April 19, 1775

235 Years Ago Today

A Night and a Fight to Remember

Imagine if you will you’re sound asleep after a hard day’s work on the farm. It’s around 3:00 AM the morning of April 19, 1775. It’s still cold in the mornings here in Bedford, Massachusetts this time of year, and you’ve been lying in your warm bed thinking and dreaming of the day’s work ahead of you for several hours now. Suddenly, you’re awakened by a strange yet somehow familiar sound; three musket shots fired in quick order?! You leap from your warm bed and run, still in your night clothes, to the yard in front of the farmhouse, and yes, you can hear it faintly in the distance; the church bell is ringing in the middle of town. You know what is happening now; you’ve rehearsed it before with the militia, talked about it often with your friends; the Regulars are coming!

They are near or maybe passed Lexington by now heading to Concord for sure; they should be there by the time your company can assemble. Concord, where the militia’s powder stores are, moved there from Lexington back in September when General Gage tried in secret to seize it but was found out before he could act! Middlesex County leaders decided some time ago that the militia would defend these military stores by force if need be. You’ve also heard Sirs John Hancock and Samuel Adams, outspoken leaders against British tyranny, are in Concord hiding from Gage and the Regulars; the militia will defend these men as well. You run back inside, grab that old French musket given you by your father; he picked it up at the Battle of Québec during his fighting in the French and Indian wars. As instructed by your militia leaders, you load and fire your three shots in “quick order” to continue the warning. You get dressed, gather your “possibles”, kiss the wife and baby good bye, and head to the commons in Bedford, your militia company’s rallying point.

As you reach the town commons you see that most of your neighbors are already there. You’re kin to most of these 70 odd men by blood or marriage, good friends with all. Your leader (elected by the militiamen) is Captain Jonathan Wilson. He will be dead before this day is done. Your Lieutenant is Job Lane; soon he will lay severely wounded. Captain Wilson forms up the company, and the march begins. You’re headed for Hartwell’s farm on the road to Lexington about half way between Concord and Lexington. The company stops at Fitch Tavern to rest and is joined by companies from Woburn and Billercia, both Middlesex County towns. Here you hear Captain Wilson say, “We’ll have every dog of them before night”; an omen for events to follow? You hear rumblings that the Regulars fired on the militia assembled on the commons in Lexington and again at Concord. There is also talk of a fight at Concord’s old North Bridge. Some are talking of independence from Britain not just defending the rights of Englishmen. Soon the combined companies under the command of Major John Butler move on and reach Hartwell’s farm late in the morning. Your company is ordered to take cover near a barn and wait for the Regulars as they return from Concord. Soon you hear musket fire; shots can be heard from every direction it seems, and then you see them. Not an orderly marching army, but a long red coated column of men running for their very lives followed on all sides by militiamen from all the surrounding counties. The Regulars come near and you hear the command “fire”. Taking aim at a single redcoat you fire and watch as he falls wounded. Did you hit him or was it one of your neighbors; who can tell? As you remember to reload that old French musket you look up to see Militiaman Daniel Thompson from Woburn step out of the barn and shoot a Regular, who drops stone dead. Before you or Thompson can reload, a British Grenadier comes around the corner of the barn and shoots Thompson wounding him. One of Thompson’s fellow townsmen then shoots the Grenadier who falls and lays dying there in Hartwell’s yard. The Grenadier is one of a company of Grenadiers that have flanked the militia coming from behind the barn. Your company falls back to reload and so it went through the day; hit the Regulars and fall back while other militiamen come up to take your place and so on as the Regulars retreat back to Boston. It is late in the day when you discover that Captain Wilson, your neighbor and friend, was mortally wounded at the battle of Hartwell’s farm. How will you be able to tell his wife, his family?

The battle ends near sunset as the Regulars reach Charlestown. Tired, hungry and fearful of what the future now holds as the War for American Independence has truly begun, you return to home and family to wait for the next call to arms with only a “minute’s” notice.

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The Battle of Hartwell’s Farm actually took place and the names mentioned in the story are those of real people who took part in that fight. While counts vary, General Gage reported 65 Redcoats (officers and enlisted) killed, 180 wounded with 27 listed as missing. The Militia lost 50 killed, 39 wounded with 5 missing. There were 23 towns that reported having at least one casualty.

Today many “citizen soldiers” are once again answering that call to arms and going in harm’s way to fight a different kind of oppression, God be with them.

Submitted by Mr. Joel Powell