Over the past few months. The Nerds have discussed five known accounts of civilians, exclusively of women, who came in direct contact with His Majesty’s forces on April 19, 1775.
First up was Lincoln’s Mary Hartwell, who remembered coming in close contact with retreating British forces just as they were about to enter the Bloody Curve. “I saw an occasional horseman dashing by, going up and down, but heard nothing more until I saw them coming back in the afternoon all in confusion, wild with rage and loud with threats. I knew there had been trouble and that it had not resulted favorably for their retreating army. I heard musket shots just below by the old Brooks Tavern and trembled, believing that our folks were killed.”
As they fled the family tavern, Anna Munroe, wife of Lexington’s Sergeant William Munroe, and her 5-year-old daughter Anna nearly collided with the Royal Artillery and Percy's Relief Column. According to her 19th Century account, the child witness recalled she “could remember seeing the men in redcoats coming toward the house and how frightened her mother was when they ran from the house. That was all she could remember, but her mother told her of her very unhappy afternoon. She held Anna by the hand, brother William by her side and baby Sally in her arms . . . She could hear the cannon firing over her head on the hill. She could smell the smoke of the three buildings which the British burned between here and the center of Lexington. And she did not know what was happening to her husband, who was fighting, or what was happening within her house.”
The most notable female non-combatant who came into direct contact with the retreating British column was Hannah Adams of Menotomy. As previously discussed, the Menotomy Fight of April 19, 1775 was a vicious engagement that devolved into a bloody house-to-house and room-to-room fight for survival. Unfortunately, as this fight raged on, Hannah Adams, who had recently given birth and was bedridden, was trapped between Massachusetts militiamen and British regulars.
Like Hannah Adams, Hannah Bradish of Menotomy was also bedridden on April 19, 1775, having given birth to a child eight days earlier. As the regulars entered Menotomy, Hannah slept in bed with her infant. The sound of gunshots woke her up, and she quickly gathered her children and fled to the family kitchen at the back of the house. According to her statement submitted to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress on May 11, 1775, as she and her family hid behind furniture, bullets peppered her house and nearly struck her.
In a 19th Century newspaper interview, Lexington’s Rebekah Fiske described how she came in contact with His Majesty’s troops on more than one occasion and how she and other women and children were forced to flee from their homes to avoid the running fight between Massachusetts provincials and British regulars.
Recently, historian Katie Turner Getty brought to my attention an account of a male civilian, possibly a loyalist, who came in contact with the retreating column.
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| Photo Credit: Nadia Peatie, MMNHP |
As a preliminary matter, if you are not following Katie Turner Getty’s research efforts, you should. While the Nerds tend to focus on the events of April 19th between Lexington and Concord and the impact of the war in Essex County, Katie has taken a deep dive into Menotomy, Cambridge, and Charlestown’s contributions during the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the impact of the Siege of Boston.
Two weeks ago, Katie and the Nerds attended the Saratoga 250th's "Women in War Symposium" in New York as presenters. During her lecture, Katie mentioned the exploits of Jacob Rogers and how he and his family came in direct contact with the retiring British forces as they tried to flee Charlestown, Massachusetts. Unbeknownst to the Nerds, J.L. Bell of Boston 1775 has also blogged about the incident.
As discussed in previous blog postings, there are numerous examples of Middlesex County men who qualified for service in the militia yet saw little or no combat on April 19th. Many could be classified as "evacuees" because they cared for their wives, mothers or daughters and assisted in helping them escape from the fight. Others did not fight because of “special circumstances”, including temporary injuries that prevented mobilization with the militia, an inability to secure arms and equipment, or the undertaking of specific duties, such as guarding captured British troops.
It appears Rogers fell under the “evacuee” category.
Jacob Rogers was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. In 1774, he retired from service on board the HMS Halifax and settled, with his family, in Charlestown.
According to an October 1775 petition to the Massachusetts Legislature, Rogers became aware of the British expedition to Concord early in the morning of April 19th. “We were alarmed with various reports concerning the king’s troops, which put everybody in confusion About ten in the morning I met Doctor [Joseph] Warren riding hastily out of town and asked him if the news was true of the men’s being killed at Lexington; he assured me it was. I replied I was very glad our people had not fired first, as it would have given the king’s troops a handle to execute their project of desolation. He rode on.”
As an aside, the Charlestown militia did not mobilize on April 19, 1775. According to Jacob’s account, the reason why is obvious. “In the afternoon Mr. James Russell … received a letter from General [Thomas] Gage, importing that he was informed the people of Charlestown had gone out armed to oppose his majesty's troops, and that if one single man more went out armed, we might expect the most disagreeable consequences.”
As the afternoon wore on, it became clear that His Majesty’s troops were quickly approaching Charlestown. In response, many residents, including Rogers and his family, chose to flee. “A line-of-battle ship lying before the town; a report that Cambridge bridge was taken up … no other retreat but through Charlestown: numbers of men, women, and children, in this confusion, getting out of town. Among the rest, I got my chaise, took my wife and children; and as I live near the school-house, in a back street, drove into the main street, put my children in a cart with others then driving out of town, who were fired at several times on the common, and followed after. Just abreast of Captain Fenton’s, on the neck of land, Mr. David Waitt, leather-dresser, of Charlestown, came riding in full speed from Cambridge, took hold of my reins, and assisted me to turn up on Bunker’s Hill, as he said the troops were then entering the common.”
Shortly after that, it appears Rogers, his family, Mr. Waitt, and another unknown family came in direct contact with the regulars and were fired upon. “I had just reached the summit of the hill, dismounted from the chaise, and tied it fast in my father-in-law’s pasture, when we saw the troops within about forty rods of us, on the hill. One … Hayley, a tailor, now of Cambridge, with his wife, and a gun on his shoulder, going towards them, drew a whole volley of shot on himself and us, that I expected my wife, or one of her sisters, who were with us, to drop every moment.”
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| Photo Credit: John Collins |
Rogers and his family continued to flee, apparently changing course and hiding in different locations to avoid the retreating regulars. Eventually, he and his family took refuge in a home near the Charlestown training field. While there, Rogers noted he found the “house full of women and children, in the greatest terror, afraid to go to their own habitations.”
After dark, the former naval officer and a few other Charlestown men walked about the town to determine if it was safe to return home. According to Rogers, “On our way, met a Mr. Hutchinson, who informed us all was then pretty quiet; that when the soldiers came through the street, the officers desired the women and children to keep in doors for their safety; that they begged for drink, which the people were glad to bring them, for fear of their being ill-treated.”
Sadly, upon returning home, Rogers and his wife received news that His Majesty’s troops had killed his fourteen-year-old brother-in-law as they crossed Charlestown Neck. “On our arrival at home, we found that her brother a youth of fourteen, was shot dead on the neck of land by the soldiers, as he was looking out of a window. I stayed a little while to console them, and went into the main street to see if all was quiet, and found an officer and guard under arms by Mr. David Wood’s, baker, who continued, it seems, all night; from thence, seeing everything quiet, came home and went to bed.”
To add to Roger’s misfortune, he attempted to reclaim his chaise the next day. To his chagrin, he discovered “my cushion stole, and many other things I had in the box.”
In the aftermath of Lexington and Concord, Lieutenant Rogers was quickly suspected of rendering aid to the enemy on April 19th. Of course, Rogers denied providing such assistance and ultimately submitted an account of his actions as detailed above.
Rogers and his family eventually moved to the Stoneham and Reading, Massachusetts areas, where they were treated with open hostility by the local residents. Eventually, he and his family were forced to flee to England.
"Plan of Charlestown Peninsula in the State of Massachusetts", c. 1818, Digital Commonwealth
Ms. Turner Getty provided a footnote about Lieutenant Rogers’ fate in a research article for the Journal of the American Revolution. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, he submitted a loyalist claim for compensation and openly proclaimed that he rendered material aid to the British troops in the aftermath of Lexington and Concord. Specifically, he asserted, “gave every relief and assistance in his power…to his Majesties’ troops on their retreat to Charles Town in refreshing the Officers and Men [and] procuring surgeons to dress the wounded.”
