Qi\)c .farmer's iflontljln btettor. 



89 



The Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. 



In Mr. Force's collection of rare pamphlets at 

 Washington, we have heen favored with the pe- 

 rusal of several sermons of New England Cler- 

 gymen, with some of whom the editor was fa- 

 miliar as a hearer from the pulpit, near the place 

 of his nativity, hefore he was ten years of age. 

 The hattle of Lexington, the 19th April 1775, 

 was annually commemorated on the spot for 

 several years alter the event occurred: of the 

 clergymen whose printed sermons we have seen, 

 were those of the Rev. Jonas Clark of Lexing- 

 ton, Rev. Samuel Cooke of the parish of Cam- 

 bridge, called Menotoniy, Rev. Jacob Cushing of 

 Wahham, &c. 



The first sermon of the series was that of 

 Rev. Mr. Clark, at whose house in Lexington, 

 John Hancock and Samuel Adams were tarrying, 

 having heen proscribed by Get). Gage, the British 

 rommander at Boston: they had a few days he- 

 fore, heen attending the provincial Congress of 

 Massachusetts at Coucord, and remained in the 

 vicinity after the close of the session. Mr. Han- 

 cock was the relative of the wife of Mr. Clark. 

 On the 19th April 177l>, Mr. Clark preached the 

 sermon of the first anniversary. The copy now 

 before ns hears the imprint "Massachusetts Slate : 

 Boston : Printed by Powars and Willis. — 

 MDCC,LXXVI." The title page is beaded 

 "The Fate of Blood-thirsty Oppressors, and 

 God's tender care of his distressed People :" the 

 object " to commemorate the murder, bloodshed 

 and commencement ol hostilities between Great 

 Britain ami America in that town, Ivy a Brigade 

 of Troops of George III. under command of 

 Lieutenant Colonel Smith, on the Nineteenth of 

 April 1775, to which is added a brief Narrative 

 of the Principal Transactions of the Day." 



We have copied the Narrative below, as being 

 now, after an interval of seventy-two years, not 

 ltss a matter of interest to the descendants than 

 the thrilling events were to the actors in the 

 greatdrama which opened the war of the Amer- 

 ican Involution. Of the men Wantonly shot 

 down '.y Britons on the morning of the 19th 

 April, M-. Clark presents the following list: 



"The lersons killed ill the morning when 

 hostilities v ere fj rs t commenced, were Messieurs 

 Robert JWunn, Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jona- 

 than !bimn«on, juii., Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Har- 

 rington and Ja n Brown, of Lexington ; and one 



Porter (? Wohiirn. Wounded. Jedediah 



Monro, Thoma. VVinship, Nathaniel Farmer, 

 John Bobbins, ^Solomon Peiice, John 1'idd, 

 Joseph Comee, 'Obenezcr Munro, jon. and 

 Prince, a Negro of , ex j,,gton, and Jacob Bacon 

 ofVVobnrn. Afteruc.,,. K\\\e<\, Jedediah Munro, 

 John Raymonds and Alhaniet JVyman. Wounded 

 in pursuit of the eiiem_„.| iell re(r eafing, Francis 

 Brown, all of Lexingto » 



By this note it will be r ,-ceived that the Mun- 

 rn family came in for morithan its due share of 

 death and suffering— Robt t Monro was shot 

 dead and Jedediah and Ei nczer _ j,,,,^ were 

 wounded at the. first fire: one ( t | iem pursuing 

 the returning enemy, while muu lte( ) ] wa8 ,„ ten 

 hour* afterwards killed. 



It should be remembered that |,j a discourse 

 was delivered and printed before ,,. Congress 

 of the United Slates bad declared Impendence. 

 The reverend author, after descanting , the idea 

 that his own peaceable village should . ma ,i„ 

 the scene of so great an event, in which „ |1PU . 

 pie of that neighborhood were on the An, .;,..„, 

 tide the almost exclusive participators— a.j ng 

 "wherefore it is, that a righteous God is .„_ 

 tending with ns by the fire and the sword of ,. 

 oppressor, and wherefore it is, that this awl 



scene of bloodshed and war. was opened in this 

 place" — appealing to his people that " we also 

 may be deeply impressed with a most grateful 

 sense of the goodness of God in that so much 

 mercy was remembered in judgment; that so 

 few were found among the wounded and slain, 

 and so few habitations were consumed by the 

 fire of the enemy, when so many were spared 

 that were equally exposed " — utters the following 

 prophetic sentence, which may he considered 

 remarkable from the mouth of the patriotic di- 

 vine who has been in his grave perhaps half a 

 century : 



"But it is not by us alone, that this day is to 

 be noticed. This ever-memorable day is full of 

 importance to all around— to this whole land and 

 nation ; and big with the fale of Great Britain 

 and America. From this remarkable day will 

 an important era begin for boih America and 

 Britain. And from the nineteenth of April, 1775, 

 we may venture to predict will be dated in future 

 history, THE LIBERTY or SLAVERY of the 

 AMERICAN WOULD, according as a sovereign 

 God shall see fit to smile or frown upon the in- 

 teresting cause in which we are engaged." 



The following is the brief Narrative, copied 

 from the same pamphlet, written by an eye-wit- 

 ness of a part of the great events of that most 

 momentous day to America and to the world : 



A NARRATIVE, &C. 



As it was not consistent with the limils of a 

 single discourse to give a full account of the 

 particulars of this most savage and murderous 

 affair, the following plain and faithful narrative 

 of facts, as they appeared to us, in this place may 

 be matter of satisfaction : 



On the evening of the eighteenth of April 

 1775, we received two messages; the first verbal. 

 the other by express in writing, from the com- 

 mittee of safety, who were then silting in the 

 westerly part of Cambridge, directed to the 

 Honorable JOHN HANCOCK, Esq., (who with 

 the Honorable SAMUEL ADAMS, was then 

 providentially with ns) informing that "eiuht or 

 nine officers of the king's troops were seen, just 

 before night, passing the road towards Lexing- 

 ton, in a musing, contemplative posture ; and it 

 was suspected they were out upon some evil de- 

 sign." 



As both these gentlemen had been frequently 

 and even publicly threatened, by the enemies of 

 this people, both in England and America, with 

 the vengeance of the British administration ; and 

 as Mr. Hancock in particular bad been more 

 than once, personally insulted, by some officers 

 of the troops in Boston; it was not without 

 some just grounds supposed, that under cover of 

 the darkness, sudden arrest, if not assassination 

 might be attempted by these instruments of 

 tyranny. 



To prevent any thing of this kind, ten or 

 twelve men were immediately collected in arms, 

 to guard my house through the night. 



In the mean lime said officers passed through 

 this town on the road towards Concord : It was 

 therefore thought expedient to watch their mo- 

 tions, and if possible make some discovery ol 

 their intentions. Accordingly, about ten o'clock 

 in the evening, three men, on horses, were dis- 

 patched for Ibis purpose. As ihey were peacea- 

 bly passing the road towards Concord, in the 

 borders of Lincoln, they were suddenly slopped 

 by said officers, who rode up to them and putting 

 pistols to their breasts and seizing their horses 1 

 bridles, swore if they stirred another step, they 

 should all be dead men! — The officers detained 

 them several hours as prisoners, examined, 

 searched, abused and insulted tliem ; and in 

 their hasty return (supposing themselves discov- 

 ered) they led them in Lexington. Said officers 

 also took into custody, abused and threatened 

 with their lives several oilier persons, some ol 

 whom they met peaceably passing on the road, 

 others even at the doors of their dwellings, with- 

 out the least provocation on the part of Ihe in- 

 habitants, or so much as a question asked bv 

 tliem. 



Between the hours of twelve and one, on Ihe 

 morning of the nineteenth of April, wc received 



intelligence by express from ihe Honorable 

 Joseph Warren, Esq. of Boston, " that a large 

 body of the king's troops (supposed lo be a 

 brigade of about twelve or fifteen hundred) were 

 embarked in boats from Boston, and gone over to 

 land on Lechmere's Point (so called) in Cam- 

 bridge ; and that it was shrewdly suspected, that 

 they were ordered to seize and destroy the stores 

 belonging to the colony, then deposited at Con- 

 cord," in consequence of General Game's unjusti- 

 fiable seizure of the provincial magazine of pow- 

 der at Med ford, and other colony stores in seve- 

 ral oilier places. 



Upon this intelligence, as also upon informa- 

 tion of the conduct of the officers as above men- 

 tioned, the militia of this town were alarmed, 

 and ordered to meet on the usual place of parade, 

 not with any design of commencing hostilities 

 upon the king's troops, but to consult what might 

 be done for our own and the people's safety ; and 

 also to be ready for whatever service providence 

 might call us out to upon this alarming occasion, 

 in case overt acts of violence or open hostility, 

 should be committed by this mercenary band of 

 armed and blood-thirsty oppressors. About the 

 same time two persons were sent express to 

 Cambridge, if possible to gain intelligence of 

 the motions of the troops, and what rout they 

 took. 



The militia met according to order and waited 

 the return of the messengers, that they might 

 order their measures as occasion should require. 

 Between three and four o'clock one ol the mes- 

 sengers returned, informing that there was no 

 appearance of the troops on the roads either 

 from Cambridge or Charlestowu, and that it was 

 supposed that the movements in the army the 

 evening before were only n feint to alarm the 

 people. Upon this, therefore, the militia compa- 

 ny were dismissed for the present, hut with or- 

 ders to be within call of the drum— waiting the 

 return of the other messenger, who was expected 

 in about an hour, or sooner, if any discovery 



should be made of the motion of tlie troops. 



But he was prevented by their silent and sudden 

 arrival at the place where be was wailing for in- 

 telligence. So that after all the precaution, we 

 had no notice of their approach, till the brigade 

 was actually in the town, and upon a quick 

 march within about a mile and a quarter of the 

 meeting house and place of parade. 



However, the commanding officer thought best 

 to call the company together— not with any de- 

 sign of opposing so superior a force, much less 

 of commencing hostilities; but only with a view 

 to determine what to do, when and where to 

 meet, and disperse. 



Accordingly about half an hour after four 

 o'clock, alarm guns were fired, and Ihe drums 

 beat to arms; and ihe militia were collecting lo- 

 gether. Some, to ihe number of about fifty or 

 sixty, or possibly more, were on the parade ;— 

 others were coming towards it. In the mean 

 lime, the troops, having thus stolen a march up- 

 on us, anil to prevent any intelligence of their 

 approach having seized ami held prisoners seve- 

 ral pei sons whom they met unarmed upon the 

 road, seem lo come determined for murder and 

 bloodshed, and that VI bethel' provoked to it or 

 not. When within about half or a quarter of a 

 mile from the meeting house, they halted, and 

 the command was given to prime anil load, which 

 being done, they marched on till they came up 

 to the east end of said meeting house in sight of 

 our militia collecting as aforesaid, who were 

 about twelve or thirteen rods distant. Immedi- 

 ately upon their appearing so suddenly ami so 

 nigh, Capt. Parker, who commanded the militia 

 company, ordered the men to disperse and take 

 care of themselves, and not lo fire, Upon this, 

 our men dispersed, but many of them not so 

 speedily ;,s liny might have doiic, not having the 

 most distant idea of such brutal barbarity and 

 more limn savage cruelty, from the troops" of a 

 British King, as they immediately experienced. 

 For no sooner did they come in sight of our 

 company, but one of them, supposed to be an 

 officer of rank, was heard to say to ihe troops, 

 '•Damn ibem, we will have them!" Upon which 

 the troops shouted aloud, huzzaed, and rushed 

 furiously towards our men. About this time, 

 ihree officers, (supposed to be t'nl. Smith, Maj. 

 Pitcairn and another officer) advanced on horse- 

 back to the front of the body, and coming v. ill, in 

 five or six rods of the militia, one of them cried 



