Monthly Archives: January 2013

As dawn broke on the morning of September 6, an advance party of militiamen seized the Worcester courthouse, barricaded themselves inside, and awaited the arrival of 25 Crown appointees. That morning, the well-organized, well-trained, and highly disciplined militia force of nearly 5,000 men poured into the Main Street area in front of the court building, assembling themselves into 37 town military companies. A large majority of the town militias had prudently voted the previous day to leave their firearms outside the town, so as not to provoke any unexpected violent incidents.⁵ The militia lined both sides of Main Street, forming a kind of gauntlet for the King's appointees to pass through. When the court officials arrived at the courthouse, they were denied entry and escorted to the nearby Daniel Heywood Tavern, where they were to await further instructions.

"It shows,” said he, “Then the British soldiers were men like you and me. It shows that the story of that fateful battle hour round many weeping hearts across the sea. Your histories tell you how two British soldiers, a sergeant and a private were killed, and are buried under the pines by the wail. One was killed and the other wounded. As the wounded soldier was crawling away he was met by a boy who had been chopping wood and who inflamed with the spirit of the hour, struck him dead with his axe. Mr. Bartlett of Concord tells me that not so long ago a young woman came to Concord and asked to be shown where the British soldiers lay. She came from Nottinghamshire and was a relative of one of them. She went to the graves and placed upon them I wreath, singing as she did so ‘God Save the King."