Good morning everyone and welcome to the
first of may we are continuing, thank you for your responses
we're continuing with ask a ranger my name is Jim Hollister e a park ranger at
Minute Man National Historical Park so I'm very pleased to be with you once again and
again thank you for watching in for your questions that people are sending in
if you're encouragement so, first of all just like to start out with a
quick update on the park we are extending the closure due to the Covid 19
public health crisis Governor baker has extended it into the middle of may so we will be
following suit with state and local authorities and of course following a federal guidelines
as well so stay tuned we will post updates on our website
as to whether visitor centers will start to reopen and, what that will look like as we
head into this new normal. In the meantime the park grounds do remain
open in the parking lots remain open however as I mentioned visitor centers are closed restrooms are
closed please visit responsibly maintain social distancing keep dogs on a
leash and carry in whatever carry out whatever you carry in
so, that we can all share enjoy the resource together and,
I also just want to give a quick shout out to the Friends of Minute Man National Historical Park they have been
our steadfast partners
through thick and then and if any of you are looking to get more involved in the park that's a great
way to get involved with the friends of minuteman or when we resume operations to sign up as
a volunteer and help us and visitor centers with programs are various
and sundry projects going on to the parses lots of ways of getting involved with your
national park service in minuteman national historical park so we have a
really great set of questions this week so I'll start going down by list here and again,
thank you for all of those who sent in here questions and get a quick cup of coffee here.
Good morning everyone all right so first of all it's a kick right in here with
a question from david.
Were drummers actively drumming during the march
the british regulars all right so there's the
march out from Boston to Concord which they did the
assembled Boston common about ten o'clock at night you know,
began loading boats crossing the charles river it was about two
o'clock in the morning by the time they were assembled in cambridge and began their march so,
that's the that's outbound so that's from Boston out to Concord through Lexington of
course and then there's inbound so going back to Boston
in the afternoon the running fight the battle the battle road
is we call it so there's two segments there that will that will deal
with this question in terms of drums.
So, this different reasons why armies of this period
use drummers. Now we always have this image of the british soldiers marching
in step where did that come from it actually is sort of a late
commer to the battlefields and it starts in the sixteen
nineties so the late seventies early eighteenth-century is when they began armies in
europe began practicing cadence step
it's not just for show this very specific reason so
one of the technology improves so before armies are carrying match
lock muskets which require the infantry men who are carrying them to
hold a lit piece of cord called match and gun
powder so let match gun powder a whole lot of nope going on there so anyway
they have to keep some distance they have to keep social distancing so that they don't blow up. However,
with the advent of the flint lock and its adoption by
european armies in the seventeenth and even into the early eighteen century this conversion
was still happening you don't have to keep the ignition source
lit you have instantaneous ignition from flint striking against
steel and igniting your gun powder so now you can concentrate
your infantrymen, your foot soldiers with the muskets
you can concentrate you fire. They also combine muskets
and pikemen, so before you needed pikemen to defend
pikes are long sixteen foot spears, you needed them to defend the
musketeers who when they're re-loading, it takes a long-time and they're effectively helpless but,
you see development as the flintlock becomes adopted, the bayonet. Early
bayonets were plug bayonets that literally just fit inside the muzzle
but that was later improved with the socket that fit over the muzzle
and on rambling here I'm getting to something. So it fits over the muzzle that allows a soldier to load
and shoot with a bayonet fixed so now you see, you know,
the classic infantry fire system, excuse me, infantry
weapons system of firearm and bayonet close order so
the cadence step comes in when, you know,
soldiers marching along the road or
across fields, you know, in a route march, are usually in a column.
Whether its columns of companies you know, meaning about
and say fifteen-minute cross or half companies about five or six men across
columns of platoons, very, very common, but in order to face an enemy
and battle they have to deploy from a column into
a line again to bring all that fire our to bear against the enemy
it relatively close range and usually within about a hundred yards so,
before you had drums and cadence step.
Marching to the battlefield so everybody's kind of shuffling along in getting spread out so
cadence step allows the men to stay
close together so that when the deploy.
It's much quicker and it goes a lot more smoothly so in a combat
situation you know, being able to deploy quickly saves lives
so that's one reason why you have dramas we're going to be the cadence and
allow them to maintain their step so that they're not tripping over each other and they can deploy from
column into line or back into a column much more quickly.
Another reason for drummers is for commands so, there's
commands for loading and firing, there's commands for ceasefire you know,
there's all sorts of commands that are given by the drum and also commands and camp as well and,
then of course the last reason is for show, you know,
this very impressive now you're in line you're marching towards the enemy and, you know,
the drums are beating and it just creates, you know,
quite a marshal noise that can be
unsettling to the enemy so lots of reasons for the drums so
were they bringing drums with the march to and from Concord? Yes,
they were and there is some evidence okay first of all look, at
what happened lexington in the morning all right so the troops are coming up they see the lexington
company paraded on the town common, there's confusion, the troops are
in a high state of anxiety they rush on to the town green seemingly you know,
not in control from their officers, you know, one said they were so while they could
hear no orders. A shot is fired, the troops opened fire, it's a mess. Major
Pitcairn who'd ridden forward to the vanguard of light infantry that were now,
you know, tangling with the Lexington militia who are just being swept off the field, he's riding
around and he's frantically waving a sword and he's telling the men to
seize their fire nobody's listening to him. Smith the commander of the expedition
Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith who is often criticized for being very fat heavy
man slow.
Ponderous really not the right guy for this mission I disagree and,
what he did on the town green that morning was amazing so he
hears the firing and the screaming, and he he's back with the main
body. Pitcairn's up with the with the vanguard. Smith comes riding up,
he sees this horrible scene this is not his
mission is mission is to go to Concord, to seize and destroy ammunition
So, where Pitcairn was ineffective
at ceasing the slaughter, Smith call for a drummer and
the drummer beat ceasefire and
had them and fall in so there's some evidence of a drum we also have an account of
Amos Barrett he was a corporal in captain david
brown's minute company from Concord, and he was part of the lead
element that marched out from the center of conquered about a mile-and-a-half to the east along
a ridge line that runs north of the road and they
posted themselves the edge that and that ridge called a place called miriam
hill and they can get full view of the road
leading into town and he talks about seeing the
british army now coming up that road into town.
And, actually the british sent some light infantry after the minuteman on the ridge
the minutemen then staged a very orderly withdrawal, they stayed until they got
within about a hundred rods and then they turn to the right about in march before them and, actually
british officer mentions that they retreated in order, that they were choosing the ground, "I thought they
would've made a stand there but they did not choose it" so that's a really unsettling if you're a
professional officer going "hmmm," you know,
these yankee farmers are actually maintaining discipline and
order in choosing their ground.This is going to be a bad day. Well getting back
to Amos Barrett he talks about marching before them back into Concord,
he said "with our drums and fifes a'going and also the British. We had a
grand music." So there's some evidence there.
That at least at that point when they're entering conquered.
They're striking up their field music it's almost like a taunt, you know,
the yankees are playing, you know, their fifes and drums, so the british are going to answer.
I however don't believe that they as they were marching through the night towards
lexington that they were drumming. It was probably just route march and,
they have a particular objective they don't plan on forming lines and facing an enemy in the
field and they were also trying to be quiet you know, at some points, you know,
staying off of bridges to avoid.
You know, clacking over the planks so I really doubt that the
drummers are actually actively employed during the march and during the wrote
route back during the battle road I think it just would have been at you know,
totally lost in the chaos as they're, you know, continually sending out flanking companies and
refreshing those companies reinforcing it would've been a complete mess probably not make much of
a difference but that's not evidence that speculation and, there could
have been some circumstances like if they're giving commands for a company to fire off by
platoon you probably need a drummer for that so it's quite possible. So thank you for that question. Now
Next one from Tim.
Was the morning temperature during the battles of
lexington… What was the morning temperature during the battles of lexington and concord?
So, all right and what was the weather prior, so we have the account of
Reverend Jonas Clark of lexington who in his
diary on the eighteenth, so the day before, said there was a fine
rain, and there are other sources corroborate, that on the eighteen today before the battle it was raining but,
it cleared out that evening it was a very nice evening
and Paul Revere talks about that it was just a very pleasant evening and bright moon.
However,
on the nineteenth we do have Harvard professor John Winthrop
who took to temperature recordings on april nineteenth of seventeen
seventy five so we took one temperature reading at six o'clock in the morning
and he said it was forty six degrees.
It's pretty typical for april six o'clock in the morning
forty-six actually that might be a little bit on the warm side and,
then he took a second reading at one o'clock in the afternoon it had risen to
fifty two degrees winds light from the west and sunny.
So, they would basically be the type of weather if we had it for patriot's day or battle
road day in april we pretty psyched.
But, anyway, so,
basically a typical sunny early spring day. Though overall they
did have an early spring they had a very warm winter it hardly ever
snowed hardly ever dipped below freezing which is very unusual for that time and Reverend
William Emerson in his diary said it was extraordinary weather for war-like preparations
were mostly the stuck in their homes now companies are out drilling, some men are gathering
in barns and going through the manual exercise they were still able to get
a lot of work done preparing for what they knew was coming so, from
the eighteenth a fine rain and then clearing out in the evening and then on the
nineteenth it was sunny and in the low fifties so thank you for
that that's so we do get a lot of questions about the weather, you know, what was it like that day. Although I can
imagine if you're a british regular running basically from Concord back to Boston
about eighteen miles is going to get pretty warm same thing for the militia coming in
from surrounding towns sometimes going on, you know, extraordinarily long marches
of ten, fifteen miles, then fighting the battle so, as Joseph
Plum Martin once said that, you know,
fighting is warm work even on cool days.
All right moving on so we have from Justin.
Do we know which members of the lexington militia might have participated in the "Parker's
Revenge" portion of the battle later in the day on april nineteenth. He also says "I teach
African-American history at a community college in Illinois and I'm particularly interested in
African-American soldiers who fought at lexington and concord and on the battle road, so thank you. All right so
let's cover the men from lexington who fought, now this is not a straightforward answer so,
what company what most company commanders did at the request
to the provincial congress in november of seventeen seventy five because they wanted to make sure that
everyone who served either as a minuteman or in
their militia companies during the alarm on april nineteenth that they got paid?
So, yes, they were paid for service
they're even paid for mileage I think it was like one penny per mile so,
a lot of company commanders did that so those
muster roles are in the massachusetts state archives however not every
company commander did and unfortunately lexington was one of the towns that did not submit a
muster roll for service for their men who turned out on the nineteenth you know, also the
Concord militia. Concord militia had two companies that did not submit muster roles so
it's not complete you have to sort of parse these things together from other sources so there are
two big sources here one is Hudson's "History of Lexington in Middlesex
County" so that is a nineteenth-century source he provides the names of
hundred-twenty men from lexington who claim service or
who he believes served on april nineteenth of seventeen seventy five.
There was a later history written by Frank W. Coburn
around nineteen eleven and, he did a study the most roles and,
compiling other sources and he came up with a hundred and
forty men from lexington who he says file on april nineteenth now.
How many of them fought in the morning how many fought in the afternoon so,
to get the names of the men who find the green?
The different ways you can do it but looking at the deposition so the provincial congress
call for depositions to be taken.
Very shortly after the battle.
They compile these depositions and they sent them over to England to influence the
court of public opinion, you know, get our story out their first which they actually
did they got their accounts and there at least a few weeks before General
Gage was able to get what he called his circumstantial account over to london so,
the depositions were compiled from lexington from concord from other witnesses people who are in the
ranks people others who were spectators and,
they sent them over to england so looking at those depositions you can get names of those so
for the seventeen seventy five depositions
You can come up with about fifty names of people who said they were
standing on the green there was another set of depositions that were taken later in the
eighteen twenty four so almost fifty years after the battle and, yeah,
part of this was for posterity but also at the time there was a
raging fight between the lexington and concord that still kind of we
suffer aftershocks even today in the fight was over where the war start.
Oh no. Are we really going there during this question? Maybe just a little bit, so
in eighteen twenty four Layfette comes over
for victory tour of the united states and he's in lexington and of course they claim this is
where the first shots were fired this is where the war began and,
then he goes to Concord and he hears pretty much the same thing.
That, well, we in concord we actually shot back.
You know, at the british and lexington says "wait a minute."
"We shot back!" Well if you read the seventeen seventy five depositions most of
them basically said they appeared on the green we were ordered to disperse they started shooting at us while
we're running away. It's a massacre. If you read the eighteen twenty
four depositions, and those were done in order to refute Concord's claim as being the place
where the war really started and they're a little different and,
yeah, there's some overlap people who responded in seventeen seventy five, re-responding
eighteen twenty four they provide a little bit more detail and,
do include you know,
I fired was retreating and you're behind stonewalling fired minimum city put two cartridges that
his gun and the blew the last foot of the barrel off so,
it it's really interesting. It's the same
event they're talking about but two different takes on it and then of course you
gotta realize seventeen seventy five they were also
putting their names to things that are being sent over to London
to show that they were victims of the british army so,
they're very careful to cast everything that they did in the light of self-defense
okay now for that so, yeah, you can come up with accepted numbers of those instead of the
green is between seventy to eighty men who stood on the
town green out of between a hundred twenty a hundred-forty
who fought during the day.
yeah, and, it's trying to extract those two lists is a little difficult
we know there's some men who did fight in both places for example, Jedediah Munroe who was
wounded on the town green , then killed later in the day near Munroe Tavern.
So, yeah, they and they also took more casualties during the afternoon in terms of
African-Americans who fought in the company so there's two names that appear
on Hudson's list as well as on Coburn's list and it's Prince Estabrook who was
wounded on the town green in the morning and, then also Eli Burdoo. But
there are other names that Hudson provides, Silas Burdoo, Pompey
Blackman, Samuel Crafts and Cato Tuder. And these men
they may have fought on april nineteenth, there's some thought that they did. Hudson lists them
as having enlisted in Continental service either for three months for the war meaning
for the duration, which is actually pretty interesting because that was a common practice.
In militia laws, and if I covered this last week I apologize, militia
laws prohibited black men from serving in the train
bands meaning training with arms however in the case of an alarm
emergency they were required to turn out you know,
whether they were enslaved or free and they had to be provided with arms usually
by the head of their household?
So, turning out in an alarm very common practice and of course what happened on april
nineteenth was absolutely an alarm. They called it later the lexington alarm, but
also when they're starting to recruit the massachusetts army and also the continental army.
You know, early on they said whites only but,
later of course the rage militaire dies down and, you're recruiting men to basically sit in the
siege line and, be exposed to
weather and disease and privations and it's a little harder
to recruit people so they did allow for the recruitment of black soldiers and,
they also you know, as the war's really getting, getting on, you start to see a
resort to levies or draft. Men who are drafted could send a substitute sometimes if
you're wealthier man and you kept and enslaved man you could send that person to
serve in your stead and that was a very common practice it's not it's not
pretty but it did happen, and in many cases when
an enslaved man enlisted or was enlisted by his master
is de facto emancipation you're not going to get your property back you're making a sacrifice...
"your sacrifice" anyway you are you know,
essentially giving up your property so that you don't have to go
at yourself and serve so,
again, it was usually a de facto emancipation but not uniformly so, it you know,
some were still they're.
Condition was which are known like kato
smith in lincoln served in the continental army died in service and
that his master william smith collected his back pay that was a
owed him so was he still insulated the time of his death in
service in the continental army it looks like he was, so not exactly neat and
clean these are the rules these are the laws you know, it's kind of all over the place and,
there's also Jupiter Tree and john
Tingle in addition to the names I already listed all right and also in terms of
parker's revenge primary sources we have one account written fifty years later
nathan monroe who basically said that in the middle of the forenoon Captain Parker collected
his company, me being with them and they marched out to meet the regulars they
marched out towards Concord, they met
the regulars in the bounds of Lincoln. That's all we had to go on when we started the Parker's Revenge
archaeological investigation in two thousand thirteen which is why we had
to because, you know, some of the firsthand accounts were so lacking, in order to come up with where
this actually happened we had to look at more scientific sources?
All right thank you for that. Now we have a question from... let's see how I'm doing on time here...
doing good. From Linda.
I know the oldest tavern in the country is the white horse in Newport
Rhode Island. What is the oldest tavern in Massachusetts? All right.
Superlatives are difficult because
there's a lot of different factors you've got to weigh. And
People love superlatives. "We're the oldest." "We're the first..." not always hard to prove...
… excuse me, not always easy to prove. So, I've compiled a list here. So we have the Green
Dragon in Boston which was established in
sixteen fifty four, so that's pretty old.
It actually still exists in Boston but it's not the
same building. The original building was demolished in eighteen fifty four so,
two hundred-years after it was built and, the connection of the current Green Dragon
to the historic Green Dragon tavern, they called headquarters of the revolution
it's shaky, because it's not the same building, it's not the same people.
But, anyway, that's what they're claiming that they are the successors of the Green
Dragon. There's the White Horse Tavern in newport that you mentioned that was established
and sixteen seventy three is still serving so that's a pretty solid claim same
building and it's in it's essentially the same organization but,
there's other taverns you know, another Tavern that's still serving is the Warren
Tavern in Charlestown Massachusetts seventeen eighty, so you know,
more than a hundred-years after White Horse but,
they're still serving. There's the Wayside Inn, / Red Horse Tavern in
barry which was established in seventeen sixteen and that is still serving. But,
now we have a lot of other taverns.
that are not. The Swett Isley House in Newbury
Massachusetts, sixteen seventy, it was later used as a tavern in
the eighteenth-century. A lot of these homes were not built as taverns
they served as family homes for quite a while and then later the
the owner decided to apply for an inn-keepers license. The same thing at Hartwell
Tavern. The House was built in seventeen thirty three, and then twenty three years later
Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell applied for an inn-keepers license so, that meant
that they could serve food and drink on the premises and provide overnight accommodations for
travelers so.
that was that was pretty common. Most often they would run them for maybe five or ten years. The Hartwells actually ran theirs
for thirty one-years which is
a lot. So not all taverns were built as taverns, and they may have had a
tavern operation for part of their history but, the Swett Isley house
is now museum, part of Historic New England. Buckman Tavern in lexington built
in seventeen ten is now a museum run by the Lexington Historical Society, so when
we're able to come together again I highly recommend
a visit to the Buckman Tavern and the Lexington Historical Society and also the
Munroe Tavern, also run as a museum by the Lexington Historical Society
established in seventeen thirty five, so no longer serving, they're historic sites
they're museums, and at Munroe Tavern you can actually learn a lot about the British army
because they that was used as a headquarters on April nineteenth as a hospital.
So, Hartwell Tavern, as I mentioned, part of Minute Man National Historical
Park so, shout out to all of our interpreters who have served
at Hartwell tavern but, again, that's museum. Same thing with Golden Ball
tavern in Weston which is now historic site, seventeen sixty eight, and
The Warren... I already mentioned the Warren tavern okay so, you know,
still serving not still serving museums
it all it all depends on what your particular.
What your particular?
condition is - if you want to say "still serving" taverns,
okay, so, we're probably going to have to go with, perhaps, the Wayside Inn is
pretty old, so seventeen sixteen, still serving all right?
So, now we have a question from Pete so,
he says I have been under the impression that massachusetts never formally outlawed slavery until around the
time of the civil war when the federal government did so I thought that
around the seventeen seventies if slaves brought a lawsuit against their owner to
obtain their freedom the courts in boston would grant that freedom so,
anyway, so, he says.
basically wen did slavery
end in massachusetts. So it was well-established
by the sixteen fifties you start to see Africans being brought over. And
at first their condition was uncertain servants,
indentures, servants for life etc. but,
by the sixteen fifties, the Massachusetts general court did establish that yes they are
servants for life meaning they are enslaved and it is based on their race so,
actually Massachusetts was one of the first
colonies to establish and legalize a practice that had been happening.
In Virginia in sixteen nineteen of course the first Africans were brought over
as enslaved men and women so...
So, Massachusetts is actually pretty early on establishing
that yes this is enshrined in law and,
it is based on race. However it starts to erode
and there were enslaved black men and women in there
were some that were free. there were some that were allowed, because slavery was different,
in different parts of the country. We don't have a plantation system here. A lot of slaves here were
kept by families in the home is domestic help. They were also quite
frequently allowed to work outside the home and earn money and they can purchase their
freedom from their owners. However the revolution starts to unravel this
particularly with all this liberty talk, you can believe that the
enslaved population massachusetts heard that and
they start bringing petitions to the general court and the provincial congress. In
the provincial congress there was a petition brought by mr
wheeler, the provincial congress being the rebel government in massachusetts starting
in late seventeen seventy four and he said something to the effect of that while we content for our
liberties we should consider the plight of the poor negroes amongst us. And
if you turn the page it says that the committee decided to take no action so
they kick the can down the road. It's kind of the story when it comes to the
abolition of slavery in America however,
as a revolutions going on you do have some court cases
seventeen eighty one and,
this is of course now we have a massachusetts constitution it seventeen eighty one there's the case of
Brom and Bett versus Ashely. So
Mum Bett was an enslaved person, an enslaved
woman owned by the Ashley family and Mrs. Ashley had
been basically beating on Mum Bett's sister with a shovel. Mum
Bett intervened, try to defend her sister and was injured in the attack
and she ran away and she decided to sue for her freedom, so she engaged lawyer.
And, we see the lawyer's name was Theodore Sedgewick.
And, he took the case.
And, he was able to argue successfully to the
court that her enslavement was illegal due to the Massachusetts
constitution declaration of rights that said all men are born free and equal and
have certain natural, essential and
inalienable rights so, that therefore slavery was inconsistent with the Massachusetts
constitution. Seventeen eighty three there's the Quok Walker case so,
it was the Commonwealth versus Jennison, so Walker sued his owner
for wrongful imprisonment and,
similar to the Mum Bett case the court
ruled that based on the constitution that he was that basically
his enslavement was illegal, illegal imprisonment is what the charge was and,
he was there for free and is owner of him damages so, the supreme judicial
the court chief justice William Cushing after the Quok Walker case that
"slavery is in my judgment as effectively abolish as it can be by the granting of rights
and privileges holy incompatible in repugnant to its existence."
And, by seventeen ninety and,
the next census that was taken there are no slaves listed in massachusetts however
you are correct massachusetts did not establish law abolishing
slavery until the federal government did in eighteen sixty five. Why didn't they?
My guess is that they probably felt that they didn't need to.
Effectively, it's gone but,
yeah, they never actually enshrined it in law until eighteen sixty five.
All right so we have a great question from
Charlene. "What was a ten of Concord like in seventeen seventy five? What
kinds of shops and churches were here, how big was the town and how
far did extend and what was the population?" Buckle up.
Ok so today the town of Concord is about twenty nine square miles ,nineteen thousand eight
hundred nine people according to the twenty sixteen census. Back in seventeen seventy five
it was about two hundred sixty five families fifteen hundred people. It was the county seat
for Middlesex county and this is where the district courts were held.
The town was originally, the original
purchase from the Indians, was six square miles which it basically comes to about thirty six
square miles. However by the time of the revolution it was smaller because from
that original plantation Acton separated off
and seventeen thirties and then also parts of Bedford, Carlisle and Lincoln.
Now... you asked about shops.
Yeah, of course and you have cordwainers, people who make shoes, you have tailors, coopers...
so, the tradesman shops but you also had retail shops and, we have one.
Elnathan Jones who was a shopkeeper in Concord, and this is
From the Boston Gazette
from May of seventeen seventy two.
And, says Elnathan Jones has received by Captain Callahan from
London a general assortment of English and India goods
which he will sell wholesale and retail is cheap as can be bought any shop
in Boston, at his shop in Concord. And he lists
all the stuff that he has.
And, I'm not going to go down the whole list, just so you know, but just to give you an idea... "super fine middling
low-priced broad class that's wall of all sorts with trimming suitable
german surges, routines, half thicks, cold chester and draper bays
stript duffills, common, middling and super fine tammys
durants...this is all fabric all right he even goes down into
english clogs and gollashes.
And, Lynn-made callamenco shoes, so Lynn, there was a lot of shoe making in the town of Lynn,
men's scarlett striped and crimson worsted caps so,
little cloth caps on your head for when you're
lounging around the house, English and German steel bar,
lead shot, powder, brass kettles, pewter plates dishes basins and
porringers, nails, bohea tea,
pepper and all sorts of spices and also loaf
and brown sugar and molasses cotton wool, indigo, chocolate and coffee.
So, there's a lot of stuff here and in what's interesting and, I wish
Emily we're here right now. Actually she'll probably be back next week to give a rant about
privateering why it's not piracy, just a little preview of what may be coming up but,
anyway, she and the folks at the northeast museum services center,
they compared the collections at minute man, our archaeological
collection, with those at Salem and they were finding a lot of the same stuff,
the same ceramics. Salem of course being
a port town, Concord being an agricultural town in the interior but
they're finding the same stuff, so in terms of commerce,
yeah, they're getting all the stuff that's coming into the ports out into Concord, so it's not like
a little agricultural back water they really are ...
bringing in a lot of ... what would seem to us exotic stuff that was really just
they're part of the British empire and part of Atlantic trade. Now also part of
your question was had to do with churches so okay,
the simple answer is its a Congregational church.
Congregation meaning there's no bishop there's no overall.
church authority in church hierarchy it's very much community-based you know, and, it is sort of
a derivative of the Calvinist faith of the Puritan settlers. However,
it does get a little complicated so as we get into the eighteen century.
so seventeen thirty eight Concord had a minister by the name of Reverend John
Whiting who they fired for drunkenness. It can be quite distressing
when you're taxpayer you your money goes to
supporting the minister, people walk for miles you know,
to attend church and sometimes they can't because the weather, the condition of the roads. either way they
make an effort and if this guy is showing up drunk on the sabbath that's not cool, so anyway he was
fired and they brought in reverend daniel bless and that's really where the troubles
began. It's not a necessarily reflection on Daniel as a person
or his sincerity nor his learnedness, but you have something called
the great awakening and it was a religious revival based on the preaching of the
reverend george whitefield, an english preacher, you know, very passionate,
about salvation and accepting the teachings of the church and,
personal conversion.
and very emotional. Before that sermons are very scholarly. This is very
appealing to the emotions. daniel bless was of that tradition. Some people love that, some people
found it distasteful. I'll give you a little description in professor bob
gross' wonderful book "the minutemen in their world."
It's describing one of Daniel Bliss' sermons.
"He began in a low and moderate strain and went
on for some time in the same manner but towards the close the sermon he began to
raise his voice and to use many extravagant gestures and then began a
considerable groaning amongst the auditors which is soon as he perceived
he raised his voice still higher and then the congregation were in the
utmost confusion some crying out the most dole
full accents some lapping others hugging and bliss still roaring to them to
come to christ they answering I will I will I'm coming I'm coming?"
That's quite a scene so anyway there's some people that were totally
into that and there were some people who weren't. Actually in seventeen forty-five
there was a group from the western part of town that separated. They called themselves the west church and,
they form their own congregation and they were not allowed to meet in the meeting house
or call their own minister. They had to meet at the black horse tavern which they did for the next
fourteen years and thus they were called the black horse church. What is now the town of lincoln separated
off in seventeen fifty-four because of they they disapproved of
Daniel Bliss' teachings. Daniel Bliss died in seventeen sixty four.
His successor in seventeen sixty five is reverend william emerson, also,
a very impassioned speaker however, he seems to have calmed things down
and united town, at least somewhat. There were still some aftershocks
of the split, but by that point of course politics are now overshadowing
the religious strife so, yeah, it's an interesting town.
We have from Rick have a question, "What happened to the gun powder and
weapons that were stored and quickly hid in Concord after april nineteenth?
Did they stay hidden there or were they brought to boston for the army in boston, meeting outside
of boston, the militia, and how much of the pre-april nineteenth supplies were actually found
taken or destroyed by the British so there's actually?
There are a lot of pay records.
And, the men submitting pay for particular duties we also have an account of
Thaddeus Blood who's a private in Nathan Barrett's militia company. He mentions that he
was guarding stores weeks prior to april nineteen in about five or six
weeks after and this is supported by other pay records of other militia men who were
called to do guard duty in Concord, of the Concord stores, the military supplies, well
into June of seventeen seventy five and, it and of course at that point, you know,
a lot of the operation is shifting to cambridge and watertown where the
potential congress had reconvened, but Concord was still a very major supply depot
in the early war effort, and Colonel
Barrett of Concord was placed in charge of all the provincial stores
and military supplies that were used in the early part of the revolution. So
what did the british find when they were there? Well a lot of these things were hidden
before they came or dispersed to other towns they did manage
to find three iron guns, twenty-four pounders, so those are big guns, those are usually like
you'd see in a fixed battery on the coast and,
they found and they knocked the trunnions off. Those are the iron cylinders that allow you to mount it
onto a carriage and raise or lower the elevation, so they basically disabled and spiked
them. They also found casks of flour which they threw into the mill pond and,
basketballs and other things like that. The flour they actually recovered. The caskets leaked
and sealed they were able to recover a lot of the flour. They also destroyed some gun carriages
and other equipment, and tents and things. They set fire to them in the
town. Now, from Richard - "How and when did they
know to move the stores from Barrett's farm? There's a lot of documentation on this so the
provincial congress had what was called the committee of safety.
So, march fourteen the committee of safety directed that "watches
be kept constantly at places where the provincial magazines are kept
and that the clerk write on the subject Colonel Barrett of Concord, Henry Gardner of Stow
and captain timothy bigelow of Worcester, and also "that members of
these committees belonging to the towns of charlestown cambridge and roxbury be desired to procure
at least two men for a watch every night to be placed in each of those towns,
that said members be in readiness to send couriers to the towns where the magazines
are placed." So you see basically see the groundwork here for
Paul Revere's ride, the alarm. It was part of a network that was set up. Again,
they knew it was coming. On the thirtieth of march the british first brigade left boston
or route march into the countryside they didn't go very
far they turned around he went back into boston but it put the colony on high alert so,
now you see a real stepping up of efforts to disperse the supplies.
On april fourteenth, actually, Paul Revere rode into Concord and warned Colonel Barrett
hey, something's coming soon better get ready to move these things when
the can committee of safety tells you to. And on April seventeenth the committee
safety order that to four pounders in Concord, the brass guns ,
be mounted an artillery company raised. And the two six pounders, that means the weight
of the shot that they throw, be transported to Groton, and two seven inch
mortars moved to Acton, so they are already starting to disperse
some of these stores ordering guns to be mounted others to be moved to other towns and,
for Colonel Barrett to be ready and to start dispersing these things to
Groton, to Stow to Acton and other places so,
yeah, they knew before the troops came which is why when they arrive there really wasn't much
there for them to find. So now we have a question from
Thelonius Pinecoffin, is that your real name? "When I was a little kid I
read a book on Johnny Tremain. and learned everything about the american revolution from it.
In the book johnny helps a british soldier desert. The soldiers was later caught by the british and executed
were deserves like this common in Massachusetts?" Yes.
Desertion in the army was always.
A problem, you know,
and, actually when the british first came into boston in seventeen sixty eight you know,
there were civilians who were prosecuted for
helping, for trying to convince soldiers to dessert. Always a problem so,
it was it was punished quite brutally so usually a first offender we get
off the flogging you know, two or three hundred lashes ouch, you know,
delivered in installments so you get a little payment plan their is two hundred lashes at one-time
the kill you the idea was not
to kill the soldier but to make sure that they don't do what they did again however
son did somewhere repeat offenders and if you were a repeat offender and you were caught and brought
back oftentimes you were executed, hanged or shot for desertion and,
there's a lot of research that was done by the historian Don Haggist so if you look him up
Don Haggist, "All Things Liberty" it's got a lot of great information about the british army
and in a book called british soldiers american war and he also outlines a lot of the
sort of execution narratives soldiers who are condemned to kind of write down like here's
where I went wrong this is my story sort of like a confessional so,
yeah, absolutely that could happen but in terms of recruitment of the army you know,
the stories that they were like tricked into serving their scraped out of the taverns and the
jails the king shilling, you know, somebody puts a shilling in their drink and then
...no. Enlistment was voluntary it was considered, when you join the
army you should know why you joined in fact there was a time period between your first...
you know, being engaged by recruiting sergeant to finally,
you know, making your mark or signing on the dotted line, a period where you get
vetted to make sure that you're not bound out already
as a servant, that you're not a runaway, that you're basically free to go and,
also for you to make sure that this is what you want to do. It was a career, you know,
some people joined and they, you know, found it was a fulfilling career, did
what they wanted it to do. Other people got in and said, not for me, so
you get a big mix there. So this last part here, a
series of questions, you know, there's stories that sort of grow
in the telling and these next questions
really speak to that, so I'm going to go through these
there's been a lot of questions this week so thank you so, the first one from Richard here asked about
the story of an elderly lady picking flowers and,
taking the surrender of british soldiers and this was in Menotomy, the
town of Arlington, who had thrown their muskets into spy pond.
So, the story comes from and, again, indebted to JL Bell and
his excellent blog, Boston Seventeen Seventy Five
the story comes from the boston pearl and literary
digest, eighteen thirty five, in the same anonymous story.
That details what's now known to be a fictional account of Hezekiah
Wheeler who was the mythical rider on the white horse
with his rifle who would ride ahead of the british column and picking off British soldiers
throughout the day. Turns out that didn't happen and this story is part of that but,
there's more so, the story basically has it that
the party of soldiers who had the baggage in charge, this is quoting from the story, ran
to a pond, this is when the baggage train,
Percy's wagons with extra ammunition and supplies was left behind.
by the troops because they were moving too quick and they got picked off in Menotomy by a
group of men led by David Lamson, an old indian fighter from the last war who
picked off the baggage train so, party of soldiers who had the
baggage in charge ran to a pond and plunging there muskets into the water... the ones who survived
the initial attack surrender themselves to an old woman called mother barbaric who
was at that time digging roots in an adjacent field the party of americans recapture the
gala englishman from other barbaric and place them and safe keeping. And this maybe based on
an oral tradition from Ruth Batherick.
and, her step-daughter, step granddaughter, phoebe who mentioned seeing soldiers
and later seeing one dead in the ditch but,
she makes no mention of capturing the
soldier so really it comes from that story that you know,
she captured the soldiers. So barbaric being mentioned in the story, there's no Barbarick in Menotomy and
but there is Ruth Batherick whose family did witness the events of
april nineteen seventeen seventy five so they come from that possibly and also the story that
use picking dandelions which may have done because that was actually part of a purgative tea
that would kind of clean you out so, anyway, a bit of a mess there.
But, supposedly Lamson was said to remark when he took charge of the
five british soldiers that had surrendered that you know, if one old woman can capture five
grenadiers how many are they going to need to conquer America? Great story.
Now we have question from Mr. Giles.
"How do they actually hide the cannon
at Barrett's farm? I've heard stories that they buried it. Back
in the day I used to smuggle weapons myself...really?... but,
burying them seemed impractical. One. that's a big hole
and two, that's a lot of cleaning to do once you
dig it up." All right, so there's eighteenth century sources and
there's nineteenth-century sources and twentieth century and kind of go through this here so
April seventeenth, seventeen seventy five as I mentioned before the committee of safety ordered
two four-pounders in Concord to be mounted and,
that two six pounders be transported to Groton and the mortars to Acton.
Eighteen fifty, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, November, eighteen
fifty, number six volume one, it was an interview from Benjamin Lossing
who interviewed major barrett who is the son of james barrett junior who
is the son of colonel james barrett who was in charge of the
provincial stores and seventeen seventy five, "major barrett was a
lad of fourteen when the british incursion into
concord took place he was too young to bear a musket but with every lad and woman in
the vicinity he labored in concealing the stores and making cartridges for those who went out to
fight with oxen and a cart himself and others about his age remove the
stores deposited at the house of his grandfather into the woods and, conceal them so, yeah,
sorry James Barrett Jr, he was grandson of colonel barrett
So, you can seal them a cart load in a place under pine boughs in such
case they were obliged to act on the approach the british from lexington that when the cart
was loaded lands would march on each side of the oxygen go them into a
trot thus all the stores were effectively concealed except some carriage
wheels perceiving the enemy near these were cut up and burned so that captain parsons,
a british officer, found nothing of value to destroy in carry away. And
this story of the boys goading the oxen into a trot and hiding them under pine
boughs is also corroborated by an interview done by Lemuel Shattuck
actually little earlier in eighteen thirties of mary Prescott barrett.
Who was colonel barrett's
daughter-in-law, and her remembrance of the family was that the
stores were deposited words under pine baths and, the length bringing the ox carts
down at a trot. Here things get a little weird. Eighteen eighty eight Harriet
Lothrop, who wrote under the pen name margaret Sydney,
And, her book "Old Concord, Her Highways and Byways"
writes of an interview with colonel barrett's great-granddaughter who she identifies
Mrs. A, and she says that muskets
were buried in the field south of the old
barn so basically across the road from where the house now stands in an area thirty
feet square so she's getting quite specific but again this is now, you know, more
than a century removed from the actual event and it's not corroborated by earlier
interviews with people who are there or by the committee of safety.
But, I did find something interesting.
Ok, also there is.
Later story in doing the magazine that said it wasn't
muskets, it was cannon, so it's interesting, you know, it's just getting bigger, muskets, cannon, but,
there is also.
Very strange, April
eighteenth seventeen seventy five, there was instructions from the committee of safety to
Colonel Barrett that musket balls under his care should be buried in some safe place
and the commissary only should be informed thereof
so there is evidence from the eighteenth-century that there
were some items instructed to be buried. Were they? We don't know. So,
we go from musketballs to muskets, to cannon, literally the story is growing
in each retelling but I would I would go back to Mary Prescott Barrett
and james barrett, major james barrett, and their stories that they gave in the eighteen thirties and
eighteen fifties respectively that do corroborate that they were buried under
pine boughs. Okay we have one from Richard, the story of a young woman in Concord who befriended a
british soldier who very condescendingly described how the british troops
had these sophisticated tied bundles of powder and ball. The
woman asks him to describe exactly how they are made and after learning turns in
teaches her neighbors who immediately all turn out scores of them for the local
militia. So this is (laughs)
So, this is the story of Milliscent Barrett.
And, this is our final question for the day here, so Milliscent
Barrett, and this is going to tie-in a little bit with the story the cannons in the field,
Milliscent Barrett was the daughter of James
Barrett junior, so she was Colonel Barrett's granddaughter, so she was
born in seventeen fifty nine september so april
nineteen seventeen seventy five she's fifteen-years-old. She later
married Joseph Swain.
Now in eighteen seventy five a later descendant, James Swain,
wrote down a story.
When presenting an anvil owned by his by his probably by
his grandfather, Joseph, with the claim that Joseph used the anvil to make
gun barrels during the revolution saying this was the envelope on which the
first gun barrel was forged in the town of Concord. Okay now we're getting back to
superlatives, right? But he also in
the presentation of the anvil to the town
he included a pair of scissors, saying that these were the scissors that
Milliscent Barrett used to make cartridges
and he included in his letter the story.
That James Barrett, Colonel Barrett, was.
had served as a commissary providing grain to the british army during the french and indian war
and then he continued into seventeen seventy four... That sounds a little weird particularly
when the british come back and seventeen seventy four they're as occupiers and
colonel barrett was deep in the provincial councils and it's doubtful that
he's providing food but who knows but, anyway, he says that the british officer came out
to Concord, sometime prior to the war starting and was flirting with
Milliscent, and basically it came up that the colonists didn't
even have cartridges that they were loading with powder horns and shot pouches so,
she's like, fine why don't you show me how you make them? So he showed her how to make a cartridge. A musket cartridge
is a paper tube with the musketball and a measured amount of gun powder that was the military way
carrying your ammunition. So the problem with the story of course it wasn't a military
secret that's how they were making ammunition for military purposes,
you know, going back to the late seventeenth, early eighteenth-century. Thousands of militia
men who served during the French wars would have had experience with this. Towns are ordering cartridge
pouches, those are the pouches that you actually put the cartridges in for their
militia and newly raised minute companies. It's well-known. It's not a secret.
It's so no that story is not true.
However, and, also of course the problem, would a british officer really have come all the way
out to Concord at that time that,
you know, late summer seventeen seventy four when tentions are really rising so,
there's a lot of lot of problems with this story however,
it did become accepted that the scissors were real and,
that the story was real. Louisa May Alcott mentions it in the
Women's Journal in eighteen eighty talking about revolutionary war relics and she says
we should remember the women you know,
in addition to the musket, you know, we should remember the scissors which cut the immortal
cartridges, but she doesn't mention Milliscent by name. Now Harriet Lothrop, in
eighteen eighty eight, "Old Concord, Her Highways and Biways," in addition to writing about
burying musket barrels also.
talks about, in her interview with
Colonel Barrett's great-granddaughter does talk about the story of Milliscent Barrett.
And, says that... she changed it a little bit so that she met the officer at a
dance in cambridge and that was then that he taught her the secret
of making cartridges but then she changes it in nineteen
hundred when she wrote the "Little Maid of Concord." This is quite often quoted
as the cited as a source like a historical source but look at the real title. "Little
Maid of Concord, A Romance of the American Revolution." Romance at that time
meaning fiction and even in her preface she says that it's
fiction that she wove then, you know, some real history with some you know,
basically fantasy which a lot of historical novels do you take some of
the real history and around it you leave your story and
they actually changes the Milliscent Barrett story back to the James
Swain letter which says that she met the officer
at Colonel Barrett's house in Concord instead of at a dance in Cambridge.
Within these
stories sometimes is an element of truth. Okay so the cannons being buried in the field.
Where they actually buried in the field? That's debatable. Eighteenth-century sources say
the cannons were removed to another town but, musketballs may have been buried.
Living memory in the nineteenth-century said that they were hidden under
pine boughs. The truth of the matter is the activity the barrett family was
instrumental in safeguarding the stores and keeping them out of the british hands whether
they were buried or placed under pine boughs, that's the heart of the story right there. They
kept them safe. The manner of it doesn't really matter so much.
The story Milliscent Barrett,
You know, did she romance the secret of making cartridges from
a british officer? I find it highly suspect.
It goes back to eighteen seventy five the
James Swain letter, it gets picked up by Harriet Lothrop
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
So, I doubt that part of it but, you know, what I don't doubt? I don't doubt that Milliscent
Barrett was making cartridges because that was a common
activity for young people at that time. Major James Barrett
in his interview with Benjamin Lossing in eighteen forty-eight / eighteen
fifty mentions making cartridges so, you know,
and, also there was a colonel, Colonel Mason,
in Salem who wrote in
his account saying that his wife and daughter he
locked them in an upper chamber of his room and they were making artillery cartridges, so this is something that families
did so, I don't doubt for a second that Milliscent was instrumental
in making cartridges in that she did her part in, you know,
in the effort to prepare the colony for war but,
no. Making cartridges was not a secret so, you know,
again, with these stories you can you go back and you go back and you find where the where did
they come from, kind of pick the layers but then eventually, you know,
what's true what isn't. So, it all depends on who you ask but, you know, again,
question?
And, find the sources of these stories and sometimes in doing
that you come up with some pretty cool stuff. So that does it for this week's installment of
Ask a Ranger. We will be we'll be back next Friday, ten o'clock so,
send your questions you can either put them in the comments send-me an
email jim_hollister@nps.gov
that's on the facebook page, on our event so,
keep the questions coming and we'll keep meeting here
every friday through the month of may and of course in the meantime I wish you all you know,
good health. I wish you all to be safe and we hope to
see you soon when all this clears up so thanks for watching. Bye.