Just after crossing the Menotomy River into Arlington they passed a house where lived the venerable Samuel Whittemore[97] with his sons and grandchildren. Silent as was the march intended to be, it awoke the inmates and preparations for the day commenced.

The troops soon arrived opposite to the Black Horse Tavern, kept by Mr. Wetherby. Thus far their march had not been heralded other than by the flashing lights and fleet and silent messengers. Lieut.-Col. Smith still thought his little army unnoticed, for he rode a little way beyond the Tavern, halted his men, and sent back an officer with a file of men, to surround and guard the house, while others should search the interior for members of the rebel congress whom he thought to be within. His surmise was correct, to some extent, for three members were there, just awakened by the heavy tread, and who heard the low-voiced commands to halt.

The day before, April 18, the Committee of Safety and the Committee of Supplies, had held a joint meeting at the Tavern, and there were present, Col. Azor Orne, Col. Joseph Palmer, Col. William Heath, Col. Thomas Gardner, Richard Devens, Abraham Watson, Capt. Benjamin White, and John Pigeon, of the Committee of Safety, and David Cheever, Elbridge Gerry, Col. Charles Lee, and Col. Benjamin Lincoln, of the Committee of Supplies. At the close of the meeting most of them, being near enough, had departed for their homes. It will be remembered that Richard Devens of Charlestown departed early enough to meet Revere on the Charlestown shore, and acquaint him with the movement of the ten British officers riding up the road. It will also be recalled that Elbridge Gerry had sent from here a messenger to John Hancock at Lexington to the same effect.

However, there were three members of the two committees who chose to remain at the Black Horse Tavern that night. They were Col. Azor Orne, Elbridge Gerry, and Col. Charles Lee.

It was not quite three o'clock when the slumbers of these three men were disturbed by the unusual noise in the road, and they went to the windows and looked out into the moonlight and down on the marching host and its gleaming arms. They watched with eager curiosity. Not for a moment did they connect themselves individually with the movement, but when they heard the command to halt, and saw a file of soldiers leave the ranks for the Tavern they were startled, and then it suddenly occurred to them that possibly they were the objects of those military manoeuvres. They hurried down stairs, even clad in their night-clothes as they were, and finally sought a safe exit at the rear. It is said that Mr. Gerry, in his nervous haste to escape, was on the point of opening the front door and rushing out that way, but was prevented by the cry of the landlord:

"For God's sake, don't open that door," and who then conducted the three to the back part of the house, and headed them for a field of corn stubble. Elbridge Gerry stumbled and fell, and cried out to his friend:

"Stop, Orne, for me, till I can get up; I have hurt myself."

His position, flat on the ground, out of sight because of the corn-stubble, suggested that it would be a good hiding-place for all, so the three lay prone on the ground until the King's troops passed on. They returned to the Tavern finally to find that the house had indeed been searched for them, very ineffectively, for even their personal effects including Mr. Gerry's gold watch, left ticking under his pillow, had not been disturbed. The search by the soldiers had not been a very thorough one.

Col. Lee never recovered from the ill effect of his exposure on the damp ground in the night air, too thinly clad as he was, for he died within a month.[98]

The march of the British forces under Lieut. Col. Smith up to this point, was a little over five miles, and it was nearly three o'clock. He continued serenely for a little farther, for unknown to him the inmates of many houses that he passed were aroused by the measured tread of his men.

Solomon Bowman, Lieutenant in Captain Benjamin Locke's Company of Minute-men, lived in Menotomy, now Arlington.[99] He came to the door to witness the unusual sight. A soldier perceiving him, left the ranks and asked for a drink of water. Bowman refused the request, but asked him:—

"What are you out at this time of night for?"

The reply of the thirsty soldier was not recorded, but whatever it was Bowman readily drew his own conclusions, and when the column disappeared up the road, hastened to call out members of his company. They formed at day-break on the Common.[100]

But at the house across the road, with its chimneys painted white, the reception was more gracious. A tory lived there, and white chimneys, it has been said, indicated the owner's politics.[101]

The column halted again, briefly in the centre of the town, and Lieut.-Col. Smith despatched forward six companies of light infantry under Major Pitcairn, for the purpose of earlier securing the two bridges on the roads just beyond Concord village.[102] Scarcely had he done so, when signal guns and alarm bells were heard, which indicated a general awakening to arms of the Provincials. Smith realized the full meaning of those ominous sounds, and from there, in Arlington village, promptly sent back to Gen. Gage for reinforcements. Fortunate for him that he did so, for otherwise the day's climax for his force would have been even more disastrous than it was.

His marching soldiers could now hardly expect to pass any house unseen. A party of young men, playing cards, even at that late hour, in an old shop that stood near the road, lost their interest in the game and gave it up.[103]

At the Tufts Tavern, still standing on the easterly side of Massachusetts Avenue, nearly opposite Mt. Vernon Street, the soldiers halted and some of them proceeded towards Mr. Tufts's barn. He was awake, and saw them, and suspected that their mission might be the confiscation of his favorite white horse. He called for his gun, but his prudent wife informed him that it had been loaned. Opening the door however, he addressed a British officer saying:

"You are taking an early ride, sir!"

"You had better go to bed and get your sleep while you can," replied the officer significantly.[104]

At the corner of the main road and the one leading to Winchester, now Forest Street, "At the Foot of the Rocks," lived a shoemaker. A light glimmering through the shutters caught the attention of an officer, who sent a soldier to investigate its cause, so late in the night. The good wife replied that her "old man" was sick and she was "making some herb tea." That excuse satisfied the officer, for the family was left undisturbed. The "tea" was in fact melted pewter plates being run into bullets. When the rap first came at the door the old man took to his bed, and his wife emptied the molten pewter into the ashes, where it was readily found after the soldiers had passed on.[105] It is probable that ere night some of the leaden tea had hardened into leaden fruit, and was used for other than medicinal purposes.

In the next house, still standing (1912) and numbered 1193 Massachusetts Avenue, lived Capt. Benjamin Locke. He looked out and saw the marching red-coats, and knew what their mission was. He lost no time in arousing such of his command as lived in that neighborhood.

The British continued along the main road, which at that time ran up the hill westerly from Capt. Locke's home, and is now called Appleton Street, into Paul Revere Road, and out again into the present Massachusetts Avenue. At that time there was no highway between the extreme ends of these two.

Through the rest of Arlington the march was uneventful, save the capture of the scouts sent out from Lexington, who were so neatly ambushed and taken. As we have seen, they were permitted to come down the road passing a few soldiers who were out in advance, and who secreted themselves when an approaching horseman was heard. After the unfortunate scout had passed into the stretch of road bounded by the advance guard and the main body he was not permitted to return to Lexington.

Two men from Woburn, Asahel Porter and Josiah Richardson, were thus captured. It has been stated that they were on their way to the Boston market. If they lived in that part of Woburn which adjoins Lexington, then their natural journey would have been into Lexington, and thence through Arlington and Cambridge. But it may be that they were scouting simply, for they were on horseback, and therefore without any apparent market business. They were compelled to dismount, their horses taken, and then forced to walk along as prisoners. Reaching the Common in Lexington they were both released by their kindly disposed guard, with the particular understanding that they were to walk, not run, away. Richardson accepted those conditions, carried them out and so escaped. But Porter, once over Rufus Merriam's garden-wall, twenty rods away from his captors, started into a run. Some other soldier than his guard saw him, and evidently thinking that a prisoner was escaping, promptly shot him through the body. Those captures were probably made in Arlington, and not far from the Lexington boundary line.