For West Cambridge,—J. A. Smith's West Cambridge on the 19th of April, 1775 (Boston, 1864).
For Cambridge,—Rev. Alexander Mackenzie's address in 1870, when the bodies of some "men of Cambridge", who fell Apr. 19, 1775, were reinterred in the old burying-ground, where a monument now marks the spot.
For Bedford,—notice of the flag borne by the company from this town in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Dec., 1885, and Jan., 1886. This flag, which is still preserved, bore a device very like that made in England for the Massachusetts Three County Troop, an organization which existed from 1659 to 1690. It is probable that this flag had been used in earlier wars. (Cf. N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., xxv. 138.)
Cf. also Perley's Hist. of Boxford, ch. x.; Hist. of Sutton, p. 783; S. A. Drake's Middlesex County; and Wheildon's New Chapter in the History of Concord Fight (for Groton). The Andover men did not arrive in time (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xv. 254).
In 1850 all the participating towns celebrated the anniversary at Concord, when an oration by Robert Rantoul, Jr., was given, and was later printed.
In the general histories, the best account is in Bancroft's United States (final revision), iv. ch. 10; but other accounts are in Lossing's Field-Book; Gay's Pop. Hist. U. S., iii. 389; Elliott's New England, ii.; Barry's Massachusetts; E. E. Hale's One Hundred Years Ago, etc.
Dawson's Battles of the United States, vol. i ch. 1, has some essential errors, as where he says Smith proceeded "up Charles River to Phipps's farm in West Cambridge."
[547] He has abundantly fortified his narrative with authorities, though it is only the chief ones that he enumerates in chronological order in an appendix of his Siege (p. 372; also see p. 121).
[548] The substance of this volume is also found in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xiv. p. 53, etc. In the same year Mr. Frothingham condensed the story of the battle into a little volume,—The Centennial: Battle of Bunker Hill (Boston, 1875). Mr. Frothingham's enthusiasm for his subject may be easily misjudged by the unsympathetic reader. P. O. Hutchinson says of the Siege: "This would be a creditable book if it were not so overloaded with boast, tall talk, and self-glorification." (Life of Governor Hutchinson, p. 11.)
[549] This will be quoted in the following pages as "Dawson" simply; and it is a much ampler and more critical account than that in his Battles of the United States, vol. i.