"My Heart Became More Relieved of its Apprehensions" - Five Bada** Women from April 19, 1775 that the Lexington Minute Men Need to Honor

On November 16, 2023, the Lexington Minute Men amended its by-laws to admit women into the organization. The vote wasn’t even close. The membership expressed a sincere interest in sharing the stories of Lexington women who rose and met the challenges of April 19, 1775. As a result, the group resolved via a super-majority vote to open up the organization’s membership to women 18 years and older.

Every member of the Lexington Minute Men researches and portrays a male counterpart who fought at the Battle of Lexington. With the organization opening up its ranks to women, the membership now has the unique opportunity to honor every Lexington woman and girl who courageously faced the threats of the day, put their fears and misgivings aside, and helped ensure infants, children, the elderly, the bedridden, the infirm and the sick were safely evacuated from the storm of war.

The Nerds recognize that every Lexington woman caught in the storm of war on April 19, 1775, was a heroine in her own right. But that said, the Nerds secretly hope the following five bada** women of Lexington are the first to be honored for their actions of that day.

Abigail Harrington. After waking her husband and son so that they could gather their arms and equipment and join Captain John Parker’s Company on the Lexington Common, Abigail gathered her remaining children, all under the age of five, and personally led them to safety “down a lane back of the house across a meadow to the old place on Smock farm.”

Sarah Reed Whittemore. Sarah lived with her husband and her in-law parents along the Bay Road. On April 19, 1775, the young Lexington woman was still recovering from the birth of her third child 18 days earlier. With the British column approaching her home, she and her immediate family successfully gathered her children, carried Sarah and her newborn infant out of the house on a mattress, and retreated to the relative safety of a nearby woodlot just before the battle reached their home.

The Widow Lydia Mulliken. Lydia’s husband, a respected clockmaker, had died on the eve of the American Revolution. Her daughter, Lydia, was in a romantic relationship with Dr. Samuel Prescott of Concord. When word reached the Widow Mulliken and her daughters that Lieutenant Colonel Smith was leading a military expedition towards Lexington, they hurriedly buried the family’s silver and other valuables by a stone wall near their clock shop, then fled to distant safety. Later in the day, the Mulliken home would be plundered for valuables and burned to the ground.

Rebekah Fiske. In the early morning of April 19th, word reached the Fiske family that His Majesty’s forces were advancing on Concord. As many of her neighbors fled for safety, Rebekah was in a difficult situation. Her 83-year-old father-in-law, Lieutenant Ebenezer Fiske, was seriously ill and bedridden. At the same time, her husband was also suffering from some unknown impairment and was excused from militia service. As a result, she made the difficult choice of staying in her home.

According to a 19th-century narrative she shared with the Harvard Register, Fiske recalled, “I heard the guns … at about day-break, but being unapprehensive of danger, did not, like most of our neighbors move off for fear of the enemy; especially as my father was confined to his bed of a severe sickness so that in fleeing from the house we must leave him behind, which I could not consent to. Our domestics had already absconded, we knew not whither. I, therefore, and my husband, who on account of a certain indisposition, was incapacitated for military service, remained in the house with our father, while the enemy passed; which they did without offering us any injury. I remember well, their exact order, red coats, glittering arms, and appalling numbers.”

As previous research has suggested, many women and children who fled their homes earlier in the day returned mid-morning. According to Fiske, once word reached their location that the British were marching from Concord back to their location, a panic set in, and many civilians started to flee again. As the regulars approached, Fiske describes how she, her family, enslaved persons, and many of her neighbors made a mad dash across fields to escape the coming firefight.

 

"Sometime after, on their arrival at Concord, a report of musketry was once more heard, and in broken and incessant volleys. It was a sound of death to us. All now was trepidation, fever, and rushing to arms; women and children bewildered and scouring across the fields. With much ado we succeeded in yoking our oxen and getting father on his bed into an ox-cart, and thus moving him off as carefully as we could to a neighbor’s house, at some distance from the highway, on which we expected the enemy to return. Before leaving our house, I secured some of the most valuable of my effects, putting my large looking glass between two featherbeds, and fastening all the windows and doors. The house we carried farther to, had been already vacated, and here I was left alone with him. The dreadful sound of approaching guns was still ringing in my ears. Bewildered and affrighted, I betook myself into the house-cellar there to await my fate. Occasionally, I ventured to peep out to discover the approach of the enemy. After remaining some time in this dreadful state of fear and suspense, I at last discovered the enemy coming down a long hill on the highway partly upon a run and in some confusion, being closely beset by ‘our men’ in flank and rear. The terrific array of war soon came fully into view, and as soon passed off again from before my eyes, like a horrid vision, leaving only a cloud of smoke behind and the groans of the dying, who were strewed in its wake.”

Once the retreating army had passed her homestead, Rebekah returned to survey the damage. Upon arrival, she discovered a horrific scene. Not only had her home and surrounding property been vandalized and pillaged (both capital crimes in 18th Century Massachusetts), but she also discovered multiple casualties on the doorstep and inside her home. One of the dying was Acton minute man and school teacher James Haywood, mortally wounded earlier while exchanging musket fire with a British soldier at the Fiske’s water well.

As Rebekah graphically recalled in her 1827 statement, “After the rattle of musketry had grown somewhat weaker from distance, and my heart became more relieved of its apprehensions, I resolved to return home. But what an altered scene began to present itself, as I approached the house—garden walls thrown down—my flowers trampled upon—earth and herbage covered with the marks of hurried footsteps. The house had been broken open, and on the door-step—awful spectacle—there lay a British soldier dead, on his face, though yet warm, in his blood, which was still trickling from a bullet-hole through his vitals. His bosom and his pockets were stuffed with my effects, which he had been pillaging, having broken into the house through a window. On entering my front room, I was horror-struck. Three mangled soldiers lay groaning on the floor and weltering in their blood which had gathered in large puddles about them. “Beat out my brains, I beg of you,” cried one of them, a young Briton, who was dreadfully pierced with bullets, through almost every part of his body, “and relieve me from this agony.” You will die soon enough, said I, with a revengeful pique. A grim Irishman, shot through the jaws, lay beside him, who mingled his groans of desperation with curses on the villain who had so horridly wounded him. The third was a young American employing his dying breath in prayer. A bullet had passed through his body, taking off in its course the lower part of his powder-horn. The name of this youthful patriot was J. Haywood of Acton. His father came and carried his body home; it no lies in Acton graveyard. These were the circumstances of his death: being ardent and close in the pursuit, he stopped a moment at our well to slake his thirst. Turning from the well, his eye unexpectedly caught that of the Briton, whom I saw lying dead on the door-step, just coming from the house with his plunder. They were about a rod from each other. The Briton know it was death for him to turn, and the American scorned to shrink. A moment of awful suspense ensued—when both simultaneously levelled their muskets at each other’s heart, fired, and fell on their faces together. My husband drew the two Britons off on a sled, and buried them in one of our pastures, where they now lie, beneath a pine tree which has grown up out of their grave. The Irishman was the only one of the three that survived.”

Photo Credit John Collins Photography

Anna Munroe. Personally, the Nerds rank Anna Munroe as the most bad** of Lexington bada** women. Not only did Mrs. Munroe watch over Munroe Tavern while her husband was off fighting British forces, but Anna personally carried her three children to safety while exposed to British relief troops who were torching her neighbor’s homes and unleashing an artillery barrage on Massachusetts forces.

According to her daughter, she “could remember seeing the men in red coats 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. . . Anna’s mother used to talk to her of what happened on April 19th and she remembered that her mother used to take her on her lap and say: ‘This is my little girl that I was so afraid the Red coats would get.’”

Any woman 18 years or older who is interested in joining the Lexington Minute Men may contact the organization here.

“In Every Other Busines of the Adjutant, To Whom He Is An Assistant” - The Role of the Sergeant Major in the Continental Army

Recently, a question was posed on the Facebook group “Progressive Rev War Reenactors” about the appropriateness of the rank of “sergeant major” and whether the position existed during the Revolutionary War era. There was also some confusion over where the rank fell within the command structure. Some assumed the position was a senior officer rank equal to that of a brigade command officer, while others asserted the position was an administrative role with little to no authority above a clerk.

So, what was a sergeant major of the American forces during the Revolutionary War, particularly for Massachusetts forces?

As a preliminary matter, the Nerds did serve as a sergeant major during many of the 225th commemoration events. We had the benefit of having mentors who took the time to carefully train us to ensure the interpretation of the role was accurate given the available research at the time. Finally, the Nerds were fortunate during the 225th to have a wonderful and very positive relationship with the British Brigade’s sergeant major, who always made himself available for questions, advice, and guidance on how the British army addressed the administrative and supervisory responsibilities of non-commissioned officers.

The Nerds' memories of being a sergeant major during the 225th were that of heavy administrative work - assisting the battalion adjutant, compiling returns, relaying brigade and company orders to sergeants, overseeing the formation of the regiment on the parade ground, and posting guards.

We did not command the battalion, a company, or a platoon.

When the question was posed to “Progressive Rev War Reenactors”, fortunately, several leading historians on the Continental and British armies, including John U. Rees, Don Hagist, and Eric Chetwynd, shared their research and knowledge on the position. This, in turn, spurred the Nerds to earn their keep and do a little digging of their own. This is what we found.

The position of “sergeant major” did exist in the 18th Century and was referenced in many pre-Revolutionary War drill manuals, including Bland’s Military Discipline (c. 1759 edition) and Cumberland’s A New Exercise. 

Photo Credit Rob Hoogs, Bidwell House

However, not all treatises were equal, and many pre and early Revolutionary War manuals and resolutions surprisingly did not reference the rank. For example, the Norfolk Drill, the Boston and New York Editions of the 1764 Crown Manual, and the Pickering Drill lacks any reference the position.

Similarly, a review of the minutes of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress reveals twenty-seven instances when the rank of “sergeant” or “serjeant” was discussed/ there are no findings within the minutes for the rank of sergeant major. Early pay scales for the Massachusetts militia and minute companies and regiments, as established by various towns, did not list sergeants major. Finally, the 1775 “Rules and Regulations of the Massachusetts Army” did not differentiate between sergeants major and other non-commissioned officers.

However, as historian John U. Rees noted, the position did exist within the Continental Army. A cursory review of Continental muster rolls confirms his position. For example, John Flowers of the 15th Massachusetts, John Hawkins of the 2nd Canadian Regiment and JohnChampe of Lee’s Legion all held the rank of sergeant major during the Revolutionary War. As discussed below, Baron Von Steuben even addressed the rank and responsibilities of a regimental sergeant major.

Excerpt from Cumberland's "A New Exercise"

Historian Don Hagist has indicated that a sergeant major was a regimental non-commissioned officer and was not part of a brigade, division, or army command staff. As such, a sergeant major held no authority over regimental or staff officers. Even a lowly ensign outranked a sergeant major.

Likewise, sergeants major did not wear any unique rank insignias or trappings of an officer to distinguish themselves from other sergeants. During the American Revolution, non-commissioned officers were merely identified by colored epaulets or strips of cloth. According to General Washington’s 1775 order, “corporals may be distinguished by an epaulet or stripe of green cloth sewed upon the right shoulder, the sergeants by one of red.” In June 1780, Washington issued a second order regarding NCO rank insignias. The order mimicked the 1775 instructions and required NCOs to wear a green or red epaulet on their right shoulder. At no point during the war did Washington or any other general issue orders regarding the wearing of unique clothing 

When a regiment paraded, a sergeant major did not field at the head of the regiment or with field officers. Instead, he was stationed at the rear of the regiment behind the center of the line. 

So with all this said, how was a sergeant major chosen, and what were their responsibilities in a regiment?  

Historian Eric Chetwynd shared the recommendations of Bennet Cuthbertson regarding sergeants major within the British army.

In his work, System For The Complete Interior Management and Oeconomy of A Battalion of Infantry, Cuthbertson outlines the expectations and duties of a sergeant major. Specifically,  “The choice of a Serjeant-major must never be influenced by any other consideration, than that of real merit; besides his being a compleat Serjeant in every respect, he ought to be sensible, sedate, and have a good address: in particular, he must be above conniving at the least irregularities committed by the Non-commission officers or Soldiers whom, he is to observe a becoming distance: he should be a perfect master of every branch in the interior management and discipline of a Regiment; be expert at Calculations, keeping Rosters, and forming Details: in his temper, he must have a certain degree of coolness, to give instructions in the Exercise, and to bear with patience the stupidity of Recruits, and often of the older Soldiers; at the same time that he possesses a necessary smartness, to enforce, when requisite, a strict attention to his directions: and as he has frequent opportunities, of closely attending to the morals and behavior of the Serjeants and Corporals, he should be quick in discovering their faults; and as ready in communicating them to the Adjutant, whose authority, he must, on every occasion endevor to promote.”

The United States Army’s Office of the Historian noted a sergeant major of the Continental Army was “required …  to be well acquainted with the management structure, disciplining the Soldiers and overseeing rosters and forming unit details.”

Excerpt from Von Steuben's "Blue Book"

Baron Von Steuben followed the recommendations of Cuthbertson. In his famed “Blue Book,” he suggested a sergeant major should be “well acquainted with the interior management and discipline of the regiment and the manner of keeping rosters and forming details. He must always attend the parade, be very expert in counting off the battalion, and in every other business of the adjutant, to whom he is an assistant.”

In short, a sergeant major was an administrative position that assisted the adjutant in managing the regiment. His other duties centered on supervising other sergeants, carrying out discipline, and assisting in guard and forage details.

The role of sergeants major has evolved over the past two centuries.

In 1820, the Massachusetts militia system and the United States Army expanded the role of the sergeant major to include offering practical and theoretical instruction to sergeants and corporals under their command. 

In 1920, the sergeant major position was eliminated by an act of Congress. However, in 1958, the rank was restored. By 1965, the Army had issued a policy statement declaring sergeants major “represent and uphold the image of “The Backbone of the Army” mentality. This position [is] tasked with answering to the Chief of Staff for enlisted affairs and acting as a personal advisor.”