had wakened the little town of Lexington at midnight of April 18, 1775, with word that General Gage and the British regulars were on the march to seize the stores at Concord. William Dawes had brought the same message, riding through Roxbury. Then Dawes and Revere and Samuel Prescott rode on until they reached Lincoln, where the first two were captured by the British, but Prescott escaped to Concord.

In 1775 there may have been some seven hundred people in Lexington. By two in the morning of April 19th, Lexington Common was filled with minutemen. The roll was called, and one hundred and thirty answered to their names. Then the captain, John Parker, ordered every man to load his musket with powder and ball, but not to be the first to fire. Messengers, who had been sent out to look for the British troops, reported they were not in sight, so the company was dismissed with orders to come together instantly at the sound of a drum.

Dawn was just breaking when the first British soldiers were seen advancing along the road. The drums called the minutemen together, and the raw soldiers were drawn up in two ranks, near the north side of the meeting-house.

The British, hearing the drums and signal-guns, halted and loaded their muskets. Then the advance guard, led by Major Pitcairn, and followed by the grenadiers, went forward at the double-quick. When Pitcairn was near the minutemen he cried out: "Disperse, ye villains! ye rebels, disperse! lay down your arms! why don't you lay down your arms and disperse?"

Although the minutemen were far fewer than the British soldiers they stood their ground. Pitcairn fired his pistol, and called to his men, "Fire!" A few guns answered, and then followed a deadly discharge of muskets at short range.

Captain Parker, seeing that his men were too few to withstand so many, ordered them to retreat. Then a few of them, of their own accord, fired at the regulars, but did them no harm. Seven men of Lexington, however, were killed by the British fire, and nine wounded. Jonas Parker had sworn never to run from British troops; he stood his ground and was stabbed by a bayonet as he reloaded his gun. Robert Munroe, a veteran of earlier wars, was killed. Samuel Hadley and John Brown were followed and shot down after they had left the common, and Asahel Porter, who had been captured and was trying to escape, was also shot. Caleb Harrington, who had gone to the meeting-house for powder, was killed by a bullet as he came out, and Jonathan Harrington, Jr., was struck in front of his own house on the common. His wife was at the window. He fell, then got to his knees, and crawled to his doorstep. There he died as his wife reached him.

Daylight found Lexington Common stained with blood, and seven of the town's brave sons dead. Yet Samuel Adams, looking into the future, could exclaim, "Oh, what a glorious morning is this!" for he knew that the heroic stand of that little company was the first step towards the winning of their country's independence.

This poem by Sidney Lanier is a part of a longer poem called "Psalm of the West."

by Sidney Lanier
(From the "Psalm of the West.")

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Lay down your arms, damned Rebels! cry", "") ?>

Psalm—", "") ?> wise—", "") ?> Fire!", "") ?>
Brother, art hurt? and Where hit, John?", "") ?> Wipe this blood, and Men, come on,", "") ?> Neighbor, do but lift my head,", "") ?> Who is wounded? Who is dead?", "") ?> Seven are killed. My God! my God!", "") ?> Seven lie dead on the village sod.", "") ?> Two Harringtons, Parker, Hadley, Brown,", "") ?> Munroe and Porter,—these are down.", "") ?> Nay, look! stout Harrington not yet dead!", "") ?>
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