Grave Sites

The Grave of British Soldiers Near The Nelson Farm

NPS Photo/Vinduska

"For Centuries Dead, Ye Are Not Lost"

~ James Russell Lowell

At its core, Minute Man National Historical Park is both a battlefield and graveyard. During the fighting on April 19, 1775, scores of colonial militia and British soldiers lost their lives along the Bay Road.

When the sun set on that horrific April evening, the dead lay strewn across the landscape while the dying filled private homes waiting for care. Eventually family members interred the slain militia at traditional burial grounds, while many British regulars were placed in shallow graves where they fell.

Across Minute Man we have marked at least seven gravesites where British soldiers came to rest some 3000 miles from their homes.

 

 

 

Colonial Militia Graves

 

The Grave of James Chandler

 

A colonial participant on April 19, 1775. Chandler lived near the farm of Col. James Barrett. Fortunetely Chandler survived the American Revolution, however he perished of small pox in 1792.