Darkness and Confusion: The Conditions of the Lexington Common in the Minutes Before the Battle

In review of the documentation on the Battle of Lexington, particularly the depositions of the Lexington militia men, it is probable that as the light infantry companies of the 4th and 10th Foot stepped onto the village common, the sun had yet to rise and lighting conditions were poor.

Thomas Rice Willard watched the battle from a window in Daniel Harrington’s house, located at the back of the Lexington common. Four days later, he testified “On the Nineteenth instant, in the morning, about a half hour before sunrise, I looked out at the window of said house, and saw (as I suppose) about four hundred regulars in one Body.” John Robbins noted the training band “being drawn up (sometime before sun Rise) on the Green or Common . . .there suddenly appear’d a Number of the Kings Troops.” William Draper, a resident of Colrain, Massachusetts who happened to be in Lexington on April 19th declared “about a half hour before sunrise, the King’s Regular Troops appeared at the meeting house of Lexington.” Finally, Thomas Fessenden asserted that as he stood in a pasture, he watched the regulars enter the common and rush the training band “at about half an hour before sunrise.”

 

Along with the darkness, the militiamen of the Lexington Training Band were also in a state of confusion. As the British advanced towards the common, Captain Parker initially ordered his men to “Let the troops pass by, and don't molest them, without they begin first.” However, when the light infantrymen rushed towards his company, Parker quickly reversed his own instructions. “I immediately ordered our militia to disperse, and not to fire.” 

Because of Parker’s inconsistent commands, many, but not all, of the militiamen broke ranks and began to retire from the field. But simultaneously, additional men arrived at the parade ground to join the Lexington Training Band. Nathaniel Parkhurst affirmed, “we attended to the beat of our drum, and were formed on the Parade; we were faced towards the Regulars then marching up to us, and some of our Company were comeing to the parade with their backs towards the Troops, and Others on the parade, began to disperse when the Regulars fired on the Company.” 

According to Daniel Harrington, “Upon information being received . . . that the troops were not far off, the . . . company collected together . . . by the time the regulars appeared . . . [The company was] chiefly in a confused state and only a few of them being drawn up.” 

Within the space of minutes, the training band had become a confused mob. 

The combination of the darkness, spectators gathered in small clusters and militiamen coming and going from the common must have contributed to Major Pitcairn and Lieutenant Sutherland’s false impression that a large number of armed provincials were drawn up on the Lexington Common. 

 One officer believed he saw two militia companies formed on the common. Ensign Henry De Berniere of the 10th Foot, described the Lexington men drawn up in two “divisions”, with a company-wide space between the two.  As we previously discussed, that perception was erroneous.