Below is a little scenery on the walk to the Visitor’s Center at the Minute Man National Historic Park. This Park lies along the route which Paul Revere rode, after hanging two lanterns in the spire of the Old North Church (“two if by sea”) in Boston, to notify the minute men that the British were on the march from Boston to Concord to destroy the colonists’ weapons stores. This idyllic landscape would later be the scene of some of the first bloodshed in the Revolutionary War.

The British Regulars marched out to Concord, firing upon and killing several colonists on the way. When they arrived at the Old North Bridge in Concord, they burned weapons stores while armed colonists waited on the hills across the river. Fearing that the town would be destroyed, the ‘minute men’ approached, confronting the British Regulars (still their own countrymen at this time), minute men on the far side of the bridge, British on the near side. The story goes that a Regular accidentally fires, causing a volley of British shot. Major Buttrick charges the minute men to fire. Several British regulars are killed while the rest flee. These shots are considered the first of the Revolutionary war–the first time colonists fired upon the King’s military–and were memorialized by Emerson as “the shot heard round the world.”

Two memorials stand by the bridge. Visible in the above picture, on the far side of the river is a memorial to the minutemen. The statue depicts a man in traditional colonial dress. His left hand rests on a plow, and in his right he holds a rifle. The monuments reads as below:

The second memorial is a monolith which stands on the near side of the bridge, and commemorates the beginning of the Revolutionary War. A grave of two British regulars killed in that first interchange is nearby.

The British soldiers fled back along the road to Boston they had so recently traveled. They were pursued by the minute men, whose numbers were swelling as the call to arms spread through the countryside. Eventually, the British were outnumbered and they found themselves attacked during the length of their harrowing return to safety. These sights and memorials impressed upon me the true daring of the revolutionary spirit. These men were not supported by all their fellow colonists, as in fact they were committing treason in the name of liberty. Firing upon fellow Brits must have been heartrending, and even such a monumental day full of such great success for the minute men must have been marked by a feeling of tragedy and risk. Our freedom was not purchased cheaply or easily.
Just a little American History for you. More in the coming days.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 10:35 am and is filed under From the nation of Indig. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.