Minute Man National Historical Park

No big vacations this summer, but we did a couple day trips. First off, we headed back to the American Revolution at the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts. We first stopped in at the visitor center, where we were just in time for the multimedia extravaganza¹ put together by the National Park Service about the events surrounding the Battles of Lexington and Concord that began the American Revolutionary War.

¹ It was a video, with multiple screens, some lighting, and a light-up battle map.

To summarize, British troops stationed in Boston had orders to take action against the colonial militia, the goal being to disarm then and capture rebel leaders. The colonists were aware of these orders and when the British regulars began to move out from Boston, Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent out to warn and muster the militia, Revere crossing the Charles River and taking a northern route while Dawes rode south down Boston Neck. Revere also passed along the message that the regulars were leaving Boston by boat to the Old North Church so they could signal Charlestown using lanterns (the “one if by land, two if by sea” from Longfellow’s poem). At Lexington, Revere and Dawes met up with other leaders and decided that Concord, the site of military stores, was the target of the British. They rode on, joined by Samuel Prescott, then ran into a British patrol. Revere was captured, Dawes was released but lost his horse, and Prescott evaded the patrol and made it to Concord.

Because of the warning they had been given, militiamen were waiting for the British when they made it to Lexington at sunrise of April 19, 1775. During the encounter, someone fired a shot, leading to a brief skirmish that killed eight Americans. The British continued on to Concord, where they met a larger group of militiamen. The armies faced off at the North Bridge, where a British soldier fired first, initiating volleys from both sides (Emerson’s “shot heard round the world”). In the end, several British soldiers lay dead, and the regulars began their retreat to Boston. Throughout the rest of the day, more militia joined the growing Colonial forces as they chased and harried the British troops along the way.

Hartwell Tavern

After refreshing my U.S. History I knowledge, we set off along the Battle Road Trail, an approximately 5-mile long trail that follows some of the original route the Colonial militia and British regulars travelled between Lexington and Concord. Along the way, historical points of interest include houses belonging to militiamen and their families, battle sites, and Hartwell Tavern, a gathering place for the colonists. At Hartwell Tavern, we stopped to hear a program about the Colonial militia/minutemen where we got to see a musket fired (if you were fast and well prepared, you could fire three whole shots a minute). We also saw sheep, pigs, and planes (the park is south of Hanscom AFB). The Battle Road trail isn’t paved, but it’s mostly flat dirt and can be biked, which a good number of people were doing. The trail runs east-west with the visitor center at the east side and Meriam’s Corner, where the regulars’ retreat turned into a running battle with the minutemen, at the west end. In general, the east side of the park is more wooded while there are more open fields in the western half.

Let sleeping pigs lie

In the end, it took us about 4 hours of walking to cover the ten miles out and back of the trail, though we were in the main section of the park for a total of slightly over 6 hours, including our initial stop at the visitor center and later breaks at Hartwell Tavern and for snacks. As of our visit, there was no fee to enter the park. To finish off the day, we drove to the North Bridge, in an unconnected section of the park, to see the bridge and the Concord River before heading home.

North Bridge