MI Red Hats go to Battle Road

[number6]

This thread may be lenghty and rambling, but for now lets start with a teaser photo.




number6

[number6]

Where do we start???   After a full day on the road and a short (relatively speaking) stop at CMP, we set out the following morning and start where it began...







number6

[SteelThunder]

M-O-R-E

[number6]

Then we go see Issac.

There was something special, going as early as we did.  Quiet.  Gave us time to reflect.






Thanks to the random dog walker that helped us out with the picture.

number6

[number6]

number6

[Whippet]

Great photos guys. More please.

[D.O.M.]

Ramble on, ramblin' guy...

I'm quite jealous of you two!

[Superheat]

This was a WONDERFUL trip.  Be patient with us.  There was so many things we saw and did it will take a little while for us number6 to put a coherent AAR together.   

We will put up some recommendations to help other ASers plan a visit.  For family's, especially home schoolers, this trip should be high on your list of priorities.

I had high expectations and they were met.

[number6]

Enough of the self directed portion of the tour.  It's time for the prepared portion of the itinerary.

Redcoats making preparations (mostly standing in formation, marching , practicing turning, etc.) before the "tactics" reenactment.





The timeline got jumbled a bit as the Redcoats were past Lexington when we saw these famous dudes.


And these guys on their tail.

[number6]

Not part of the reenactment, but more of a demo...

Let's see if this video works.....



Alright, no direct embedding, so here is a link
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/number6jr/media/Battle%20Road%202013/DSCN0088_zps083496f5.mp4.html


I SO need a cannon

number6

[SteelThunder]

 Rather than be (overtly) obnoxious and post a bunch of pix, here's a link to the pictures I took last March when I drove Battle Road.  I didn't spend but 1-1/2 hours vs the days you guys got...I'm completely jealous.

http://tinypic.com/a/2p9xj/2

...and I wish I would have thought to bring back a water bottle full of North Bridge water.  Dang, Pete, that was smart.

6 -- I'll go in halfsies with you on a cannon. 

[Fred]

...and I wish I would have thought to bring back a water bottle full of North Bridge water.  Dang, Pete, that was smart.

    I hope the water was collected after it flowed under the bridge - it's not only heavier, but has sparkly things in it...

[Superheat]

Not to worry, number6 was quick to correct me, "don't you want the water that has passed under the north bridge?"  Dooh!  Good save.

...and I wish I would have thought to bring back a water bottle full of North Bridge water.  Dang, Pete, that was smart.

    I hope the water was collected after it flowed under the bridge - it's not only heavier, but has sparkly things in it...

[ITB]

Now I'm even more psyched for my trip in June.  And I can say with 100% certainty - Gibson and I will be there next April.

[number6]

Well then, more psyching...

So the first reenactment went something like this,

First we saw some redcoats walking west,




Then we waited,




And Waited,



And WAITED, where are those redcoats.


We saw some colonials, and they were a bit riled up.






Then some redcoats,


The Hartwell Tavern is in the background of this picture, it is located just east of the Bloody Angle.

They were a bit riled up as well,



Sometime later after lots of shooting, a salute by the colonials.



And the video link for the above picture
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/number6jr/media/DSCN0163_zpsae2f9245.mp4.html


In our AAR we'll get into the issues with National Park Service Reenactments we encountered.

number6

[Superheat]

Photo bomb


North bridge


Special Liberty water.  We need some 210's this year...


Training field, right across from Major Butrick's


Deep breaths, stay calm, they are just reenactors.


More trouble


Here's a good guy.   

[Superheat]

More pics.  I hope you are not bored yet.

Darn red coats.  They're everywhere!


Parker's revenge.  On the same hill side as it was in 1775.


A nice marker in Acton but not much else.


Col. Barrett's farm house was just restored and reopened.  Lucky for us. 


Next up:  We finally make it to Lexington.

[Superheat]

LEXINGTON!!!!!!  There is a LOT to see.

We made it to the green.

Captain Parker.  (I was glad to get such a good photo)


It is hard not to get a lump in your throat when you read this, standing on the same ground where it happened.

[D.O.M.]

Bored? I think you know us better than that!

[Caliper]

Darn red coats.  They're everywhere!

What?  Were you captured?  You know they travel in a line so that from a distance it looks like you can take them until they get closer and one becomes two and two becomes four and... 

[Oz]

Darn red coats.  They're everywhere!

What?  Were you captured?  You know they travel in a line so that from a distance it looks like you can take them until they get closer and one becomes two and two becomes four and...

It might be the other way around...we may have a modern day counterpart to the Batherick story: "If two Appleseed instructors can capture 7 light infantry and their music, how many instructors will it take to save the country?"   

Number6 is here--I'll ask him if I need to add this to the end of Lamson today! 

[Superheat]

The Buckman Tavern directly across from the green


There are some cool things at the tavern Clark-Hancock house, like William Diamonds drum.  (was he 16 or 19? a new debate emerges)


Joshua Simonds sword. If I had taken the time to read the description I would have noticed that his musket is at the state house in Boston.  Yes, the musket he shoved into the barrel of powder in the 3rd floor of the meeting house.    DOOOH.  Looks like we need to go back.


Just standing in the room where the militia were when they heard Diamond beat the drum will make the hair on your arms stand up.  NO PICS ALLOWED inside.   

[NavyIrish]

Gentlemen-- thanks for sharing the pictures!  Looks like you had a great visit to Battle Road!  Did you make it to Arlington (Menotomy)?

R,
NavyIrish

[Superheat]

 

Gentlemen-- thanks for sharing the pictures!  Looks like you had a great visit to Battle Road!  Did you make it to Arlington (Menotomy)?

R,
NavyIrish

Don't jump ahead.  Yes we did. More about that coming up after a few words from our sponsors. 

I wish I could say it was good.  Wait I don't want to spoil the story.

[spitstickler]

JEALOUS!

Looks like an awesome experience. Definitely something I want to do.

[number6]

So after a bit of a hiatus to get out on the line, I'm back, with more pictures and commentary on the Battle Road Trip.

So in Between our watching of the Tactical Reenactment at the Hartwell Tavern and the Green / Parkers Revenge, we stopped at the Paul Revere Capture site.

A lovely marker is in the spot.


There were the obligatory, man standing next to marker photos, but you've seen enough of our smiling faces.

Then it was on to the Parkers Revenge Reenactment, where Superheat made a new friend.



Memorial Volley prior to the reenactment


Superheats zoom was much better than mine, so I'll let you go back and look at his pictures.

Then it was on to the Green....

It's a lot smaller than I imagined.


Or it feels bigger because of what it represents.


We finshed the first day, looking at stuff..

The Buckman Tavern


And the Hancock - Clarke House (note to Superheat, William Diamond's drum and Joshua Simonds sword is in the ante-room of the Hancock - Clarke House)


What a first day at Lexington and Concord....
Stay tuned for Days Two and Three.

number6

[koolman68]

Thank you for sharing. I think it has motivated me to grab my family and make the journey. It might better drive home who we are and what  we are about. Perhaps, more importantly, why we do what we do.

[Fred]

    Dittos on the thanks, as it brought back fond memories of my own first visit to Concord and Lex, early in Project Appleseed's history.

     FWIW, I posted my experiences on the first forum we had, which is no longer available. Perhaps these experiences are of historical interest, and for showing an "early in the program" mindset:

[Here it is, verbatim, as some of you may not have seen it, as it was first posted on a previous RWVA site which no longer exists...You might be able to tell that normally-unflappable Fred is pretty flapped! ]

   

April 19, 1775 - and Fred's in Concord!
[posted April 19, 2007, 02:11:31 PM]

     
    Yes, it's true - except that it's 232 years later...

   The neat thing is the weather is almost identical to the weather on That Day - clear, blue skies with white clouds, temp in the high 40s'low 50s - perfect fighting weather.

    And wet! Just like back then, rain the day before, clearing up for the 19th (OK, the timing was a little off - two centuries ago, it cleared late in the day on the 18th - while it only stopped raining in the morning of the 19th this time around.

    But, again like eons ago, the trees are without leaves, and the ground is damp. Much wetter than I realized - so I can understand why British flankers were pulled into the main column when crossing a bridge...

     I'm off now to the Minute Man National Historical Park, after cleaning the Concord Visitor's Center out of all the free brochures.

     More later....

[posted April 19, 2007, 07:48:50 PM]

   I watched the "Battle Road" presentation put on by the National Park Service at the Minute Man Visitor's Center this afternoon. Some great effects, especially the half-light of the early dawn, with the hills limned in the early light. It was pretty complete and reasonably accurate, if somewhat simplified.

     Isaac Davis was not mentioned by name, but you did hear a voice say "I have not a man who's afraid to go!" at the right time.

     They missed the notion of the "three strikes of the match" and missed the role of marksmanship at the North Bridge.

     However, they did make the interesting point that the Americans died at Lexington, the British first deaths were at Concord. They could have mentioned that the same units - the 4th and 10th Foot - were involved in both firefights... (it's also interesting to note that the town with the highest number of deaths was Lexington, and that NOT ONE PERSON from Concord died that day.)

     The terrain along Battle Road reminds me - at least, the wooded portion of it - of the film The Blair Witch Project, and I can understand why belief in witches was endemic in the early days of the Mass Bay colony. It's desolate, dismal, and distinctly unpleasant looking this time of year - particularly the flooded areas with water under the trees... Splash around in there much, and you're gonna be one cold, wet puppy.

     How did I get up here? It was tough to make the decision to miss the Yakima shoot, but the CT shoot is a new one, and so I wanted to be there when it kicks off... It was little jump from there to realize that if I left one day early, I'd be in Concord/Lexington on April 19! Who can resist that?

      Because Patriot's Day is now one of those "three-day weekend" holidays, all the hoopla was over with last weekend. Sad to miss it, but enjoyed being able to see things today with NO crowd around. The only events today were cannons waking up Concord at dawn, and a reenactment of the "arrival of the Sudbury militia" at 10:30 AM - but I got in at noon. 

      Tomorrow I'd like to walk the 5 miles of the restored Battle Road from - gasping! - Merriam's Corner to Lexington, maybe starting out at the same time of day they did in 1775...

   

Scenes from Concord and Lexington
[posted April 20, 2007, 10:44:14 PM]

   At the North Bridge today, a handful of tourists there, and I met an older gentlemen dressed as a colonial walking across the bridge in my direction, staff in one hand. I hailed him, thusly: "If you were serious, you'd have a flintlock in your hands". He smiled (somewhat uncertainly) and said, "I only carry it for hunting." (The response of a true liberal - what's he doing at the North Bridge?)

At any rate, he declared that he liked the RWVA Appleseed shirt I was wearing (it was real T-shirt weather - the temp was nice, the sun was out, but the river was still in flood stage - in fact the far bank, the "American" bank, was still under water - locals said it had never flooded so high in local memory).

So I talked a little marksmanship at the North Bridge, which went over his head, and the "three strikes of the match" which similarly seemed to fail to make an impression.

Went to visitor's center at nearby Major Butttick's house (one of the leaders that morning at the Bridge) and found on display a Brown Bess with all the extras, with a description as follows: 10-lb Brown Bess - "inaccurate at any distance" - must have been written by a non-shooter - but verified that the bayonet was at least 16 inches long.

Also overheard a lady complaining that she had traveled all the way from CA to see and participate in the events celebrating and memorializing April 19, only to find that they took place the previous (3-day) weekend!

The visitor's center was well-stocked with books for both kids and adults - Fischer's book was everywhere, but others were there also. I bought some repros of the Dolittle sketches of April 19 (the originals are priceless, so really didn't need to say 'repros').

There was a nice painting of the view of the North Bridge area about 50 years after the fight - the bridge was already gone, but the landscape was interesting to see - much more open that the current one, and the centopath was already in place.

The ranger at the center was really knowledgeable, and crak and I could not trip him up, even when asking him about the separate 'match' struck by the old guys who seized Percy's supply wagon, depriving his cannons of ammo badly needed during the retreat to Boston...

I also took the time to fill a couple of bottles with water that had just flowed under the North Bridge, as never know when that good Indiana ditch water will run out, and will need a replacement with the same power. Perhaps a drop of that water on the forehead of everyone who makes rifleman at future Appleseeds? 

Highlight of the day was walking portions of Battle Road with crak. No one made it clear to me that, while most of BR has been replaced by a modern two-lane paved highway, there's at least 3 miles of Battle Road which remains in the original condition.

Man alive! I couldn't believe it when I saw it! A one-lane dirt path leading between two stone walls, winding up and down - heck, you could walk along and see the stone walls 60-100 yards away that the patriots prob sheltered behind...

We started at the 'bloody angle' where the redcoats were ambushed on both sides of the road by our guys, and took 8 dead, one of the highest totals that day.

We traveled the road only a couple of hours after the time of day the British column did, and it was easy to imagine them drinking from the odd pool of water in the ditch (accounts of that day have both sides fighting over wells and waterholes). We got to the site of Paul Revere's capture - it's north of the road (for some reason, I had it placed south) and you could clearly figure which way Dr Prescott bolted his horse to make his way thru the swamps and get to Concord.

The only thing odd was that I didn't know they had fire hydrants back then, but they sure did. Every few hundred yards, with no buildings anywhere near the road, there was a red fire hydrant. So don't believe the history books - the proof is there for you to see. And I believe I caught sight of an abandoned black-and-white TV (overlooked by historians), which emphasizes the importance of doing your own investigation, as I haven't seen any account mention that they had TVs (even if only B&W) back then. 

A trip to Battle Road is well worth making - just make sure you focus on the real battle road, not the 'battle road trail' which wanders all over, but is rarely on the Road itself.

It's almost like taking a time machine back - the people aren't there, but the road looks as if it could have been the path the redcoats took last week, not 232 years ago.

There were British flags on the spots where British soldiers were buried, usually with the "here lies an unknown British soldier" epitaph. The one at the North Bridge was more graphic: "He traveled over an ocean and died in order to keep the past on its throne" (from memory). There was one on a main street in Concord, between the curb and the sidewalk!

And periodically, along Battle Road - including one for multiple burials at the bloody angle.

Each of the British flags had a note attached, thanking the unknown soldier for his sacrifice for country and King...the people in Concord have evidently mellowed over the years! Actually, being in MA, have gone liberal (= tory)...

crak and I discussed how modern rifles would have impacted the outcome. Believe a three-man British team of riflemen could have walked from Concord to Boston unscathed, if they'd've had modern rifles - and plenty of ammo! Two up, one back would have done the trick. Just as it would have if there'd been three modern riflemen on the American side.

[posted April 25, 2007, 05:33:07 AM]

     As a lover of the minutia of history, here's the exact wording of the signs attached to the British flags placed on the burial spots of Redcoats killed on April 19, 1775:
   

In memory of the British soldiers who gave their lives in the service of their King and Country
April 19, 1775
Unnamed and seldom remembered, they have lain here 232 years
Rest in Peace

     No indication if the signs were placed by some America-hating locals, or authentic British patriots...

     You certainly hope it was the latter, but fear it was the former.

     I'll have to sit back, and take another swig of that North Bridge water. Tastes good, and packs a punch! 

[posted April 25, 2007, 08:15:05 PM]

     As a reminder of another historical aspect of being on Lexington Green, standing next to the statue of Capt John Parker (and a handsome guy he was, if the statue is anything close to truth, but since he was mere months away from dying from TB, I suspect the statue reflects not reality but something better...), I was thinking of a time not so long ago as the Revolution, a time much closer to us, actually in living memory, at least for a few years more.

     A time when Hitler was on the march, when the lights were going out all over Europe.

     August 1940, when the Luftwaffe was taking on the Few, and England was in mortal peril.

    A time when Americans, just coming out of the depression, were happy that prosperity was looming (finally), only to have the dark clouds of WW2 growing at an unbelievable pace.

     Back in August 1940, Life magazine - amid articles about "Britain's Night Fliers Raid Germany" and "Adolf Hitler's Rise to Power" and "Survivor's Pictures Show Sinking of Former American Ship by Nazis" - did a photo essay on how American towns were reacting to the possible Nazi conquest of Britain. One town the essay singled out was Lexington.

     Usually reliable Life gets some of the 1775 facts wrong (at least in the shading), but uses its intro to tie Lexingtonians (the word "militia" was not used) to that tradition, and to show how Lexingtonians were "preparing to defend their liberties again".

     In fact, one of the pictures showed a .30 cal water-cooled Browning behind sandbags piled up right next to the statue of Parker. Right where I was standing, only a life-time later. It was America on guard!

     Another pic showed the local home guard lined up on Lexington Green, with the leader (or someone) in front of the line, dressed as a Continental Army officer. The caption read "on the Lexington, Mass. common where minutemen fought the Redcoats in 1775, townsmen shoulder their squirrel guns against a brown-shirt invasion." [And still no use of the word "militia"!]

     Life then said: "Two US towns had not waited to be told what to do from Washington. By last week, their examples were being followed by scores of towns throughout the land."

     What is it we say at Appleseed? That we don't have to ask anyone's permission to save the country?

     Back then, Lexingtonians apparently didn't think they needed to, either. In fact, Life says: "Lexington, which treasures the memory of its 1775 Minutemen, is once again rallying citizen-soldiers against invasion."

     Life headlined it: "The Lexington Plan: The Minutemen of 1940"

     Two pics showed Lexington militia members [ - Oops, sorry, meant to say "Minute Man Sportsman's Club members"] crawling thru a field, and training in shooting at parachutists (looks like a hanky parachute) on the skeet range.

     Other pics showed the Minute Man Sportsman's Club members holding AA drill, using a model airplane 'flying' along a string between two trees, and the school playground turned into a terrain model for formulating battle plans. And the fire department training to put out incendiaries that were even then dropping on English towns.

     Serious times, serious article.

     In 1939, they had no idea that in 1940, they'd be getting ready for a Nazi invasion. In fact, in 1940 - at least up to May or June - they had no idea of any such threat.

     The wheel of history can turn, and sometimes it can turn fast.

     Bet the founders looked on the scene with approval. Exactly what they planned for - Americans defending themselves, their homes, their communities, from an enemy...

   [posted April 26, 2007, 06:28:26 PM]

     I paced off the length of Concord Bridge - about 35-40 paces - d-mn near the limit of effective musket range, except against massed troops.

     On the monument on the "British side" of the bridge, a monument erected in 1836 (sixty years after the first shots were fired, for you IMC-challenged types  ):

   

Here on the 19th of April 1775 was made the first forcible Resistance to British aggression. On the opposite bank stood the American militia.
Here stood the invading army and on this spot the first shot at the Enemy fired in the War of that Revolution which gave Independence to these United States.
In gratitude to God
And in the love of freedom
this monument was erected A.D. 1836

     That's the past talking to us. The view they entertained sixty years past the opening of the Revolution. Not much forgive and forget there...     

[BTW, the above reflects the competition which broke out between Concord and Lexington some 50 years after the event, as to which town could lay claim to having fired the first shots - recall that "the shot heard round the world" is from Concord native Emerson's poem on the events at the North Bridge.]

     At Lexington, an even older monument, which says:

...Ensign Robert Munroe, Messers Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Junr, Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, and John Brown of Lexington, and Ashahel Porter of Woburn, who fell on this field
The first victims to the sword of British Tyranny & Oppression, on the morning of the ever memorable Nineteenth of April An. Dom. 1775
The Die was cast!!!
The Blood of these Martyrs,
In the cause of God & their Country was the cement of the Union of these States, then Colonies & gave the Spring to the spirit, Firmness & resolution of their fellow Citizens. They rose as one man to revenge their Brethren's Blood, and at the point of a sword, to assert and defend their native rights.
They nobly dar'd to be free!!
The contest was long, bloody, & affecting; Righteous Heaven approved the solemn appeal; victory crowned their arms; and the Peace, Liberty, and Independence of the United States of America, was their glorious reward. 1799

On another monument on Lexington Green:

These men gave everything dear in life. Yea and life itself in support of the common cause...

     Words from the past, carved in stone because the Past wanted the Future to see them and remember them, so they would not be forgotten...

     These words should be remembered, and reflected on. And the list of the dead at Lexington Green should be memorized...so they are never forgotten.