Ralph Waldo Emerson at 35
Ralph Waldo Emerson commemorated the Battle of Concord Bridge, in which his grandfather Rev. William Emerson served, and which took place at the very doorstep of the Old Manse, both the residence of his ancestor and his own home. In addition to the Obelisk monument that he dedicated fifty years later, verses of his poem were later inscribed on the famed Minuteman statue. In Lexington, an equally famous statue memorialized Captain Parker grandfather of Unitarian preacher and theologian Theodore Parker.
Emerson had just concluded his brief career as a Unitarian minister as he found himself at odds with a lingering traditionally Christian orthodoxy. Based on readings in German Romanticism and other sources he was just beginning to formulate what became known as Transcendentalism. He was beginning to be noticed for his sermons, essays, and lectures but was not yet famous outside of the precincts of Boston, Harvard, and his hometown. He wanted to be known principally as a poet, but few of his verses were ever as widely popular as this one, which was uncharacteristic of his more cerebral efforts.
Paul Revere's ride as immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
In 1860 Emerson’s good friend and almost exact contemporary Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his most famous poem Paul Revere’s Ride—better known as The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere about the events of the evening before that Battles of Lexington and Concord as the Boston silversmith rode to alert the countryside of English plans to march out from the city to capture Patriot arms and leaders. In his long poem, Longfellow took certain liberties with the exact details.
Emerson’s comparatively terse description of the battles more closely aligned with the facts.
On April 19, 1775 British Regulars set out, supposedly in secret, to seize Patriot arms, including cannon, at Concord and if possible, round up leaders like Sam Adams and John Hancock. But the intelligence operation of Dr. Josiah Warren was tipped off about the immanent movement, perhaps by the New Jersey born wife of British Commanding General Thomas Gage, a Patriot sympathizer.
A 1775 print by Amos Doolittle, an eyewitness, show the British entering Concord.
Paul Revere, William Dawes, and relays of dispatch riders roused the countryside. Patriot militia, known as Minutemen, had time to arm and assemble. As the main body of troops got bogged down crossing the swampy ground after their landfall from crossing the Bay by boat, they became aware by hearing signal bells and gunfire that the militia was being rallied. Lt. Colonel Francis Smith in overall command dispatched Major John Pitcairn and six companies of light infantry ahead on a quick march to Concord.
In Lexington Col. John Parker (the grandfather of Unitarian preacher and abolitionist Theodore Parker) mustered his home guard militia at a tavern on the Town Green. These men were not designated as Minutemen, who were ready to rally and be dispatched as ordered, but rather were a “training band” for local defense. As the Regulars noisily approached, Parker and his men spilled out of the tavern and formed ranks on the Green. A company of Royal Marines charged toward the Green, shouting as they came while Pitcairn and three companies took position on the Patriot flank.
Seeing his men outnumbered Parker ordered them to withdraw in an orderly fashion. He never said, as legend records it, “Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
An accurate depiction of the physical scene and disposition of forces on Lexington Green as the local Militia under Capt. Parker take mass fire from the British Regulars.
At some point an officer, possibly Pitcairn, rode forward and ordered the men to lay down their arms and disperse, possibly also calling the men “you damn rebels.” In the confusion, possibly because Parker, who suffered from tuberculosis, could not be heard by all of his men, the militia began a slow retreat carrying their arms while some still stood in rank. Both sides were under orders to hold fire.
Then a shot was fired from an unknown source. Neither group of men facing each other on the Green fired. Speculation has been that a bystander—40 to 100 residents were gathered to watch the scene—may have fired from behind a hedge or from inside the tavern. The Regulars responded first with a rattle of individual fire. Return fire was desultory and ineffective. Then devastating volleys tore into the militia ranks sending the men running for their lives.
Some were shot in the back. At least one, a cousin of Parker’s was run through by a bayonet by the charging troops. Some troops turned fire on surrounding buildings, sending witnesses scrambling and were preparing to enter homes when Col. Smith came up and ordered the men to cease fire and assemble.
Eight militia men were killed and ten wounded, including a Black slave serving in the company. One Regular was injured, and Major Pitcairn’s horse took two balls.
The Redcoats rearmed and resumed their march toward Concord. Revere, who had been captured and released by a patrol, was able to get Adams and Hancock out of the village to safety. Meanwhile militia from Lincoln and Concord gathered in the latter town. They quickly received word that musket fire had been heard in Lexington and that the Regulars were advancing. Unsure of what to do as more militiamen filtered in from the surrounding area, a column of about 250 men advanced down the road to Lexington to check on the situation. About a mile and a half out they came in sight of the Redcoat column. Recognizing that they were outnumbered more than two to one, they fell back to Concord in relatively good order staying just out of musket range from the troops.
After retreating to a ridge at the end of town the Militia officer in charge, Col. James Barrett, surrendered the town and was allowed to retire with his men still in arms. They took up positions just across Concord’s North Bridge where they could monitor Redcoat movements while they gathered strength.
The Regulars, now under tight discipline, conducted an orderly search of the town and nearby farms. Most of the arms and all the powder had been moved and/or well hidden. All the troops were able to find were three old 24 lb. cannon, far too heavy for use in the field but potentially useful for laying siege to Boston. They disabled those guns. They also turned up some gun carriages, which were destroyed, about 500 rounds of musket balls, and barrels of salt pork and flour for rations. The lead and provisions were tossed in the mill pond but were retrieved later.
At this point Col. Smith split his forces. He sent detachments to secure the South and North Bridges leading to the town. The bulk of the men sent to the North Bridge, four companies in all under Captain Pearson were sent a mile and a half ahead to search Col. Barrett’s farm, which is where Loyalists had reported most of the missing military supplies were hidden. Inexperienced Captain Walter Laurie was left with two companies of raw light infantry to defend the bridge. Col. Barrett ordered his men to advance down the road to the bridge but to hold their fire. By now he had 400 men with five full companies of Minutemen and the local militias of Acton and Bedford reinforcing the Concord men. Laurie had only 90 men to face them.
The rapidly gathering Militia surprised the British by holding their ground at Concord's North Bridge and repulsing the British advance with heavy losses.
He ceded a commanding hill to the Patriots. Barrett’s men in a long column and confined to the road by ground that was boggy from the spring floods continued to advance and Laurie pulled his men back across the bridge. Laurie formed his men in a position for “street fighting,” i.e. concentrating fire down a lane between buildings where he should have fanned out so his men could fire on the Colonists confined to the road from both sides. After tense stand-off with the two sides facing each other over the river, a British officer discharged a pistol setting of a ragged burst of fire. Then the Regulars got off an organized volley down the road killing the two privates in advance of the patriot column. But instead of breaking ranks, the militia responded with well-aimed volleys. Four of the eight officers and sergeants leading the Regulars were shot and injured. Three or four privates were killed or mortally wounded and eight others injured.
The panicked Redcoats broke and fled back towards Concord where they were met by a force of Grenadiers coming up under Col. Smith himself. Captain Parsons and the men at Barrett’s farm were now cut off from the main force. After a tense standoff, Barrett allowed Parson’s men to pass unmolested and join the main body under Col. Smith. After pausing in town to continue the fruitless search for the missing arms and to eat lunch, Col. Smith turned his command back up the road back to Lexington and Boston.
But the delay allowed more colonial troops to arrive. The militia ranks grew to 1,000 then to 2,000 in units from across a broad swath of Massachusetts. They harried the retreating British and engaged in several stand-up fights with them. The Redding militia engaged the troops as they retreated over a small bridge at Merium’s Corner.
Militia units organized a leapfrog ambush of the retreating British inflicting heavy losses from fire behind stone walls and trees all the way to Cambridge.
Gathered Patriot militias from surrounding communities hectored the retreating Red Coats by ambush under cover for almost the entire distance to Boston inflicting heavy casualties. The exhausted troops finally found shelter in Charleston under the guns of Royal Navy ships and with reinforcements sent by Gage from Boston. An attempt to fortify the surrounding hills was begun but abandoned.
Within days 15,000 militia not only from Massachusetts but from throughout New England arrived to surround and lay siege to Boston. These units would be mustered into the new Continental Army by Congress and placed under the command of Virginian George Washington.
Eventually the siege succeed, and the British were forced to evacuate the epicenter of Colonial resistance, Boston.
But it all began on a Spring day recalled by Emmerson.
A contemporary illustration of the Concord Monument where Emerson read his poem.
Concord Hymn
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Composed for and read at the dedication of the Obelisk, a monument to the battles of Lexington and Concord erected at Concord in 1837.
