The Battles of Lexington and Concord

A brief overview with recommendations for further reading at the end. Suggestions for wargames will follow in subsequent posts.

Dissent, discontent, unrest had been growing in the Thirteen American Colonies of Great Britain, at least in earnest, since the close of hostilities in the French and Indian War in 1763. The chief driving force was various attempts by the Mother Country to impose levies on the colonies to help defray the costs associated with defending them – be it from the French and Spanish, or from the natives who were being steadily pushed out of their own lands by the Europeans.

This discontent finally boiled over into actual armed conflict on April 19, 1775 when a British column was ordered out of Boston in an attempt to seize the two rebel (or Patriot, depending on your point of view) leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were in Lexington, Massachusetts, and a stash of arms and gunpowder that the rebels has established in Concord, Massachusetts.

The British military governor, General Thomas Gage ordered Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to take ten light infantry companies under Major John  Pitcairn (320 men, being the companies from the 4th, 5th, 10th, 23rd, 38th, 43rd, 47th, 52nd, and 59^th Regiments of Foot and the Marine Battalion) and 11 grenadier companies under Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Bernard (350 men, being the companies of the 4th, 5th, 10th, 18^th, 23rd, 38th, 43rd, 47th, 52nd, and 59^th Regiments of Foot and the Marine Battalion).

The British expedition was characterized by haphazard management from the beginning. The rebels knew of Smith’s destination before he did. Despite Gage sending out a patrol to keep the alarm from being given, rebel messengers (Charles Dawes and Paul Revere) were well on their way before the patrol could stop them. Although the troops were awakened at 9pm on the 18^th for their expedition, the operation of loading their naval barges to cross the Charles River from Boston Common to Lechmere Point in Cambridge was poorly organized and they did not set off on their march until 2am, wet from disembarking in waist-deep water.

It was clear to the British, as they marched through Menotomy (now Arlington), only an hour from setting out, that the alarm had been raised. At 3 am Smith ordered Pitcairn to lead a flying column of 6 light infantry companies on ahead. An hour later, he sent a messenger back to Boston asking for reinforcements.

At Lexington the local “training band” or militia had gathered on the town green, about 80 men under the command of Captain John Parker. Parker apparently desired only to give a show of resistance, of disapproval, but did not intend to fight. The militia were assembled in plain sight and not in combat formation. They did not block the road to Concord, which, Parker knew, was the British goal.

Due to miscommunication, and apprehension however, the British column confronted the militia. 

About 5 am the lead three companies under Marine Lieutenant Jesse Adair arrived in Lexington, and, instead of marching past the militia, turned to face them. Pitcairn deployed the trailing three companies in support and ordered the militia to disperse. By mot accounts they had begun to do just that when a shot rang out. One of the mysteries is who fired it, but the result was the British let loose volley without orders and then charged the militia with bayonets. Only with some difficulty did the British officer regain control. The surviving militia dispersed.

At least two militiamen fired back in the confusion but the “battle” was over in only a few minutes. Eight militiamen were killed and ten wounded. Only a single British soldier was lightly wounded.

The British continued their march until about 1.5 miles from Concord when they encountered the assembled militias of Lincoln and Concord. Colonel James Barrett, however, knowing of the fight at Lexington and the size of the British column, prudently withdrew at a safe distance, back through Concord and over the North Bridge to a hill about a mile north of the town.

More militia continued to arrive, swelling to about 400. Meanwhile Smith had split his command into small parties to carry out Gage’s orders and find the munitions and supplies the rebels had secreted away. They did manage to find three massive 24-pounder cannon, 550 pounds of musket balls, nearly a hundred barrels of flour and salted pork, and several gun carriages. They broke the trunnions of the cannon, making them unusable, threw the musket balls and foodstuffs into the mill pond and burned the gun carriages.

Unfortunately, the burning gun carriages set alight the meetinghouse. Local citizens convinced the British to help with a bucket brigade to save the building. However, Barrett, seeing the smoke rising from the village, decided to advance on the small detachment guarding the North Bridge, about 100 light infantrymen commanded by Captain Walter Laurie.

The militia advanced in column, the Concord River being swollen by the spring rains. Captain Laurie then ordered his men to form column for street firing. A few random shots rang out, probably shots trying to alert their brethren in the village that they needed help. Then a ragged volley, still without orders to fire. Two militiamen, at the head of the column fell dead at this volley and, as the British continued to fire, at least four more fell. Major John Buttrick, leading the advance, ordered the militia to fire.

This volley cut into the disorganized British with devastating effect as half of the British officers and NCOs were hit and at least 12 privates. The British broke and ran, abandoning their wounded. Stunned at their success, the militia split into two defensive positions. Barrett led one group back to the hill to the north of the river while Major Buttrick occupied another hill across the river and up from the road.

Smith now recalled his various search parties, gave his men lunch, and started back to Boston about noon. Materially the only effect of his raid was to destroy the cannon and the gun carriages. The rebels later recovered most of the food and musket balls unharmed from the mill pond.

The militia from all the surrounding towns were now converging on the road back to Boston. From the moment the British column set out the militia had taken random ineffectual shots at the retreating column. But, at Meriam’s Corner, a crossroads about a mile east of Concord, the British rear guard turned to offer a volley. The militia, now closer, replied. No rebels were hit but the first British casualties of the retreat fell – two killed and six more wounded.

Another mile on, at Brooks’ Hill, Smith sent his lead companies up the hill to chase away the militiamen. The regulars were met by determined fire and were forced to withdraw. At one choke point after another the British were caught by the militias. At each point the British light infantry would try to push the militia away from the line of march. Sometimes the rebels would fall back, other times it would be the regulars. At the boundary of Lincoln and Lexington, Lt. Col. Smith was hit in the thigh and unhorsed. A bit later Major Pitcairn’s horse bolted, throwing him to the ground and injuring his arm.

By 2:30 only one British officer was uninjured. The column was saved from complete destruction by the arrival of a relief column of 1,000 men (the line companies of the 4^th, 23^rd, and 47^th Regiments of Foot and the Marine Battalion) under the command of Brigadier General Hugh, Earl Percy. The relief column had been formed when Smith’s request for reinforcements had arrived about 5 am. However, as with the first expedition, the organization of the relief was fraught with incompetence and did not get on the march until 8:45 am. Percy took only the standard load of ammunition for his column, 36 rounds, and, though he did take two battalion guns, 3-pounders, he did not bring any extra ammunition for them either.

Gage did send two ammunition wagons after Percy’s column but they were intercepted by a band of overage militia. When the wagons attempted to drive past, the militia opened fire and killed two, wounded their officer and captured 6 men and both wagons.

Percy set up a perimeter and allowed Smith’s battered column to rest and have the wounded tended to at Munroe’s Tavern in Lexington. At 3:30 they set out again for Boston, Smith’s survivors sheltered in the middle with Percy’s troops deployed in a protective screen in all directions.  General William Heath had arrived during this halt to take overall command of the Minutemen.

The fighting became intense at Menotomy, the British trying to clear houses and fence lines and, occasionally, innocent people were killed. The militia suffered 25 killed in the fighting in Menotomy while the British lost about 40 killed and another 80 wounded.

Percy now swung his column away from Boston Neck and toward Charlestown. This change of route caught Heath’s men off-guard and an approaching company from Marblehead and Salem under Colonel Thomas Pickering allowed the British to pass unscathed. As darkness gathered, the exhausted survivors took up a strong defensive position in the Charlestown hills under the protective guns of the HMS Somerset, a ship of the line.

By the next day the army of militia surrounding Boston had grown to 15,000 and Major General Artemas Ward had taken command from Heath. The colonies were in revolt.

Further Reading (click on the title to go to Biblio.com, if you are interested, for available copies of the book):

History of the Siege of Boston and the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill by Richard Frothingham, Jr. is one of the first in-depth studies of the battle. Mr. Frothingham was the editor of the Boston Post, an historian of some note for the time, and a politician, serving as mayor of Charlestown and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Lexington and Concord by Richard B. Tourtellot is a comprehensive study of the battles and the events leading up to them. Published originally in 1959 it is an excellent source still.

Battle Road by Charles H. Bradford was published as a commemorative history for the bicentennial. It is a simple history, intended to give an outline for the large crowds expected for the bicentennial. It was the first book I read on the battles and is still an excellent introduction, especially for young readers.
A Single Blow: the Battles of Lexington and Concord by Philip S. Greenwalt and Robert Orrison is a recent (2018) military history of the battles. It is a volume in the excellent Emerging Revolutionary War Series.