The Battle of Menotomy
Retreat From Concord
R
Residents of Concord are steeped in the lore of Patriots’ Day, April 19, and the militia activities in Lexington and Concord. But the Battle of Menotomy might need more explanation. Menotomy was a village of about 400 farmers, millers, tavern keepers, and their families in 1775. Located in today’s Town of Arlington, Menotomy stretched along Massachusetts Avenue from “the foot of the rocks” near Lexington to Alewife Brook. Menotomy was a crossroads town where the Concord Road west crossed highways to all points: east to Boston and Charlestown; north to Medford, Reading, and Danvers; and south to Watertown and Dedham. Paul Revere rode through the village just after midnight on April 19, 1775. Lt. Colonel Francis Smith’s force of 700 royal troops and marines followed the same route to Lexington. Lord Percy reported the houses of Menotomy “deserted” at midday as he marched through with over 1,000 more of 10
Discover CONCORD | Summer 2023
catalog.archives.gov/id/518209
BY MICHAEL RUDERMAN
His Majesty’s soldiers. Their mission: to rescue Smith from the colonials’ attacks on Battle Road and bring them all back, the same way, to Boston. From about 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on April 19, Percy’s combined command of 1,800 soldiers was encircled by 3,800 colonials; all the pursuers from Concord and 59 more companies of minutemen, who had raced to Menotomy. The Battle of Menotomy was the largest, longest, and bloodiest engagement of April 19. Forty of His Majesty’s troops were killed, and 25 colonials were lost. The fighting was savage. Lord Percy had to fire his two cannons repeatedly to keep the road ahead clear of gathering militia. Flanking soldiers attacked house after house, desperate to suppress the colonials’ attack. An infantryman wrote in his diary, “hot fire from all sides…every wall lined, and every house filled with wretches, who never dared show their faces.” Royal Governor Thomas Gage called it, in his report to London, “a
moving circle of fire” that “continued without intermission.” A fusilier wrote in his diary, “We were obliged to force almost every house…all that were found in the houses were put to death.” Certainly, the provincial legislature of Massachusetts Bay saw the battle quite differently. They called it “barbarous devastation…almost beyond description… plundering and burning of dwelling houses… driving into the street women in childbed, killing old men in their houses unarmed.” These descriptions of atrocities come directly from the depositions given by Menotomy residents after the battle. Hannah Adams, wife of Deacon Joseph Adams, was rousted from her bed at bayonet point. She fled with her three-week-old daughter in her arms while the King’s soldiers looted the silver communion service and set fire to her home. Benjamin and Rachel Cooper, taverners, testified that the regulars “fired more than a hundred bullets into the house where we