Within the village the British were very active in their search for the military supplies. Public buildings, stores, and private dwellings were alike examined. At the malt house of Ebenezer Hubbard a considerable quantity of flour was discovered, and the end boards of the building were pulled off, that the barrels might the easier and faster be rolled out into the road, where they were broken open, and the contents mixed with the dust.[176] At the store house of Timothy Wheeler, another lot of flour was found, which the miller, by a little artifice, saved. It was indeed public property, but Wheeler, placing his hand upon the bags of meal, one after another, and which stood with the flour, assured the soldiers that he was a miller, and that they were his.
They were considerate enough to spare his personal property, and included the flour.[177]
At the neighboring grist-mill several barrels were seized, and rolled to or into the mill pond, but part was subsequently saved, as it hardly reached the water.[178]
Deacon Thomas Barrett, brother of Colonel Barrett, was a resident of the village. He was an aged man, and remained quietly in or near his home while the soldiers were busy in looting and destroying. He was a man of gentle demeanor, and unarmed, but they seized him, called him rebel, and even threatened to take his life. He pleaded with them to dispense with that trouble, for his extreme age meant that he should soon die anyway. They permitted him to go in peace. In his building was a gun-factory carried on by his son, Samuel Barrett.[179]
[BATTLE AT NORTH BRIDGE IN CONCORD.]
In the meantime large numbers of Americans were gathering on the hills to the northward beyond the river. The commander of the British at the North Bridge and vicinity was not unmindful of that, and deemed it wise to concentrate his little army of three companies at the bridge itself, as that seemed to be the threatened point of attack. Consequently the two remoter companies were marched down from the hills and joined the third, and then all three marched to the easterly or nearer end of the bridge.
Plate III. The Engagement at the North Bridge in Concord