THE RALLY OF THE FARMERS.
Concord, April 19, 1775.
The Concord men had warning,[1]
And flew from all their farms,
Long hours before the daybreak,
To save the colony’s arms.
And, days before the warning,
Our Salem Congress, too,
Had known their stores were menaced,
And here had left but few.[2]
Yet these to drag and bury[1]
Or hide in woods and rills,
Men flock’d to town and from it,
Like ants about their hills.
But soon, when came the morning,
The “red-coats”[3] rose in sight,
With guns above them flashing
Like surf in seas of light.
Then, one by one, escaping
What could but bode them ill,
The farmers cross’d the river,
And climb’d, anon, a hill.[4]
To the hill there came from Bedford,[4]
And Littleton, and Carlisle,
And Lincoln, Chelmsford, Westford,
More men through each defile.
To the hill there came a rumor[5]
How Lexington had fared,
But no one spoke of yielding,
And all for strife prepared.
From the hill they watch’d the village,[6]
Where every house to scout,
Like busy bees the red-coats[3]
Went bustling in and out.
Despite our wives protesting,
Their hostile blows would shower,
Till scores of barrels, bursting,
Beclouded all with flour.[7]
Ere long, they spiked our cannon,
And fill’d our pond with balls,[7]
And piled the cannon’s wagons
To block the roads like walls.
And then this foe that fear’d it,
Our “liberty-pole” cut down,[7]
And burn’d it with the wagons
That yet might burn the town.
Soon seem’d our court-house burning,[7]
With none the flames to stay;[8]
But “Justice,” cried our leader,
“Will house in heaven to-day.
“Now wait we till these troopers
Of luck have had their fill,
And part of them drift hither,
Or all assault our hill.
“The hill, if they move up it,
Their lines can never take;
Like waves that dash at headlands,
Their wavering ranks will break.”
Just then, they most had started,
Though some were plundering still,
To seize two bridges crossing
The stream beneath the hill.[9]
To seize them was to sever
Our women from our men,
Our homes from those who own’d them,
And what would follow then?
“The north bridge,”—argued Hosmer[10];
“Keep back from it the foe!”
“No man of mine from Acton,”
Said Davis,[10] “fears to go.”
And then our leader Barrett[11]
The order “Forward!” gave,
Where moved the men of Acton[11]
Behind their captain brave.
With arms beside them trailing,
In double file and slow,[12]
Not daunted by the danger,
These farmers faced their foe.
The British ran to ruin
The bridge, and then retire.[13]
“Hold!” cried our Major Buttrick[14];
They answer’d but to fire.
Dead Davis fell, and Hosmer.[15]
“In God’s name,” Buttrick[16] cried,
“Fire, fire!”—and two fell dying
Upon the British side.
Thus Heaven, where hung the purpose
A grander man to mould,
Had Saxon hurl’d on Saxon,
The new world on the old.
Our foe in haste retreated.[17]
Their colonel, where they sped,
March’d forth to reinforce them;
Then all for Boston led.[18]
But now our men from Reading[19]
And Sudbury hurried out,
And Woburn, wild to flank them:
Their march became a rout.[19]
We had but half their number[20];
But, wrongs avenging thus,
Their red coats had been safer
With Spanish bulls than us.
Though guards at every turning,
Would cover well their flanks;
Our smoke, from ambush leaping,[21]
Shot, ghost-like, through their ranks.
From Dedham, Essex, Danvers,
From Chelsea, Marblehead,
From Dorchester, and Brookline,[22]
Our men to meet them sped.
Back slunk their line before us,
A weary, wounded snake:
Up hill, down dale, round river,
It wound and bled and brake.
The whole reserve in Boston[23]
Pour’d out to help them back;
But all the trees and houses
Were haunting now their track.
They turn’d to shoot our mothers;
They turn’d our babes to kill;
Our vengeance rose at Cambridge,[24]
And raged at Prospect Hill.[25]
Down sweeping, Heath and Warren
A charge to break them led;
Then Pickering’s men from Salem[25]
Burst, flood-like o’er their head.[26]
Full night had known its fullest,
Ere all their fears were still’d;
Full ninescore had we wounded,
And more than threescore kill’d.[27]
Nor, till they touched the river,[28]
And by the fleet had pass’d,
Our eyes that faced the danger
Were once behind us cast.
And then, alas to view it!
Hot, bitter tears we shed;
Full thirty found we wounded,
And wellnigh sixty dead.[27]
Our wives had lost their husbands;
Our mothers lost their boys;
Our homes were fill’d with mourning,
And gone were all our joys.
Yet, when we clasp’d those corpses,
As over Huns of old,
It seem’d the skies were filling
With souls for ours enroll’d.
Our prayers when all were buried,
Were vows to Heaven o’erhead,
From hearts that hail’d the glory
Of joining there their dead.
Then, too, we held our weapons;
Had foil’d the British aims;
And held our homes:—our women[29]
Had quench’d the court-house flames.
Our men had met the army,
And fought, and from that hour
They all had grown to soldiers,
Who knew and felt their power.
And so, despite the anguish
That fill’d the morrow’s morn,
The voice that wept betoken’d
A nation, newly born.
“And I,” said Samuel Adams,[30]
“Thank God this day to see!”
“And I,” came back from Hancock[30];
“It makes the new world free!”
FOOTNOTES
[1] “There, at about two in the morning, a peal from the belfry of the meeting-house” called the inhabitants.—Bancroft’s U. S., vol. vii., ch. 27, p. 290. “There, in the morning hours, men ... were hiding what was left of cannon and military stores.”—Idem, ch. 28, p. 297.
[2] “The attempt had for several weeks been expected; ... in consequence, the committee of safety removed a part of the public stores and secreted the cannon.”—Idem, ch. 27, p. 288.
[3] “Red-coats,” a nickname given to the British soldiers, who wore red coats.
[4] “About seven o’clock the British marched ... under the brilliant sunshine into Concord.... The Americans ... therefore retreated ... till ... they gained high ground about a mile from ... the town.... There they waited for aid.... Between nine and ten the number had increased to more than four hundred ... from Bedford, ... Westford, ... from Littleton, from Carlisle, and from Chelmsford.”—Idem, ch. 28, pp. 298, 299.
[5] “The Americans had as yet received only uncertain rumors of the morning’s events at Lexington.”—Idem, p. 300.
[6] “The Americans saw before them ... British troops ... occupying their town.”—Idem.
[7] “Sixty barrels of flour were broken in pieces; ... five hundred pounds of ball were thrown into a mill-pond. The liberty-pole and several carriages for artillery were burned; and the court-house took fire.”—Idem.
[8] “At the sight of fire in the village, the impulse seized them ‘to march into the town for its defence.’”—Idem.
[9] This is literally true. See description of the circumstances.—Idem.
[10] “James Hosmer urged to dislodge the enemy at the North Bridge.... Capt. Isaac Davis, of Acton, said: ‘I have not a man that is afraid to go.’”—Lossing’s Pict. Field Book, vol. i., pp. 526, 527.
[11] “Barrett, the colonel, ... then gave the order to advance, but ‘not to fire’ unless attacked.... Davis, looking at the men of Acton, ... cried: ‘March.’ His company ... led the way towards the bridge, he himself at their head, and by his side Major John Buttrick, of Concord, with John Robinson, ... lieutenant-colonel, ... but on this day a volunteer without command.”—Bancroft’s U. S., vol. vii., ch. 28, p. 302.
[12] “In double file with trailed arms.”—Lossing’s Pict. Field Book, vol. i., p. 527.
[13] “The British began to take up the planks.”—Bancroft’s U. S., vol. vii., ch. 28, p. 302.
[14] “Major Buttrick called on them to desist.”—Lossing’s Pict. Field Book, vol. i., p. 190.
[15] “A volley followed, and Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer ... fell dead.”—Bancroft’s U. S., vol. vii., ch. 28, p. 303.
[16] “Buttrick ... cried aloud: ... ‘Fire, fellow-soldiers, for God’s sake, fire!’... Two of the British fell.”—Idem.
[17] “The British retreated in disorder toward the main body.”—Idem.
[18] “In ... Concord, Smith ... showed by marches and counter-marches, his uncertainty of purpose. At last ... he left the town, to retreat the way he came.”—Idem, p. 304.
[19] “The minute-men and militia ... ran over the hills, ... placed themselves in ambush, ... reinforced by men who were coming in from all around, and ... the chase of the English began. Among the foremost were the minute-men of Reading, ... of Billerica, ... the ... Sudbury company. The men from Woburn came up in great numbers and well armed.”—Idem, pp. 304, 305.
[20] “Of the Americans, there were never more than four hundred together at any one time; but, as some grew tired, others took their places.”—Idem., p. 308. The first detachment of British troops numbered “not less than eight hundred.”—Idem, ch. 27, p. 288
[21] “Every piece of wood, every rock ... served as a lurking-place ... ‘the road was lined’ by an uninterrupted fire from behind stone walls and trees.”—Idem, p. 305.
[22] “Two waggons, sent out to them with supplies, were waylaid and captured by Payson, the minister of Chelsea. From far and wide minute-men were gathering. The men of Dedham, ... from Essex, and the lower towns, ... The company from Danvers, ... lost eight men.... Below West Cambridge, the militia from Dorchester, Roxbury, and Brookline came up.”—Idem, pp. 307-9.
[23] Lord Percy reinforced them with “about twelve hundred men.”—Idem, ch. 28, p. 306.
[24] “West Cambridge, where Joseph Warren and William Heath, ... the latter a provincial general officer, gave ... organization to the resistance, and the fight grew sharper.”—Idem, p. 308.
[25] “The Americans pressed upon the rear of the fugitives, whose retreat could not have been more precipitate ... had Pickering with his fine regiment from Salem and Marblehead been alert enough to have intercepted them in front ... they must have surrendered.”—Idem, p. 309.
[26] See Lossing’s Field Book, vol. 1, p. 528, etc.; also Bancroft’s U. S., vol. vii., ch. 28, p. 308.
[27] According to Lossing, the British lost sixty-five killed, one hundred and eighty wounded, and twenty-eight prisoners; the Americans fifty-nine killed, thirty-one wounded, and fifty missing.—See Lossing’s Pict. Field Book, vol. 1, p. 530. “The loss of the British in killed, wounded, and missing was two hundred and seventy-three.... Forty-nine Americans were killed, thirty-nine wounded, and five missing.”—Bancroft’s U. S., vol. vii., ch. 28, p. 309.
[28] “The guns of the ships of war ... saved them ... while they were ferried across Charles River.”—Idem.
[29] Mrs. Moulton extinguished the fire at the Concord court-house.—Lossing’s Pict. Field Book, vol. i., p. 526.
[30] “Heedless of his own danger, Samuel Adams ... exclaimed: ‘Oh! what a glorious morning is this!’ for he saw that his country’s independence was ... hastening on.”—Bancroft’s U. S., vol. vii., ch. 27, p. 296. “Adams and Hancock, whose proscription had already been divulged ... were compelled by persuasion to retire toward Woburn.”—Idem, p. 292.