Last updated: January 18, 2023
Place
Grave of British Soldiers at The Bluff
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
42.447348, -71.263946
Significance:
At a sharp outcropping of rocky hillside known as “The Bluff,” British regulars fought a rearguard action during their retreat to Boston on April 19, 1775. This gravestone marks the burial of two British soldiers killed in action near this place.
Designation:
Grave Site
Amenities
7 listed
Accessible Sites, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Pets Allowed, Public Transit, Trailhead, Wheelchair Accessible
As the British Column rushed through a hail of musketry near the home of Tabitha Nelson, their lead elements rounded a sharp outcropping of rocks called “The Bluff.” In this area stood “Bull’s Tavern,” known to Reading militia man Rev. Edmund Foster as “Benjamin’s Tavern.” While the lead elements of the British column pushed onward toward the crest of Fiske hill, the rear-guard skirmished with encroaching militia. Foster recalled;
“ a man rode up on horse back unarmed. The enemy were then passing round the hill just below the tavern. They had posted a small body of their troops on the north side of the hill, which fired upon us. The horse and his rider fell instantly to the ground; the horse died immediately, but the man received no injury. We were quick at the spot, from which we returned the fire.”
In the low area between the Bluff and Fiske Hill the British rear-guard ran a gauntlet of “plaguy fire,” from more arriving militia. During the late-19th century, local historian Frank Coburn recounted, “Many British were wounded, and many killed, along this part of Battle Road. A little way from the bluff, over the wall on the opposite side of the road and in a southernly direction, are graves of two.” Today, a small gravestone and plaque mark the approximate location of the supposed burial.
Douglas Sabin, April 19, 1775: A Historiographical Study, (Minute Man National Historical Park, Concord, 1987).
Rev. Edmund Foster quoted in Rev. Ezra Ripley, A History of the Fight at Concord, (Allen and Atwell, Concord, 1827), 32-33.