Over the past few months, the Nerds have been fielding more questions about Captain John Parker’s Lexington Company and the men who engaged the British on April 19, 1775.
A growing topic of curiosity has been whether the militia unit had not one but two drummers.
As a preliminary matter, military drummers were "field musicians" who played a vital role in their company's tactical employment and camp life. They were also used as signal instruments for the infantry, relaying the commander's orders to soldiers. Many Massachusetts minute and militia companies had at least one drummer within their ranks on the eve of the American Revolution.
Lexington was no different.
On the eve of the American Revolution, the town’s militia company included a drummer named Willaim Diamond. According to research by Steve Cole of the Lexington Minute Men, the musician initially worked in a Cambridge tavern at an early age. According to local tradition, a British soldier from Boston took an interest in the boy and allegedly taught him to play the drum. Lexington's Abijah Fessenden took the teenage Diamond in as a wheelwright apprentice. In the hours before the Battle of Lexington, the nineteen-year-old Diamond carried out Parker’s command to beat a call to arms and summon the Lexington militiamen to assemble on the village common.
In the aftermath of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Diamond enlisted as a drummer in Captain John Woods’ Company, Gerrish’s 25th Massachusetts Regiment of the Massachusetts Grand Army. He would serve with Baldwin’s 26th Continental Regiment during the New York and New Jersey Campaigns of 1776. He returned to active military service as part of various militia regiments in 1778, 1780, and 1781. Following the war, Diamond remained in Lexington until approximately 1795, when he relocated to Peterborough, New Hampshire.
Understandably, Diamond is one of the more easily recognized 1775 drummers and, until approximately fifteen years ago, was believed to be the Lexington Company’s only drummer. However, recent research revealed that Captain John Parker’s Company most likely had a second drummer.
The presence of a second Lexington drummer is within the realm of possibility, as the town actively encouraged two drummers for its overly large militia company. As early as September 26, 1774, Lexington voted to form committees whose responsibilities included “ to provide a pair of drums for the use of the military company in town.” On November 10, 1774, Lexington reiterated its desire to acquire a pair of military drums when it resolved, “Votede. That the Towne provide a pair of Drums for the use of the Military Company in Towne.”
In early March 1775, Lexington purchased and took custody of two drums. On March 14th, the pair were sent to Parker, who signed a document acknowledging receipt.
A continuing theory is that Levi Harrington or Samuel Bowman was Parker’s Company's second drummer at the Battle of Lexington. On April 25, 1775, Harrington signed a deposition stating he and Levi Mead were present at the battle but not part of Parker’s Company. “On the morning of the Nineteenth of April, being on Lexington Common as spectators, we saw a Large body of Regular Troops marching up towards the Lexington Company.” The first time Harrington was listed as a drummer was as part of a March 4, 1776 muster roll where a company of Lexington men were dispatched to Dorchester to support the Siege of Boston.
Likewise, there is no evidence of Samuel Bowman ever serving as a company drummer either. In fact, according to research conducted by Historian William Poole, Bowman moved away from Lexington in the early 1770s.
So, who was this mysterious second drummer? Based on limited evidence, the Nerds initially believed it was Lexington teenager James Brown. However, we're not entirely convinced he's our guy.
On April 19, 1775, James Brown was only sixteen years of age. Present with him on the Lexington Common were his brother, Solomon, and his first cousins, John Brown and Sergeant Francis Brown. John was killed in the subsequent skirmish. In the aftermath of the battle, James was one of fourteen Lexington militiamen who signed a joint deposition describing the one-sided fight.
“We (fourteen names) of Lexington, in the County of Middlesex, and colony of Massachusetts -Bay, in New England, and all of lawful age, do testify and say, that on the morning of the nineteenth of April instant, about one or two o’clock, being informed that a number of Regular Officers had been riding up and down the road, the evening and night preceding, and that some of the inhabitants as they were passing had been insulted by the officers, and stopped by them;and being also informed that the Regular Troops were on their march from Boston, in order as it was said, to take the Colony Stores then deposited at Concord, we met on the parade of our Company in this Town; and after the Company had collected we were ordered by Captain John Parker, who commanded us, to disperse for the present, and to be ready to attend to the beat of the drum: and accordingly the company went into houses near the place of parade. We further testify and say, that about five oclock in the morning, we attended the beat of the drum, and were formed on the parade. We were faced toward the Regulars, then marching up to us, and some of our Company were coming to the parade with their backs toward the Troops,and others on the parade began to disperse when the Regulars fired on the Company before a gun was fired by any of our Company on them; they killed eight of our Company, and wounded several, and continued their fire until we had all made our escape.”
Brown’s possible identity as the unknown second drummer is based on his service record after the Battle of Lexington.
A few weeks after the engagement, the teenager enlisted in Captain John Woods’ Company, Gerrish’s 25th Massachusetts Regiment of the Massachusetts Grand Army. He is listed on a surviving muster roll as a “drummer.” Two months later, a subsequent muster roll identifies Brown as a “Drummer, Capt. John Wood’s (5th) co., Col. Baldwin’s regt.” Two more documents from the Fall of 1775 also identify Brown as a “drummer.”
A review of the service records of other Lexington militiamen from the 1774 - 1775 period does not reveal any other drummers except for William Diamond. It also appears Brown did not serve in any other military capacity for the duration of the war. As a result, he was replaced by Levi Harrington as a company drummer in 1776.
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| William Diamond's Drum, Currently in the Possession of the Lexington Historical Society |
The problem with this assumption is a May 1775 statement by Brown where he describes his role as a combatant, not a drummer at the battle. As Historian Miike DaRu noted in "An Account of the Commencement of Hostilities between Great Britain and America, in the Province of Massachusetts-Bay. By the Reverend William Gordon of Roxbury, in a letter to a Gentleman in England, dated May 17, 1775", Gordon asserts, “James Brown, one of the Lexington Militia, informed me, that he was upon the common; that two pistols were fired from the party of soldiers towards the Militia-men as they were getting over the wall to be out of the way, and that immediately upon it the soldiers began to fire their guns; that being got over the wall, and seeing the soldiers fire pretty freely, he fired upon them, and some others did the same.”
Unfortunately, while the Nerds are firmly convinced a second drummer was present, we may never know who it is.
Regardless, where would William Diamond and other musicians have been located as the British column approached?
When Captain Parker’s Company initially formed on the town common the morning of April 19, 1775, they were in some semblance of a military parade formation. In an official report to London, General Thomas Gage noted, “On these companies' arrival at Lexington, I understand, from the report of Major Pitcairn, who was with them, and from many officers, that they found on a green close to the road a body of the country people drawn up in military order, with arms and accouterment, and, as appeared after, loaded.” Ensign Jeremy Lister recalled, “It was at Lexington when we saw one of their Comps drawn up in regular order.” Finally, 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.
According to the 1775 Boston edition of the Crown Manual, the drill manual most likely utilized by the Lexington Company, drummers and fifers were to be formed “on the right of [the] company” during a parade formation. Thus, William Diamond, John Brown, and Fifer Jonathan Harrington would have been in single rank on the extreme right of Captain Parker’s Company, next to a company sergeant and “dressing with the front rank.” Finally, given the instruction outlined in the Crown Manual, the likely order from left to right would have been drummer - drummer - fifer.
Diamond’s drum still exists and is in the custody of the Lexington Historical Society. Brown’s drum's fate is unknown. The Lexington Historical Society has a fragment adorned with French roosters and purported to be from a drum. The Nerds believe this fragment may be part of the drum carried by Brown and Harrington.
William Diamond had a cool name. James Brown had a frustratingly common one.
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