A Concord-Saratoga Connection - "Fire - For God's Sake Fire"

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How many connections are there between Lexington, Concord, and the 1777 march of the Convention Army?  On the American side, countless Massachusetts militiamen who answered the call on April 19th, 1775, did so again in the summer and fall of 1777.  

During the Saratoga campaign, twenty militiamen from Lexington served in Captain Samuel Farrar's company with Colonel Jonathan Reed's Middlesex County militia regiment and escorted the German column of the Convention Army to Winter Hill.  The pay receipt they signed is now in the collection of the Lexington Historical Society.  Benjamin Lock, one of those men, kept a journal of his march to Saratoga and back.  Another, Benjamin Wellington, is said to be the first armed man taken by the British in the Revolutionary War. 

Image shows a 1775 engraving depicting militia troops on the right firing across the North Bridge in Concord at British soldiers.
Militiamen from Concord and neighboring Acton also served in Reed's Middlesex County regiment during the Saratoga campaign.  According to Lemuel Shattuck, in his 1835 history of Concord: “This was a volunteer company of sixty three men from Concord and Acton, commanded by John Buttrick.  ... They left Concord, October 4th, passed through Rutland [Massachusetts], Northampton, &c., and arrived at Saratoga on the 10th, where they encamped two days. The 13th they went to Fort Edward. The 14th and 15th, went out on a scout, and the 16th brought in fifty-three Indians, several Tories (one of whom had 100 guineas), and some women. The 17th 'we had an express,' says Dea. White's Journal, 'to return to Saratoga, and had the pleasure to see the whole of Burgoyne's army parade their arms, and march out of their lines; a wonderful sight indeed; it was the Lord's doing, and it was marvellous in our eyes.' They guarded the prisoners to Cambridge.” [1]

John Buttrick, who led the company, is listed as "Colonel, acting as Captain of a Volunteer co.. Col. Reed's regt.; engaged Sept. 28, 1777; discharged Nov. 7, 1777” in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War. [2]   If that name sounds familiar, it's likely with regard to what happened at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775.

As seen in the 1775 engraving by Ralph Earl and Amos Doolittle above, and described by Shattuck: "The British ... formed on the east side of the river, and soon began to take up the planks of the bridge. Against this Major Buttrick remonstrated in an elevated tone, and ordered a quicker step of his soldiers. The British desisted. At that moment two or three guns were fired in quick succession into the river, which the provincials considered as alarmguns and not aimed at them. They had arrived within ten or fifteen rods of the bridge, when a single gun was fired by a British soldier, the ball from which passing under Colonel Robinson's arm slightly wounded the side of Luther Blanchard, a fifer in the Acton company, and Jonas Brown, one of the Concord minute men. This gun was instantly followed by a volley by which Captain Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer, both belonging to Acton, were killed, a ball passing through the body of the former, and another through the head of the latter. On seeing this, Major Buttrick instantly leaped from the ground, and partly turning to his men, exclaimed, 'Fire, fellow-soldiers, for God's sake, fire'; discharging his own gun almost in the same instant. His order was instantly obeyed; and a general discharge from the whole line of the provincial ranks took place. Firing on both sides continued a few minutes. Three British soldiers were killed; and Lieutenants Sunderland, Kelley, and Gould, a sergeant, and four privates were wounded. The British immediately retreated about half way to the meetinghouse, and were met by two companies of grenadiers, who had been drawn thither by 'the noise of battle'." [3]  

Another account of the fighting quotes Buttrick a bit differently: "Still onward marched Major Buttrick and his little band. They soon came nearly to the Bridge, when a sudden volley from the British indicated their serious intention to check the American advance. Luther Blanchard, the fifer from Acton, was slightly wounded. Major Buttrick heard his cry of anguish, and almost jumping into the air, exclaimed: "Fire, for God's sake, fire!"  The order was obeyed. The British responded, killing Capt. Davis and one of his privates, Abner Hosmer. Davis on realizing that Blanchard was wounded had taken a firmer position on a flat stepping-stone, and while aiming his gun received a bullet through his heart. Hosmer was killed by a bullet through his head.  Ezekiel Davis, brother of the Captain, and a private in his company, was wounded, as was also Joshua Brooks of Lincoln, whose forehead was slightly cut by a bullet which continued through his hat." [4]

Ezekiel Davis, wounded on April 19th, was one of several militiamen who were at the North Bridge in Concord in 1775, and served again during the Saratoga campaign in Buttrick's company. [5]  Among the others was John Heald who served as an ensign on April 19th, and as a lieutenant in Buttrick's company in 1777. [6]  

Little did they know when those first shots were fired on April 19, 1775, that they force a British army to surrender, and escort part of that army back to Massachusetts as prisoners two and a half years later.



For more on the Convention Army's 1777 march from Saratoga to Boston, see:

   1777 March Blog Home             Overnight Stopping Points        Towns and Villages Along the Way 

   General Whipple's Journal         Burgoyne in Albany                    Annotated Bibliography 

[1] Lemuel Shattuck, A History of the Town of Concord (Boston, MA: Russell, Odiorne, and Company, 1835), 356.
[2] MSSRW, 2:972.
[3] Image, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. (1775). Plate III. The engagement at the North Bridge in Concord Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-7eaf-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.  Shattuck, A History of the Town of Concord, 112.  
[4] Frank Warren Coburn, The Battle of April 19, 1775 (Lexington, MA: published by the author, 1912), 84.
[5] D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (Philadelphia, PA: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1890), 1:263.
[6] MSSRW, 7:36.  

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