Our tour of the battlefields of Lexington and Concord ended in the middle: at Concord's North Bridge. The bridge was so small, we barely noticed it as we crossed it on our way uphill. After pausing to talk to John, the local Thinking Citizen, we went into the brick home at the top.
By the time the British army reached Concord on April 19, 1775 the Colonials grew to 400 men, including some Black slaves, to protect the North Bridge.
From the movie we gathered that Major John Buttrick is famous for saying "Fire! For God's sake!" as a way of starting the battle. More militia join the minute men of Lexington to protect the stash of arms and ammunition. This was a battle of British citizens fighting the British army, as they were all British subjects at this time.
The arms stayed hidden.
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| The North Bridge |
In the main room we met Caitlin, a National Park employee sketching a British soldier's uniform. In addition to working in Concord, she is a Revolutionary War reenactor. Her dream is to have a uniform as precise as the one in the glass case. She has been following the semiquincentennial one battle at a time as it moves from last year's battle in Lexington to Washington Crossing the Delaware and beyond. Last year she "fought" at the battle of Princeton (the January 3, 1777 battle) by moving a cannon for the patriot's around the battlefield. Her hat flew off and she spent much time chasing after it, something people told her added realism to the event. I suspect she'll return next January as that is the BIG year. I should go, even though it is always so cold that day and I suspect parking is a mess. It is close to home, but not that close.
Don had reached his limit of the Battle of Lexington and Concord as I was absorbing the details and matching them with lessons I have learned at Red Bank National Park (NJ) and other sites. We time traveled a hundred years to our next to our next stop: Louise May Alcott's home.
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