Dangerous Old Men and Mother Batherick - Menotomy, A Vistor's Guide UPDATED 7/30

[Kaylee]

The site of the North Bridge in Concord is in the middle of a historical park now. Lexington Green is so unchanged you can still navigate the route by David Hackett Fischer's account in Paul Revere's Ride.  They are dramatic places, presented in bold strokes.

But the setting of all those Dangerous Old Men stories we love so much? Most of them occurred in the village of Menotomy -  present-day Arlington - right along the town's main artery.  Time and Progress have obscured most of spots, but some survive. Let's take a look. 

Here's the NPS map to get you oriented. It's a little off-scale in this portion (the Russell House is presented too far to the west), but essentially correct. You can reference off of Spy Pond, the water body in the bottom right of the inset map.




We will start with the morning's events. Recall that the British left Boston about 10 PM the previous night. Paul Revere rides through town sometime between 10PM and 12 AM. Sometime between 2 and 3 AM of the 19th, the British troops pass through Menotomy on the way to Lexington. Though they are attempting secrecy, that large a body of men is hard to move completely silently. Some locals hear the march, and after they are safely away the town begins to organize.

By the time the resupply wagon passes through (about 1:30 PM), the ambush party of Dangerous Old Men is ready. That's the story we'll look at today.



The ambush itself takes place at (B).
Two ammunition wagons have dispatched by Gage to resupply the main column - one officer and 13 men.  Let's let Fischer relate the story-

This little convoy was intercepted on the road by a party of elderly New England men from the alarm lists, who were exempt from service with the militia by reason of age. These gray-headed soldiers did not make a formidable appearance, but they were hardened veterans who made made up in experience what they lacked in youth, and were brilliantly led by David Lamson, described as a "mulatto" in the records.

With patience and skill these men laid a cunning ambush for the British ammunition wagons, waited until they approached, and demanded their surrender. The British drivers were not impressed by these superannuated warriors, and responded by whipping their teams forward. The old men opened fire. With careful economy of effort, they systematically shot the lead horses in their traces, killed two sergeants, and wounded the officer in command.

The surviving British soldiers took another look at these old men and fled for their lives.

There is a marker in front of what is now the Unitarian Universalist Church -



If we are looking at the marker, we face South. We turn to our left, and look East towards Boston. This is the road we see:


Do you see that copse of trees up on the left hand side of the road? That's the site of Samuel Whittemore's stand (G) - we'll look at that shortly, along with the other sites, when we address the British return later this day.

For now, let's follow the route of the fleeing British Grenadiers. They tore cross country, but we can generally follow their route by turning right. Almost immediately, we find ourselves passing the Old Burial Ground (C).   We will return here at the end of the day. For now though, just know this ground had been hallowed as a cemetery for decades by 1775 - some of the markers date to the 1730s at least. It must have been one of the first sights over the shoulders of those grenadiers as they fled the ambush and their dying lieutenant.



A few hundred yards from the ambush site, we look again over our shoulder (D). That tall brick building in the background is a short block on the side of the intersection we started at. The burying ground is that wooded area on the left - the dense line of cars on the left side of the street is just in front of the gate.



From here we turn to our right, and head for Spy Pond. For now, we're in a residential neighborhood, circa late 19th c. Most of this country was likely open farmland then -



Past those trees at the end of the street, we descend a hill to the ball courts (E). We're almost there!



Slip into the treeline on the other side of those cars at the end of the street, find a dirt path, and soon -


Here we are!

Somewhere in that water once lay a number of muskets, pitched in by the fleeing grenadiers - as much to keep them out of colonial hands as to enable their surrender. They follow the shoreline of the pond around to the right until they come across Mother Batherick digging her dandelions.

She led them to the house of Captain Ephraim Frost, where there were a party of our men, saying to her prisoners, as she gave them up, "If you ever live to get back, you tell King George that an old woman took six of his grenadiers prisoners." They were kindly treated till exchanged.

The squib went the rounds of the English opposition papers, "If one old Yankee woman can take six grenadiers, how many soldiers will it require to conquer America?"
-Samuel Abbot Smith, West Cambridge 1775

That's the story so far. By now, the British are returning from their engagement at the North Bridge. We'll see them again late this afternoon - and not in so nice a state as were when first we saw them, that is certain.

[asminuteman]

*tip of thee hat*

wohdoh nah
kaylee

[Rocket Man]

Indeed, this is fantastic stuff.  Much thanks.

[Ratchett]

Kaylee,

Was just in Boston, Lexington, Concord, & Acton. Menotomy/ Arlington was the only town we did not make  The guides on Battle Road told us the landmarks were near impossible to find. Well next visit I have a perfect guide---THANK YOU!!!!!

In His grip,
julia

[Fives]

Really Cool Stuff. Thanks for Sharing...

WhiteKnight

[GEmanuel]

Great job Kaylee, thank you!

[Sly223]

Fantastic!

[Kaylee]

Thank you for the encouragement y'all! This stuff is fascinating!

Let's move up the road a bit, to block (1) of our inset map -






Location (B) is interesting - this is the house of Benjamin Locke, captain of the Menotomy Minutemen in 1775. Locke's home was one of Paul Revere's stops as he rode through Menotomy on his way to Lexington the night before April 19th.




It is location (A) though that catches our interest today - the Foot of the Rocks. You may be able to tell from the aerial view that the terrain is much higher on the lower southerly part of the map, descending down past the markers and further still to the creek where Old Schwab Mill lies. This will be important soon.

Here is the street now, looking West towards Lexington. Again note the rise before us, and off to the left.


Here is the same view looking down into Menotomy:


According to local information, the largest single engagement of the entire day took place on this spot, with approximately 1800 participants to a side.

Let's let D. Hamilton Hurt take over the narrative -

..Lord Percy's reinforcement met Smith's exhausted men at about two o'clock, and, after half an hour's respite, the march was resumed, and the borders of Menotomy were soon reached.

Any one who looks down upon the town from Arlington Heights or Turkey Hill can understand how the fight was fought. From the Lexington line to the Foot of the Bocks the land rises to a considerable height on each side of the road. Farther down, until nearly to the centre of the town, the hills on the right rise more gently, while to the left the land falls away to Vine Brook. Below the centre is level land -- Menotomy Plains they then called it -- stretching to the eastern boundary.

All through the first part of the afternoon's fighting our people were generally on ground higher than the road, and came into hand-to-hand conflict only with the British flanking-parties. Later they did not have this advantage of position, and the fighting that took place below the centre of the town seems generally to have been sharper and at closer quarters than that above.

It could not have been long after three o'clock when the British re-entered Menotomy. The fire to which they had been exposed slackened a good deal as they marched through the wooded country above the Foot of the Rocks. But as they reached the comparatively open ground at that point the battle was resumed. Other enemies than those who had followed them so persistently were at hand. All that morning had men been hurrying in from every side toward the scene of the conflict. Not merely from Woburn (1) and Medford (2), from Old Cambridge (3) and Charlestown(4), but from Roxbury (5) and Dorchester (6), Danvers (7), Salem ( 8 ), Beverly (9) and Lynn (10) and other distant places had they come; and from behind houses and barns, stone-walls and fences they poured in their fire upon the column that was hastening down the highway.




Percy showed himself a worthy descendant of the race of soldiers from whom he came. He was now in command of the whole British force. He had placed at the head of the column the grenadiers and light infantry -- the remnant of Smith's detachment. Next came his wounded, carried in wagons, and finally, in the rear, his own fresh troops. From the latter, also, were made up strong flanking-parties, that marched to right and left of the road, parallel with the main body, and protected it by threatening the flank of the parties of Provincials that skirted the highway.

D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Middlesex Country, vol 3, p.179

The spot is memorialized with three stones, along the left side of the road as you come into town from Lexington:







We will return to this business shortly.

Before we continue, remember that by this point in the afternoon, the British Regulars have been on their feet marching since the previous night. They have been under harassing fire for the last several hours - and American marksmen have been taking a disproportionally large toll on the scarlet-clad officers. Tempers are short, discipline begins to break down, and now the redcoats enter the hornet's nest of a Patriot township. They begin taking fire from civilians shooting out of their own doors and windows.

Things are about to get very very nasty.

[Reddot]

Well Done Kaylee! 

[Unbridled Liberty]

Excellent Kaylee, thank you!  May I suggest that you set up these spots as geocaches?  Not as physical caches, but as points of interest (not sure of the terminology).

UL

[Nero]

Putting on a 'different hat' here:

As a long-time geocacher, and one who specializes in 'historical' hides, I had a similar thought.

However, new 'virtual geocaches' aren't allowed any longer, and the 'waymarks' they were replaced with have been a bit of a dud.

The usual way for handling something of this sort is to do a 'multicache', where you collect information/clues from a variety of locations - e.g., dates from those memorials, counting things, etc., that are then used to generate coordinates for a real, physical hide.  Which can have contents in theme for the history - though a full sized one is very tough to do in urban surroundings.  The cache listing has the full 'back story' about why the particular places, etc.

Nero (aka 'PurplePeople' in the geocaching world.)

Excellent Kaylee, thank you!  May I suggest that you set up these spots as geocaches?  Not as physical caches, but as points of interest (not sure of the terminology).

UL

[Kaylee]

Geocacheing? Hunh - that could be cool!
==========



It is nearing 5PM as the British Regulars begin their push through the township. The weary column returning from Concord is protected in the center line - Percy's fresh troops guard the rear and form flanking parties some distance away from the main road, screening the central column. Remember this detail - it will prove important presently.

This Doolittle engraving, done contemporary to the event, takes place up the road in Lexington. The scene however - including the fired houses - doesn't change at the town border.



Orders for the day had been clear - civilians were not to be molested. At this point in the day however, there is no restraining the men. They've been taking harassing fire since Meriam's Corner, and the gruesome sight of the wounded redcoat dispatched by Ammi White on Concord Bridge has filtered down the line - and grown in the telling. The redcoats now talk of Colonials scalping men yet living, taking the bloody practice even farther than the savages. Fear, anger, and fatigue have taken their toll.

Discipline collapses.

All along the way, houses are plundered, vandalized, and burned. The experience at Mr. Cutler's Tavern (C) is typical of the treatment of dwellings along the road at this point -

(Tavern no longer standing. This is the location, opposite Mt. Vernon St.)

"The family had all gone to a place of safety, and the soldiers carrie off what they could, left the taps of the molasses and spirit cask open, destroyed furniture, drove a bayonet through the best mirror, the frame of which is still preseved [as of the author's speech in 1864], pillaged the drawers, and set the house on fire. A faithful slave, however, had watched from a safe distance the proceedings, and , as soon as the soldiers left, extinguished the flames."


Down the road we come to the Deacon Adams house (D). (only a distant relation to the John and Samuel we all know)

(Home no longer standing.)


The Deacon of First Parish Church had been vocal before the war, and had good cause to fear for his own life. His wife lay abed with their newborn, unable to run with him. Their five children hid beneath the bed. The Deacon - trusting that his family would be spared where he would not - finally is prevailed upon to flee. He runs from the home just ahead of the troops, bullets flying over his head as he dashes behind the cover of a stone wall.

Finally, in a scene almost from cinema, he dives into the hayloft of a neighbor's barn. His pursuers thrust their bayonets about in the hay, but the fighting is too close for them to tarry. They leave before finding him.

Had he known what was to come in his home, he might have chosen to stay, consequences be damned.

The troops tear open the bedcurtains, bayonets at the ready. There they find a terrified Mrs. Adams, crying for mercy. This much they allow - she wraps a single blanket about her and the baby, and crawls to a corncrib for shelter as the troops make ready to fire the house.

Drawers are pulled open, plunder thrown into sheets for easy carrying. And here they find - the Adams children. Here we meet the hero of this drama, Joel - he has let curiosity get the better of him, lifted the bedskirts to watch the soldiers, and is caught.

"Come out!" yell the soldiers.

"You'll kill me if I do!" he cries back. They assure him of his safety, out he comes - and proceeds to follow them around as they ransack the house. The expensive works of a clock, his mother's spoons - not a word.

Then the troops pry open a chest, and find the silver communion service the Deacon had charge of.

"Don't you touch them 'ere things!" he yells. "Daddy 'l lick you, if you do!"

The tale-gatherers of the town pointed out with a smile that little Joel was very much surprised when the Regulars utterly ignored the threat.

Having taken what they can carry, the soldiers pile up fuel in the middle of the floor. They let fire to it, and leave. The fire starts to rage, burning the floor, smoking the ceiling - even beginning to melt the pewter plates still standing on the dresser.

It is the Adams children that save the day, finally managing to extinguish the fire.

With a water cask from outside, and a cask (some local wags say more) of homemade beer.


The column continues on. We begin to near the town center - the spot where the Old Men of Menotomy only a few short hours ago earned a Colonial victory. We are about to step onto the bloodiest half-mile of the whole of Battle Road.