When the soldiers reached there they found the homestead in care of the venerable wife of Col. Barrett. Capt. Parsons explained his mission, and assured her it was his aim to destroy public property only, and to capture Col. Barrett.[203] They commenced their search, but did not find as much as expected.[204] Nor did they capture the commander of the minute-men.
While this work was in progress, Col. Barrett's son, Stephen, a young man of about twenty-five years, returned from his mission, up the river road to Price Plain, to intercept minute-men expected from Stow, Harvard, and other towns in that vicinity. He wished to inform them of the danger surrounding his own home, that they might travel by some other road into Concord.
Reaching the kitchen door of his own home he was met by a British officer, who, thinking he might be Col. Barrett, placed him under arrest. Upon learning from Mrs. Barrett, however, of his mistake, that he was her son, the young man was released.[205] Another son, James, Jr., being lame and inactive, did not attract any hostile attention.[206]
So successfully had Col. Barrett and his numerous assistants secreted the large amount of provincial property left in his charge, that Capt. Parsons found but little to confiscate or destroy. He seized and burned a few gun-carriages in the road near the house.[207]
This was the remotest point of the British invasion. The three companies at Col. Barrett's had by far the longest route of any, by several miles. After a night without sleep, and so long a march they were hungry and thirsty, and Mrs. Barrett was requested to supply their wants. She was in no position to refuse. Some, if not all, were willing to pay for what they had, but the good lady refused, saying:
"We are commanded to feed our enemy if he hunger."
Some, however, insisted, and on leaving tossed their money into her lap. She could only exclaim:
"It is the price of blood!"[208]
The object of their mission being accomplished, so far as within their power, they set out for a return march to the village by the same roundabout route over the North Bridge, as they came. When at Widow Brown's Tavern at the cross roads, within about a mile of the Bridge, they halted and three or four officers entered the house for drink. The soldiers sat at the roadside, and drink was carried out to them. Pay was offered to Mrs. Brown by the officers, but she declined to receive it. Charles Handley, a youth in his thirteenth year, and a native of Concord, was living there, and has left his sworn statement, that he then heard the guns at the Bridge, but that the British did not appear to notice them. It was then generally understood that they knew nothing of the engagement until their arrival at the scene, and saw the British slain.[209] There were two, one having been killed instantly, and the other, at first wounded, and while helpless, despatched with a savage cut in the head with a hatchet. It seems that after the British had been driven from the Bridge and the Americans had also passed in pursuit, a young man employed by Rev. William Emerson, at the Old Manse (still standing, 1912), came forth to view the field of strife. He saw the wounded Briton attempting to arise, and in a thoughtless moment, conceived it his patriotic duty to kill him. He did so, as the soldier was on his knees, in a futile attempt to stand. The hatchet sank deep into his skull, and the blood gushed forth, and covered the top of his head, as he sank back to Concord battle ground. A little later the British force under Capt. Parsons passed him on their way to the village. They could only shudder, and bear away the impression, which was subsequently published, that the Americans had scalped and cut off the ears of their enemies.[210] The young man who did the deed lived many years, and often confessed that his conscience had been sorely troubled.[211]