Battle of Lexington

“ The battle of Lexington has made every man brave. Thousands of men joined the army at once and rushed on to Boston. They’ll drive every Britisher into the 19harbor!” Jack’s voice shook with excitement, “Yes; every King’s dog of them shall die. But”—his eagerness waned—“there has been another battle since. The report of our men winning at Bunker Hill was wrong. But it was a glorious fight. On, on came the British with bayonets pointed, not one of our men flinched; when they came near enough they gave them volley upon volley. I tell you, Deb, every rusty gun spoke true that day!” ”

“ In her husband she made choice of one not less congenial in political sentiments and feeling than in intellectual culture and in winning manners. The first intelligence of the battle of Lexington had fired his warm blood into immediate personal action in the cause; and he was one of the volunteers who, with his friend Colonel Reed, accompanied General Washington from Philadelphia to the camp at Cambridge. ”

“ The militia and minute-men, as reorganized and prepared in accordance with the directions of the Provincial Congress, responded with marvelous promptitude when the call to arms came. Within ten days after the battle of Lexington between fifteen and twenty thousand men had assembled at Cambridge and Roxbury. But it was an armed assemblage rather than an army. There was practically no cohesion beyond the company organization. They were not accustomed to act with other units as battalions or regiments. ”

“ Battle of Lexington, which commenced the revolutionary war. About 800 British grenadiers and light infantry, proceeding to destroy the military stores at Concord, fell in with about 70 militia, upon whom they fired and killed 8. The British proceeded to Concord, where they partially effected their purpose, but were compelled to retreat before the gathering provincials, although reinforced by 900 men and 2 pieces of cannon. In this excursion the British lost 65 killed, 180 wounded, and 28 prisoners. ”

“ Eldridge told them that a messenger had come from Bennington, summoning the settlers to Castleton to meet Colonel Allen. Faith and Esther listened to the story of the far-off battle of Lexington, in Massachusetts, the news of which had determined the Green Mountain Boys to make an immediate attack on the fort. These men were the settlers of the New Hampshire Grants, living long distances apart, and obliged to travel over rough trails, through deep forests, across rivers and mountains. ”

“ Henry’s embodying a force of militia from several counties, regularly armed and organized, marching them in military array, and making reprisal on the King’s treasury at the seat of government, for the public powder taken away by his Governor. This was on the last days of April, 1775. Your formal battle of Lexington was ten or twelve days before that, and greatly overshadowed in importance, as it preceded in time, our little affray, which merely amounted to a levying of arms against the King; and very possibly, you had had military affrays before the regular battle of Lexington. ”

“ It is easy for the traveler to conceive how terribly a retreating army might be galled by the lire of a concealed enemy. Hills and hillocks, some wooded, some bare, rise up every where, and formed natural breast-works of protection to the skirmishers that hung upon the flank and rear of Colonel Smith's troops. The road enters Lexington at the green whereon the old meeting-house stood when the battle occurred. The town is upon a fine rolling plain, and is becoming almost a suburban residence for citizens of Boston. ”

“ How at Lexington the Briton mingled causeless crime with folly,
And a king endangered empire by an ill-considered volley.
Then each heart beat quick for vengeance, as the anger-stirring story
Told of brethren and of neighbors lying corses stiff and gory.
Stops the plough and sleeps the shuttle, stills the blacksmith’s noisy hammer,
Come the farmer, smith, and weaver, with a wrath too deep for clamor;
But their fiercely purposed doing every glance they give avouches,
As they handle rusty firelocks, powder-horns, and bullet-pouches ”

“ Reaching the line of retreat, they hid behind houses, barns, and road-side walls, and poured a galling fire upon the troops, some of whom at every moment fell dead. During that dreadful six miles' march to Lexington, the helpless troops ran the gantlet of the most destructive storm of bullets they had ever encountered. On Lexington battle-green several of them fell. It is doubtful if a man of them would have reached Boston alive but for the cautious demand for re-enforcements which Colonel Smith had sent back in the early morning. ”

“ How the countrymen, forced suddenly to arm, without guides or counsellors, took instant counsel of their courage! The mighty chorus of voices rose from the scattered farmhouses, and, as it were, from the ashes of the dead. "Come forth, champions of liberty; now free your country; protect your sons and daughters, your wives and [24] homesteads; rescue the houses of the God of your fathers, the franchises handed down from your ancestors." Now all is at stake; the battle is for all.
Lexington, in 1775, may have had seven hundred inhabitants. ”

“ THE HOUSE OF JONATHAN HARRINGTON, LEXINGTON COMMON
Jonathan Harrington, one of the minutemen wounded by British bullets, dragged himself to the doorway of his house facing the Battle Green and died there at his wife’s feet.
22
THE BOULDER ON LEXINGTON COMMON
Marking the line established by the minutemen on the morning of April 19, 1775. On it are inscribed the words of Captain Parker’s immortal command: “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war let it begin here.” ”

“ By the time day-light began to dawn, the minute-men were in arms, and the whole region round about was fired with the courage and enthusiasm of men resolved to be free or die. When the British troops reached Lexington at five o'clock on the morning of April 19, they found a hundred minute-men drawn up in battle array. ”

“ A messenger, with these dispatches, was sent to the Continental Congress, and this was the first intelligence which that body had of the real intentions of the British ministry.
A few days after the discovery of this scheme, intelligence of the battle at Lexington arrived. Suspicion now yielded to demonstration; there was no longer any uncertainty; the mother was arming against her children; war was inevitable. While patriotism, gushing in full fountain from the hearts of the people, made them proclaim boldly, We are ready! ”

“ Within a week of Lexington an army of the Americans were gathered round Boston to defend their homes from further invasions by these foreigners. The English tried the issue again, and attacked the Americans at Bunker Hill. [2] The steady valor of the regular troops, engaged on a regular battle-ground, enabled them to drive the poorly armed peasants from their intrenchments. ”

“ Lexington's highway to Arlington ran between pillaged and burning homes, and his soldiers staggered along under heavy burdens of property stolen from those whose King was his King. Concord and Lincoln have none of Percy's deeds related in their chronicles, but Lexington, and Arlington, and Cambridge, and Somerville, and Charlestown have good reason to remember his terrible conception of warfare.
Gen. William Heath, as the commanding officer of the Americans, endeavored to organize his forces into something like an army. ”

“ The immediate cause of the battle, or, more properly, rencontre at Lexington, was an attempt of a detachment of British troops to execute an order of General Gage to destroy certain military stores, which the provincials had collected at Concord, a town situated some eighteen miles from Boston. In anticipation of an approaching contest, the provincial assembly of Massachusetts had passed a resolution for the purchase of all the gunpowder that could be found, and of every sort of arms and ammunition requisite for an army of fifteen thousand men. ”

“ Just over the line into Lexington, and a few rods north of the road, the land rises about fifty feet rather abruptly and with a ledgy face. This little summit commands a grand view up and down the road, for quite a distance, and therefore was an ideal location for the minute-men. [106] Many were there awaiting the passing of the British, and when they were opposite, poured down on them a volley. At least one fell, an officer, for a few years ago a sword was taken up from the depth of about four feet, evidently from his grave. ”

“ By some unaccountable mistake, a rumor was spread, in town and country, in and about her residence, that the regulars were on a march for that place, where they would arrive in about three hours. This was after the battle 176of Lexington, and all, as might be supposed, was in sad confusion; some were boiling with rage and full of fight; some in fear and tribulation were hiding their treasures; others flying for life. ”

“ The surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, contrary to the expectations of Washington, thus proved to be the end of the war. In just eight years from the time the first battle of the Revolution was fought at Lexington, April 19, 1775, the proclamation of peace was made to the army. "Thus ended a long and arduous conflict, in which Great Britain expended near a hundred millions of money, with a hundred thousand lives, and won nothing. ”

“ Sterling Price had reached his zenith in the capture of Lexington, Sept 20, 1861. In substantial results it was the biggest achievement of the war that far. Bull Run had been, indeed, a much larger battle, but at Lexington Price had captured 3,000 prisoners, including five Colonels and 120 other commissioned officers; 1,000 horses and mules; 100 wagons; seven pieces of artillery; 3,000 stands of arms; $900,000 in money, and a very large quantity of Commissary and Quartermaster's supplies. ”

“ The Americans killed in Lexington during the afternoon were Jedediah Munroe, and John Raymond. The British loss was much greater, for the Americans were being reinforced constantly by minute-men from the remote towns. ”

“ A bell rang out at Lexington to help arouse the people. The “Minute Men” from all the country round came with their guns. When the British got there they found their secret was out. Just at sunrise the redcoats met the “Minute Men.” The English major cried, “Disperse!” They did not move. He then commanded his soldiers to fire. Eight were killed. Men with muskets sprang up on all sides. This was the first battle of the great Revolutionary war that made America free from England. Through all our history to the last, the American people will never forget ”

“ Three companies from Newton entered the battle at Lexington, under the command respectively of Lieut. John Marean, thirty-eight men; Capt. Amariah Fuller, one hundred and six men; and Capt. Jeremiah Wiswell, seventy-six men. Together these numbered two hundred and nineteen men, making the total enrolment of the Americans in pursuit of Percy as he passed out of Lexington, two thousand and thirteen men.
PERCY'S RETREAT THROUGH ARLINGTON.
[131]
BATTLE ROAD THROUGH ARLINGTON AND CAMBRIDGE.
1. ”

“ See also in Lippincotts Maga-rine, May, 1889, my paper embodying the correspondence of Washington and Boucher.
But on April 19th came the "massacre at Lexington," as it was commonly called. How great a matter is kindled by a small fire! A man whose name remains unknown, forgetful of Captain Parker's order to his minute-men not to fire until fired on, drew his trigger on the English force advancing to Concord; the gun missed fire, but the little flash was answered by a volley; seven men lay dead. In the blood of those patriots at Lexington the Declaration of Independence was really written. ”

“ And fired the shot heard round the world,” the popular education in the art of war proceeded rapidly; though even then one of our men who was unsuspiciously firing from behind a stone wall at the British column in the road, had the surprise and mortification to be himself shot in the back by a flanking party. Before noon the retreat from Concord had become a rout, that was not arrested till Earl Percy arrived at Lexington with twelve hundred men and two pieces of cannon. ”

“ What occasion have we for standing armies? We fear no foe. If one should come upon us, we have a militia, which is our bulwark. Let Lexington witness that we have the means of defence among ourselves. ”

“ At noon, Lieutenant-Colonel Smith concluded that nothing further was to be gained by an advance; so he gave the word that the column fall back toward Lexington and Boston. His left was covered by a strong flank guard that kept the height that borders the Lexington road; his right was protected by a stream of water. They had not gone very far when they began to understand how thoroughly the country had been aroused. It seemed as though men dropped from the very clouds. From behind every tree, every stump, every rock, a rifle spat its anger at them. ”

“ At the end of September General Price withdrew, leaving a guard of only a few hundred in the town, and on the 16th of the next month a party of 220 Federal scouts under Major Frank J. White (1842–1875) surprised this guard, released about 15 prisoners, and captured 60 or more Confederates. Another Federal raid on the town was made in December of the same year by General John Pope’s cavalry. Again, during General Price’s Missouri expedition in 1864, a Federal force entered Lexington on the 16th of October, and three days later there was some fighting about 4 m. ”