19 April 1775, afternoon
Concord: the road back to Charlestown
At Meriam’s Corner, a mile east of Concord, militia from the surrounding towns open fire on the column, and from there they fire from walls, trees and houses all along the road. Smith’s men run short of ammunition and reach Lexington in the early afternoon close to breaking. There Brigadier General Hugh Percy waits with about 1,000 men and two field guns, sent out from Boston that morning.
Percy’s brigade covers Smith’s column at Lexington, plate IV of Amos Doolittle’s engravings after Ralph Earl, 1775Wikimedia Commons, Amos Doolittle after Ralph Earl, Public domain (Percy's Rescue at Lexington Detail.jpg)
Percy’s guns drive the militia back, and at about 3:30 p.m. the combined force of about 1,700 sets out again with flank companies on both sides and a rearguard that changes every mile. Brigadier General William Heath and Joseph Warren keep the militia in a moving ring of skirmishers around the column. The heaviest fighting of the day comes at Menotomy, where the regulars clear the houses one by one, and about half of each side’s dead fall there and in Cambridge.
Finding the Great Bridge dismantled, Percy turns onto the road to Charlestown, and a large militia force from Salem and Marblehead halts on Winter Hill and lets the column pass. By dark the regulars hold the hills of Charlestown under the guns of HMS Somerset, and Heath withdraws the militia to Cambridge.
Sources
- David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (1994).
- Allen French, The Day of Concord and Lexington (1925).
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