250th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord

The 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War was this past year from April 18 - 19, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. 

Your family on Grandpa Collins side were involved throughout the day of April 19th. You are direct descendants of the English founders and early settlers of Concord and the surrounding towns of Bedford, Billerica, Acton, Lincoln, Nantick to name a few. The surnames: Bacon, Hartwell, Hicks, Hosmer, Wheeler, and Wood. 

With British troops occupying Boston, the Massachusetts Provisional Congress was headquartered in Concord. Military supplies were also stored in that area. With the signal to patriots in Charleston, across the Charles River, of one lantern (one if by land, two if by sea) in the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston it was known that the British army was going to crackdown on the countryside the following day, April 19. Paul Revere and William Dawes, members of the Sons of Liberty, were dispatched to warn the towns and villages. Along the way they met Dr. Samuel Prescott and he joined them to spread the alarm. In the town of Lincoln they ran into a British patrol that had been sent out the day before to capture any couriers. Dawes and Prescott got away while Revere was taken to Lexington for questioning and later released. Dr. Prescott raced his horse through the woods and came out at the Hartwell Tavern where he spread the word. Women in the tavern, including one slave, alerted all the homes in the area. 

In the early morning hours of April 19 Lt. Colonel Francis Smith and his British troops, numbering 700, were ferried across the Charles River to begin their 20 mile march to Concord. At sunrise in Lexington the local militia formed on the village green as a show of force but not confrontational. The result was that 8 members of the local militia were killed and the British Army marched on to Concord. Meanwhile with sketchy information of what was happening the Concord militia began to form on Punkatasset Hill on the west side of the Concord River across the North Bridge. As word and rumors spread other militia companies began to stream in from the nearby towns of Acton, Bedford, and Lincoln until the force numbered 400 men. You had 5 family members of the Acton militia there: Abner Hosmer, Benjamin Wheeler, Hezekiah Wheeler, Oliver Wheeler, and Moses Wood. And 2 family members of the Lincoln militia: Isaac and Samuel Hartwell. 

At 8am British troops arrived to Concord. Two hundred light infantry troops of the 4th Regiment of Foot were ordered to search the farm of Colonel James Barret for military supplies. One hundred men crossed the North Bridge to the farm while one hundred men guarded the bridge on both sides. Meanwhile the British troops at the bridge and the militia on the hill kept watching each other. The main British force was searching homes in the center of town. 

At 9:30am smoke from the burning of gun carriages in the center of town began to rise in the distance. To better observe what was happening the militia companies formed ranks and marched down to what is known as the Muster Field, some distance on the west side of the bridge. Abner Hosmer of the Acton militia yelled out, “Are we going to let them burn the town down?” At that point Captain Isaac Davis of the Acton militia conferred with the other officers and it was decided to march to the defense of the town. The companies were ordered to check their flints and prime and load their firearms but not to fire unless fired upon. In formation by company, 4 abreast, the militia companies with Captain Davis and the Acton companies at the front, marched to the Old North Bridge. 

The British troops on the west side of the bridge, seeing their were outnumbered 4 to 1, moved to the east side of the bridge with the rest of the troops. Three warning shots were fired into the Concord River and then a full volley was fired into the ranks of the Americans. Captain Issac Davis was shot through the heart, Abner Hosmer was shot in the head, and a James Hayward was wounded. At that point the Americans were ordered to fire at will. Three British soldiers were killed and 9 wounded as they retreated back to the center of Concord. 

In the aftermath of this fight at the bridge shock was the word of the day. No followup action was taken at that point. Davis and Hosmer were taken back to Acton for burial. By noon the British force began their march back the Boston and from that point on they were fired at from both sides as word had spread throughout the countryside. A total of 4,000 militiamen had mustered that day to join the fight. The exhausted British force was finally saved by a 1,000 man relief force under Brigadier General Hugh Percy sent from Boston. 

You lost another family member in town of Menotomy, Lt. John Bacon. In Cambridge, late in the day as the British force straggled back in, John Hicks and two neighbors set up an ambush. John was a member of the Sons of Liberty and had taken part in the Boston Tea Party in 1773. These three men were killed by British flankers before they fired a shot from behind some barrels. 

All told I have tallied 35-40 close family members who were involved in that days action and three that I know of were killed.