This is a story about a visit to the place of the first battles of the American Revolution. April 19th 1775 was a long day of fighting for the Colonial militia and for the British. The Battle extended first from Lexington then on to Concord and then back to Charlestown. The chronology in this story is drawn from the National Park Service (NPS) website or from the NPS brochure shown in this article.[1]
Lexington Green is the location of the first battle of the Revolution. It is difficult to describe the place. A wide almost parklike area in the midst of houses and bustling traffic it has several monuments and markers to the battle that took place there.
Viewing the green one has a palpable feeling for the importance of the place and for the events that took place there April 19th 1775. This is the place where the country began. That morning Captain Parker was the officer in charge of the 77 Lexington militiamen that faced off with the British at about 5:00 A.M. Eight of Parker’s men died during that face-off and 10 were wounded.
The excellent town visitor center across from Lexington Green has a good movie describing the battle that day. Near the visitor center is an old remodeled railroad station next to what is now an extensive rail to trails bike path. We rode the path to Cambridge and back but the path goes further in both directions.
You may have read the famous poem Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Although Revere was captured and released without his horse shortly before reaching Concord, the poem is a stirring rendition of the ride that Revere and several of his compatriots took that night. Here is a short excerpt of it describing the arrival of the rider that carried the warning and subsequent events:
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard-wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load. [2]
My ancestor Uriah McLain at 24 years old was at the Battle of Lexington. During his sworn testimony in court in 1820 to obtain his pension for his Revolutionary War service Uriah, then aged 69, stated that he was at the battles of Lexington, Bunker Hill, Stillwater, the taking of Burgoyne, and other fights.[3]
After the battle at Lexington the British marched on to Concord. Hundreds of militia began forming up together from the farms nearby at 7:00 A.M. At 9:30 A.M. the militia returned fire on the British who fired first as they faced off at the small wooden North Bridge.
At Concord we visited the NPS North Bridge Visitor Center. The NPS has done a superb job preserving and presenting both its Concord and Lexington Revolutionary War sites. The facility is located in a historic house, with lovely surrounding gardens, seated on a hill above the small river below. The visitor center had an excellent movie about the battle at Concord. From there we took a short walk down the hill to North Bridge.
The original bridge is gone but has been rebuilt. Near it is the Minuteman Monument. The monument portrays a colonial soldier in his dual role as farmer, symbolized by the plow, and as a soldier holding his musket.
You may be familiar with this excerpt of the Concord Hymn memorialized by the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.[4]
The NPS Ranger in Concord suggested we next visit the spot where the running battle with the British first took place. Starting at Meriam’s Corner where the battle with the retreating British started we bicycled about halfway along the route called Battle Road. The route is a gravel hike & bike path that traces part of the route of the British retreat. Along the way we saw many hikers, joggers and some bicyclists.
We came back later and started at the opposite end of the NPS Battle Road at the Minute Man Visitor Center. The Center had an excellent movie that depicted the events around the fight on April 19th. From the visitor center we biked along Battle Road to the point we stopped earlier, passing more British soldiers graves scattered along the route.
Visiting the Battle Road was a dive back into the history of the very beginning of the Revolution. The place where Paul Revere was stopped and arrested at 1:00 A.M. on the morning of April 19th is marked by a monument along the path. Samuel Prescott riding on the same mission made it to Concord at 2:00 A.M. to warn the people there.
Also well marked is a place called Parker’s Revenge. The afternoon of the same day that his men were attacked and killed at Lexington Captain Parker led his remaining Lexington militia in ambushing the British at this location.
During the day 4,000 militiamen joined the fight, firing on the British as they retreated. Using tactics their fathers and grandfathers had developed in well over a century of fighting along the Indian frontier they harassed the British as they retreated to Charlestown. The low rock walls, trees and rocky outcrops along the road gave them cover from bullets as they fired.
My ancestor 37 year old Dearing Jones Jr. is recorded as having “marched on the alarm of April 19th” from Scituate Massachusetts.[5] Dearing Jones Jr. and Uriah McLain are two of my ancestors validated by the genealogists at the Sons of the American Revolution.
Today Battle Road is a pleasant bike ride paralleling a busy road on a slightly hilly terrain through farmland. The path has explanatory placards along the way explaining events that took place during the British retreat. Here and there along the path are the graves of British soldiers that died that day marked by British flags.
The 251 years that have passed have cloaked the area with an aura of serenity. A ride on the comfortable hike and bike path belies the momentous events that happened along that trail long ago. Uriah McLain and Dearing Jones Jr. answered the call to arms that fateful day. It was a privilege to see these places and experience them through the lens of personal ancestry.
[1] NPS Minute Man Park website, https://www.nps.gov/mima/index.htm
[2] Roy J. Cook, One Hundred and One Famous Poems, p. 77, R. J. Cook, Chicago, 1922. https://archive.org/details/onehundredonefam02cook/page/n85/mode/1up
[3] Pension application W6023 for Uriah McLain, U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, Ancestry.com database, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1995/images/MIUSA1775D_136274-00374?
[4] Roy J. Cook, One Hundred and One Famous Poems, p. 134, R. J. Cook, Chicago, 1922. https://archive.org/details/onehundredonefam02cook/page/n143/mode/1up
[5] Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, p. 908, Wright and Potter, Boston, 1901. https://archive.org/details/massachusettssol08mass/page/908/mode/1up
© 2026 Bruce A. Wright Esq., LL.M.