The Old North Church
Afternoon
General Gage sent officers to patrol the road between Bostonand Concord. A Boston gun smith named Jasper learned aboutthe march from a British Sergeant. A stable man named JohnBallard heard a comment about trouble the next day; he was in the ProvinceHouse, the home of General Gage.
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6:30 P.M.
A Lexington man, Solomon Brown, who had gone to the market inBoston returned to Lexington with the information that he had passed apatrol of British soldiers. He made his report to the proprietor of MonroeTavern, Sergeant William Monroe.
A rider reported to John Hancock that a British patrol had beenspotted in Menotomy (Arlington). John Hancock and Samuel Adams were spendingthe night with Reverend Jonas Clarke at the Hancock-Clarke House.
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8:00 P.M.
A British patrol rode through Lexington toward Lincoln.
40 Minutemen assembled at Buckman Tavern.
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8:30 P.M.
The British patrol rode past the home of Sergeant Samuel Hartwell,a Lincoln Minute Man. That patrol soon returned to Lexington.
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9:00 P.M.
Elijah Sanderson and Jonathan Loring, both of the Lexington MinuteMen, volunteered to keep an eye on the British.
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10:00 P.M.
Three colonial scouts from Lexington were captured by the Britishand held hostage for four hours. Dr. Joseph Warren knew that the Britishwere on their way when they were just leaving their barracks. He sent wordto Paul Revere and William Dawes, Jr. Dawes was assigned the longer routeto Lexington.
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Map of Paul Revere and William Dawes' routes
10:30 P.M.
The Old North Church
Paul Revere told Captain John Pulling, Jr. to have two lanternshung in the Old North Church. Revere went to his boat in Boston Harborand was rowed across by two friends, Joshua Bentley and Thomas Richardson.The men used a petticoat to muffle decrease the noise made by the oars. 700 British soldiers began their journey led by Lieutenant Colonel FrancisSmith of the 10th Regiment and Major John Pitcairn of the Marines.
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11:00 P.M.
Colonel Conant and others, who had seen the lights in the steeple,met Paul Revere on the Charlestown side. Richard Devens of the Committeeof Safety got a horse for Revere to ride.
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11:30 P.M.
When he was still in Charlestown, Revere encountered two Britishsoldiers. He rode away from them and took the Medford Road. On his wayhe woke up Captain Hall of the Minute Men. He continued to Menotomy andhe warned almost every house along the way.
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Midnight
Revere arrived at the Hancock-Clarke house and gave the warningthat the British were coming.
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12:30 A.M.
William Dawes arrived at the Hancock-Clarke House and went toConcord with Paul Revere. Dawes passed British guards by pretending tobe a drunken sailor celebrating a successful day of training in Boston.
The alarm was sounded on the bell in the Belfry on the LexingtonGreen where 130 Minute Men led by Captain John Parker assembled.
Dr. Samuel Prescott caught up with Dawes and Revere on the wayto Concord. On their way to Concord, they encounter Nathaniel Baker. Baker,who lived in Lincoln, sounded the alarm on his way home. He joined theLincoln Minute Men at the Concord Bridge the next morning.
Revere, who was riding in front of Dawes and Prescott, was capturedby British officers. Dawes turned and rode back to Lexington and Prescottescaped to carry the warning to Concord.
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1:30 A.M.
Captain Parker dismissed his troops. Those who lived far fromthe town stayed at Buckman Tavern.
Dr. Prescott arrived at the home of Samuel Hartwell. He askedthat warning be sent to Captain William Smith of the Lincoln Minute Men.The two Lincoln companies were the first to reach Concord from the surroundingtowns.
Revere told his captors that people within a 50 mile radius hadbeen warned that the British were coming. Major Mitchell of the 5th BritishRegiment sent the prisoners back toward Lexington.
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2:00 A.M.
The sound of the hoof beats of the British soldiers and theirprisoners woke up Josiah Nelson, a Lincoln Minute Man. It was Nelsons jobto warn Bedford that the British were coming.
Nelson asked the officers what was going on. An officer answeredby hitting Nelson in the head with a sword, making a long cut on his head.This was the first blood drawn.
Nelson was taken prisoner and then let go. He spread the alarmto Bedford.
Concord was warned by Dr. Prescott. Reverend William Emerson,grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was the first to respond to the alarm.Three companies of Minute Men and an alarm company met at Wrights Tavernin the Town Square. They began to hide supplies that had not already beensent away.
The British soldiers waited for as long as three hours for theirprovisions. This delay gave the Colonists valuable time.
The British troops left Charlestown at 2:00 A.M.
Paul Revere and the three captured scouts were released nearLexington. Their British captors returned to Menotomy. Revere went to theHancock-Clarke House to help with the departure of John Hancock and SamuelAdams. First they were taken to the home of Captain James Reed in Woburnand later to the home of Madame Jones, the widow of a clergyman. They wereabout to sit down to a meal when they were falsely warned that the Britishwere coming so they moved to the home of Amos Wyman in Billerica.
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3:00 A.M.
Three members of the Committee of Safety from Marblehead ColonelJeremiah Lee, Colonel Azor Orne and Edbridge Gerry were at the Black HorseTavern in Menotomy where they were staying after a committee session. Whenthey heard the troops, they left the house and hid in a field.
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4:00 A.M.
General Gage told Perry to leave from Boston with 1000 soldiers.Due to a delay in getting the order to Perry, the departure did not beganfor five hours. Colonel James Bartlett of the Concord Militia returnedto the farmhouse to hide supplies from the British. Supplies were buriedin holes in the fields.
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4:30 A.M.
Thaddeus Bowman returned from scouting with news that the Britishwere less than half a mile away.
The Minute Men were summoned to the Lexington Green by the beatingof the drum. 77 Minute Men waited on the Green for the arrival of the British.
Paul Revere and a clerk went to Buckman Tavern to remove someof John Hancock's papers. They saw the British troops marching to Lexingtonon their way to the tavern
Major Pitcairn ordered his troops to form battle lines.
Captain Parker gave his famous order: Stand your ground! Don'tfire unless fired upon! But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here!
Pitcairn yelled at the Minute Men and told them to put theirarms down.
Because they were outnumbered, Parker told his men to leave.Before they could depart, a shot rang out and a volley came from the British.There was another volley and then the Redcoats charged with their bayonets.Eight men were killed. Ten who were wounded got away.
Jonathan Harrington, Jr. dragged himself home where he died atthe feet of his wife.
Jonas Parker, the captains cousin, was killed by a bayonet whilehe was reloading.
The rest of the British came to the Green where they shoutedin victory.
Meanwhile, the Lincoln Militia and Captain William Smith arrivedin Concord. The Acton Minute Men and the Groton Minute Men arrived soon.The Bedford Militia arrived in time to meet the British.
Reuben Brown, who had witnessed the scene in Lexington, confirmedthe rumors of deaths in Lexington.
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6:30 A.M.
The 150 Minute Men from the various companies marched towardLexington. When they saw the British Regulars and realized that they wereoutnumbered 3 to 1, they returned to town.
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7:00 A.M.
The British commander, Colonel Smith, ordered his troops to cleara ridge. They lined up in a single line. The Regulars cut down the libertyflag and stopped in the middle of the town.
The Minute Men returned to Ripley Hill, which is about half amile from town directly opposite the North Bridge. Colonel Smith and MajorPitcairn surveyed the situation from and saw large numbers of British solders.
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7:30 A.M.
Smith sent seven companies to the North Bridge, where they splitup into two groups. Captain Walter Laurie of the 43rd Regiment stayed toguard the bridge with three regiments while four regiments under the leadershipof Captain Lawrence Parsons of the 10th Regiment went to Colonel Barrett'sfarm in search of the hidden military stores.
Having returned from hiding supplies, Colonel James Barrett,the militia commander, ordered his soldiers on Ripley Hill to move to afieldat the brow of Punkatasset Hill where they would wait for reinforcements.
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8:30 A.M.
This was finished just before the seven British companies, ledby Captains Laurie and Parsons, got to the North Bridge. Barrett saw theBritish troops and rode ahead to warn the Minute Men.
Captain Laurie sent his troops across the bridge to the firstrise of ground. The 43rd Oxfordshires remained to guard the bridge. Partof this company surrounded the well in front of the Elisha Jones House(Bullet Hole House) where they refreshed themselves with water from thewell. They were unaware that there was a large quantity of food hiddenthere.
During this time, British officers went into town where theyordered their grenadiers to continue their search for hidden stores andrefreshed themselves at the taverns.
500 pounds of musket balls were found and thrown into the millpond; later they were dredged out. The grenadiers set fire to the TownHouse and Reuben Brown's harness shop but they put the fires out.
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9:00 A.M.
The North Bridge (above)
Percy received orders to leave Boston with the 1st Brigade.
The 400 Minute Men and Militia on Punkatasset Hill moved towardthe North Bridge. They saw smoke coming from the town and decided to gointo town.
Barrett gave the order to march but he told his troops not tofire unless they were fired on first. This group was led by LieutenantColonel John Robinson of Westford and Major John Buttrick of Concord followedby Captain Isaac Davis' Acton Minute Men, three companies of Minutemenfrom Concord, the Militia of Acton, Bedford, and Lincoln, and a columnof volunteers. A pair of fife and drummers accompanied them.
Captain Laurie's company, on their way back from Barrett's farm,retreated to the bridge to join the other troops. Realizing that he wasoutnumbered, Laurie sent a message to Colonel Smith in Concord. Smith orderedout two or three companies of grenadiers. Smith's slowness in movementprevented these troops to arrive in time to support Laurie.
After moving to the east side of the river, Captain Laurie orderedhis men remove planks from the bridge to prevent passage by colonists.Major Buttrick told the British to stop pulling up the plank and movedto the road at the end of the bridge.
Laurie attempted to form a tactical design called a "Street Firing."This is when they line up in columns of four. After the men in the firsttwo or three ranks fire, from kneeling and standing positions, they moveto the sides and went to the rear to reload. The back ranks then movedforward. This kept continual fire in a narrow passage. Laurie was set tohold the bridge.
Isaac Davis, Acton captain, was killed in the first volley. AbnerHosmer died when he took a bullet through his head. The Americans had notfired yet. Major Buttrick passionately gave the order to fire bellowingthese words, "Fire, fellow soldiers, for God's sake, fire"
There were a few return shots from the British but they wereoverwhelmed by the number of musket balls coming at them and they fled,leaving two men dead. Three soldiers died and eight officers were wounded.The fight lasted two or three minutes.
The American force of 400 came back across the bridge and broughtthe bodies of the fallen soldiers to Buttrick's home.
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10:00 A.M.
The main body of the British began to regroup. The soldiers weretired, wounded and hungry.
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Noon
After resting and reorganizing, the British began their marchback to Boston. They sent flankers on the ridge on the way to Merriam'sCorner.
When the Americans who fought at North Bridge heard that theBritish were moving back toward Boston, they crossed the river and metthem at Merriam's Corner. The American ranks now numbered at 1100 as menfrom surrounding towns arrived.
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1:00 P.M.
The Merriam House
The Reading Companies hid behind buildings and stone walls atthe Merriam House while the British marched toward them.
Up to this point, the conflict could have been controlled andwar could have been avoided. When the grenadiers shot at the Reading troopsat the Merriam House, the war had started. They fought for the next fewhours from Merriam's Corner in Concord all the way back to Boston; thebattle now was traditionally structured. The colonists hid and attacked.This kept American casualties low while many British were killed. 49 Americanswere killed during the day, largely by flanking parties.
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1:30 P.M.
At one point, when the British regulars reached a curve in theroad, Americans in a wooded area killed eight and wounded many more; thiscurve was later called the Bloody Angle. There were also American losseshere. Captain Wilson, of Bedford and two others, were killed.
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2:00 P.M.
Back in Lexington, the British re-encountered Captain Parker'sMinute Men, now ready for action. Parker's men waited on the high groundin the Fiske Hill area. As the British approached, a heavy volley of musketballs poured down on them. As the British troops broke ranks, Colonel Smithtook a desperate move to rally his troops. He stopped and regrouped. Thisattempt failed. British ammunition was low, casualties were high, and themen were tired. Smith was now wounded; a number of his officers were alsowounded. Confusion increased as they began to run from Fiske Hill to thevillage of Lexington.
Pitcairn lost his horse with his pistols tied onto it.
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2:30
The British continued to flee through Lexington, past the green,unlike the ordered approach toward the green at sunrise, where Parker firstmet them. As the British ran on, more were killed and wounded. The Britishforces were a shamble when Percy's relief company arrived. After passingthrough Lexington, they reorganized again.
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3:00 P.M.
Upon reaching Percy, the men were so tired thatthey lay down on the ground and rested. Percy took two of his fire piecesand shot the first cannon of the Revolution. No one was hurt or woundedbut the meeting house on the green was struck and damaged. The Britishwounded were taken to Monroe Tavern where their wounds were treated. JohnRaymond made drinks for the British; when he tried to escape, he was shotand killed.
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3:30 PM
The British continued their retreat toward EastLexington and Menotomy.
British flankers protected the soldiers who entered and damaged homesalong the way. William Heath, one of the five
generals selected by the Provincial Congress, arrived at Lexingtonand was joined by Dr. Joseph Warren. They had gone to a meeting that morningabout the battle in Lexington.
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4:30 PM
The British troops moved slowly because they werecarrying so many stolen goods. After coming down Pierce's Hill to a lowerground known as "Foot of the Rocks," they were attacked by the Militiaagain. The fire power of the Americans was increasing. By this time, over1700 men from 35 companies had arrived from Watertown, Malden, Dedham,Needham, Lynn, Beverly, Danvers, Roxbury, Brookline and Menotomy itself.This was one of the bloodiest battles of the day. The Militia fired fromthe streets, from cover, and also fought hand-to-hand. Dr. Eliphalet Downerfaced and killed a British soldier in a famous duel. Realizing that theBritish soldier was better prepared with the bayonet, the doctor used hismusket as a club before killing him with a bayonet. General Percy had abutton shot off of his coat. Percy stopped not far from the "Rocks" andshot his cannons, but no one was hit. The cannon balls blasted the roads,smashed into stone walls and made holes in houses.
Jason Russell, a citizen of Menotomy, waited forthe British in his home. A group of Minute Men got to Russell's drivewaywhen Earl Percy's men fired on them. The Americans went into the housefollowed by the Redcoats. The Minute Men did not have bayonets and manywere killed. Mr. Russell and eleven Minute Men died there. This was thelargest number of combatants to die in one place on that day.
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5:30 PM
The section of highway to the Cooper Tavern fromthe Jason Russell House was one of the
bloodiest places of the day. Twenty Americans and as many British werekilled here. At Cooper Tavern, the British shot
and killed innocent victims. The husband and wife tavern keepers escapedto the cellar. The battle reached a peak at
Menotomy. More people were killed there on that day on both sides thananywhere else. At least 40 British and 25
Americans died there. Total deaths for the day were 73 British and49 Americans. The British burned homes here but they
were too closely pursued by Minute Men and others that the militiasoon put out the fires.
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6:00 PM
With only an hour until complete darkness, The Britishstill had miles to go. The troops went quickly and without incident. Amile beyond Menotomy River, a group of Americans waited for the British.These men were caught off guard. Major Isaac Gardner, of the Brooklinemilitia, the highest ranking official to die that day, was killed here.Two volunteers from Cambridge, John Hicks and Moses Richardson, died hereas well.
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6:30 PM
Gage took a direct route back to Boston. Percy'scolumn was met by an inexperienced militia group who killed several ofhis men. Once again, Percy used his cannons to slow down the attack. Afew more musket shots were fired as General Percy's troops waited for theboats to bring them across the river.
This was the end of the first day of the RevolutionaryWar. The British losses were 73 killed, 174 wounded, 26 missing, and atotal of 273 casualties. The Americans had 49 deaths, 41 wounded, and fivemissing, a total casualty list of 95.
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Map of the retreat of the British
