Good morning everyone I'm here at the site of Concord's North Bridge and I'm standing on what
was called the Groton road. It came out from the center of Concord about a half-mile
then it turned to the left across the North Bridge and then
continued
all the way up the hill heading to the north and west. And
also right about there, where I'm pointing to, there was a branch of the
road, a fork in the road, that ran off almost directly to Colonel Barrett's farm
about a mile-and-a-half west. Now up at the top of the hill,
it was all-clear open farmland so just try to mentally
remove those trees, there was a field called the muster field and that is where the
minuteman and the militia companies from the towns of Acton,
Concord, Lincoln and Bedford had gathered on the morning of April 19,
1775 and it was from there, the decision was made to march down to the
bridge into the town because he thought it was being set on fire. They
saw smoke from military supplies being burned, and they marched down
in double-file, down the road towards the bridge. And even some of
the British officers said that they marched down in a very military
manner, that they were drawn up the greatest regularity. One officer said that
they march down into the road with this much order as the best discipline troops. So it
must've been an impressive sight to see this long column of
over four hundred militia men, not like a country ramble but
as soldiers, marching down this road. Now the British,
not being foolish,
they were originally standing were about the minuteman statue is, three companies, about ninety six
men, so they're outnumbered four-to-one with their backs to a river, so they retreated to
the opposite shore so that's going to be putting the bridge between themselves
in the enemy forcing the enemy, the colonists, to cross over the
bridge and the British could then concentrate their fire. So it's a very strong position that they're in.
But just imagine...
the minutemen marching down, the Acton minute company under the command Captain Isaac
Davis was in front of marching along this road towards the bridge and,
seeing the British get ready to receive them and knowing that you're
orders were to let them fire first before you can respond.
That's really just a difficult order to follow,
but by all accounts they did. So speaking of accounts I am going to read to you as we walk the
account of Corporal Amos Barrett who served in Captain David
Brown's minute man company from Concord. And just a quick look, Captain David Brown's house is
actually just right over there just in front of where you see
that house standing right now in fact we've marked with some granite slabs, just on the
rising ground, you can see the truck just passed by with those slabs are, so that's where Captain David Brown
lived. He was actually responsible to the
town for maintaining this road and causeway. because you can see you have
the river on the right over here, you've got a meadow - very wet - on
the left which, conditions would have been similar in April, and actually running along the northern
edge of the road here there would have been a low stone wall topped with wooden
hand rail in a direct approach to the bridge. So that's what they're looking at. They're basically hemmed in on
a raised causeway with the river on the right, a meadow on the left
and a stone wall, marching in double file down to the bridge. So let's hear from
Corporal Amos Barrett.
When we were on the hill there was about eighty or ninety British came to the bridge and
there made a halt. After a while they begun to tear the
planks of the bridge. Major Buttrick said if we
were all of his mind we would drive them away from the bridge they should not tear that up!
We all said we would go. We then weren't loaded and were all ordered to load,
and had strict orders not to fire unless they fired first, then to fire
as fast as we could.
Captain Davis had got, I believe within sixteen rods of the
British when they fired three guns, one right after another. I
see the balls strike in the river on the right of me. As
soon as they fired them they fired on us. Their balls whistled well. We then was
all ordered to fire and not kill our own men.
It is strange that there weren't more killed but they fired to high.
Captain Davis was killed Mr. Hosmer and the number wounded.
Sixteen rods the British so, if you figure the British are across the river
where the obelisk is...
A rod is sixteen-and-a-half feet, so they were probably first taking fire
right around in this area here.
And, it was somewhere in this area.
The Captain Davis of Acton was killed. Veterans of the company
remembered him taking his post as head of the company and drawing a sword and saying
"I haven't a man who is afraid to go." Just a total commitment to that
moment and his duty as an officer. And he marched down, and for him of course
and Abner Hosmer, another man in the Acton minute company, that proved to be one
way ticket. They never left this place as living men.
The landscape are looking at now is very much
a commemorative landscape. We have of course the famous Minute Man
statue that was done by the sculptor Daniel Chester French who later went on to do the
Seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. So this was dedicated on
April 19th of 1875, the
Centennial, and inscribed on the base
is the first stanza of the Concord Hymn written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. "By the rude bridge that
arche the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled
farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world."