The imposing display and the vigilant flankers had the desired effect of keeping the Americans at a comparatively safe distance, and so Percy and his little army marched down through East Lexington in safety.
The looting section picked up considerable plunder from the abandoned homes along the way, evidently without protest from the commander. The march was a slow one, for Smith's weary and wounded soldiers had to be considered. Many of them were on the verge of collapse and quite a few dropped out of the ranks for good. De Bernicre in his account places the "missing" at twenty-six. One of these, a German, was discovered by the roadside in East Lexington soon after Percy had passed out of sight. He was well treated by the Americans, and made his home among them for many years.[286]
The Americans killed in Lexington during the afternoon were Jedediah Munroe, and John Raymond. The British loss was much greater, for the Americans were being reinforced constantly by minute-men from the remote towns. Three companies from Newton entered the battle at Lexington, under the command respectively of Lieut. John Marean, thirty-eight men; Capt. Amariah Fuller, one hundred and six men; and Capt. Jeremiah Wiswell, seventy-six men. Together these numbered two hundred and nineteen men, making the total enrolment of the Americans in pursuit of Percy as he passed out of Lexington, two thousand and thirteen men.
[PERCY'S RETREAT THROUGH ARLINGTON.]
BATTLE ROAD THROUGH ARLINGTON AND CAMBRIDGE.
1. Capt. Benj. Locke. 2. Tuft's Tavern. 3. Adams. 4. Russell. 5. Percy's Baggage Wagons Captured. 6. Adams. 7. Cooper Tavern. 8. Lieut. Solomon Bowman. 9. Black Horse Tavern. 10. Whittemore. 11. Watson. 12. Tufts. 13. Whittemore Wounded.
It was not far from half past four when the British crossed the Lexington line and entered into Arlington. Their retreating march in Lexington measured about two and one quarter miles. Along the road they had striven to kill in honorable battle. They had succeeded but slightly, and paid an unusual price with a much larger number of their own dead and wounded. Percy's aim seemed to have been to terrorize his opponents at whatever cost. The life of Raymond was not taken in battle, nor can rapine and incendiarism add glory to his military renown. Lexington's highway to Arlington ran between pillaged and burning homes, and his soldiers staggered along under heavy burdens of property stolen from those whose King was his King. Concord and Lincoln have none of Percy's deeds related in their chronicles, but Lexington, and Arlington, and Cambridge, and Somerville, and Charlestown have good reason to remember his terrible conception of warfare.
Gen. William Heath, as the commanding officer of the Americans, endeavored to organize his forces into something like an army. He did not greatly succeed, but re-formed some of the forces that had been scattered by Percy's cannonade, directed towards the meeting-house on Lexington Common.[287]