Editor's Note: Contrary to popular belief, the British Army, under the Command of Lieut. Colonel Smith did not march on a deserted road to Lexington. It advanced through the towns of Cambridge, Somerville, and Arlington, Massachusetts on its way to Lexington on April 19th, 1775. Coburn explains this in detail in this chapter of his book, "The Battle of April 19, 1775".
Lieut.-Col. Smith's Advance Through Cambridge
Let us now return to the King's soldiers under the command of Lieut.-Col. Smith, whom we left on the shore of Charles River at Lechmere Point in Cambridge. It was one o'clock on the morning of the 19th before the column was fully underway.[91]
Lechmere Point then had but one house, which stood on the southern slope of the hill, on the northern side of Spring Street, between Third and Fourth Streets, and facing to the south.[92] Where the troops landed, on Second Street, was sufficiently remote to be out of sight and hearing, evidently the particular aim of the commanding officer.
They proceeded cautiously, following an old farm-road around the northeasterly slope of the hill, sometimes wading in the marshes that bordered Willis Creek, and fording that stream, waist-deep, in the vicinity of Bullard's Bridge.
Smith evidently thought that the noise of his soldiers tramping across the bridge itself might attract attention. His soldiers found the ford a long one, and the waters deep.[93]
Even thus early on the expedition was the British Army betrayed by one of its own soldiers, if the tradition handed down by a Mrs. Moore can be relied upon. Seventy-five years or more ago she related to Rev. J. L. Sibley, who has stated accordingly, that she was then living in Cambridge, a young girl, and that one of the soldiers was taken sick after his landing at Lechmere Point, and accordingly permitted by his commander to return by boat to Boston. He did not immediately return, however, but made his way to the solitary farmhouse where Mrs. Moore was living. The occupants gained from him the significance of his midnight presence, and it was considered of sufficient importance to communicate speedily to their fellow townsmen.
Bullard's Bridge crossed Willis Creek, near the present Prospect Street, which runs from Cambridge to Somerville.[94] Later on the Creek was called Miller's River. It was then a little tributary to the Charles River but has long since been filled in, and modest dwellings and more pretentious business establishments now cover its upper area.
Lieut.-Col. Smith's Advance Through Somerville
The invading army emerging from Willis Creek were now in Somerville. They quickly arrived at Piper's Tavern, then standing in what is now Union Square. It was after two o'clock, but the moon was shining sufficiently bright for some of the soldiers to read the sign aloud, which an awakened inmate heard. Up the present Bow Street, they marched, passing the Choate and Frost houses, continuing along the present Somerville Avenue to Jonathan Ireland's house, at the southwest corner of the present School Street. None of the inhabitants just along there seem to have been disturbed. A few rods farther lived Samuel Tufts on the westerly side of the road near the present Laurel Street. He was casting bullets in a little hut back of his dwelling and being assisted by his negro, but neither of them heard the tread of soldiers in the road. But yet a little farther along, however, at the northwest corner of the present Central Street lived the widow Rand. She was disturbed by the unusual noise in the road and came downstairs in her nightclothes to investigate. A hog had been killed for her the day before, and she feared a midnight thief. Upon opening the door she saw the soldiers but hid behind the rainwater hogshead until they had passed and then hurried across the road to tell her neighbor Tufts of the unusual sight. At first, he could not believe the story, but with his lantern's aid saw the many footprints in the road, and became convinced. Springing to his horse's back he took a short-cut bridle path to Cambridge, there to spread the alarm.
Then marched the column by Samuel Kent's house on the westerly side of the road, at the corner of the present Garden Court. Kent did not awake. Then by the Capen house, a little farther on the easterly side. No one there awakened. Then by the Hunnewell brothers on the easterly side at the turn of the road. They were both somewhat deaf and did not hear the military tread.
The next house is the home of Timothy Tufts, on the easterly side of the road, nearly opposite Beech Street. Mrs. Tufts heard the soldiers and saw from her bed the gun-barrels shining in the moonlight. She awakened her husband and they both looked out upon that red-coated column, as it halted long enough for some of the soldiers to drink at the well.
Lieut.-Col. Smith's Advance Through Cambridge
The march was again resumed a few rods farther along the Milk Row road, then wheeling left southwesterly into Cambridge through what is now Beech Street, less than an eighth of a mile in length, then wheeling right into the Lexington and Concord road, towards the northwest.[95] They were then on what is now known as Massachusetts Avenue.
Along this part of Battle Road in Cambridge, were perhaps captured the first prisoners, Thomas Robins and David Harrington, both of Lexington. Robins was carrying milk to Boston, and in company with Harrington when they reached the vicinity of Menotomy River, the present dividing line between Cambridge and Arlington. They were detained and compelled to return to Lexington with the soldiers, and released at the commencement of hostilities on the Common.[96]
Lieut.-Col. Smith's Advance Through Arlington
Just after crossing the Menotomy River into Arlington, they passed a house where lived the venerable Samuel Whittemore[97] with his sons and grandchildren. Silent as was the march intended to be, it awoke the inmates, and preparations for the day commenced.
The troops soon arrived opposite to the Black Horse Tavern, kept by Mr. Wetherby. Thus far their march had not been heralded other than by the flashing lights and fleet and silent messengers. Lieut.-Col. Smith still thought his little army unnoticed, for he rode a little way beyond the Tavern, halted his men, and sent back an officer with a file of men, to surround and guard the house, while others should search the interior for members of the rebel congress whom he thought to be within. His surmise was correct, to some extent, for three members were there, just awakened by the heavy tread, and who heard the low-voiced commands to halt.
The day before, April 18, the Committee of Safety and the Committee of Supplies, had held a joint meeting at the Tavern, and there were present, Col. Azor Orne, Col. Joseph Palmer, Col. William Heath, Col. Thomas Gardner, Richard Devens, Abraham Watson, Capt. Benjamin White, and John Pigeon, of the Committee of Safety, and David Cheever, Elbridge Gerry, Col. Charles Lee, and Col. Benjamin Lincoln, of the Committee of Supplies. At the close of the meeting most of them, being near enough, had departed for their homes. It will be remembered that Richard Devens of Charlestown departed early enough to meet Revere on the Charlestown shore, and acquaint him with the movement of the ten British officers riding up the road. It will also be recalled that Elbridge Gerry had sent from here a messenger to John Hancock at Lexington to the same effect.
However, there were three members of the two committees who chose to remain at the Black Horse Tavern that night. They were Col. Azor Orne, Elbridge Gerry, and Col. Charles Lee.
It was not quite three o'clock when the slumbers of these three men were disturbed by the unusual noise in the road, and they went to the windows and looked out into the moonlight and down on the marching host and its gleaming arms. They watched with eager curiosity. Not for a moment did they connect themselves individually with the movement, but when they heard the command to halt, and saw a file of soldiers leave the ranks for the Tavern they were startled, and then it suddenly occurred to them that possibly they were the objects of those military manœuvres. They hurried downstairs, even clad in their night clothes as they were, and finally sought a safe exit at the rear. It is said that Mr. Gerry, in his nervous haste to escape, was on the point of opening the front door and rushing out that way, but was prevented by the cry of the landlord:
"For God's sake, don't open that door," and who then conducted the three to the back part of the house, and headed them for a field of corn stubble. Elbridge Gerry stumbled and fell, and cried out to his friend:
"Stop, Orne, for me, till I can get up; I have hurt myself."
His position, flat on the ground, out of sight because of the corn-stubble, suggested that it would be a good hiding-place for all, so the three lay prone on the ground until the King's troops passed on. They returned to the Tavern finally to find that the house had indeed been searched for them, very ineffectively, for even their personal effects including Mr. Gerry's gold watch, left ticking under his pillow, had not been disturbed. The search by the soldiers had not been a very thorough one.
Col. Lee never recovered from the ill effect of his exposure on the damp ground in the night air, too thinly clad as he was, for he died within a month.[98]
The march of the British forces under Lieut. Col. Smith up to this point was a little over five miles, and it was nearly three o'clock. He continued serenely for a little farther, for unknown to him the inmates of many houses that he passed were aroused by the measured tread of his men.
Solomon Bowman, Lieutenant in Captain Benjamin Locke's Company of Minute-men, lived in Menotomy, now Arlington.[99] He came to the door to witness the unusual sight. A soldier perceiving him left the ranks and asked for a drink of water. Bowman refused the request but asked him:--
"What are you out at this time of night for?"
The reply of the thirsty soldier was not recorded, but whatever it was Bowman readily drew his own conclusions, and when the column disappeared up the road, hastened to call out members of his company. They formed at daybreak on the Common.[100]
But at the house across the road, with its chimneys painted white, the reception was more gracious. A tory lived there, and white chimneys, it has been said, indicated the owner's politics.[101]
The column halted again, briefly in the center of the town, and Lieut.-Col. Smith despatched forward six companies of light infantry under Major Pitcairn, for the purpose of earlier securing the two bridges on the roads just beyond Concord village.[102] Scarcely had he done so, when signal guns and alarm bells were heard, which indicated a general awakening to arms of the Provincials. Smith realized the full meaning of those ominous sounds, and from there, in Arlington village, promptly sent back to Gen. Gage for reinforcements. Fortunate for him that he did so, for otherwise, the day's climax for his force would have been even more disastrous than it was.
His marching soldiers could now hardly expect to pass any house unseen. A party of young men, playing cards, even at that late hour, in an old shop that stood near the road, lost their interest in the game and gave it up.[103]
At the Tufts Tavern, still standing on the easterly side of Massachusetts Avenue, nearly opposite Mt. Vernon Street, the soldiers halted and some of them proceeded towards Mr. Tufts's barn. He was awake, and saw them, and suspected that their mission might be the confiscation of his favorite white horse. He called for his gun, but his prudent wife informed him that it had been loaned. Opening the door, however, he addressed a British officer saying:
"You are taking an early ride, sir!"
"You had better go to bed and get your sleep while you can," replied the officer significantly.[104]
At the corner of the main road and the one leading to Winchester, now Forest Street, "At the Foot of the Rocks," lived a shoemaker. A light glimmering through the shutters caught the attention of an officer, who sent a soldier to investigate its cause, so late in the night. The good wife replied that her "old man" was sick and she was "making some herb tea." That excuse satisfied the officer, for the family was left undisturbed. The "tea" was in fact melted pewter plates being run into bullets. When the rap first came at the door the old man took to his bed, and his wife emptied the molten pewter into the ashes, where it was readily found after the soldiers had passed on.[105] It is probable that ere night some of the leaden tea had hardened into leaden fruit, and was used for other than medicinal purposes.
In the next house, still standing (1912) and numbered 1193 Massachusetts Avenue, lived Capt. Benjamin Locke. He looked out and saw the marching red-coats, and knew what their mission was. He lost no time in arousing such of his command as lived in that neighborhood.
The British continued along the main road, which at that time ran up the hill westerly from Capt. Locke's home, and is now called Appleton Street, into Paul Revere Road, and out again into the present Massachusetts Avenue. At that time there was no highway between the extreme ends of these two.
Through the rest of Arlington, the march was uneventful, save the capture of the scouts sent out from Lexington, who were so neatly ambushed and taken. As we have seen, they were permitted to come down the road passing a few soldiers who were out in advance, and who secreted themselves when an approaching horseman was heard. After the unfortunate scout had passed into the stretch of road bounded by the advance guard and the main body he was not permitted to return to Lexington.
Two men from Woburn, Asahel Porter, and Josiah Richardson were thus captured. It has been stated that they were on their way to the Boston market. If they lived in that part of Woburn which adjoins Lexington, then their natural journey would have been into Lexington, and thence through Arlington and Cambridge. But it may be that they were scouting simply, for they were on horseback, and therefore without any apparent market business. They were compelled to dismount, their horses taken and then forced to walk along as prisoners. Reaching the Common in Lexington they were both released by their kindly disposed guard, with the particular understanding that they were to walk, not run, away. Richardson accepted those conditions, carried them out and so escaped. But Porter, once over Rufus Merriam's garden wall, twenty rods away from his captors, started into a run. Some other soldier than his guard saw him, and evidently thinking that a prisoner was escaping, promptly shot him through the body. Those captures were probably made in Arlington, and not far from the Lexington boundary line.
Lieut.-Col. Smith's Advance Through Lexington
It must have been just over the line into Lexington that the young man, Simon Winship, was met. He was on horseback, unarmed, and passing along in a peaceable manner when he was halted and ordered to dismount. He questioned their right to treat him in that manner, but for answer, they forced him from his horse and compelled him to march on foot in their midst. They asked him if he had been out warning the minute-men, to which he replied that he had not, but that he was returning home to his father's. He was kept as a prisoner until they arrived at Lexington Common, two and one-half miles, where he was compelled to witness the shooting of his fellow townsmen.
Half a mile farther along, and about two miles from Lexington Common, Benjamin Wellington, one of Capt. Parker's Company of minute-men was captured. This took place very nearly at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Pleasant Street. Wellington was armed and on his way from home on Pleasant Street to join his company. Thus it is claimed, and rightly, that he was the first belligerent or armed man captured by the British. But for some reason, he was allowed to depart, not towards the Common, but for home. His gun was not returned to him, however. He started towards home but when out of their sight, turned and passed northerly along the crest of the hills, parallel to the highway, and reached the Common just after Thaddeus Bowman, but ahead of the British.
FOOTNOTES:
[91] A British officer in Boston in 1775 (See Atlantic Monthly, April 1877). In his Diary, he places the time of starting at two o'clock, and De Bernicre, in his report, at about two o'clock, but I am compelled to compute it about one o'clock considering the distance they had to march and the well known time they arrived at Lexington Common, viz., almost eleven miles and reaching there at half-past four.
[92] E. C. Booth, in The Somerville Journal, April 1875.
[93] Diary of a British officer in Boston in 1775.
[94] The interested reader should consult the map of Boston and vicinity by J. F. W. Des Barres first published, May 5, 1775, and reprinted in Shattuck's History of Boston, and the one by Henry Pelham, first published in London, June 2, 1777, and reprinted in the Siege and Evacuation of Boston. A study of them will enable one to more fully understand the topography of the country about Boston at that time.
[95] E. C. Booth in The Somerville Journal, April 1875.
[96] Francis H. Brown, M.D., in Lexington Historical Society Proceedings, III, 101.
[97] House still standing, (1912) and numbered 54 Massachusetts Avenue.
[98] Samuel A. Smith's Address at West Cambridge, page 17.
[99] House still standing on the northerly side of Massachusetts Avenue, numbered 417, nearly opposite Whittemore Street. Arlington Past and Present, Parker, page 141.
[100] Statement of Mrs. Hill, daughter of Bowman, in Smith's Address, page 18.
[101] Smith, 18.
[102] Lieut.-Col. Smith's Report.
[103] A. R. Proctor, who heard it from William Hill and told it to Mr. Smith. The shop stood in front of the residence occupied by James Schouler in 1864. Smith, West Cambridge Address, page 19.
[104] Mrs. Almira T. Whittemore in Parker's Arlington, 194-5.
[105] Mrs. Henry Whittemore's Statement, Smith's West Cambridge Address, 20.
