Good morning everyone and welcome to another episode of ask a ranger. My name is Jim Hollister
I'm a park ranger at Minute Man National Historical Park
in Concord Massachusetts. so before we dive into your questions I would like to start with a
brief safety message. the park grounds and the parking lots remain open.
However, visitor centers and restrooms are closed. now
if you do decide to come and visit the park and go for a walk on the battle
road trail we ask that you do so responsibly. maintain social distancing,
six-feet between you and other people. if that is not possible,
per order of Governor Baker wear a mask. also we ask that you
carry out anything you carry in whether that is pet waste or trash.
leave the park clean for others so visit responsibly and remember we all have to
share the resource of course remember to take care of yourselves during this time because you are
very important. now the questions - thank you to those who have sent questions in for this
week's session and as I mentioned last week this is going to be
a little different when you're not live we are pre-recorded
add the purposes so that when we do launch this video we can do
so with captions so that everybody can participate, and I will
be live with you on the chat so but,
anyway, let's start with the questions of the first question we have is from Paul.
What would a battle between american privateers
at a british merchant ship look like? did either side have cannons or did
the americans board the british ships and battle with swords?
Were the americans mostly victorious in these encounters?
so to be honest this is a question for doctor emily and she's
off doing curator things today so I asked her about it. she's really
the expert on naval warfare in this household so,
she gave me the answer which I will answer as best I can.
so most engagements between an american privateer
any british merchant vessel during the american revolution are actually
won without a shot being fired. often the american privateer
was very fast and could
catch up to the merchant vessel, and often times the merchant vessel knew once they get within range
of the privateer's guns it's over. sometimes if a shot was fired it
was just a shot across the about to let the emergent captain know
that you're within range of our guns in the next shot is not going to sail across
your bow, it's going to hit you. so quite often they
were over quickly and with very little blood-loss. so
they're not bloody battles of any stretch the imagination; and yes american privateers, usually they
won unless for some reason the merchant vessel could out-run
them but again that was rare because american privateers
were known for their speed. now
privateers
versus royal navy that's another story. if you're a privateer
captain and you encounter the royal navy plan A is run.
If that's not possible and you have to fight then it's going to be
over quickly because you are completely outgunned by a
royal navy vessel. however, most often if you can outrun you're
going to surrender to avoid the loss of life. however,
battles did happen and normally, you know,
you're fighting it out with cannon at long or medium-range but,
sometimes they did close, you know,
within fifty yards twenty five yards or even ships would collide. if that happens
and the ships are grappled then sometimes you absolutely did see crews boarding one
vessel or another with swords and pikes, real nasty medieval stuff.
So, it certainly could happen.
So, thank you for that. hopefully that answers
it and if not I will refer back to the doctor murphy next week.
So, now we have our next question from Rich.
Might we hear your take on Fisk Hill?
Yes.
I knew about the british falling out of line and being
compelled back into formation at the end of their own guns but recently
I read that there was actually more skirmishing in that area and that major
Pitcairn and lieutenant colonel Francis Smith were wounded in the area of
fiske hill. so that's the first part of the question, the second part of the question is, "cane
you comment on James Hayward and his encounter with a british soldier
at the well at
fiske house?" so that's right at the end of fiske hill. and he says, "and just
how romanticized that story may have become in the nineteenth-century.?"
So, hold on to your hats. it does get romanticized. so I'll start with the first
question about the fighting at fiske hill. so fiske
hill is an area within minute man national historical park just over the border from
lincoln into lexington so probably about maybe a quarter-mile
into lexington and there was some fighting in that area. you've
got a couple of things happening. the road wraps around a bluff,
this ridge line that runs from south to north,
And, then it kind of wraps around the bluff
and the road runs between the bluff and fiske hill on the right if you're
heading east towards lexington like the british column was.
So, that's where fiske hill is and we have
an account from Ensign DeBerniere who was a young british officer
who was on the march to Concord on april nineteenth of seventeen seventy
five. so I'm just going to read his account,and he does reference the discipline in the
british column falling apart and then having to form under fire.
We first kept our order and returned
their fire as hot as we received it but when we arrived within a mile of lexington
our ammunition began to fail and the light companies were so
fatigue the flanking they were scarce able to act and a great number of
wounded scarce able to get forward made a great confusion.
Colonel smith had received a wound through his leg, a number of officers were also
wounded, so that we began to run rather than retreat in order. the whole
behaved with amazing bravery but little order. we attempted to stop the
men form them two deep but to no
purpose. The confusion increased rather than lessened. at last after we
got through lexington the officers got to the front and presented their bayonets and
told the men if they advanced they should die. upon this they began to form
under very heavy fire but that instant the first brigade joined us.
So, DeBerniere is talking about within a mile of Lexington, so that would
certainly could encompass the area that we know of as fiske hill.
he does mention colonel smith being down at that point having received
a painful wound through his leg but he doesn't give us a specific area. Now
when a british account says lexington they are usually talking
about the center of town, the town green. same thing - concord, they're talking about the center of
town the north bridge they're not really aware
of town boundaries and things like that so, those are their reference points.
And, he just says that Smith was wounded by that point. he doesn't tell us
where exactly it happened. And Pitcarin was also
wounded in that area and we actually do have an account that may shed some light
on where and how Pitcairn was wounded. and this is from an account from Reverend
Edmond Foster that was written in eighteen twenty seven.
in appears in Reverend Ezra Ripley's account of the concord fight.
"When we advanced near to benjamin tavern a man rode up on horseback but unarmed.
the enemy within passing round the hill just below the tavern.
They posted a small body of their troops on the north side of the hill
which fired upon us. the horse and rider felt instantly to the ground. the horse
died instantly but the man received no injury. we were quickly at the spot
from which we returned the fire. the enemy within rising in passing over fiske
hill. an officer mounted on an elegant horse and with a drawn sword in
his hand was riding backwards and forwards commanding and urging on
the british troops. a number of americans behind rails
raised their guns and fired with deadly effect. the officer fell
and the horse took fright, lept the wall and ran directly towards those who had killed his
rider. the enemy discharged their musketry
in that direction but the fire took no effect.
At the next house a british soldier and an
american met each other suddenly face-to-face. both presented their guns
and fired at the same instant. the fire of both took a deadly effect."
So, the first part of Foster's account, so he's talking about, we
believe, the bluff. he mentions benjamin tavern, or bull tavern, which was right
in that area just south of the bluff.
So, we know it's in that area. it would have made sense for the british to
post troops on the bluff to basically provide cover for
the column as it goes around between the bluff and fiske hill. so
they talk about returning fire from the british rear-guard on the bluff
and then basically going around the north side of the bluff and now they get in sight of the road again and they
see the column and they see an officer riding up and down the road you know,
brandishing his sword urging on the men. that was major Pitcairn we believe and they fired.
No pitcairn did not get shot. his horse reared up and threw him
and that horse was actually later captured along with major Pitcarin's pistols so,
Pitcairn was injured from the fall, he injured his arm but,
he did make it back. he made it back to boston and,
Smith of course with the wound in his leg he survived the day as well.
But, Foster also mentions the encounter at the
fiske house, at the well, where
A british soldier and an american met each other face-to-face both fired
and both died which is a reference to James Hayward. So now we're going
to get into the second part of your question. so the story is obviously
well known by eighteen twenty seven because Edmond Foster does mention it. and,
Hayward was carrying a powder horn, and the
soldier that fired at him, the shot went through the
powder horn and set the splinters into Hayward's body
and, that's how he died. so in eighteen thirty five that powder
horn was presented by Hayward's nephew, Stevens Hayward, to
representative and later governor Edward Everett. and along with the
powder horn came the story of James Hayward's words death. so.
I'll just outline some of the details of it. so, what we know here - so James Hayward was
a young school teacher from actonand he was excused from military service because of
in injury to his foot. a long-time ago he had an
accident axe and he had a crippled foot as a result, so he didn't have to
turn out in april nineteenth a seventeen seventy five but he did anyway. so
he turned out as a volunteer in Captain Hunt's militia company from
acton and he marched to concord with them, so presumably he would have then been at the fight at
concord's north bridge and pursued the british with his comrades, and
he got as far as fiske hill in lexington and that's where he
stopped to get a drink. so it's easy to suppose they may have at that point
and left behind due to his crippled foot however,
he's at the well and he tries to draw some water to drink but at that moment he sees
a british soldier there for the same purpose. the soldier, according to the story,
presents is musket to him and says "you're dead man!" and Hayward replies
coldly "and so are you!" and they both fire. the soldier died very quickly
Hayward lingered for about eight hours before he died.
So, now we have the powder horn and we have the basic story
that was given from Hayward's nephew
to Edward Everett. now in eighteen fifty one
Acton was requesting money from
the massachusetts house of representatives, about two thousand-dollars to erect a
monument there town to the three soldiers from acton and the died
on april nineteenth: Captain Isaac Davis, Private Abner Hosmer and
James Hayward. and their representative his name
was Reverend James Trask Woodbury, and so
he left an account, again having interviewed Stevens
Hayward and he provides a lot more detail of the story including James
Hayward's last words to his father. so here's where it gets very
romanticized. Again, a lot of this is second-hand:
Foster's account from eighteen twenty seven, the story from
Stevens Hayward to Edward Everett, but
then Reverend Woodbury really kind of takes it and runs with it. so according to
Reverend Woodbury, these are the last words of
James Hayward of Acton.
So, supposedly his father came to his bedside and asked
him "do you regret turning out today?" because he didn't have
to. so the reply was as follows. "father
hand me my powder horn and bullet pouch. I started with one-pound of powder
and forty balls. you see what I have left. you see what I have
been about. I never did such a forenoon's work before.
Tell mother not to mourn too much for me for I am not sorry
I turned out. I die willingly for my country.
She will now I, doubt not, by the help of God be free. and tell whom I
love better than my mother, you-know-who I mean, that I am not sorry.
I'll never see her again. May I meet her in heaven.
You're welcome to believe that you like.
This is a level of detail you do see this is very
nineteenth-century taking the core of a story and then saying what you
want to it say, you know, "I die willingly for my country..." well it should be remembered that in
seventeen seventy five america was not country, it was it was
a place. and massachusetts was a province in the british empire. and
a lot of the eighteenth-century letters that I've read, they're,
not like this. they're not quite as dripping with emotion. so
what can I say about the nineteenth-century? It's in the way. there is a
monument that is at the location of the fiske well and
the monument was erected in eighteen eighty five, the same year that there was a
monument also ected at the base of the bluff to mark that location, and
the powder horn is in possession of the acton memorial library, so now
you know the rest of the story. now we have another great question from Michelle.
And, she says,
"can you speak about the enslaved person named casey? I noticed
a post with some information about him in the woods near the wayside. can you also
speak about the underground railroad and how that ridge was used to help
those enslaved?" so this reference to a house that stood on the grounds of what we today
call "the wayside: home of authors" on lexington road in concord. Louisa May
Alcott lived there from eighteen forty five to eighteen forty eight
and Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family live there and later in the eighteen fifties.
in seventeen seventy five that house was owned by Samuel
Whitney who was a merchant. he was
a town meeting moderator in concord. he also served as a delegate to the
provincial congress and he was also selected to
serve as muster master for concord's two minute companies that
they raised in january of seventeen seventy five so,
you Samuel Whitney definitely has good patriot credentials. we also know
that in the seventeen seventy one massachusetts tax assessment
Samuel Whitney was assessed for two "servants for life."
They don't give the names but,
we do know that he lives at that site and he has
to "servants for life" or enslaved people. that was a common term for it.
Now there's an old house, long vanished, on the southern
slope the ridge just west of the wayside, so that was on his property.
and that ridge is a ridge that runs north of the road from
concord center, about a mile and a half,
east of town and it comes to an end at Meriam's corner.
Just to kind of place you into that area.
So, we don't know much about Casey in fact,
you know, going in the eighteenth-century source we don't even know his name but
interestingly enough we do have a mention of him in the journal of
Henry David Thoreau, volume ten chapter seven, so surprise,
surprise Henry Thoreau liked to write a lot. this was in eighteen fifty eight,
and it's an interview with George Minott, an elderly man who had living memory of
the american revolution, and was living in that old house
on what was the property next door to what we now call the wayside home of
authors. So I'm going to quote from Henry Thoreau's
journal, because George
Minott remembers Casey and remembered a very interesting story about him.
So, "George Minott told
me how Casey who is a slave to a man, Whitney, who lived where Hawthorne
owns the same house before the revolution, ran off one sunday
and was pursued by the neighbors and hid himself in the river up to his neck
till nightfall just across the great meadows. he ran
through gowing swamp and came back that night to a
Mrs. Cogswell who lived where Charles Davis does,
and got something to eat then cleared far away and enlisted
and was freed as a soldier after the war." there's more detail here
"Whitney's boy" essentially Whitney's son, "threw snowballs
at him the day before and finally Casey, who was chopping wood in
the yard, threw his axe at him and the young Whitney boy said he
was an ugly [racial slur] and he must put him in jail."
that is of course what prompted Casey to run away.
"He may have been twenty-years-old when stolen from
africa. he left a wife and one child there. he used to say that he went
home to africa in the night and came back in the morning."
he dreamt of home, so very sad. so that's really the only
detailed account we have of Casey's life and, it comes from Henry
Thoreau' journal, interview with George Minott in eighteen fifty
eight. now in terms of the underground railroad the wayside home of authors
is actually part of the underground railroad network to freedom.
it is so because of when the Alcotts lived there, so sometime
it either late eighteen forty six or early eighteen forty seven
the Alcott family harbored a
enslaved person who was running away to Canada, and they wrote about it so I will
read you the account Louisa May Alcott and then her father
Amos Bronson Alcott.
So, here's from Louisa May...
"We have had an interesting fugitive here for two weeks right from maryland
he was anxious to get to canada and we have forwarded have the best way we could. his
suffering has been great. his intrepidity unparalleled. he agrees with us about
boycotting slave produce. he said is the only way the abolition of the
slave can ever be effected. he says it will never be done by insurrection."
And, then from her father, Amos Bronson Alcott,
"He is scarce thirty-years-old, athletic, dexterous
and sagacious and self relying. he has many of the elements of
hero. His stay with us has given an image and a
name to the dire entity of slavery and was
an impressive lesson to my children bringing before them the wrong
that the black man and his tales of woe." the Alcotts were very involved in the
anti slavery movement and doing this in the eighteen forties is bad enough
but they continue this into the eighteen fifties and there is a wonderful quote from Louisa
May Alcott's mother Abigail talking about
helping these fugitive slaves and sending them up into the country and
saying that "I suspect at some point I'll have to face the law. I am ready." so,
she knows that she's doing is breaking the law but she also knows what she's doing is
the right thing and she's ready to face
the consequences. post eighteen fifty that gets very dangerous because of the fugitive slave
act which basically allowed federal marshals to come in to even a place
like massachusetts or boston and hunt down and capture
those the suspect to be fugitive slaves and return them to the south to
slavery.
so, it's very obviously not very well-received here in massachusetts. but in terms of the ridge
being used, there's no evidence of that. one of the problems with the underground railroad is that
it was largely secretive. so we have something like the Alcotts living at wayside and they
wrote about it so we know. there's a lot of places that may have been part of it but we don't know.
it's anecdotal evidence
which also leads to the very unfortunate practice of, you know,
when somebody lives an old New England house and they find a strange cubby in the closet they go "Oh! this
was part of the underground railroad!" well we don't really know that for sure. so sorry
I didn't have more information on that. now we have one more question from Justin.
and he writes, so here's two questions actually. so the first question, "for children who may
be looking to do something virtually this
summer is minute man offering a virtual junior ranger program? do
you know, of any other national parks in the region offering a
virtual junior ranger program?" so the short answer is we are working on it.
We do have a junior
ranger program and you can go on to our website and download
junior ranger booklet. we have one for older children, we have one for younger children.
But, most of the activities, you can do some of them at home, but most of the activities are designed
for on-site visit. however if you're able to
complete at least some of the activities send us your completed book and we'll send you a badge
and a certificate, but it's not a true online program but we are
working on that as we're changing the way we do business
out of necessity these days. however if you were to do a search
National park service junior ranger program online you will come up
with a website so it's nps.gov/kids/junior-ranger-online
and there's lots of great activities from lots of
parks around the country that you can do all online so a lot of great stuff and
we are catching up so we
will keep you posted as we continue into the summer.
Now the second part of your question... "who has oversight
or responsibility for perpetual care of the graves of british soldiers at north bridge
and other sites along the battle road?
Does the british government play any role in the upkeep the grave sites? have any
past efforts been made or future plans to do an archaeological survey to
verify the locations of possible number of graves in the vicinity of these markers?"
I'll start with the north bridge. so there's a grave of
two british soldiers at the north bridge. now back when they were the first interred
able nineteen seventeen seventy five they were buried just over the
south wall in Reverend Emerson's meadow.
and the grave was actually then marked with two stones, presumably a head
stone and a foot stone, and those are still visible in the nineteenth-century and,
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about those stones.
However, the landscape has changed and the south wall
was pushed out and so it actually then encompassed the two
graves, so now the graves are on the north side of the south wall whereas before they were on the
south side of the south wall. and we did actually
do ground penetrating radar in two thousand five to locate
grave disturbance, and yes there is something there. when you do
a ground penetrating radar doesn't say "there's a body here" but there's disturbances
in the soil that if, you know,
what you're looking y know what you're looking at it is very grave-like. in terms of the
graves along the battle road, so we have markers that we put
and they say "near here are very british soldiers." there's a couple
reasons for that. one we don't want to encourage looting, and two
we don't exactly know where they're buried. we placed them there in areas that we know that there
was fighting, where we know the british column sustained
casualties, were british soldiers died, and also knowing that most of the soldiers were buried
by the colonists after the battle very close to where they fell.
An exception being the soldiers that were killed in lincoln that were buried in the lincoln town
cemetery, but most of them are very close to where they fell so we marked those areas but we haven't
done any surveys, non-invasive ground penetrating
radar to locate those graves and right now there's not really need to.
But, that maybe something that we consider in the
future but as of right now there's no plans. who maintains the grave sites? we do - the national
park service. there is a story that the grave site of british soldiers
at north bridge is cared for by the british consulate, that it was
ceded back to England. that's not true and,
actually the town of concord owns the land around the north bridge and it's administered by the national
park service and we care for it. now every patriot's day a representative from the british
consulate does come out and lays a wreath at the grave of the british
soldiers at north bridge. and we do have volunteers, men and women who
portray british soldiers of the eighteenth-century, who on patriot's
day will go decorate the grave sites. we have six grave sites within the park. so
they decorate them and we maintain them and keep their memory. so
I believe that is it. so I thank you all very much
for participating in ask the ranger, and
again, this is pre-recorded so that we can have captions and I will be live with you
in the chat so here's something that's interesting you have a further question I can
get right back to you in real-time and do let-me know how this format works
for-you. if you enjoy it and have any suggestions for improvements we are always looking to
do we do better. so keep sending me your questions, preferably if you could
send them in by tuesday that'll give me time to record and then edit
the auto captions. so thank you and we'll see you next week.