400 Watched and Waited

400 Watched and Waited. . ,

They ‘resolved to march into the middle of the town to defend their homes, or die in the attempt.’ – Lemuel Shattuck, from the Memoirs of Joseph Hosmer

In the field beyond, on the high ground above the North Bridge, 400 minute men and militia from Concord and surrounding communities gathered. Farmers, tradesmen, shopkeepers, and even a few enslaved men accompanying their owners, made up these militia companies. They watched and waited as British troops searched the town center. Ninety-six British regulars held the bridge between the center of town and the hillside. With the sight of smoke rising from the center of town, Lieutenant Joseph Hosmer cried out, “Will you let them burn the town down?” Captain Isaac Davis, commander of the Acton company, expressed his readiness if called to action, “I haven't a man who's afraid to go.” Colonial officers advanced the troops down the hill to save the town. Under strict orders from Colonel James Barrett of Concord “not to fire til they fired first, then to fire as fast as we could.” The colonists began their march in a “very military manner” down the hill towards the British regulars at North Bridge. , [Captions (left to right)] , . An 1888 monument marks the site were 400 colonial militia and minute men watched and waited on the morning of April 19, 1775. The advance of the troops from this location and the firing ordered at North Bridge opened the American Revolution. Liberty Street did not exist until 1793. , . Lieutenant Joseph Hosmer, thirty-nine years old, a farmer and furniture-maker with a reputation for being an eloquent and fiery patriot, was considered by some to be “the most dangerous man in Concord”.