PUBLISHED APRIL 19, 2025 7pm CT. Feature image: Lexington Minute Man, 1899, by H. H. Kitson (c.1863-1947) stands in Lexington Green west of Boston, Massachusetts. Although called Minute Man, the statue is meant to represent the local Lexington militiaman, colonists of many ages and backgrounds, who volunteered to be first responders to military and other threats. The actual “minute men” was part of an elite subset of militia who were young and fit and able to respond to the greatest danger and challenge. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
H.H. Kitson, sculptor of the famous Lexington Minuteman statue, was born in England and emigrated to the United States as a teenager. Kitson studied art in Paris and returned to New York City in 1884. He relocated to Boston in 1886 where he established a studio, received numerous commissions and taught art, married one of his students, and became the father of three children. The statue was commissioned in 1898 for $10,000 by railroad executive, lawyer, state senator, and U.S. Congressman Francis Brown Hayes. It was erected in 1899 facing the route of the British advance in 1775 and unveiled on April 19, 1900 for the 125th anniversary of the battle. Public Domain. see – https://monuments.freedomsway.org/monuments/minute-man-statue/ – retrieved April 19, 2025.On April 19, 1775, local American militiamen emerged from Buckman Tavern adjacent to the Lexington common and formed two rows on the common to face arriving British troops. The militiamen suffered the first casualties of the American Revolution. It was here on our visit that we learned about the phrase: “to sleep tight” referring to a Colonial-era bed’s network of tied rope that supported the mattress. Author’s photograph, July 1989.Author’s wife on Lexington Green where the first shots of the War of American Independence were fired on April 19, 1775. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
Also on April 19, 1775, the British approached the town of Concord where the American colonists sprang into action. After an alarm rider notified minutemen and militia, scouts were sent out to reconnoiter British movements. They heard the cackle of gunfire at Lexington Green and, learning of this martial situation, Concord prepared. The British advanced to Concord and the colonial militia strategically retreated past the North Bridge to watch what the British would do. Meanwhile the colonists were checking on the safety of their own military stores. With Concord effectively in British hands the Regulars moved out to take the town’s two bridges over the Concord River. The South Bridge was taken but the North Bridge proved more problematic. They crossed the bridge but encountered the colonists who had moved past it and into an elevated position. Loyalists in town informed the British where the colonists kept their military stores filled with supplies such as gun powder, cannon, shot, and flour. The colonists had their own intelligence network and had moved these stores to other hidden locations. At a farm where they thought the military supplies to be stored, the British forced a woman who lived there, one Rebecca Barrett, to make them breakfast as they searched the premises. But they found, as the colonists planned, nothing. Although there were kegs of gunpowder stored in the farm next door, the British didn’t go look.
DO NOT FIRE UNLESS FIRED UPON.
Meanwhile, the British held the two Concord bridges and waited for their search party to return. At the same time, the American colonists were getting a better look at their red-coat adversaries. As the Americans held a military council, their growing military presence forced the British who had crossed the bridge to retreat back to it. Armed militiamen were streaming in from several towns and formed a formidable front. As the British were setting fires in downtown Concord, the American colonists could see the flames rising from their position on the high ground. Because of these fires (the British were burning carriages) the Americans decided to march to the North Bridge so to cross into town to prevent the British from burning it down. Fully expecting a confrontation with the British, the militia companies loaded their weapons but were told not to fire unless fired upon. Approximately 400 militia men marched in order by company seniority down towards the North Bridge. There were less than 100 British guarding the bridge. With the coming American militia the British retreated around the bridge and considered this American action as an attack. There were a flurry of orders flying around the field of action to the point of chaos. The British debated marching into the field to meet the approaching Americans. They also debated ripping up the bridge so the Americans could not cross. They finally decided on a firing formation in the street at the base of the bridge.
SHOT HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD.
In the chaos the Americans arrived to the bridge. The British fired directly into the group and wounded and killed men. “The balls whistled well,” recalled a militia soldier. One American was shot through the throat. Another under and through the eye. One more through the heart. In a matter of seconds there were six total casualties. The Americans were then ordered: “Fire, for God’s sake fire!” A hail of bullets was shot into the British. Three were killed and nine wounded. Many of the British fled towards town. As the Americans chased the British, one militiaman struck a hatchet blow into the head of a wounded British soldier.
The British were quickly reinforced and ordered to march back to the bridge. But there was no more firing. The militia dispersed from the bridge though there was a huge influx of militia coming into Concord from several towns in all directions. The militiamen knew the terrain and its backroads and could converge quickly, directly and stealthily. Though the British asked for reinforcements (1,000 men) from Boston, nothing happened. The British retreated though Concord Bridge marked the beginning of a massive battle that raged over 16 miles along the Bay Road from Boston to Concord, and included some 1,700 British regulars and over 4,000 Colonial militia. see – https://www.nps.gov/mima/north-bridge-questions.htm – retrieved April 19, 2025.
The Minute Man statue of 1875 by Daniel Chester French (1850-1931). The Minute Man statue was unveiled on April 19, 1875 for the centennial celebration of the battle of Lexington and Concord. The statue is set near the spot where the first colonial militia men were killed in Concord on that fateful day in 1775. The 7-foot-tall bronze statue was cast from old Civil War cannons by the Ames Foundry of Chicopee, Massachusetts and the stone pedestal base is inscribed with the first stanza of a poem, The Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson: 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. https://www.nps.gov/mima/learn/historyculture/the-minute-man-statue-by-daniel-chester-french.htm – retrieved April 19, 2025. Author’s photograph, July 1989. Daniel Chester French (1850- 1931) was born in New Hampshire. At 17 years old French moved to Concord to be near Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and the family of Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) where he took his first art lessons. French studied art in Boston and was 21 years old when he was commissioned for The Minute Man statue. At its unveiling the statue was critically acclaimed though French was in Europe at the time studying art. On his return to the United States French had studios in Washington D.C., then Boston and finally in New York City. In 1897 French purchased the estate that would become Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. French created famous works of public art in Boston, Cambridge, Mass., New York City, Chicago and Washington D.C. French is best known for his Seated Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. French is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord along with Emerson, the Alcotts and Henry David Thoreau. https://www.nps.gov/mima/learn/historyculture/sculptor-daniel-chester-french.htm – retrieved April 19, 2025.Author at the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts. The house is located on Monument Street, with the Concord River just behind it. The property is next to the North Bridge, a part of Minute Man National Historical Park. The Old Manse was built in 1770 for the Rev. William Emerson (1743-1776), father of minister William Emerson (1769-1811) and grandfather of transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. The elder Rev. Emerson was the town minister in Concord, chaplain to the Provincial Congress when it met at Concord in October 1774 and later a chaplain to the Continental Army. Emerson observed the fight at the North Bridge, a part of the Concord Fight, from his farm fields while his wife and children witnessed the fight from the upstairs windows of this house. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote his first draft of his essay, Nature, that was the Transcendentalist movement’s foundational work. While living at the Old Manse in the mid 1830’s, Emerson proposed to his future wife, Lydia Jackson (1802-1892). After their marriage they moved to another house in Concord that is today known as the Emerson House. Author’s collection, July 1989.Built in 1738, the Hancock-Clarke House at 36 Hancock Street in Lexington, Massachusetts, – less than half a mile from Lexington Green – is an historic house where colonial leaders John Hancock (1737-1793) and Samuel Adams (1722-1803) were both staying before the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Author’s photograph, July 1989. John Hancock, 1770, by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Public Domain. Samuel Adams, 1772, by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Public Domain. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/30881/samuel-adams?ctx=de17a5dc-0f39-480c-8e84-f4fc92f44030&idx=0 – retrieved April 19, 2025. John Hancock and Samuel Adams attended the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in Concord on the evening of April 18, 1775 and were guests of Rev. Jonas Clarke (1730-1805) that evening in Lexington. Clarke was a Harvard College grad (class of 1752) and the third pastor of the Church of Christ in Lexington since 1755. Fearing that Hancock and Adams might become prisoners of the advancing British, Joseph Warren (1741-1775) in Boston dispatched William Dawes (1745-1799) and Paul Revere (1734-1818) to Lexington with news of the advancing British troops. Arriving separately at the Hancock-Clarke House, they stopped to warn the patriots around midnight, then set off for Concord. Hancock and Adams made their way to Burlington, a 30-minute horseback ride away, for safe haven. Author’s photograph, July 1989. Old North Church in Boston was established in 1723 as Christ Church. Old North is famous for the night of April 18, 1775, when the church sexton, Robert Newman, and vestryman Capt. John Pulling, Jr. climbed the steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were marching to Lexington and Concord by sea across the Charles River and not by land. This momentous event ignited the American Revolution. see – https://www.oldnorth.com/ – retrieved April 19, 2025. Author’s photograph, July 1989.Inside Old North Church. Nearby in Copp’s Hill Burying Ground are the graves of Increase (1639-1723) and Cotton (1663-1728) Mather, the Old North Church’s Puritan pastors whose administration coincided with the notorious Salem Witch Trials. Author’s photograph, July 1989.Paul Revere, c. 1770, by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Public Domain. Unlike Copley’s portraits of Samuel Adams and another of John Hancock, both of which were displayed in Boston’s Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere’s portrait was relegated to the Revere family attic, disliked by his family after his death for its informality. With Paul Revere’s fame assured following the publication of “Paul Revere’s Ride,” a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) in 1861, the painting was restored in 1875 though not publicly displayed until 1928. It was given to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1930 by Revere’s descendants. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32401/paul-revere?ctx=00d797a8-0c5a-4d78-ba26-db22eb858902&idx=5 – retrieved April 19, 2025.
