Lexington and Concord
Well, yesterday I walked through history and I so wished all of you were with me. Actually a third grade class was behind me for some of the way, nipping at my heels. I started at Munroe Tavern in Lexington in front of the green where 77 of Captain John Parker’s militia had gathered to meet over 800 British Regular troops all decked out in their bright red uniforms. The Redcoat muskets were loaded and their bayonets attached. As they formed up about 50 yards from the militia, the British officers in the front on horseback ordered the militia to lay down their arms and disperse. Of course, no colonist would abandon his gun! Captain Parker recognized how outnumbered they were and ordered his men to disperse and not to fire.
As his men began leaving, a gun shot suddenly rang out and mayhem began. Who fired the first shot is still a mystery, but the Regulars opened fire and in a few minutes, eight of the colonists were dead and nine others wounded. It was a moment that called men to action. If they were uncertain about their loyalty to the king or their view about taxes, when their neighbor or their brother was shot on the green right in front of them, they were forced to take a stand. In the tavern I saw a hole made by a musket ball in the conflict and looked out the tavern door to the house at the end of the green where Jonathan Harrington had dragged himself to die in his wife’s arms on their doorstep. The events seemed so immediate.
After looking through Munroe’s Tavern, I walked to the Hancock-Clarke House, the parsonage where John Hancock and Sam Adams were guests of the Reverend Jonas Clarke on April 18th, and where Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent to warn of the advancing British troops. The Clarke family had many children, so I can imagine the confusion and fear of that night. Jonas Clarke, Jr., who was 15 years old that night, accompanied Hancock and Adams to Woburn, Massachusetts, where they could be safe from the British. In the morning he rode a horse to Menotomy (Arlington) to make sure his cousins were safe in the parsonage there. After the battle at Lexington that day, he joined Captain Parker’s militia as the fifer.
I have many stories to tell all of you, but this is getting rather long. I will shorten it up. After walking around Lexington, I went on the road that the Regulars traveled to Concord, where they were going to confiscate arms they believed the colonists had stored there. On my way to Concord I stopped at the Minuteman National Park which had an informative multimedia show about that day. I asked for an audio version so I could play it for you, but was told that all American kids should see the east coast in person. Yes, I agree, but sometimes that isn’t possible. I’m thinking perhaps we can create a reader’s theater/multimedia show of our own this year. What do you think?
A few miles down the road I stopped at another tavern and listened to a local man dressed as a patriot tell everything there was to know about shooting a musket. And he did it several times! It was so loud! So many expressions from our language are part of our colonial heritage. “Flash in the pan” is one of the them. It’s when the powder flashes in the firing pan but doesn’t light off the powder in the barrel to shoot a ball. I knew that but was amazed at how many idioms came up during my day yesterday that had roots in the colonial period.
Finally, I ended up in Concord at the bridge where there was open fighting. It is such a peaceful place now. The loudest sound is the cacophony of crickets. The immense trees that surround the place were not there at the time of the battle. It was open farm land, divided only by the stone fences that are everywhere. All those stone fences reminded me of how long it took to clear fields for farming. When I was in Alaska, we used to have “stick pick” nights where we all walked across a field together and picked up sticks and rocks to clear it so we could plant. At the time it seemed like a hundred thousand toe touches. I can’t imagine lugging those big rocks out of the fields.
