How many connections are there between Concord and Lexington, 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. On the British side just one unit, the 47th Regiment of Foot, took part in both the 1775 raid on Concord, and Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's 1777 expedition from Canada.
The militia troops who mobilized on April 19th came from towns and villages in Essex County, as well as Middlesex County. The Reverend Manasseh Cutler of Ipswich, Massachusetts, would note in his diary: "... At sunset [on April 19, 1775] we got almost into Cambridge, and met with our people just after they fired their last gun. The British fought upon a retreat from Concord to Cambridge, where they had boats to take them on board for Boston. It is not known how many were killed on either side..." [1]
Fortunately, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress ordered the publication of a
"narrative... to support the truth" of what happened on April 19th. In a matter of weeks Isaiah Thomas, who relocated his printing business from Boston to
Worcester immediately before the fighting, published a small pamphlet entitled
A Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King's Troops Under the Command of General Gage On the Nineteenth of April, 1775, as seen here from online collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. A list of those killed, wounded and missing on the colonial side follows the depositions taken from combatants on both sides (albeit those of the British from individuals being held prisoner), as well as civilians who witnessed the first shot (which they unequivocally assert was by someone on the British side) or were subject to the
"ravages of the King's troops".
Reverend Cutler noted that the effects of the fighting were still visible the following day, writing: "Apr. 20, Thurs. A vast number of men in Cambridge, and coming in from all quarters. We went to Metomeny to see the dead. The regulars lay principally in the streets, but our men in houses and barns. It was supposed that about 30 provincials and 50 regulars were killed." [2]
Word that British troops were on the march towards Concord, and had killed what was reported as six men in Lexington reached
Westborough, Massachusetts, April 19th. On April 20th, the Reverend Ebenezer Parkman, the town's minister, noted in his diary:
"Deacon Merriam having been to Concord last Eve, returns this morning, and relates that the K[ing]’s troops had been there, and did much Mischief – at the magazine in Special; to Flower, Ordnance, Ammunition, Houses (Several set on Fire), a number on both sides Slain. But the Regulars Returned to Boston. A Number of Dead Bodies, chiefly of them (as was conceived) Scattered in the Road. … The Select Men are at the Meeting House, preparing and distributing ammunition. … It is a Day of so great Trouble that it swallows up People’s Thoughts. Men are marching down toward Concord... At Eve came Mr. Thomas Whitney, who had rid down as far as Charleston. He has Seen the Sad Effects of hot Assaults and Skirmishes. The Account that the Roads for a great way were strowed with dead Men, is confirmed.” On April 21st Parkman noted:
"In the Morning Breck [Parkman's son] came home, having rid in the Night... He went to Cambridge. Saw the great Multitudes that were gathering. He saw Mr. John Hicks of Cambridge bury without Ceremony – and four men who were slain there, were buryed in one Grave. … Men are continually marching.” [3]
In addition to its anti-British bias, the the Provincial Congress's
Narrative contained a few oversights. One of those wounded for example is simply listed as
"... a son of Doctor Toleman" from Needham. [4] Ezekiel Davis of Acton, who served in
Colonel John Buttrick's company with Colonel Jonathan Reed's Middlesex County Militia regiment and guarded the German column on the 1777 march of the Convention Army, is not listed among the wounded.
D. Hamilton Hurd writes that Ezekiel was the brother of Captain Isaac Davis who was killed, and that Ezekiel was "Wounded in the hat at the Concord fight" on April 19th at the North Bridge.
[5]
Solomon Smith, who was deposed on July 10, 1835, in an effort to document Acton's role at the North Bridge, indicated that Ezekiel Davis was wounded, and provided more context as to how it happened, stating: "After we began to move [towards the North Bridge], the British were beginning to take up the bridge;. some one, (I believe it was Major Buttrick,) remonstrated in a loud voice; and, about the same time, they desisted, and formed for action. I next saw a ball, from the enemy, strike in the river, and heard the report of two others, directly after, which were thought not to be aimed at us. A volley immediately followed, by which Luther Blanchard, our fifer, was slightly wounded; and hearing him cry out, Major Buttrick exclaimed, "Fire, for God's sake, fire!" The order was obeyed, and the British returned the fire, and killed Captain Davis and Abner Hosmer, a private of his company, and wounded Ezekiel Davis, (a brother of the Captain,) on the head." Thomas Thorp, who was also deposed on July 10, 1835, indicated that Ezekiel's wounding may have gone unnoticed at the time, recalling: "The fire was returned, and Capt. Davis and Abner Hosmer, one of his men, were killed, and Ezekiel Davis, a brother of the Captain, had a ball pass through his hat. I did not understand that he was injured, but have since understood that his head was slightly touched by the ball." [6]
Ebenezer Monroe "jun.", is listed among the wounded from Lexington. In December of 1775 he petitioned the Massachusetts Provincial Congress for relief. His request was approved, under a resolve which noted: "Petition of Ebenezer Munro, Setting forth that he belonged to Cap't John Parker's Company of Lexington, was on the 19th of April the last wounded by the Kings Troops through the right Arm, which rendered him Unable to Labour for more than Six Weeks, besides, being at the Charge of Board & of the Sergeon. Resolved that their be Paid out of the Publick Treasury of this Colony to Ebenezer Munro the Sum of Four pounds in full for Boarding nurs'g and Doctring." [7] An Ebenezer Munroe was the eleventh man to sign the pay receipt from Lexington for service during the Saratoga campaign, but as there were two men named Ebenezer Monroe in Lexington, it's a challenge to determine whether the Ebenezer who was wounded on April 19th is the same Ebenezer who escorted the German column of the Convention Army to Winter Hill in 1777. [8]
On the British side, the light company and grenadier company of the 47th were part of the original expeditionary force which marched for Concord under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Smith, and the remainder of the regiment was part of the column under Lord Percy which marched to support them. Accounts of the regiment's casualties that day vary from two soldiers reported as missing from the light company, one from the grenadier company as killed, and at least two wounded, with others claiming the regiment suffered five killed and twenty-two wounded. Regardless, as Paul Knight noted in his account of the 47th's service during the Revolutionary War: "The rebels, for that is what they are now, had proved their metal." [9]
While the fog of war and passage of time make it challenging to determine some of the details of the fighting on April 19, 1775, there is no doubt that by day's end thousands of militiamen from well beyond Middlesex County were on the march. Two months later many would play a key part in the Battle of Bunker Hill - including some from Essex County who would guard the British column of the Convention Army on their 1777 march from Saratoga to Cambridge.
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] William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkins Cutler,
Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D (Cincinnati, OH: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), 1:48. Unfortunately there is a gap in Cutler's journal after March 21, 1775, and only a partial entry for April 19th.
[2] Cutler and Cutler, Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D, 1:48.
[3] The Diary of Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, "The Ebenezer Parkman Project", accessed online at:
https://diary.ebenezerparkman.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1775-PDF-65-footnotes.pdf.
[4] A Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King's Troops Under the Command of General Gage On the Nineteenth of April, 1775, (Worcester, MA: Isaiah Thomas, 1775), no page numbers.
[5] D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (Philadelphia, PA: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1890), 1:263.
[6] Josiah Adams, Letter To Lemuel Shattuck, Esq. of Boston... In Vindication of the Claims of Capt. Isaac Davis, of Acton (Boston, MA: Damrell & Moore, 1850), 15 and 17.
[7] Resolve Granting £4 To Ebenezer Munro, Chapter 446, December 14, 1775, The Acts and Resolves Public and Private of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay (Boston, MA: Wright & Potter, 1918),19:175.
[9] Paul Knight, A Very Fine Regiment The 47th Foot during the American War of Independence, 1773-1783 (Warwick: Helion and Company, 2022), 110-113, 117.
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