On April 18, 1775 a group of express riders, most notably, Paul Revere, rode across the Middlesex County countryside. The riders warned that the King’s troops were on the march, arousing embattled farmers. At the time, the riders and farmers alike were still loyal subjects to England’s King George III. Independence was the furthest thing from their minds. Instead, these minutemen and members of local Massachusetts militia assembled to defend their rights, as they perceived them under English law.
British General Thomas Gage ordered 700 soldiers to march in what he thought was a clandestine operation. His objective was to destroy the cache of colonial weapons located in the town of Concord. Within twenty-four hours, more than 70 of the King’s finest troops lay dead and many more wounded. Fortynine provincials also died.
About ten in the morning on April 19th, Charlestown residents were alarmed by various reports concerning the King’s troops. Dr. Joseph Warren confirmed that men were being killed at Lexington, and Mr. James Russell received a warning in a letter from General Gage that he had been informed that the people of Charlestown had gone out armed, and that they should expect him to “lay the town to ash” should others join. Backing up that threat, the 70-gun HMS Somerset anchored just off the ferry landing and trained its cannon on the town.
A line of battleships surrounded Charlestown and the Cambridge bridge was taken up, leaving Charlestown the only option for retreat for the King’s troops. The British column, now 1,600 strong with the addition of reinforcements, marched back to Boston, and “received fire from all quarters, from the houses on the roadsides and the adjacent stone walls.” The fighting along the Battle Road grew more and more grim, and was house to house through Menotomy (now Arlington) and Cambridge.
Just as the British column arrived at Charlestown neck at 7 PM, Massachusetts Militia General William Heath ordered the minutemen to halt their pursuit. The Salem Gazette, April 25, 1775, reported: “The consternation of the people of Charlestown, when our enemies were entering the town, is inexpressible; the troops, however, behaved tolerably civil, and the people have since nearly all left the town.” However ‘tolerably civil’ the troops actions were, a fourteen year old boy, Edward Barber was shot as he looked out the window from inside his home. A regular killed the boy with a single shot. His 12 brothers and sisters ran screaming into the streets, intensifying the panic in Charlestown.
The British column took a good defensive position on Bunker Hill, covered by the guns of the fleet, and the engagement came to an end at 7:30 PM on Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston began. Twenty thousand minutemen and militia answered the “Lexington Alarm” and arrived within the week, establishing siege operations under the direction of the Provincial Congress and the Committee of Safety.
Firsthand accounts from residents at the time describe the Provincial troop’s actions through town. Many reported damage to their properties, and instructed citizens to keep the women and children indoors for their safety. They “begged for drink, which the townspeople were glad to give them for fear of being ill-treated.” Officers occupied the taverns and drank heavily into the night.
In the confusion of the day, numbers of men, women and children began to evacuate Charlestown on foot and by cart pulled by hand, by horse or by oxen. Many of them took fire, everyone was filled with “the greatest terror,” afraid to go to their own houses they huddled together in taverns and houses.
The flight of Charlestown residents began in earnest on the day of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.The town was abandoned by the time of the Battle of Bunker Hill, two months later on June 17. The Battle and the fires set to the town leveled it, only chimneys remained. Thousands of Charlestown residents lost their homes.
In 1776, Charlestown residents organized a town-wide claim for buildings, landscape, and personal items destroyed by the King’s troops. Over 450 families and individuals submitted claims for their losses totaling £117,882. These claims were submitted to the new US government multiple times over the next 50 years. The residents were never compensated for their losses.
The events that unfolded in Charlestown and the surrounding areas on April 18 and 19, 1775 marked a pivotal turning point in American history, igniting the spark of revolution that would ultimately lead to independence. The bravery of the express riders, the resolve of the minutemen, and the resilience of the residents in the face of overwhelming adversity set the stage for the long and arduous struggle ahead.
Though the town of Charlestown lay in ruins, its people scattered and their pleas for restitution unanswered, their sacrifices were not in vain. The Battles of Lexington and Concord, and the subsequent Siege of Boston, galvanized a nation to rise against tyranny, forging a legacy of liberty that endures to this day, a testament to the indomitable spirit of those who stood firm on that fateful spring day two hundred fifty years ago.
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