"Our Men Seemed Maddened With the Sight of British Blood" - Five Completely False Tales About April 19, 1775

Since our post on "Josiah Austin" and his fake account about the Battle of Concord, the Nerds have been repeatedly asked why we haven’t written about other crazy and untrue stories about the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Admittedly, we were reluctant to write a blog post on the topic because we honestly didn’t think there were that many tales or accounts to share. Thanks to the internet and follower contributions, we were proven wrong.

So, without further fanfare and in the spirit of the upcoming April Fools Day, the Nerds present five fake stories about Lexington and Concord. 

The Sons of Liberty. To kick things off, we’d like to mention the flaming piece of human excrement known as The Sons of Liberty. 

This “historical drama” was a 2015 miniseries that appeared on the History Channel. Sponsored by the Sam Adams Brewery, the series promoters boasted that the production faithfully reproduced the events of Revolutionary New England.

The three-part series made Disney’s Johnny Tremain look like a doctoral thesis. It included Sam Adams leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Indiana Jones style, as redcoats tried to murder him from below. Other scenes included Captain John Parker’s Company being executed mafia-style at the Battle of Lexington, Dr. Joseph Warren having a torrid affair with Margaret Gage, and an army of leather-clad colonists that would have been warmly welcomed at a Judas Priest concert.

In short, the mini-series was a three-night commercial for Assassin’s Creed and Sam Adams Brewery. 

General Von Steuben.  Our next tale comes from the Lexington Minute Men.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a local resident would passionately tell members that in the Fall of 1774, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress hired Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben to train the colony’s minute and militia companies. He insisted Congress secretly hired a sloop from Salem, Massachusetts, to retrieve Baron von Steuben, who was kept safe by French contacts. He was smuggled into the colony and proceeded to train Worcester and Middlesex County forces in secret.

According to this “account,” Von Steuben fled the colony hours after the Battle of Lexington. Before departing for Europe, he swore he would return to finish his job of training the American forces. Almost three years later, the Prussian fulfilled his oath.

Although the Baron is rightfully credited with training the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1778, he did not train Massachusetts minute and militia companies in 1774-1775. As discussed in this blog, Massachusetts forces were either training themselves or hiring third parties, including British deserters, to train them in the “art military.”

The Andover Minute Men. The Andover Minute Men occasionally get a razzing for stopping for lunch in Billerica on April 19, 1775, instead of conducting a forced march through Bedford to intercept the regulars as they retreated from Concord.

This fact must have galled 19th-century Andover historian Sarah Loring Bailey because, in her work Historical Sketches of Andover, she introduces a tale of the Andover minute companies encountering an armed British officer during the retreat to Boston.

Well…sort of.

According to Bailey, the Andover men “were fired upon by a British officer from a house which he was plundering. They rushed in and killed the man. They were used to the sight of blood, having served in the French war, but though veterans in the horrors of war, their souls revolted at some of the dreadful sights of that day. They related that our men seemed maddened with the sight of British blood, and infuriated to wreak vengeance on the wounded and helpless.”

According to Bailey, the Andover companies also witnessed other militia companies torturing British wounded. They were so sickened by the barbarity that they halted to render aid to those injured regulars. In one instance, “a fallen grenadier had been stabbed again and again by the passers-by, so that the blood was flowing from many holes in his waistcoat … [the Andover men] perhaps, remembering the days when they had called these men companions-in-arms, gently lifted up the dying soldier and gave him water to drink, for which he eagerly begged.”

Bailey must have received some flack from the claim as later editions of her work change the story to Chelmsford militiamen firing upon the British officer. Naturally, early 20th-century Chelmsford historians ran with Bailey’s revision.

In reality, there are multiple primary accounts from Andover minute men detailing their route of march and observations on April 19th. Conspicuously absent is any account of a British officer firing on Andover soldiers while plundering or the Merrimack Valley men rendering aid to British regulars tortured by other provincial forces.

General Bernardo de Galvez.  We all know that General Galvez and his Spanish companions single-handedly secured American Independence with their good looks, tasty alcoholic drinks, and laser blasters. The Nerds have seen enough postings on social media to know this is true. We’re also pretty sure General Glavez inspired the character Han Solo in the Star Wars trilogy because the internet told us so.

In 2016, “historian” and George Mason University professor Larrie D. Ferreiro published the claim that Galvez and other Spanish patriots were single-handedly financing, arming, and equipping American forces in preparation for war with England. 

According to Ferreiro “even before fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord in 1775, Spain was providing arms and munitions to the American insurgents. The Bilbao merchant Diego de Gardoqui, who had a long relationship with cod brokers in Marblehead and Salem, smuggled shiploads of muskets, shoes, uniforms, blankets, and gunpowder to New England. From New Orleans, Unzaga sent 10,000 pounds of much-needed gunpowder to the colonial troops at Fort Pitt (today’s Pittsburgh) to fend off British threats in the Western Theater. Madrid also sent today’s equivalent of a half-billion dollars to France in order to fund another arms smuggling operation to the United States. Americans desperately needed this materiel aid, for they had begun the war stunningly incapable of fending for itself. They had no navy, little in the way of artillery, and a ragtag army and militia that were bereft of guns and even of gunpowder. The colonists knew that without the help of France and Spain, they could not hope to prevail against the superior British army and navy.” 

Another “academic” argued that Galvez personally purchased and shipped thousands of Spanish muskets to New England in 1774 and 1775 to assist in the coming conflict with the crown.

We will defer to Joel Bohy’s research findings on the number of Spanish muskets in provincial hands on April 19th. Nevertheless, we suspect it is minimal to non-existent. We would also point out that the Nerds encountered some evidence of Massachusetts colonists sailing to French and Spanish Caribbean colonies to purchase muskets and cannons after Lexington and Concord. However, we have yet to encounter any evidence of Spanish supporters shipping billions worth of "muskets, shoes, uniforms, blankets, and gunpowder to New England” before the war began.

The “Menotomy Indians”. Our final tale, perhaps our favorite, comes from Frank Chamberlain of the 10th Massachusetts Regiment. Chamberlain says that several years ago, he was approached by a tourist who wanted to share some of his research on the Mentomy militia and how a collection of local Native Americans helped prepare them for war.

Curious, Chamberlain asked the tourist to elaborate, which he did. Apparently, a local tribe of “Menotomy Indians” trained the local militia in underwater combat. You read that correctly. This individual asserted that local Natives taught Menotomy militia men how to use reeds to breathe underwater to lay in ambush against His Majesty’s troops. The tourist claimed that on April 19th, several militiamen from Menotomy utilized this training, submerged themselves in Spy Pond, and waited for the regulars to pass by. The men emerged from the water and killed their enemy.

While we think this tale is worthy of a modern-day action movie, it’s safe to say it’s utterly false. And as an aside, muskets don’t work when they are wet.

Rest assured, the Nerds will collect more questionable tales from April 19th as they come in. We promise to post a follow-up article soon.

Now, has anyone seen our Spanish breathing reed? 

"Each Man is Supplied Even to a Knapsack" - Did they Really Wear Knapsacks at Lexington and Concord?

Recently, the Nerds were alerted to a discussion on the official Facebook page of the Massachusetts chapters of the Sons of the American Revolution. Specifically, there was a debate over the appropriateness of reenactors portraying Massachusetts militia and minute men wearing knapsacks at the annual Battles of Lexington and Concord reenactment.

Several organization members surprisingly scoffed at the notion of Middlesex County militia men wearing packs during the battle, particularly those who hailed from towns that saw combat: Concord, Lincoln, Lexington, Menotomy, and Cambridge. One person declared that requiring participants to wear knapsacks was part of a money-making scheme. Another declared that the National Park Service needed to be more flexible in its authenticity standards, especially regarding knapsacks. A third argued, without evidence, that his “relatives from Lexington and Concord didn’t dress like that on April 19th!”

We’d like to take a moment to address this so-called argument, particularly the claim that the militia companies that hailed from towns along the combat route never carried packs because the fight was literally outside their doors.

As a preliminary matter, the argument ignores militia laws, Massachusetts Provincial Congress resolves, and town resolutions of the period.

According to Massachusetts colonial militia laws between 1690 and 1773, when a company was alarmed, they were also required to rally fully armed and equipped for a military campaign. This included fielding with packs and blankets.

Photo credit: Minute Man National Historical Park

Similarly, on December 10, 1774, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress passed a resolution declaring that “each of the minute men, not already provided therewith, should be immediately equipped with an effective firearm, bayonet, pouch, knapsack, thirty rounds of cartridges and balls.”

During the buildup for war with England in 1774 and 1775, countless towns adopted existing Massachusetts militia laws and instructions from the Provincial Congress to pass local resolutions requiring its minute and militiamen to field with knapsacks if required to mobilize for war. For example, on November 21, 1774, the Town of Danvers resolved its minute companies would be equipped with “an effective fire-arm, bayonet, pouch, knapsack, thirty rounds of cartridges and balls.” On December 26, 1774, Roxbury ordered “Militia minutemen [to] hold themselves in readiness at a minutes warning, compleat in arms and ammunition; that is to say a good and sufficient firelock, bayonet, thirty rounds of powder and ball, pouch and knapsack.” In January 1775, Braintree required each soldier furnish himself with “a good fire lock, bayonett, cartouch box, one pound of powder, twenty-four balls to fitt their guns, twelve flints and a knapsack.”

Even General Gage took note of Massachusetts’ wartime preparations. According to one such report dispatched to his superiors, the general described “each man is supplied even to a knapsack, canteen and blanket and directed to bring a week’s provisions with him when called to the field.”

Of course, the Nerds suspect certain naysayers may argue that although there is evidence of laws and resolutions of knapsacks being required, there is no evidence of them actually being carried on April 19, 1775. Again, this argument is without merit.

Israel Litchfield of Scituate, Massachusetts notes in his journal that when he and others mobilized for war, “Daniel, and I and Lot and Amos and John Whitcom Came home and got our guns, Catoos boxes, knapsack & c. & went down to Cohasset". Similarly, as a Massachusetts militia company advanced towards Boston after Lexington and Concord, a pair of knapsacks were misplaced or fell off a support wagon. According to the subsequent advertisement, ““Lost out of a Waggon in Westborough, two Packs and a great Coat, also a Cartridge-Box, and powder Horn. The Packs contained two white Shirts, a check Shirt, 2 Pair of Stockings, some Provision, &c. &c. Whoever shall take up the above, and send them to Capt. Steadman’s of Cambridge, shall be handsomely rewarded. April 24, 1775. Lemuel Pomeroy. N.B. It is very likely the Packs was by Mistake put into a wrong Waggon”

But what about the towns that were either along the path of the fighting or nearby? Did militia and minute men leave their packs behind when they entered combat? The Nerds would point to three separate accounts that support the proposition that men who lived along the “Battle Road” also fielded with packs. The first two statements are attributable to Captain John Parker’s Lexington Company. The third is related to the Menotomy Fight.

According to the 1776 anniversary sermon of the Reverend Jonas Clarke, the minister discussed how Parker’s Company was prepared to respond to any military emergency, regardless of the location. According to Clarke, “Upon this intelligence, as also upon information of the conduct of the officers as above-mentioned, the militia of the town were alarmed, and ordered to meet on the usual place of parade; not with any design of commencing hostilities upon the king’s troops but to consult what might be done for our own and the people’s safety; And also to be ready for whatever service providence might call us out to, upon this alarming occasion in case overt acts of violence or open hostilities be committed by this mercenary hand of armed and blood thirsty oppressors.”

The term “alarmed” coupled with “And also to be ready for whatever service providence might call us out to” suggests that Parker’s Company fielded the morning of April 19th with packs in accordance to existing militia laws and was prepared to enter a military campaign against His Majesty’s forces regardless of where it took them. As recent research findings have revealed, Parker’s Company did not cease combat operations once it reached the Menotomy town line later that day and continued to pursue the enemy. Parker and his men remained in Cambridge for approximately one week. To undertake such a campaign without packs would defy logistical expectations and undermine the unit's efficiency in the early days of the Siege of Boston.

A second statement from a British officer at the Battle of Lexington directly notes Parker and his men were armed and equipped for a military campaign.

As the unit was formed on the Lexington Common, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith reported: “ 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 accoutrement, and, as appeared after, loaded.”

However, the Nerds have a piece of even stronger evidence proving that militiamen wore packs while in the field on April 19, 1775.

In 1847, a mass grave that contained militiamen killed during the fighting around the Jason Russell House during the Menotomy fight was opened. According to an eyewitness who recorded his observations while the bodies were exhumed, he described how the men “were all buried … with their Clothes, Knapsacks, &c. On.”

Of course, the Nerds do not believe in absolutes, and it is possible that a few militiamen would have fielded without packs. However, we also adopt the National Park’s position on the issue. As the organization appropriately stated, “Can we say with absolute certainty that EVERY militiaman and minute man who answered the Lexington Alarm carried with him a knapsack and blanket? Of course not. However, this documentation shows that [knapsacks were] very common and in the vast majority.”