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.

Early Spring 1777 - New Jersey (hypothetical)

 

Colonel Ebenezer Driscoll’s American brigade stomped out of their winter quarters in search of some rations and shoes. General Howe dispatched Brigadier Dirk Patch to spoil the American’s excursion and keep them hungry and barefoot.

The two columns met near Dricut’s Store on a cold sunny spring day.

Major Scudbucker had been stripping Farmer Northey of what was left of his larders when word arrived of the British advance. He sent a courier thundering (actually trotting, the horse was too lean to do much more) to Driscoll and called his men into formation. Captain Forrester’s Connecticut Light Infantry stretched out to cover the American south flank in an open wood lot. He then deployed his two companies of Pennsylvania Continentals behind fences and outbuildings on Northey’s farm supported by a section of 3-pounders. Scudbucker deployed his German Flats militia behind and in support of the guns.

Driscoll had personal control of the rest of his small command. He deployed his Connecticut Line to cover the American north flank in thick woods. The 5^th Company of the 4^th New York Line deployed on an open hill to the right of the Nutmeggers. His small detachment of riflemen moved to a copse of walnut trees between the hill and Northey’s farm. Coming up from the rear, where they had been “guarding” (more like looting) the already filled supply wagons, were the 3^rd and 4^th companies of the 4^th New York.

 

Patch deployed his force in a long thin line opposite the Americans. Quickly the two forces were heavily engaged. The 42^nd Highlanders led down the farmer’s trail with a 6-pounder lumbering by their side.  A slugging match ensued between them and the American riflemen on one side and the First Pennsylvania on the other.  The uneven struggle fixed the Americans’ attention to fatal consequences.

Major Jonathan Dimsdale led the 33^rd Regiment of Foot sharply through the woods and into line in support of, and just north of, the Highlanders. From behind the Highlanders a company of Marines moved into the farm building opposite the Pennsylvanians and took up shooting positions under cover of the thick log walls. This, despite the New Yorkers deploying in support of the Pennsylvanians and delivering a measured volley.

 

The tide of battle, a battle only 15 minutes old, now turned distinctly in favor of the redcoats. While the Highlanders fell back the 33^rd decimated the riflemen with rapid volleys, forcing them to likewise retire. On the far northern flank the dismounted 17^th Light Dragoons started to drive the Connecticut lIne through the woods, though stubbornly opposed.

At the same time three companies of grenadiers approached Scudbucker’s center.  The Pennsylvanians did their best, standing stoically behind Northey’s fences but the balls arrived with much too great a regularity. One by one the Continentals fell out of line, dead, wounded, or just done in by the ferocity of the British fire. The cannons banged away but mostly ineffectually, getting only a single telling canister shot in that beheaded a poor lieutenant of the 23^rd Foot and cut an entire section in half.

The coup de main in Scudbucker’s area was when the Grenadiers of the 5^th Foot moved forward, bayonets glittering in the sunshine. The Americans had had enough.

On the far south flank the Light company of the 10^th Foot methodically cut up the American Light Infantry and then chased away the militia, bravely led forward by Captain Van Eyken, with a deliberate fire by platoons.

With the riflemen and the Pennsylvanians falling back it was now the turn of the 5^th New York company to be

decimated on their exposed position on the naked knob.

 

 

In apoplexy Driscoll watched his command melt away under the British fire. Captain Iverson’s company of New Yorkers and Miller’s Connecticut line, from cover of woods west of Northey’s farm, checked the British pursuit long enough for the remnants of the American brigade to slink away. All in all the Americans lost 211 men out of only 1120 engaged. Another 55 simply disappeared into the countryside, never to return to their units.  Patch’s regulars, by contrast, brought 1400 men to the fray and suffered a bare 96 men lost to all causes.

This battle was fought in 25mm in January 2013. We use A Continent in the Balance rules.

Battle of Bennington August 16, 1777 (history)

General John Burgoyne’s expedition to split the rebellious New England colonies from the rest of the nascent United States was running short of supplies by the beginning of August 1777. Adding to his unease Burgoyne had not had any contact with General William Howe in New York City who was supposed to be leading a column north up the Hudson to join with him. Loyalist scouts informed him that there was a well-stocked depot at Bennington, Vermont. He determined to send an expedition to seize anything of value.

Burgoyne detached a force of about 800 men under Hessian Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum on August 11 toward Bennington. Baum was seriously hindered by his inability to speak English, the roughness of the track he was forced to march down, and the inappropriateness of his dragoons’ riding boots for marching through the American wilderness. The progress of his force was well-known to the Patriot leaders well before it reached the depot.

Brigadier General John Stark rallied a militia force variously described as being between 1500 and 2000 strong to meet the raiders. Baum received word on August 14 that the militia had been raised and that more than 1800 men held the Bennington depot. He sent back word to Burgoyne, halted his column and dug in. Unfortunately for Baum, he spread his small force widely in the broken country, with about 200 of his men (Tories and Canadians) on the south side of the Walloomsac River and the rest of his command to the north.

Colonel Moses Nichols led his regiment around Baum’s force to attack from the north.  Colonel Samuel Herrick led his regiment to attack from the south and rear. Colonels David Hobart and Thomas Stickney attacked the Tory redoubt south of the river. Stark, with about 1000 men led the main attack on Baum’s main position, the “Dragoon Redoubt”. The American attack was launched about 3:00 pm and, incredibly, went off without any serious hitch.

Stark is reputed to have exclaimed as he exhorted his men forward, “There they are! We’ll beat them before night or Molly Stark will be a widow!” Baum’s Indian allies, having been unreliable from the start, abandoned him completely when the battle began. Hobart and Stickney quickly overran the Tory position. The Canadians, like the Indians, simply melted away. Likewise the other small outposts were overrun but Baum held desperately for two hours in the Dragoon Redoubt.

The German determined to cut his way out with his survivors about 5 pm. But then a bullet mortally wounded Baum and the remnants of his force surrendered. Only nine men of Baum’s column managed to return to Burgoyne’s army.

Meanwhile, on the morning of August 15, Burgoyne had sent a relief column based on Baum’s alarming report of American strength. This force, of 642 men under Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Breymann, arrived late in the afternoon, after Baum’s fate had already been decided. Stark’s forces were badly scattered by their victory and could have been decimated by the new column but Breymann had the misfortune of running right into Seth Warner’s Vermont militia who arrived on the battlefield at the precise moment of need from Manchester.

Warner’s regiment and about 300 men that Stark rallied met Breymann on the road. A furious firefight ensued. Breymann attempted to flank the American in the woods but was bloodily repulsed. His ammunition running low and his force disintegrating, Breymann ordered a retreat. If not for the colonel’s personal bravery and skill, his force would have met the same fate as Baum’s. Wounded, with 5 bullet holes in his coat, Breymann personally led a small rear guard that held off the American pursuit of the broken column. As it was Stark and Warner captured both of the relief column’s cannons and inflicted 200 casualties on the small force, forced to halt their pursuit only by the fall of night.

Burgoyne was thus deprived of much needed supplies. His Indian allies almost completely abandoned the main army, and he lost about 900 combat troops killed, wounded, and captured. The Patriot victory at Bennington was a major contributor to the later ultimate defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga. American losses were 30 killed and 40 wounded.

Order of Battle – Baum’s Column

Brunswick Dragoons (dismounted, 200 men)

Jager Detachment (50 men)

Brunswick Infantry Detachment (37 men)

Hanau Artillery (2 3-pounders, 13 men)

British Light Infantry (50 men)

Peters’ Queens Loyal Rangers (about 150 men)

Local Loyalist companies (about 150 men)

Canadian Militia (about 100 men)

Indians (about 100 men)

Order of Battle – Breymann’s Column

Brunswick Grenadiers (about 330 men)

Light Infantry (about 280 men)

Hanau Artillery (2 6-pounders, 30 men)

 

Order of Battle – American (General Stark – about 2100 men total)

Gregg’s New Hampshire Militia

Nichols’ New Hampshire Militia

Herrick’s Vermont Militia

Hobart’s New Hampshire Militia

Stickney’s New Hampshire Militia

Langdon’s New Hampshire Militia

Simond’s Massacusetts Militia

Warner’s Vermont Militia

 

References:

Eggenberger, David. A Dictionary of Battles. Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1967.

Morrissey, Brendan. Saratoga 1777: Turning Point of a Revolution. Osprey, Oxford, 2000.

Peckham, Howard H. The War for Independence. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1979.

Wood, W. J. Battles of the Revolutionary War. Algonquin, Chapel Hill, NC, 1990.

Map from The Hoosac Valley: Its Legends and Its History by Grace Greylock Niles, published 1912.