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.
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| 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.”
And thus, given that the ideal is to present as accurate a general impression as possible, (unless one is portraying a specific, documented individual) there is little excuse to leave a knapsack out of an impression, here.
ReplyDeleteWell said!
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