Chapter II

This story of the Concord fight is taken from the original manuscript of Thaddeus Blood, of Concord, and was first published in the Boston Journal in 1896. He began as a minuteman, and later was a Lieutenant in Captain Moses Barnes’ company, Lieut.-Col. Pierce’s regiment, stationed part of the time in Rhode Island and part in Swanzey, as his own quaint phraseology puts its. He says:

On the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, about 2 o’clock in the
morning, I was called out of bed by John Barrett, a Sergeant of the
militia company to which I belonged (I was 20 years of age the 28th of
May next following): I joined the company under Captain Nathan Barrett
(afterwards Colonel), at the old court-house, about 3 o’clock, and was
ordered to go to the Court House to draw ammunition. After the company
had all drawn their ammunition we were paraded near the meetinghouse
and I should suppose that there was 60 or 70 men in Capt. Barrett’s
company, and that the whole of the militia and minute-men of Concord
under arms that day was not less than 200. About 4 o’clock they were
joined by two companies from Lincoln: the militia commanded by Capt.
Pierce (afterwards Colonel) and the minute-men by Capt. William
Smith—the venerable and honorable Samuel Hoar of Lincoln was one of
his lieutenants—and were then formed, the minute-men on the right and
Capt. Barrett’s on the left, and marched in order to the end of
Meriam’s Hill, then so-called, and saw the British troops a-coming
down Brooks’ Hill: the sun was arising and shined on their red coats
and glis’ning arms. We retreated in order over the top of the hill to
the Liberty pole erected on the heights opposite the meetinghouse, and
made a halt; the main body of the British marched up in the road and a
detachment followed us over the hill, and halted in half gun-shot of
us, at the pole; we then marched over the burying-ground to the road
and then over the bridge to Hunt’s Hill, or Punkataisett so called at
that time, and were followed by two companies of the British. One
company went up to destroy stores at Colonel James Barrett’s, and they
tarried near the bridge; some of them went to Capt. David Brown’s,
some to Mr Ephraim Butterick’s. About 9 o’clock we saw smoke rise at
the Court House; it was proposed to march into town and were joined by
Westford and Acton companies, and were drawn up west of where Colonel
Jonas Butterick now lives. Colonel James Barrett rode along the line,
and having consulted with the officers, shouted, not to fire first;
then began their march—Robinson and Butterick led. Upon beginning to
march the company of British formed first on the causeway in platoons:
they then retreated over the bridge and took up three planks and
formed, part in the road and part on each side; our men the same time
marching in very good order along the road in double file. At that
time an officer rode up, and a gun was fired. I saw where the ball
threw up the water about the middle of the river; then a second and a
third shot, and cry of fire, fire, was made from front to rear: the
fire was almost simultaneous with the cry, and I think it was not more
than two minutes, if so much, till the British run, and the fire
ceased. Part of our men went over the bridge and myself among the
rest, and part returned to the ground they had left. After the firing,
every one appeared to be his own commander; it was thought best to go
the east part of the town and take them as they came back. Each took
his own station; for myself, I took my stand south of where Dr Minot
then lived; when I saw the British coming from Concord, their right
flank in the meadows, their left on the hill.

“When near the foot of the hill Col. Thompson of Billerica came up,
with three or four hundred men, and there was heavy firing, but the
distance so great that little injury was done on either side; at least
I saw but one killed, and a number wounded.”

The rest of the story is more familiar to us—the steady, running fight, all the way, until Lord Percy’s welcome reinforcement saved the day—and the exhausted British detachment reached once more the sheltering lines of Boston, whence they had set out with so much confidence that early morning. Of the patriots, 49 were killed, 39 wounded and 5 missing. Of the British, 73 were killed, 174 wounded and 26 missing.