to publish the name of his informer.

[306] Booth, in Somerville Journal. April, 1875.

[307] The old highboy was in existence in 1910 and treasured by a Somerville man, Francis Tufts, to whom it descended. I have seen it, with its blood stains and three bullet holes.

[308] E. C. Booth in an article on Somerville in Drake's History of Middlesex County, Vol. 2, page 312.

[309] J. F. Hunnewell, A Century of Town Life, page 153.

[310] Low's Almanack, Boston, 1775.

[311] See his report to Gen. Gage.

[312] Everett was then a part of Malden.

[313] De Bernicre's Report.

[314] De Bernicre, and Diary of a British Officer in Boston in 1775.

[315] Heath's Memoirs.

[316] I am under obligations to the Military Secretary of the English War Office for a copy of the official returns of Gen. Gage of his losses on April 19, 1775, accompanied by the following:

"WAR OFFICE

"The Military Secretary begs to inform Mr. Frank W. Coburn with reference to his letter of the 27th November last, addressed to the late Commander in Chief, that the only information available on the subject of the casualties sustained by the British Troops during the action at Lexington on 19th April, 1775, is contained in the Lords' Gazette of 6-10 June, 1775, an extract of which is enclosed.

"WAR OFFICE,
"25th Sept., 1901."

"MR. FRANK W. COBURN,
"Lexington, Massachusetts."

[317] Smith's West Cambridge Address.

[318] At that time his name was simply John Horne.

[319] "The Battle of Lexington as looked at in London before Chief Justice Mansfield and a jury in the Trial of John Horne, Esq. By John Winslow."

[320] See Memoirs of John Horne Tooke, by Alexander Stephens, London, 1813. Vol. I, page 431, etc.

[321] Parliamentary History of England, XVIII, column 698.

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