Massachusetts - Day 17 - Lexington & Concord

The Pines Camping Area
Monday, 17 September 2018

today's route

I couldn't start at the real beginning, which was The Old North Church in Boston, where the two lanterns were hung to tell Paul Revere that the British would be moving toward Concord by the water route.  He was heading toward Lexington to alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams, which he did.  A thorough account is found here paulreverehouse.org/the-real-story.  For some reason, I hadn't connected that event with the battles of Lexington and Concord so was surprised by the plaques I found in Lexington.

This statue, by Daniel Chester Finch (whose primary claim to serious fame is his statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial), is of Col. John Parker who was in charge of the Lexington militia.

Although the British vastly outnumbered the militia, a shot was fired - nobody ever knew who fired it - and the British started firing, killing 8 of the locals.  They continued to march toward Concord but, on their way back later in the day, Col. Parker had his revenge.  He and his men hid on a ridge outside of town and were able to do a serious payback.

The plaque on the left is on the earliest monument raised to the soldiers of the Revolution - dedicated in 1799.  Downright contemporaneous.  It's worth blowing this photo up and reading the inscription.  The monument itself is just an obelisk, which is why I didn't bother to photograph it.

That stone is Col. Parker's "stand your ground" instructions to his men.  As it turns out, a war did begin there.

monument and bridge

The British marched on to Concord without any particular resistance.  It was there, and on the way back, that they ran into trouble.  The plaque on the right does as good a job as any in explaining what happened at the Old North Bridge.  (It's worth reading to the end, by the way - the last sentence tells me it was written about the same time as the inscription on the monument.  What you can't see in my photo is the statue on the other side of the bridge - more on that in a minute.

plaque on the monument

The stone marker for the British soldiers was a surprise to me, and the text was even more of a surprise.  I found some explanation, as well as more information about the scene at the bridge, at this National Park Service website. www.nps.gov/north-bridge-questions

On the other side of the bridge is another Daniel Chester French statue, The Minute Man.

I can't get over the level of detail he managed to achieve.  I already knew he was a genius from the Lincoln Memorial, but I see it again here.

The inscription is from the beginning of Emerson's "Concord Hymn."

At the entrance to the site is another Emerson quote.

I hadn't ever heard this one before; it seems to have been written for the specific occasion.


So Concord is just packed with history of all kinds, including the literary kind.

Just yards from the bridge was The Old Manse, home to both Emerson and Hawthorne.

The Old Manse

The Wayside

On my way to the bridge, just before I got into the main part of Concord, I passed The Wayside, with the Orchard House close by.  The Wayside was home to the Bronson Alcott family, and then the Hawthornes.  (These guys all seemed to be buddies.)  The Orchard House was where Louisa wrote Little Women, among other things.

Orchard House

I ended my tour of Concord at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  I don't know how long it's had that name, but I do know that all the literary luminaries of Concord are buried there.  I couldn't find Hawthorne's grave, though I know it's there, but I found the Alcotts and Thoreau - right, I forgot to mention that Walden Pond is near town.  The Walden Pond.  They really all were buddies.  Must have had some interesting conversations.  Anyway, here are some of the other graves I found.

Thoreau family

Henry David's grave

Alcott family

Louisa's grave

Emerson's grave

Emerson's wife and daughter

Okay, I can't get this stupid programming to make a decent-looking layout and I'm sick of trying.  In fact, it's about as frustrating as the rest of my day was, trying to get back to the campground.  

I took a road that delivered me to I-495, as the map promised, but there was no way at all to get on the northbound side.  I drove around and around trying to find the entrance I was sure I'd missed, and finally got on southbound, figuring I'd get off at the next exit and turn around.  Yeah, except the next exit was MILES down the road.  And then I had to drive a whole lot more miles than I'd expected to get back up to Salisbury.  My only comfort was that it'd've taken me even longer if I'd just gone back the way I came.

By the time I got back to my camping spot, it was way past time for a drink, which I was way past ready for.

Too bad to end the day like that, because it had been almost spiritual in many ways.