lovely morning; the fruit trees were in blossom, and the grass and grain had grown sufficiently high to wave with the wind. On the hill near the liberty pole stood a small band of Americans, consisting of Concord, Acton, and Lincoln men, under the command of Captain George Minot. When the British, in overwhelming numbers, had arrived within a few rods' distance, the Americans fell back to an eminence, about eighty rods in the rear, and formed "into two battalions." "Let us stand our ground," said William Emerson; "if we die, let us die here." The British troops marched into Concord in two divisions, -one by the main road, and the other on the hill north of it, from which the Americans had just retired. The centre of the town was soon occupied by Colonel Smith with the grenadiers. Captain Parsons, with six light companies, marched to the North Bridge, where he left three companies under the command of Captain Laurie, and then, with the remaining three, proceeded to the residence of Colonel Barrett. Captain Pole was sent to secure the South Bridge. The British were not very successful in the work of destruction. In the centre of the town, however, they broke open nearly sixty barrels of flour, knocked off the trunnions of three cannon, burnt sixteen new carriage wheels, and set fire to the court-house. Many valuable stores were concealed, and saved by the shrewdness of the citizens. When the troops appeared at the door of the dwelling of Captain Timothy Wheeler, the miller, the latter received them in a friendly manner. He asked them to sit down, to refresh themselves with bread and cheese and cider, which they did. Soon after the soldiers went out, and were about to break open the corn-house. Captain Wheeler begged them not to split the door, as he would himself freely open it. "Gentlemen," said he, "I am a miller. I improve those mills yonder, by which I get my living, and every gill of this flour," at the same time planting his hand on a bag of flour that was really his own, "I raised and manufacThis is my tured on my own farm, and it is all my own. storehouse. I keep my flour here until such time as I can make a market for it." "Well, I believe you are a pretty honest old chap, and don't look as if you would hurt anybody, and we won't meddle with you," responded the officer; and he ordered his men to march on. Already the British troops had been in Concord nearly two hours; and in the mean time the militia of Concord and Lincoln, joined by their brethren from Carlisle, Chelmsford, Westford, Littleton, and Acton, in all about four hundred and fifty in number, had assembled on the high grounds, near the North Bridge, and were formed in line by Joseph Hosmer, acting adjutant. The purpose of the Americans was to dislodge the guard at the North Bridge. It was a hazardous undertaking; but anxious apprehensions failed to weaken valor. "I haven't a man that's afraid to go," remarked the brave Captain Isaac Davis, of Acton. A brief consultation of officers took place; after which, Colonel Barrett ordered the militia to march to the bridge, and to pass it, but not to fire until they were fired upon. The companies advanced, under the command of Major John Buttrick, in double file and with trailed arms. As soon as the British guard, stationed near the west end of the bridge, discovered the approach of the provincials, they crossed the bridge, and took up a position on the east side of the river, as if for a fight. Presently the Americans neared the scene of action, and placed themselves in close proximity to the bridge. On the instant one of the regulars, a sharpshooter, stepped from the ranks and fired his musket. The discharge was immediately followed by a volley, which killed Captain Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer, and wounded others. On seeing the effect of the fire, Major Buttrick turned to his men, and exclaimed impetuously, “Fire, fellowsoldiers! for God's sake, fire!" The firing lasted but a few minutes, when the British broke and fled in great confusion. Although hotly pursued by the provincials, they succeeded in joining the main body in the centre of the town. By this time the old drums that had beat at Louisburg and Quebec were sounding on all the roads leading to Concord. "Now the war has begun," said Noah Parkhurst, of Lincoln, to a comrade, "and no one knows when it will end." The short and sharp action at the North Bridge changed the position of affairs in Concord. From seven o'clock in the morning the British had held possession of the town; but with the first shot the Americans had assumed the offensive. At half past ten, probably, Colonel Smith concentrated his entire force in the centre of the town preparatory to his return to Boston. At twelve o'clock the British left the village, in the same order as they had entered. While the commanding officer knew that his safety lay only in an immediate evacuation of Concord, he felt also that the return march would be an exceedingly hazardous one, for the whole country seemed as if "men came down from the clouds." The provincials were ever on the track of their enemy. Leaving the North Bridge, the former proceeded across "the great fields" to the Bedford road, where they were joined by the Reading minute-men, and shortly afterwards, by those from Billerica. The Americans adopted no military order; at one blow they became almost an independent people, and on the pursuit, each man was his own gen |