Paul Revere's Ride

by David Hackett Fischer

  22. See below, p. 282.

  23. Clarke, “Narrative of the Events of April 19.” Captain Parker also observed that “immediately said troops made their appearance and rushed furiously.” See John Parker, Deposition; also William Draper, Deposition.

  24. Galvin writes, “Pitcairn let his column go to the right and galloped around to the left of the meetinghouse, thus momentarily separating himself from his men. He was never able to regain full control of them” (Galvin, Minute Men, 135). Ralph Earl’s drawing of the fight at Lexington, based on interviews with survivors soon after the event, clearly shows this division, with three companies moving to the right (north) of the meetinghouse, and the rest of the column marching to the left.

  25. William Draper: “The regular troops made an huzza, and ran towards Captain Parker’s company”; Thomas Rice Willard: “The officers made an huzza, and the private soldiers succeeded them”; Thomas Fessenden: “The Regulars kept huzzaing”; Depositions, April 23, 25, 1775, AA4, II, 490-501.

  26. The distance between British troops and the American militia was variously estimated at “five or six” or “eight to ten” rods, that is, between 82.5 and 165 feet. The dimensions of the Common, and the judgment of Jonas Clarke, recorded shortly afterward, support the smaller estimates. The words used by the British officers were also remembered differently. One of them was heard to say, “Damn you, why don’t you lay down your arms?” Clarke, “Narrative of the Events of April 19.”

  27. John Robbins, Deposition, April 24, 1775, AA4, II, 491.

  28. Clarke, “Narrative of of the Events of April 19”; 62 depositions collected from American eyewitnesses all testified that Parker’s militia was dispersing before it was fired upon.

  29. Revere’s three accounts of the battle add different details. All are combined here.

  30. One of the most careful British accounts was by Lt. Frederick Mackenzie of the 23rd Welch Fusiliers. He was not present at Lexington in the morning, but marched there with Percy later in the day. Mackenzie spoke with “an officer of one of the Flank companies,” who told him that “shots were immediately fired; but from which side could not be ascertained, each party imputing it to the other. Our troops immediately rushed forward, and the Rebels were dispersed, 8 of them killed, and several wounded. One Soldier was wounded, and Major Pitcairn’s horse was wounded.” Mackenzie, Diary, I, 24.

  31. On that field of confusion, two facts are clear enough. It was almost universally agreed that the first shot did not come from Captain Parker’s militia or the British infantry. Parker himself testified that the British troops “fired upon and killed eight of our party, without receiving any provocation.” In another deposition, thirty-three Lexington militiamen testified that “not a gun was fired by any person in our Company on the Regulars, to our knowledge, before they fired on us.” Altogether, fifty surviving members of the Lexington company swore under oath that none of their company fired first. By general (if not universal) agreement on both sides, it is also clear that the first shot did not come from the rank and file of the British Regulars. Two eyewitnesses, Benjamin Tidd and Joseph Abbott, testifed in their depositions that the first shots were “a few guns which we took to be pistols, from some of the regulars who were mounted on horses.” Many honorable British soldiers insisted that none of the light infantry companies fired first.

  32. Barker, British at Boston, 32; Pitcairn to Gage, April 25,1775. American eyewitnesses agreed on some of these facts, but not upon the sequence. Lexington militiaman Nathan Munroe willingly testified that he himself “got over the wall into Buckman’s land, about six rods from the British, and then turned and fired at them,” but he insisted that this happened after the Regulars had fired at him. Nathan Munroe, Deposition, Dec. 22, 1824, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 38; Sabin, “April 19, 1775,” II, 7.

  33. At least one American, Sergeant William Munroe, also saw somebody (later identified as Lexington man Solomon Brown) fire from the back door of the Buckman Tavern, then reload and fire again from the front. Munroe testified many years later, that this happened after the first shots had been fired. According to a Lexington legend, the man who fired at the Regulars from the Tavern was Solomon Brown. The story is told that innkeeper John Buckman drove Brown out of the tavern, in fear that the Regulars would burn it to the ground, but not before the Regulars returned fire, leaving a bullet hole in the front door that still may be seen today. If this happened at all, it must have been after the first shot. William Munroe, Deposition March 7,1825; Phinney, Lexington, 34; Sabin, “April 19, 1775,” II, 7; Willard D. Brown, The Story of Buckman Tavern, 14—15. The authenticity of the bullet hole is also very doubtful.

  34. Sutherland wrote after the action, “Major Pitcairn, Major Mitchell, Capts. Lumm, Cochrane, Mr. Thorne of the 4th Regiment, Mr. Adair of the Marines, Captain Parsons of the l0th and Lieutenant Gould and Barker of the 4th I believe will pretty nearly agree in most particulars of the above.” This may be taken as a list of British officers who were engaged on Lexington Green. Three were on foot with the light infantry of the 4th and the l0th Foot when they deployed in front of Parker’s line: Gould, Barker, of the Fourth; and Parsons of the l0th. Four others were mostly members of Mitchell’s patrol: Mitchell himself, Lumm, Cochrane, and Thorne. Pitcairn commanded the advanced column, and Adair had been put in the van. Also with the two companies were Captain Nesbit Balfour of the 4th, Lieutenant Waldron Kelly, and Ensign Jeremy Lister of the l0th (a volunteer replacing Lt. Hamilton at the last minute).

  35. Sanderson, Deposition, Dec. 17, 1824, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 31-33; Sutherland to Kemble, April 27, 1775.

  36. Fessenden, Deposition, April 23, 1775, AAq, 11,495-96; Barker, British in Boston, 32. On Sutherland, see the next chapter, below. Sutherland is an interesting character. He tells us that he joined the expedition as a volunteer, and appears to have been hungry for action. His accounts of the battle are exceptionally full and descriptive, but also differ from those of other officers. He tended to be more hostile to the Americans, more strongly assertive that the militia fired the first shots at Lexington, and also Concord where no other British officer concurred with him, more manipulative of facts, more defensive about the British conduct, and more self-serving. Sutherland appears to have been one of the few junior officers who was ordered by Gage’s staff to make a report of his actions; one wonders if Gage had his own suspicions. A distinct possibility is that Sutherland was the man who fired the first shot, perhaps by inadvertence when he was having trouble with his horse. It is the author’s experience that riders who have the most trouble controlling their horses are those least able to control themselves. This is merely a hypothesis. but thc reader will 11utt. Sutherland’s behavior at Concord’s North Bridge.

  37. This hypothesis of several “first shots,” nearly simultaneous, has not been suggested or supported by any other major published history of the event, but it makes a maximum fit with virtually all of the evidence.

  38. J. A. Houlding, Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army, 1715-1795 (Oxford, 1981), 141.

  39. John Munroe, Deposition, Dec. 28, 1824, Phinney, Battle at Lexzngton, 36-37.

  40. The British muskets had no rear sights; only a bayonet lug near the muzzlew, which disappeared when bayonets were mounted. British infantry were trained to fire with their heads erect, not bent along the musket. One officer observed in 1757, “Any commander that desires his men to hold up their heads when they fire… was never a marksman himself; and in such case, you may set Blind men a Firing as a man that can see.” George Grant, The New Highland Military Discipline (1757; rpt. Ottawa, 1967); quoted in Houlding, Fit for Service, 279-80.

  41. Timothy Smith, Deposition, April 23, 1775; Thomas Fessenden, Deposition, April 25, 1775; AA4, II, 494, 496.

  42. William Gordon, “An Account of the Commencement of Hostilities Between Great Britain and America,” May 17, 1775, AA4, II, 40.

  43. John Munroe, Deposition, Dec. 28, 1824, Phinney, Battle at Lexington
, 35.

  44. Ibid.

  45. Ibid.; Ebenezer Munroe, Deposition, April 2, 1825, Phinney, Battle at Lexington, 37; the remains of John Munroe’s shortened musket may be seen today in the Munroe Tavern, Lexington.

  46. Kehoe, “We Were There!” typescript, I, 134-41,Watertown Public Library.

  47. Sabin, “April 19, 1775,” II, 15, 18; Lister wrote, “We had but one man wounded of our company in the leg his name was Johnson.” No soldier of this name was on the muster roll of the light infantry company as of April 19, 1775, but Private Thomas Johnston was listed as transferring from another company in the 10th Foot to the light infantry company, effective April 24. One wonders if, like Lister, Private Johnston marched as a volunteer replacement. If so, he was a hard-luck soldier, the only man hit at Lexington, and mortally wounded at Bunker Hill. He died on June 23, 1775. Cf. Lister, Narrative; Muster Roll, 10th Foot, WO12/2750, PRO.

  48. William Munroe, Deposition, March 7, 1825.

  49. Ebenezer Munroe, Deposition, April 2, 1825, Phinney, Battle of Lexington, 37.

  50. The drum call was not the tattoo, as some secondary accounts surmise.

  51. Gould, Deposition; Sutherland to Kemble, April 27, 1775; Barker, The British in Boston, 32.

  52. Lt. Col. Francis Smith to Major Robert Donkin, Oct. 8, 1775, Gage Papers, WCL, published in part in French, General Gage’s Informers, 61; Sabin, “April 19, 1775,” II, 12—13.

  53. Mackenzie, Diary, I, 32.

  14. The Battle

  1. Thaddeus Blood, “Statement on the Battle of April 19, 1775,” Boston Daily Advertiser, April 20, 1886; ms., CFPL.

  2. Galvin, Minute Men, 258.

  3. Emerson, Diaries and Letters, 71; Shattuck, History of Concord, 8.

  4. Emerson, Diaries and Letters, 71—72.

  5. Thaddeus Blood, “Statement on the Battle of April 19.” The location of this hill is not clear in primary sources. Some scholars have assumed it to be the eastern end of Revolutionary Ridge, the long hill that runs parallel to the Concord-Lexington Road from Concord center to Meriam’s Corner. It could also have been Hardy’s Hill, a mile to the east. Statements about the view to the east support the first interpretation; implications of distances marched suggest the second. On balance, the first interpretation is more probable.

  6. Gould, Deposition, April 25, 1775, AA4, II, 500-501.

  7. Barrett, letter, 19 April 1825, AA4, II, 500.

  8. What flag was flying from the liberty pole? Some scholars believe that it was the “pine tree flag” of New England, a red flag with a pine tree on a white canton. Another New England flag had a red cross of St. George on a white canton above a red field. Also in use were white flags with a green liberty tree, and the motto “An Appeal to Heaven.” The Sons of Liberty in Massachusetts flew a flag with vertical red and white stripes. Cf. Ruth R. Wheeler, Concord: Climate for Freedom (Concord, 1967), 116—17.

  9. Abel Conant, interview, Nov. 8, 1832; Shattuck’s Historical Notes, NEHGS; Shattuck, History of Concord, 105—6.

  10. Emerson, Diary, April 19, 1775, Diaries and Letters of William Emerson, 71. The pronoun “us” is interpolated here.

  11. The story of Harry Gould was told by the militiaman himself to James D. Butler. See James D. Butler, Jr., to Edward W. Emerson, April 25, 1888, in Emerson, Diaries and Letters of William Emerson, 133—34; for the naming of the sons, see Gross, Minutemen and Their World, 118; and family reconstitution sheets compiled by the Brandeis Concord Group and Robert Gross, Brandeis University.

  12. Brandeis Concord Group, Family Reconstitution Sheets; Gross, The Minutemen and Their World, 158; French, Day of Concord and Lexington, 158.

  13. Shattuck, History of Concord; Josephine Hosmer, “Memoir of Joseph Hosmer,” The Centennial of the Concord Social Circle (Cambridge, Mass., 1882), 116-17; Gross, Minutemen and Their World, 64—65; Sabin, “April 19, 1775,” III, 29.

  14. Even Concord’s fiery young minister William Emerson wrote, “We were the more careful to prevent a rupture with the King’s troops, as we were uncertain what had happened at Lexington, and knew not they had begun the quarrel.” It was urgently important to these New England men that they should not strike the first blow. See Diaries and Letters of William Emerson, 72.

  15. Ibid., 71—72; Ripley, Fight at Concord, 16.

  16. Gross, Minutemen and Their World, 122; accounts of Reuben Brown, William Emerson, Abel Fisk, Dr. Timothy Minot, and Ezekiel Brown, 1775 Folder, Concord Archives, CFPL. Much of the property listed as missing was not looted but taken by order of Colonel Smith for carrying the wounded to Boston.

  17. British strength and dispositions at the North Bridge were variously reported in three eyewitness accounts. Lister thought that five companies were sent to North Bridge; Barker counted six; Laurie reported six were originally sent, and later reinforced by a seventh. Laurie, the senior officer present, appears to have been correct. From various sources seven companies of light infantry can be identified by regimental number as present there: the 4th, 5th, 10th, 38th, 43rd, 52nd, later reinforced by the 23rd. The 43rd remained at the North Bridge, as did the 5th for a time. Captain Parsons led the 38th and the 52nd to Barrett’s, where they were joined by the 5th, and according to Lister the 23rd as well. The 4th and 10th occupied the high ground along their route. See Smith to Gage, April 22, 1775; Lister, Narrative; Barker, British in Boston, 33-34; Sutherland to Kemble, April 27, 1775; Sutherland to Clinton, April 26, 1775; Laurie to Gage, April 26, 1775; French, General Gage’s Informers, 98.

  18. Interview with Ephraim Jones by Marquis de Chastelleux, Nov. 7, 1782, in Howard Rice (ed.), Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, 1963), II, 481-82.

  19. Trevelyan, American Revolution, I, 286; Shattuck supplies a more exact inventory: 60 barrels of flour of which nearly half was later preserved; 3 cannon damaged by smashing of their trunnions; 16 gun carriage wheels burned, a few barrels of wooden trenchers, and spoons burned, and 500 pounds of ball thrown into the millpond, and later rescued.

  20. De Berniere, Narrative.

  21. Shattuck, History of Concord, 107—9.

  22. Sutherland observed that “part of them formed in a meadow and the rest went still further off with the women and the children, and formed in another meadow on a rising ground. I saw more men in arms on a height that rose above the last mentioned party, which were none of those that passed the bridge sometime before.” Sutherland to Kemble, April 27, 1775; Sutherland to Clinton, April 26, 1775.

  23. The present site of the muster field lies to the west of the 20th-century Buttrick Mansion, now a visitor center in the National Park. Beside it is the old house of Major Buttrick himself.

  24. Josiah Adams, Letter to Lemuel Shattuck, Esq. (Boston, 1850), 20—21; Amos Baker, Affadavit; Rantoul, Oration, 134.

  25. A Hunt family tradition, recorded by French, Day of Concord and Lexington, 182n.

  26. Interview with Mrs. Peter Barrett, Nov. 3, 1831, Shattuck’s Historical Notes, NEHGS; Shattuck, History of Concord, 109; Gross, Minutemen and Their World, 123.

  27. Shattuck, History of Concord, 111; Josephine Hosmer, “Memoir of Joseph Hosmer”; Gross, Minutemen and Their World, 220.

  28. Frothingham, “Statement of Major John Buttrick,” 52; Adams, Letter to Lemuel Shattuck, 45.

  29. Amos Barrett, Narrative.

  30. Ibid.

  31. The sequence of events was reported differently by participants on both sides. Eight Lincoln men testified, “We then seeing several fires in the town, thought that the houses in Concord were in danger, and marched towards the said bridge, and the troops who were stationed there, observing our approach, marched back over the bridge, and then took up some planks.” The same words were exactly repeated in a deposition signed by sixteen Concord men.

  Colonel Barrett, on the other hand, testified, “I ordered them to march to the North Bridge, so called, which they had passed, and were taking up. I ordered said Militia to march to said bridge and pass the same
, but not to fire on the king’s troops, unless they were first fired upon.” Bradbury Robinson and two others deposed that the Regulars “were taking up said bridge, when about three hundred of our militia were advancing towards said bridge.”

  Lieutenant Barker recalled, “The rebels marched into the Road and were coming down upon us when Captain Laurie made his men retire to this side of the bridge, which by the by he ought to have done at first, and then he would have had time to make a good disposition.” Cf. Depositions of John Hoar et al., Nathan Barrett et al., and James Barrett, all dated April 23, 1775, published as A Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops Under the Command of General Gage (Worcester, 1775); rPt in Lincoln, Journals of Each Provincial Congress, 661-74; also in Wroth et al. (eds.), Province in Rebellion, doc. 769, pp. 2083—87; and AA4, II, 489—502; Barker, British in Boston, 34.

  32. George Tolman, Events of April 19, (Concord, n.d.), 29; Sabin, “April 19, 1775,” II, 38; on the shortage of bayonets, see Amos Baker, Affadavit. Some historians also place Lt.-Col. John Robinson of Westford at the head of the column with Major Buttrick. According to tradition he was invited to take command, but Robinson deferred to Buttrick as his own men were not yet there, and marched as a volunteer. See Edwin R. Hodgman, History of the Town of Westford (Lowell, Mass., 1883), 106.

  33. Sutherland to Kemble, April 27, 1775; Lister, Narrative; Laurie to Gage, April 26, 1775; American accounts were similar. Blood recalled “our men marching in very good order along the road,” in “Statement on the Battle of April 19,” CFPL.

  34. For the effective strength of these units, see Appendix K, below.

  35. Lister wrote, “Our companies was drawn up in order to form for Street firing.” The best discussion of this part of the battle is in French, Lexington and Concord, 195.