THE BEGINNINGS OF THE AMERICAN

REVOLUTION

CHAPTER I

THE CONCORD BRIDGE ENCOUNTER

HE pause at Lexington was invaluable to Concord,

THE

giving its people just so much more time in which to remove and conceal the stores entrusted to their keeping. "Many thousands were saved to the Colony, and (the British) were in a great manner frustrated in their design," writes old Parson Clark.1

From Lieutenant Barker 2 we find that his first knowledge of the object of the march was at this moment, when they set forth from Lexington Green on the Concord road. As the troops moved along, with the alarm signals sounding from the outlying villages, they kept a sharp outlook, but were not interfered with. Some were seen in the woods by Colonel Smith's report, but nothing further happened on their way. It was now getting toward six or perhaps a little after, and the usual peaceful travel along the highway had begun; so soon to be abruptly interrupted. Captain Samuel Farrar, of the Lincoln Militia, on his way early to mill, we are told, when he heard of the trouble tossed his saddle-bags filled with grist over a wall, and rallied his men. Abel Hosmer was on his way from Concord to Charlestown

4

1 Narrative Appended to Parson Clark's Sermon, April 19, 1776.

2 Atlantic Monthly, April, 1877.

'Mass. His. Soc. Pro., May, 1876.

Beneath Old Roof Trees, 221-2. Brown.

Concord Historic, Literary and Picturesque. Third edition, 42. George B. Bartlett. Boston, 1894: Lothrop Publishing Company.

for a load of brick when he met the British coming on from Lexington, and quickly turned himself to a different day's work. It is said that a Bedford man with a load of wood drawn by a yoke of oxen and a horse came upon the soldiers at Lexington, perhaps during the halt. He passed them quietly, unyoked his team as if one of the village, and then getting on his horse, again went quietly through their midst; once past, he broke into a run and warned Concord.

When Revere was taken prisoner by Folly Pond, about a mile west from the Old Bull Tavern, on the borders of Lexington and Lincoln, Dr. Prescott, knowing the country, made a long détour northward through swamp, wood, and field and regained the road at Hartwell's tavern.2 Rousing the old men who kept it, he put his horse at its best speed for Concord. The brothers, John and Ephraim, were too aged and feeble to play an active part in the coming fray, but they immediately sent a black woman, a former slave, to rouse Captain William Smith of the Lincoln Minute Company, who lived nearly half a mile back toward Lexington. The road just beyond her was overhung with trees, and, panic-stricken, the old soul flew panting to Samuel Hartwell's door (a son of one of the tavern keepers), waking all within by her frantic cries that the British were after her. Seeing she was too unstrung to go further, Mrs. Hartwell put the three months old baby in her arms, saying, "If you will take care of my baby, I will go and rouse the Captain," adding, "Sam, make yourself ready, and saddle your horse. I'll be back in time to get you some breakfast." Soon after she had returned, the sergeant rode off with musket and powder-horn to Concord to join the Militia; and Captain Smith, having first sent messengers some two miles south to ring the Lincoln Meeting-house bell as an alarm, also rode off to Concord.

his

When her husband had gone Mrs. Hartwell did up morning chores about the barn, turned the cattle loose, and

1 History of Middlesex County, I, 245. Drake. “Bedford," by Josiah A. Stearns. Boston Evening Transcript, April 18, 1900.

had just collected a few cherished articles—a mirror and some silverware-and laid them beside the baby, when the tramp of the British could be heard marching nearer and nearer. Going to the door she shaded her eyes and saw the winding line of red and flashing bayonets coming on and on between the pasture lands. As they passed, the scarlet coats, white gaiters, powdered wigs, and bosom pins made a rare show and she used to say 1 years after: "If it hadn't been for the purpose they came for, I should say it was the handsomest sight I ever saw in my life!" When they were all gone by, she and her flock of little ones went two miles off the road to her father Flint's in Lincoln. Susanna Parker, whose parents also lived on the main road, used to recall running with her sister over the hill back of the house and watching from a distance the Regulars marching by. She could even catch the clear English voices as they went along the road.

3

To return to Dr. Samuel Prescott, whom we left riding post haste to Concord. Since the attempt in February to seize the Salem cannon a guard of men had been patrolling the Concord streets at night, some stationed at the north, others at the south bridges, some in the centre of the town, and again below Mrs. Jonathan Heywood's on the Lincoln road, under the command of Jonathan Farrar. In case of alarm they were to rally at Wright's tavern. On reaching the town therefore, between one and two in the morning, Prescott found Amos Melven on guard at the Court-house and told him to ring an alarm. The first to respond was the Rev. William Emerson, carrying his gun. This so impressed the sentinel that he named two boys the one, William, the other Emerson Melven. Major John Buttrick lived

1 Boston Evening Transcript, April 18, 1900.

Life of Amos A. Lawrence, 1. William Lawrence. Boston, 1888: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

Also

3 Thaddeus Blood's Narrative, Boston Daily Advertiser, April 20, 1886. in The Story of Patriots' Day, Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775. Geo. J. Varney. Boston, 1895: Lee and Shepard.

"The Concord Fight." Frederick Hudson. Harper's Monthly, May, 1875.