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105-774: William Dawes Jr. (April 6, 1745 – February 25, 1799) was an American soldier, and was one of several men who, in April 1775, alerted minutemen in Massachusetts of the approach of British regulars prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord at the outset of the American Revolution . For some years, Paul Revere had the most renown for his ride of warning of this event. Dawes was born in Boston , Province of Massachusetts Bay , on April 6, 1745, to William and Lydia Dawes ( née Boone), and baptized at Boston's Old South Church . He became

210-550: A connector whereas Dawes was an "ordinary man." Dawes's ride is commemorated on a traffic island in Cambridge, Massachusetts , heavily travelled by pedestrians, at the intersection of Garden Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square , and known as Dawes Island . Dawes's passage through the area is represented by bronze horseshoes embedded in the sidewalk, as hoofprints, accompanied by an inscription giving his name and

315-654: A tanner and was active in Boston's militia. On May 3, 1768, Dawes married Mehitable May, the daughter of Samuel and Catherine May (née Mears). The Boston Gazette noted that for his wedding, he wore a suit entirely made in North America. At the time, Whigs were trying to organize a boycott of British-made products in order to pressure the Parliament of Great Britain into repealing the Townshend Acts . On April 8, 1768, Dawes

420-419: A businessman, Beman Gates Dawes , a businessman and congressman, and Henry M. Dawes , a businessman and banker. A brother of Congressman Rufus Dawes was Major Ephraim C. Dawes . Television personality Bill Schulz (William Dawes Schulz) is another descendant of Dawes, as the grandson of Henry M. Dawes' daughter Mary. William Dawes was also a first cousin of Thomas Dawes , who was a Revolutionary War colonel,

525-529: A composite of the many alarm riders that night. Dawes and Revere arrived at the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington about the same time, shortly after midnight. Revere arrived slightly earlier, despite having stopped to speak to militia officers in towns along the way, as his route was shorter and his horse faster. After warning Adams and Hancock to leave, Revere and Dawes proceeded to Concord in case that

630-515: A compromise, proclaiming the day as Patriots' Day . In April 1975, Concord hosted a bicentennial celebration of the battle, featuring an address at the Old North Bridge by President Gerald Ford . Concord has a remarkably rich literary history centered in the 19th century around Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), who moved there in 1835 and quickly became its most prominent citizen. A successful lecturer and philosopher, Emerson had deep roots in

735-465: A manner indistinguishable from the American pronunciation of the word "conquered." In the local dialect of Greater Boston , it is frequently heard with the [ər] in the second syllable replaced by [ ʏ ] ( [ˈkɒŋkʏd] KAHN -kəd ). According to Concord's 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the principal employers in the town are: Concord and West Concord stations are served by

840-437: A noted architect/builder, and held numerous government positions; another cousin twice removed was Congressman Henry L. Dawes (1812–1903). Minutemen (militia) The minutemen were among the first to fight in the American Revolution . Their teams constituted about a quarter of the entire militia. They were generally younger, more mobile, and provided with weapons and arms by the local governments. They were still part of

945-504: A poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . Although historians criticize the work as being historically inaccurate, Longfellow understood the history and manipulated it for poetic effect. The 1925 Lexington-Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar features a sculptural portrayal. The athletic teams of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst are nicknamed the Minutemen and Minutewomen . Until

1050-553: A precaution, these items were often hidden or left behind by minutemen in fields or wooded areas. Other popular concealment methods were to hide items underneath floorboards in houses and barns . The Minuteman model for militia mobilization married with a very professional, small standing army was the primary model for the United States' land forces up until 1916 with the establishment of the National Guard . In commemoration of

1155-492: A reform and update of the militia in the provincial legislature. Hutchinson, the Royal Governor, had ignored him, but as tensions mounted, that tactic became less effective. Adams' and his like-minded friends were gaining more traction. In May 1774, Hutchinson was relieved by General Thomas Gage , the new Governor of Massachusetts , who arrived with orders to close the port of Boston. Instead of tamping down disagreement between

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1260-880: A rising number of Minutemen they faced another problem: a lack of gunpowder to support an army for long enough to fight a prolonged campaign against the British. The people of an island controlled by the Dutch , Sint Eustatius , were supportive of the American revolutionaries . As a token of support, they traded gunpowder to the Colonials for other goods needed in Europe. Not only did the Minutemen have political awareness of events in New England, but also of those occurring in Europe, such as Britain's lack of allies. In 1770, Samuel Adams had begun agitating for

1365-525: A schoolhouse next door for retrieval later. Upon discovery of the loss, the British authorities closely questioned the schoolmaster, who coolly denied any knowledge of the affair, while keeping his feet casually propped up on the woodbox. Dawes hurt his wrist in the escapade, and some days later, went to a fellow member of the Sons of Liberty, Dr. Joseph Warren , for treatment. Warren asked Dawes how he hurt himself. Dawes demurred, and Warren (who probably knew about

1470-575: A small cabin near Walden Pond , where he wrote Walden (1854). After being imprisoned in the Concord jail for refusing to pay taxes in political protest against slavery and the Mexican–American War , Thoreau penned the influential essay "Resistance to Civil Government", popularly known as Civil Disobedience (1849). Evidencing their strong political beliefs through actions, Thoreau and many of his neighbors served as station masters and agents on

1575-488: A vote of 265 to 272. The ban on selling water in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of one liter or less passed in 2012 by a vote of 403 to 364, and a repeal effort in April failed by a vote of 621 to 687. According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 25.9 square miles (67 km ), of which 24.9 square miles (64 km ) is land and 1.0 square mile (2.6 km ), or 3.75%,

1680-474: Is a 2004 organization that opposes Mexican immigration to US. Minutemen are also featured in 2010 strategic video game Civilization V by Firaxis . They can only be recruited by American Civilization and production is only available after researching Gunpowder technology in the game feature, which takes place in the Renaissance era. Concord, Massachusetts Concord ( / ˈ k ɒ ŋ k ər d / )

1785-588: Is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts , United States. In the 2020 census , the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston . The town center is near where the Sudbury and Assabet rivers join to form the Concord River . The area that became the town of Concord was originally known as Musketaquid , an Algonquian word for "grassy plain." Concord

1890-475: Is also notable for its progressive and environmentalist politics, becoming in 2012 the first community in the United States to ban single-serving PET bottles. The area which became the town of Concord was originally known as "Musketaquid", situated at the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers. The name was an Algonquian word for "grassy plain", fitting the area's low-lying marshes and kettle holes . Native Americans had cultivated corn crops there;

1995-620: Is named "Minutemen" to highlight the rapid deployment and mobility nature of their mission. One of the factions in Bethesda 's 2015 video game Fallout 4 , which is set in Massachusetts, is called the "Commonwealth Minutemen". The inspiration for their namesake comes from the requirement to be ready "at a minute's notice" to defend any settlement in danger. Sinclair Lewis portrays Minute Men as paramilitary forces of Buzz Windrip 's despotic government in his 1935 book It Can't Happen Here . In

2100-413: Is water. The city of Lowell is 13 miles (21 km) to the north, Boston is 19 miles (31 km) to the east, and Nashua, New Hampshire , is 23 miles (37 km) to the north. Massachusetts state routes 2 , 2A , 62 , 126 , 119 , 111 , and 117 pass through Concord. The town center is near the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers, forming the Concord River , which flows north to

2205-611: Is widely asserted, the captain of the Acton militia and first to be killed in Concord during the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, but rather French used live models in the study of the anatomy and facial expression. The Minute Man statue is still the symbol of the National Guard , featured prominently on its seals. It was also the symbol of the former Boston and Maine Railroad . Minutemen are portrayed in " Paul Revere's Ride ",

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2310-597: The Los Angeles Times characterized the ban as "born of convoluted reasoning" and "wrongheaded." Some residents believed the ban would do little to affect the sales of bottled water, which was still highly accessible in the surrounding areas, and that it restricted consumers' freedom of choice. Opponents also considered the ban to unfairly target one product in particular, when other, less healthy alternatives such as soda and fruit juice were still readily available in bottled form. Nonetheless, subsequent efforts to repeal

2415-506: The American Revolutionary War . A rich literary community developed in Concord during the mid-19th century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson . Emerson's circle included Nathaniel Hawthorne , Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau . Major works written in Concord during this period include Alcott's novel Little Women , Emerson's essay Self-Reliance , and Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience . In this era,

2520-451: The MBTA 's Fitchburg Line . Yankee Line provides commuter bus service between Concord and Boston. Concord's sister cities are: Concord is featured in the 2012 video game Assassin's Creed 3 , the 2020 video game Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the 2015 video game Fallout 4 . The video game Walden, a game , based on Henry David Thoreau's Walden, is set in the town. Scenes from

2625-666: The Merrimack River in Lowell. Gunpowder was manufactured from 1835 to 1940 in the American Powder Mills complex extending upstream along the Assabet River. Local government consists of a five-member executive Select Board and a legislature utilizing open town meeting . On the federal level, Concord is part of Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district , represented by Lori Trahan . The state's senior ( Class I ) member of

2730-534: The New England colonies were organized in regiments by county. The militia and minutemen companies still were organized by town and trained typically as an entire unit in each town two to four times a year with the Minutemen receiving extra training. From the end of the French and Indian War , this was normal during peacetime but, in the 1770s, as friction with The Crown increased and the possibility of war became apparent,

2835-455: The Powder Alarm of 1774. Militia companies were called out to engage British troops, who had been sent to capture ammunition stores. By the time the militia was ready, the British regulars had already captured the arms at Cambridge and Charlestown and had returned to Boston. The reorganization increased the total size of the militia as well. During the French and Indian Wars , the counties in

2940-535: The Thirteen Colonies began to muster in preparation for the fighting. In 1690, Colonel William Phips led 600 men to push back the French. Two years later he became governor of Massachusetts. When the French and Indians raided Massachusetts in 1702, Governor Phips created a bounty which paid 10 shillings each for the scalps of Indians. In 1703, snowshoes were issued to militiamen and bounty hunters to make winter raids on

3045-628: The Underground Railroad . The Wayside , a house on Lexington Road, has been home to several authors. It was occupied by scientist John Winthrop (1714–1779) when Harvard College was temporarily moved to Concord during the Revolutionary War. The Wayside was later the home of the Alcott family (who referred to it as "Hillside"); the Alcotts sold it to Hawthorne in 1852, and the family moved into

3150-730: The United States Senate is Elizabeth Warren . The junior ( Class II ) senator is Ed Markey . At the 2020 census, there were 18,491 people, 7,295 housing units and 6,439 families residing in the town. The population density was 714.0 inhabitants per square mile (275.7/km ). The average density of housing units was 282.0 per square mile (108.9/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 82.94% White , 2.61% African American , 6.18% Asian , 4.55% Hispanic or Latino (of any race), 0.02% Native American , 0.02% Pacific Islander , 1.02% from other races , and 6.86% from two or more races. There were 6,439 families, of which 35.98% had children under

3255-600: The 2003 rebranding featuring a modernized Sam the Minuteman , the logo featured the Concord Minute Man statue prominently. The U.S. Air Force named the LGM-30 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile the "Minuteman", which was designed for rapid deployment in the event of a nuclear attack . The "Minuteman III" LGM-30G remains in service. The U.S. Navy VR-55 Fleet Logistic Support Squadron

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3360-573: The 2017 comedy film Daddy's Home 2 were filmed at Concord scout house. Parts of the 2019 film Little Women were shot on the Concord River . Jane Langton 's Homer Kelly murder mystery novels are largely set in Concord. Her 1964 novel 'The Transcendental Murder' was described in the Boston Globe in 1975 as 'a hymn to Concord, its history, its houses, its hallowed ground, its people and patriots, and its ghosts (Emerson and Thoreau)'. Italian director Lucio Fulci 's 1981 horror film The House by

3465-517: The Alcotts are buried on Authors' Ridge in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery . The 20th-century composer Charles Ives wrote his Concord Sonata ( c.  1904–1915 ) as a series of impressionistic portraits of literary figures associated with the town. Concord maintains a lively literary culture to this day; notable authors who have called the town home in recent years include Doris Kearns Goodwin , Alan Lightman , Robert B. Parker , and Gregory Maguire . In 1849, Ephraim Wales Bull developed

3570-460: The British. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress certainly sent word to him in February 1775 that it was time to move two of those weapons out of Boston. On another occasion, Dawes and some others stole two cannons which were in a building that was under guard by a British grenadier at the time. They sneaked the cannons out through a window in the back of the building then hid them in a woodbox in

3675-587: The Committees of Correspondence to hold County Conventions to revamp the militia. Gage tried to seat his own court in Worcester , but the townspeople blocked the court from sitting. Two thousand militiamen marched to intimidate the judges and get them to leave. This was the first time that the militia was used by the people to block the king's representatives from acting on royal orders and against popular opinion. Gage responded by preparing to march to collect munitions from

3780-518: The Concord grape") Concord grape spread worldwide, bringing him up to $ 1,000 a cutting, but he died a relatively poor man. The inscription on his tombstone reads, "He sowed—others reaped." On September 5, 2012, Concord became the first community in the United States to approve a ban on the sale of water in single-serving plastic bottles. The law banned the sale of PET bottles of one liter (34 U.S. fl oz) or less starting January 1, 2013. The ban provoked national controversy. An editorial in

3885-633: The Indians more effective. The minuteman concept was advanced by the snow shoe men. The Minutemen always kept in touch with the political situation in Boston and their own towns. From 1629 to 1683, the towns had controlled themselves but in 1689, the King appointed governors. By 1772, James Otis and Samuel Adams used the Town Meetings to start a Committee of Correspondence. This instigated a boycott in 1774 of British goods. The Minutemen were aware of this as well. With

3990-460: The New England colonies had provided provincial regiments to the armies of the Crown. In Massachusetts, Middlesex County provided two while most had provided one (except Worcester which had provided three). The new reorganization provided six regiments of militia with a nominal strength of 9,000 men with minuteman companies being formed from the younger, more physically fit men. The militia in New England

4095-522: The adjacent Orchard House in 1858. Hawthorne dubbed the house "The Wayside" and lived there until his death. The house was purchased in 1883 by Boston publisher Daniel Lothrop and his wife, Harriett, who wrote the Five Little Peppers series and other children's books under the pen name Margaret Sidney . Today, The Wayside and the Orchard House are both museums. Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and

4200-480: The age of 18 living with them, 62.98% were married couples living together, 22.4% had a female householder with no spouse present, 12.4% had a male householder with no spouse present, and 28.42% were non-families, and 24.59% of all households were made up of individuals. The average family size was 3.18. 25.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 28.4% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

4305-563: The annihilation or surrender of the original road column. While a lot of Colonial militia units did not receive either arms or uniforms and were required to equip themselves, through colonial history both the Crown and local governments had issued arms and sometimes uniforms for provincial soldiers. Many simply wore their own farmers' or workmen's clothes and, in some cases, they wore cloth hunting frocks. Many farmers who owned separate guns such as fowling pieces , and sometimes rifles (though rarer in southern New England) would use them instead of

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4410-461: The area, and the British moved on. The British then moved to Concord and faced a larger number of militia. The British were rapidly outnumbered at Concord, with the arrival of the slower moving militia; they had not counted on a long fight, and so had not brought additional ammunition beyond the standard issue in the soldiers' cartridge boxes. This then forced a strategic defeat on Colonel Smith, forcing him back to Boston. A "running fight" began during

4515-403: The ban have failed in open town meetings . An effort to repeal Concord's ban on the sale of plastic water bottles was resoundingly defeated at a Town Meeting. Resident Jean Hill, who led the initial fight for the ban, said, "I really feel at the age of 86 that I've really accomplished something." Town Moderator Eric Van Loon didn't even bother taking an official tally because opposition to repeal

4620-461: The barrel) gave it a much greater range than the smoothbore musket, although it took much longer to load. Because of the lower rate of fire, rifles were not used by regular infantry, but were preferred for hunting. When performing as skirmishers, the militia could fire and fall back behind cover or behind other troops, before the British could get into range. The wilderness terrain that lay just beyond many colonial towns favored this style of combat and

4725-430: The basis of the new town, called "Concord" in appreciation of the peaceful acquisition. The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War . On April 19, 1775, 700 British Army troops led by Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Smith marched from Boston to Concord to confiscate a cache of arms stored in the town. Unbeknownst to them, Patriot leaders had moved most of

4830-415: The battlefield. It is a myth that the British and other professional armies of the 1700s did not practice marksmanship with their muskets; the military ammunition of the time was made for fast reloading and more than a dozen consecutive shots without cleaning. Accuracy of the musket was sacrificed for speed and repetitive loading. The militia prepared with elaborate plans to alarm and respond to movements by

4935-403: The book, the fascist-like militia is called "Minnie Mouses" by the populace. In Alan Moore 's Watchmen graphic novel the first masked vigilantes assembled are titled the Minutemen. The Minutemen was a militant anti-communist organization in the early 1960s. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was a militant anti-Mexican immigrants volunteer group formed in 2005. The Minuteman Project

5040-620: The cache elsewhere. 150 Patriot minutemen from local towns, who had been forewarned of the Army's march by Samuel Prescott on April 18, quickly mustered and confronted the British in Lexington . Though who fired the first shot is unknown, a firefight broke out and the British fired a volley at the Americans before dispersing them with a bayonet charge , killing eight. The British proceeded into Concord and dispersed into company-sized formations to search for

5145-519: The cache. At 11:00am, 400 minutemen engaged 100 British troops at the Old North Bridge , leading to a number of casualties on both sides and forcing them to fall back and rejoin the Army's main force. After the British completed their search for the cache in Concord, they marched back to Boston, but were constantly attacked by minutemen in hit-and-run attacks, suffering more casualties before reaching Charlestown, Boston . The minutemen then blockaded

5250-468: The cannon incident) wisely responded by saying that it was best that he did not know. Dawes, who was known and trusted by Sons of Liberty leader Dr. Joseph Warren , was assigned by Warren to ride from Boston to Lexington, Massachusetts , on the night of April 18, 1775, when it became clear that a British column was going to march into the countryside. Dawes' mission was to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that they were in danger of arrest. Dawes took

5355-539: The centenary of the first engagement of the American Revolution, Daniel Chester French , in his first major commission, produced one of his best-known statues (along with the Lincoln Memorial ), The Minute Man . Inscribed on the pedestal is the opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson 's 1837 " Concord Hymn " with the words, " Shot heard 'round the world ." The statue's likeness is not based on Isaac Davis as

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5460-456: The colonial agrarian society, many were familiar with hunting. The Indian Wars , and especially the recent French and Indian War , had given colonials valuable experience in irregular warfare and skirmishing, while British line companies (light infantry and grenadier companies were called flank companies and trained in skirmishing) troops were less familiar with this. The long rifle was also well suited to this role. The rifling (grooves inside

5565-409: The colonies. On September 7, 1643, the towns were given more tactical control. A new rule allowed any general to call up his militia at any time. On August 12, 1645, 30% of all militia were made into short-notice groups (minutemen). Command and control were decentralized to the extent that individual company commanders could put their troops into a defensive battle if necessary. A portion of the militia

5670-558: The colonists again. The militia chased the Indians, caught their chief, and got him to sign an agreement to end fighting. In 1672, the Massachusetts Council formed a military committee to control the militia in each town. In 1675, the military committee raised an expedition to fight the raiding Wampanoag tribe. A muster call was sent out and four days later, after harsh skirmishes with the Wampanoags, three companies arrived to help

5775-580: The colonists and the Crown, it escalated them. That same month, Parliament passed "An Act for the better regulating the Government of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay" and "An Act for the more impartial administration of justice in said Province," otherwise known as the Intolerable Acts , which were designed to remove power from the towns. This brought many more citizens to Samuel Adams's side, and he pressed

5880-401: The companies into battalions, and chose the field-officers to command the same. Hence the minute-men became a body distinct from the rest of the militia, and, by being more devoted to military exercises, they acquired skill in the use of arms. More attention than formerly was likewise bestowed on the training and drilling of militia. The need for efficient minuteman companies was illustrated by

5985-562: The council recommended an immediate application to the New England governments to make up the deficiency", resolving to re-organize and increase the size of the militia: The Massachusetts General Assembly was stymied by Governor Hutchinson from passing a bill. As a result, resisting legislators, including Samuel Adams being among the leaders, set up Committees of Correspondence in parallel with their fellow Patriots in Connecticut , New Hampshire , and Rhode Island that recommended that

6090-496: The date (inaccurately stated as April 19, 1775), and by historical displays. In the film Knowing , the early events take place in Lexington, Massachusetts , at William Dawes Elementary School. William Dawes' great-grandson, Rufus Dawes , was a Civil War military officer and congressman; Rufus Dawes' children included Charles G. Dawes , who served as Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge , Rufus C. Dawes ,

6195-423: The general ranks of "town-based training band" to be ready for rapid deployment. Men so selected were designated as minutemen. Their companies were organized by town, so it was very common for their counterpart militia company to contain relatives and friends. Some towns in Massachusetts had a long history of designating a portion of their militia as minutemen, with "minute companies" constituting special units within

6300-480: The ideal grape. Early ripening, to escape the killing northern frosts, but with a rich, full-bodied flavor, the hardy Concord grape thrives where European cuttings had failed to survive. In 1853, Bull felt ready to put the first bunches of Concord grapes before the public and won a prize at the Boston Horticultural Society Exhibition. From these early arbors, the fame of Bull's ("the father of

6405-534: The incidents that caused the march and the arrival of Endecott's men in the area. Once they got there, they did not know which Indians to fight or why. This feeble response served to encourage the Indians, and attacks increased on the settlers in the Connecticut Valley. In the following year, the Province of Massachusetts Bay again put a force on the field in collaboration with Plymouth Colony and Connecticut. By

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6510-459: The king's forces out of Boston. The frequent mustering of the minute companies also built unit cohesion and familiarity with live firing, which increased the minute companies' effectiveness. The royal authorities inadvertently gave the new Minuteman mobilization plans validation by several "show the flag" demonstrations by General Gage through 1774. The royal authorities in Boston had seen these increasing numbers of militia appearing and thought that

6615-769: The land route out of Boston through the Boston Neck , leaving just before the British sealed off the town. Also acting under Dr. Warren, Paul Revere arranged for another rider waiting across the Charles River in Charlestown to be told of the army's route with lanterns hung in Old North Church . To be certain the message would get through, Revere rowed across the river and started riding westward himself. Later, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 's historically inaccurate poem " Paul Revere's Ride " would focus entirely on Revere, making him

6720-467: The local indigenous tribes . Bulkeley was an influential religious leader who "carried a good number of planters with him into the woods"; Willard was a canny trader who spoke the Algonquian language and had gained the trust of Native Americans. They exchanged wampum , hatchets, knives, cloth, and other useful items for the six-square-mile (16 km ) purchase from Squaw Sachem of Mistick , which formed

6825-440: The locals. The expedition took heavy losses: two towns were raided, and one 80-man company was killed entirely, including their commander. That winter, a thousand militiamen pushed out the Wampanoags. In response to the success of the Wampanoags, in the spring of 1676 an alarm system of riders and signals was formed in which each town was required to participate. The Second Indian War broke out in 1689, and militiamen throughout

6930-886: The march were prone to do. Dawes refused to join a punitive expedition against Indians ordered by Governor Phillip in December 1790. Mehitable died on May 19, 1794 but he remarried (to Lydia) two years later. Dawes died in Marlborough, Massachusetts , on February 25, 1799. He was believed to have been buried in the King's Chapel Burying Ground , but modern research points to his resting place now being in his first wife's family plot in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain . The poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , " Paul Revere's Ride ", has been criticized by modern historians for overstating

7035-420: The militia and a report on the number and condition of the units' weapons. Another mission was military training to prepare the provincial soldiers for combat and the nature of that combat. Since British doctrine usually counted on the militia as augmentees to the regular forces as skirmishers and irregular auxiliaries, the provincial soldiers were more frequently trained as irregulars or skirmishers rather than in

7140-433: The militia increase in size and reorganize and form special companies of minutemen, who should be equipped and prepared to march at the shortest notice. These minutemen were to comprise one-quarter of the whole militia, to be enlisted under the direction of the field-officers, and divide into companies, consisting of at least 50 men each. The privates were to choose their captains and subalterns, and these officers were to form

7245-411: The militia muskets if the muskets they bought for their duties were old or inoperative. These pieces gradually appeared in quantity, but neither fowling pieces nor rifles had bayonets . Some colonies purchased muskets, cartridge boxes, and bayonets from England, and maintained armories within the colony. Muskets were usually shipped to Crown authorities, where they became provincial arms and then sold to

7350-520: The militia system whose members underwent additional training and held themselves ready to respond at a minute's notice to emergencies, which gave rise to their name as Minutemen. The immediate predecessor to the organized Minuteman concept colony-wide was the Picket Guard, a concept of a rapid responder that never came to fruition because the legislation in the Colony of Massachusetts House of Representatives

7455-525: The militia trained three to four times a week. In response to these tensions, the Massachusetts Provincial legislators found that the colony's militia resources were short just before the American Revolutionary War , on October 26, 1774, after observing the British military buildup. They found that, "including the sick and absent, it amounted to about 17,000 men, far short of the number wanted, that

7560-482: The militia would not interfere if they sent a sizable force to Concord to seize munitions and stores there (which they considered the King's property, since it was paid for to defend the colonies from the American Indian threat). The British officers were proven wrong. Shooting erupted at Lexington . There is still a debate as to whether it was a colonist or a British soldier who fired the first shot. The militia left

7665-457: The morning, he returned to the same yard and found the watch that had fallen from his pocket. Otherwise, Dawes's activity during the Battle of Lexington and Concord remains unknown. Dawes and his companions' warnings allowed the town militias to muster a sufficient force for the first open battle of the American Revolutionary War and the first colonial victory. The British column did not find most of

7770-415: The motive being that ranking officers in the militia could be considered strong Loyalists. Officers were then elected by their regiments. In turn, the officers then appointed one third of their militia regiment as Minutemen. Other counties followed Worcester's lead, electing new militia officers and appointing Minutemen. The British practiced formations with their weapons, focusing on marching formations on

7875-610: The narrow land accesses to Charlestown, initiating the siege of Boston . Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson subsequently described the shot fired by the minutemen at the Old North Bridge in his 1837 poem " Concord Hymn " as the " shot heard round the world ". In 1894, the Lexington Historical Society petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature to proclaim April 19 "Lexington Day"; Concord countered with "Concord Day". Governor Frederic T. Greenhalge opted for

7980-504: The now-ubiquitous Concord grape at his home on Lexington Road, where the original vine still grows. Welch's , the first company to sell grape juice, maintains a headquarters in Concord. The Boston-born Bull developed the Concord grape by experimenting with seeds from some of the native species. On his farm outside Concord, down the road from the Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and Alcott homesteads, he planted some 22,000 seedlings before producing

8085-411: The now-ubiquitous Concord grape was developed in Concord by Ephraim Wales Bull . In the 20th century, Concord developed into an affluent Boston suburb and tourist destination, drawing visitors to the Old North Bridge , Orchard House and Walden Pond . The town retains its literary culture and is home to notable authors, including Doris Kearns Goodwin , Alan Lightman and Gregory Maguire . Concord

8190-457: The organization and staffing of three Minuteman regiments by April 1775. In August 1636, the first offensive military attack by militias failed when Massachusetts dispatched John Endecott with four companies on an unsuccessful campaign against the Pequot Indians. According to one account, the expedition succeeded only in killing one Indian and burning some wigwams . Weeks elapsed between

8295-490: The organized militia. The Continental Army regulars received European-style military training later in the American Revolutionary War, but the militias did not get much of this. Like the militia organization itself, training day had a large administrative mission. Four times each year, militia companies were legally obligated to document all persons living within their areas of responsibility who qualified for

8400-597: The overall militia regimental organizations in the New England Colonies . The term has also been applied to various later United States civilian paramilitary forces. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony , all able-bodied men between the ages of 16 and 60 were required to participate in their local militia company. As early as 1645 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, some men were selected from

8505-668: The philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), the father of Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). A native Concordian, Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was another notable member of Emerson's circle. This substantial collection of literary talent in one small town led Henry James to dub Concord "the biggest little place in America." Among the products of this intellectually stimulating environment were Emerson's many essays, including Self-Reliance (1841), Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women (1868), and Hawthorne's story collection Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). Thoreau famously lived in

8610-547: The provincials. For 50 miles around Boston, militiamen were marching in response. By noon the next day, almost 4,000 people were on the common in Cambridge. The provincials got the judges to resign and leave. Gage backed off from trying to seat a court in Worcester. The colonials in Worcester met and came up with a new militia mobilization plan in their County Convention. The Convention required that all current militia officers resign;

8715-512: The remainder of the American Revolution, militias moved to adopting the minuteman model for rapid mobilization. With this rapid mustering of forces, the militia proved its value by augmenting the Continental Army on a temporary basis, occasionally leading to instances of numerical superiority. This was seen at the Battles of Hubbardton and Bennington in the north and at Camden and Cowpens in

8820-467: The rest of the militia. Some also expended time, money, and effort to make sure their Minutemen were well-armed. For example, Captain Isaac Davis who was a gunsmith in his civilian occupation built a firing range on his farm to train his men in firing and drill. He also made sure that every man in his company had a good musket, cartridge box, canteen, and bayonet. This was one of the reasons that his company

8925-423: The retreat. Militiamen knew the local countryside and were familiar with "skulking" or "Indian warfare". They used trees and other obstacles to cover themselves from British gunfire and pursuit by British soldiers, while the militia were firing and moving. This kept the British under sporadic fire, and caused them to exhaust their limited ammunition. Only the timely arrival of a relief column under Lord Percy prevented

9030-514: The rivers were rich with fish and the land was lush and arable. The area was largely depopulated in 1633 by an epidemic of smallpox , a disease likely to have been introduced to the New World by European explorers and settlers. In 1635, a group of English settlers led by Rev. Peter Bulkley and Major Simon Willard received a land grant from the General Court and negotiated a land purchase with

9135-500: The role of Revere in the night's events. Revere's may have been a better story, but Dawes and Prescott were more successful in achieving their missions. In 1896 Helen F. Moore, dismayed that William Dawes had been forgotten, penned a parody of Longfellow's poem. The difference in Revere's and Dawes's achievement and legacy is examined by Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point , where he concludes that Revere would be classified as

9240-452: The south. Cowpens is notable in that Daniel Morgan used the militia's strengths and weaknesses skilfully to attain the double-envelopment of Tarleton 's forces. Historian M. L. Brown states that some of these men mastered the difficult handling of a rifle, though few became expert. Brown quotes Continental Army soldier Benjamin Thompson, who expressed the "common sentiment" at the time, which

9345-502: The time that Plymouth had gotten their force packed and ready to march, the campaign had ended. Massachusetts Bay sent 150 militiamen, Plymouth sent 50, and Connecticut sent 90. In May 1643, a joint council was formed. They published the articles of the New England Confederation . The real power of the confederation was that all four of the colonies promised to contribute soldiers to an alert force that would fight anywhere in

9450-488: The town: his father, Rev. William Emerson (1769–1811), grew up in Concord before becoming an eminent Boston minister, and his grandfather, William Emerson Sr. , witnessed the battle at the North Bridge from his house, and later became a chaplain in the Continental Army. Emerson was at the center of a group of like-minded Transcendentalists living in Concord. Among them were the author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) and

9555-530: The towns or individuals who would pay for them as only the wealthy few could purchase arms directly from arms manufacturers. On several occasions, the Crown authorities had issued muskets as recruitment tools, such as for the 1709 Quebec expedition and the 1710 Port Royal expedition. The Crown often used such opportunities to clear their storehouses of outmoded and inferior weapons, but local Crown authorities were horrified and it became more usual for provincial troops to turn in muskets unless they bought them for use in

9660-444: The traditional dense lines and columns. When used in conjunction with continental regulars, the militia would frequently fire ragged irregular volleys from a forward skirmish line or from the flanks of the Continental Army, while Continental soldiers held the center. Minutemen tended to get more training in line tactics and drill than the regular militia. Many Minutemen company commanders put their men through more training separate from

9765-418: The troops, and they called for Dawes, Revere, and Prescott to halt. The three men rode in different directions, hoping one would escape. Dawes, according to the story he told his children, rode into the yard of a house shouting that he had lured two officers there. Fearing an ambush, the officers stopped chasing him. Dawes's horse bucked him off, however, and he had to walk back to Lexington. He later said that in

9870-547: The weapons they had marched to destroy and sustained serious losses during their retreat to Boston while under attack by the minutemen. On September 9, 1776, Dawes was commissioned second major of the Boston militia regiment. During the war, Dawes worked as a quartermaster in central Massachusetts. British prisoners of war from the Battles of Saratoga complained to Parliament that he gave them short supplies; his family countered that Dawes believed that they were stealing from farmers while being marched to Boston – as most armies on

9975-433: Was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.3 males. For every 100 women aged 18 and over, there were 101.8 men. At the time of the 2020 census , the median household income was $ 184,086. About 2.5% of the population was below the poverty line, including 1.7% of those under age 18 and 1.1% of those aged 65 or over. The town's name is pronounced by its residents as / ˈ k ɒ ŋ k ər d / KONG -kərd , in

10080-662: Was elected as a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts . He was appointed as the company's second sergeant in 1770. When the company was revived in 1786, after becoming dormant during the American Revolution, he was appointed as the Company clerk. His father, William Dawes Sr., was also a member of the company. It is likely that in September 1774, Dawes was instrumental in helping Boston's militia artillery company secure its four small cannons from being confiscated by

10185-416: Was established in 1635 by a group of English settlers; by 1775, the population had grown to 1,400. As dissension between colonists in North America and the British crown intensified, 700 troops were sent to confiscate militia ordnance stored at Concord on April 19, 1775. The ensuing conflict, the battles of Lexington and Concord , were the incidents (including the shot heard round the world ) that triggered

10290-475: Was in the lead of Colonel Barrett's Middlesex Minutemen regiment as the Rebels marched down to face the regulars at the Old North Bridge at the Battle of Concord. There were still some cases where men in the Minuteman companies had to be provided arms. In Concord's two Minutemen companies, fifteen of the 104 still needed to be provided with muskets from the town's arsenal. Their experience suited irregular warfare. In

10395-442: Was never passed because the war ended. Members of the minutemen, in contrast to the regular militia, were no more than 30 years old, and were chosen for their enthusiasm, political reliability, and strength. They were the first armed militia to arrive at or await a battle. Officers were elected by popular vote, as in the rest of the militia, and each unit drafted a formal written covenant to be signed upon enlistment. The militia in

10500-406: Was so overwhelming. It appeared that upwards of 80 to 90 percent of the 1,127 voters in attendance raised their ballots against the repeal measure. The issue had been bubbling in Concord for several years. In 2010, a ban approved in a town meeting, which wasn't written as a bylaw, was rejected by the state attorney general's office. In 2011, a new version of the ban narrowly failed at a town meeting by

10605-557: Was still midway through the process of splitting the Minutemen companies from the regular militia companies into their own regiments by the spring of 1775. For example, the old 2nd Middlesex Regiment of Foot, a provincial unit that had seen action in the French and Indian Wars, divided into a militia regiment under Colonel David Green and a Minuteman regiment Colonel Ebenezer Bridge. Colonel William Prescott's Middlesex regiment had not yet split and had ten companies of militia and seven of minutemen. Worcester County had managed to already complete

10710-484: Was that minutemen were notoriously poor marksmen with rifles: "Instead of being the best marksmen in the world and picking off every Regular that was to be seen, the continual firing which they kept up by the week and the month has had no other effect than to waste their ammunition and convince the King's troops that they are really not really so formidable." There was a shortage of ammunition and supplies, and what they had were constantly being seized by British patrols. As

10815-474: Was the British column's goal. Revere no doubt knew that the Provincial Congress had stored munitions there, including the cannons which Dawes had helped to secure. Along the way, the two men met Samuel Prescott , a local young physician, who joined them. A squad of mounted British officers awaited on the road between Lexington and Concord. They had already arrested some riders heading west with news of

10920-465: Was very familiar to the local militia. In time, however, loyalists such as John Butler and Robert Rogers mustered equally capable irregular forces ( Butler's Rangers and the Queen's Rangers , led by Englishman John Graves Simcoe ). In addition, many British commanders learned from experience and effectively modified their light infantry tactics and battle dress to suit conditions in North America. Through

11025-561: Was well trained and well equipped, and set aside as a ready force. In May 1653, the Council of Massachusetts said that an eighth of the militia should be ready to march within one day to anywhere in the colony. Eighty militiamen marched on the Narragansett tribe in Massachusetts, though no fighting took place. Since the colonies were expanding, the Narragansetts got desperate and began raiding

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