And the very spots that inspired We Are Not Strangers…
All along Battle Road (then Bay Road), you will find these sorts of markers. It’s quite sad that we don’t have their names, but I do appreciate that people take care even today to plant British flags by their graves, and American flags in the local cemeteries at the graves of veterans and fallen soldiers.
North Bridge
Where the major bloodshed began after the skirmish in Lexington. You can see the bridge in the distance here.
Above, you can see the bridge from the side the British approached from (left) and the Americans (right, marked with a statue).
Captain Isaac Davis, the first American officer killed in the war, died here. His four children were all at home with scarlet fever when he left that morning. As he was the militia leader, he didn’t have much of a choice. His wife, Hannah, later recollected that as he went to leave, Isaac paused as if to say something, but whatever it was, he didn’t say it.
Isaac Davis was shot in the chest at North Bridge, where he died. His children recovered.
There are also graves of two British soldiers here, though supposedly three died at North Bridge. Curiously, examinations of the remains in the 20th century found that neither of the dead had a broken skull; the third man who died here was the man written about in We Are Not Strangers, the one whom everyone thought was scalped because Ammi White took a hatchet to his head. What happened to the third body, who seems to have quite possibly been this man, is unknown.
(Speaking of Ammi White, his family owned a building that is now the Colonial Inn in Concord. The place still runs a restaurant today, and it has quite good food!)
Lexington
Lexington Green is pretty cool. There were reenactors out there the day we went, which was fun to see!
The Buckman Tavern in Lexington was standing on that day in 1775, and has a museum above it… and a pretty great and honest portrayal of the enslaved people who fought in Lexington. It was probably the most responsible and thorough explanation of who those people were (Prince Estabrook, for example, who did become free), what they did, and where their lives went afterwards. They also directly called out the hypocrisy of fighting for freedom while owning slaves.
Above you’ll see a faithful recreation of what the tavern would have looked like during 1775, and above is an image from the museum. The small dark square contains a bloodstained cloth from the actual battle.
The Hancock-Clarke House
A short walk from Buckman Tavern is the house where John Hancock and Sam Adams stayed the night before the battle. They had been warned that the British intended to arrest them (while a warrant had been issued, the British actually didn’t intend to arrest them that day). Hancock’s fiancée, Dorothy Quincy, was also at the house. Reportedly, when she tried to leave that evening (post-battle) and return to her father, Hancock attempted to stop her. She responded:
“Recollect Mr. Hancock, that I am not under your control yet. I shall go to my father tomorrow.”
Hancock and Dorothy married in August 1775. They had two children, but both died young; their daughter at only ten months, and their son in a tragic ice skating accident at age nine.
Hayward’s Well
Above is a sign that reads:
At this well, April 19 1775, James Hayward of Acton met a British soldier who raised his guns and said you are a dead man and so he replied so are you. Both fired the soldier was instantly killed & Hayward mortally wounded.
Thomas Nelson Jr. House Ruins
Below, we have the remains of the Thomas Nelson Jr. house. It no longer exists, but is marked with a plaque, and the foundation can still be seen.
Why does this house matter? Well, if you read the plaque, you’ll see that the family found a British soldier on their doorsteps, terribly wounded. The family took him in and cared for him, but he died the next day. When Mercy first saw this plaque last year, she thought to herself, what if he didn’t die? And thus Matthew Wilcox was born.
Parker’s Revenge
The Lexington skirmish concerned Captain John Parker’s militiamen. Later in the day, Parker and his men scurried down Bay Road to meet the regulars on their way back to Boston. They hid among the rocks and hills and fired at the troops as they passed. Forensic analysis in 2017 was able to trace exactly where the British were and where the Americans were during this portion of the fight, and those locations are marked with a plaque.
I presume they were also able to find a set of remains, because while the British flag there is not accompanied by a grave marked, that’s the most likely reason it’s there.
Bloody Angle
The so-called “Bloody Angle” is a sharp curve in Bay Road in Lincoln where quite a few British soldiers were wounded and killed. Again, I appreciate the marker and the small cross with a poppy flower on it, as these are frequently used to honor soldiers in Britain.
Bloody Angle is the precise spot where, in We Are Not Strangers, Matthew Wilcox was wounded and later found by Josiah.
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