We toured Battle Road (from Arlington to Concord) this long holiday weekend. It was cold. The visitors center was closed for the winter. We had full access to the grounds. There were plaques and large plastic photo displays with maps, pictures and text explaining a lot of it. The training grounds were not marked on any map, but there was a picture of an engraved stone marking the training grounds on one of the plastique displays.
I had David Fischer's book with the map, so was able to triangulated from the Old North Bridge and Major Buttrick's house to find the stone.
Attached is the view of the Old North Bridge from the training grounds and a picture of the Powderhouse.
It was late in the day when we got to Concord. The light for a picture of the statue of Isaac Davis, where he fell, would be best in the morning.
The other picture is of his backside. Across the bridge the, obelisque is were the regulars were lined up. We all estimated that the two were right at 50 yards apart.
Cool! I'm wondering if there were fewer trees back in 1775? Surely those leaf trees are youngsters and could not be from that era...
Capt. Parker's statue is at Lexington Green. I have an Appleseed sweatshirt that has an image of this statue on the back.
I don't know about the green itself, but Buckman Tavern (across the street) is a museum operated by the Lexington Historical Society. In their gift shop they sell lots of things associated with the site. I picked up another copy of David Fischer's book there, and a Betsy Ross flag pin. I wondered why there wasn't a stack of cloth Battle Road patches in the display case.
I just did this same hike at the beginning of the month. The weather was superb. So much to see. I finally have my pictures in order and will do a thread. Lot's to see.
Walking the ground makes so much difference in your understanding of the events. I was blessed to do that in 2016. Here was my report from that week: https://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=48320.0
Quote from: The Wolfhound on November 29, 2021, 08:50:07 AM
Walking the ground makes so much difference in your understanding of the events.
This is very true. There is something about walking on the green and crossing the north bridge that still brings chill bumps to me.
Nice report. It's been more than few years since I've been there.
Was there a local doing a short guided tour of the green? I ask as there was one the last time and they were pretty good on what happened on the green. Took about 15 mins IIRC.
I asked where the hill was where Percy had positioned his cannon and he pointed out a small rise a short distance away, maybe 15' high.
Excellent, thanks for sharing!
If I recall correctly from my visit a few years back, there were many fewer trees than present today. Some large trees were left in fields to provide shade for cattle
This link http://npshistory.com/publications/mima/parkers-revenge-archaeology.pdf (http://npshistory.com/publications/mima/parkers-revenge-archaeology.pdf) is to a detailed report of an archaeological excavation of the site of Parker's Revenge. Some of it is rather dry, but overall the report is interesting.