times as an intellectual and moral exercise sought to follow the poor youth through his subsequent career, and observe how his soul was tortured by the blood stain, contracted, as it had been, before the long custom of war had robbed human life of its sanctity, and while it still seemed murderous to slay a brother man. This one circumstance," he writes, "has borne more fruit for me than all that history tells of the fight." We are not surprised to read that the boy bitterly regretted the act. In 1807 he told Charles Handley,' himself, who mentions it in his deposition, that it had "worried him very much; but that he thought he was doing right at the time." Years ago a phrenologist prevailed on the townsfolk to sell him the skulls of both the British soldiers buried at the bridge, for scientific purposes, at least so he said, but presently it was learned that they had come into the possession of the Worcester Historical Society. Subsequently they were recovered and reburied through the efforts of the late Mr. George Tolman of Concord. It was remarked on this occasion by several that one skull had a bullet hole, and that the other was broken by a blow, thus confirming the tradition. A button belonging to one of the soldiers was kept out, and may be seen in the Antiquarian Rooms. 1 Acton Celebration, 1835. CHAPTER II A THE PURSUIT THROUGH LINCOLN FTER the British had retreated from the bridge, Major Buttrick paraded fifty men near Humphrey Barrett's; other Provincials went behind a hill east of the road, above Elisha Jones's. Among these last were the Acton men, the Concord Minute-men, and many others.1 Lieutenant John Hayward2 of Acton, who succeeded Captain Davis in command of his company, is said to have died at Bridgton, Maine, in 1825. Sol Smith writes of him, "Captain Davis was a man of great firmness, and energy of character, an excellent officer, and had the respect and esteem of all who knew him. Lt. Hayward did all that could be done; but it was felt, at the time, that the loss of our Captain was the cause of much of the confusion that followed." When Smith's reinforcements came up our men divided; some, keeping on along the Ridge and by a bridlepath through the woods, skirted the centre of the town, purposing to intercept the British retreat, and others went back to help with the killed and wounded. Luther Blanchard, eighteen years of age, the first to be hit, went after the action to Mrs. Humphrey Barrett's. He did not make much of the wound, and when Mrs. Barrett, examining it, said with concern, "a little more and you'd been killed," he replied stoutly, "Yes, and a little more and it wouldn't have touched me at all." But although he took it so lightly and lost no time in rejoining his company, besides engaging 1 Acton Celebration, 1835, 17. 2 "The Leader of the Charge across Concord Bridge." Charles O. Stickney. April 18, 1891, Boston Evening Transcript. 3 History of Concord, 112. Shattuck. in the battle of Bunker Hill the following June, his nephew 1 always believed that his death in the College Hospital at Cambridge during September was due to this early wound. He and his brother Calvin, who served in the same company as orderly sergeant, were born in Boxborough and were learning the mason's trade, making their home with Deacon Jonathan Hosmer, the father of Abner. Their own father, Simon Blanchard, had been killed in 1759, before Quebec. The farm from which they marched lies about midway between South and West Acton and is suitably marked by a memorial stone. Luther lies buried at Littleton. One of the Acton men present, Aaron Jones, named a son for him. This same Jones could never speak of Isaac Davis unmoved. 2 Sol Smith says, "The bodies of Davis and Hosmer were carried, as I was told, to the house of Major Buttrick, very soon after they were killed, and before the detachment returned from Colonel Barrett's." Amos Baker of Lincoln was one of many who went into the house and saw them as they lay there, before their removal that afternoon to the Davis house in Acton. The Captain's widow says of her husband, "His countenance was pleasant and seemed but little altered." Abner Hosmer had an older brother Jonathan and two younger, Stephen and Jonas. Mrs. Sarah Hosmer, a child at the time, used to tell in her old age of how her grandfather, the lad's father, who had been into the village seeking news, returned 'round the corner of the house and groaned as he passed the window, to go in at the front door.2 In 1851, at the dedication of the Acton Monument, Hosmer's body was removed, his cheek-bone still showing traces of the ball which caused his death. It had entered just below the left eye and come out at the back of his neck. 1 Memorial to Luther Blanchard, Fifer of the Acton Minute-men, April 19, 1775, 14-15, 22-3, 24, 95, 51. Alfred Sereno Hudson. West Acton, 1899. Published by Luke Blanchard. 2 History of Middlesex County, I, 256, 270, 276. Hurd. At the same time a silver bosom pin in the form of an eagle was recovered which he had worn into the battle. In 1894 this brooch was owned by Nelson Tinny 2 of Acton; it bears the monogram "S. H.," and is supposed to have come to him on his twenty-first birthday, just before his death. Later the body of Hayward, whose death occurred during the pursuit, was brought home and laid beside that of Hosmer at the Davis house. The whole town attended a few days later when the Rev. Mr. Swift, parson of the town for thirty-seven years, held the funeral services. Captain Davis's father was Deacon Ezekiel Davis, and as we learn from the inscription on Hosmer's grave, his father also was a deacon. 3 HERE LIES THE BODY OF MR. ABNER HOSMER, SON OF DEA. JONA. HOSMER, AND MRS. MARTHA HIS WIFE, IN YE DEFENCE OF YE JUST RIGHTS OF HIS COUNTRY, Captain Davis's epitaph1 reads: I SAY UNTO ALL WATCH. IN MEMORY OF CAPT. ISAAC DAVIS MANKIND DIED IN YE PRIME OF LIFE AGED 30 YEARS I M., & 25 DAYS. Is there not an appointed time to man upon ye earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling? As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more. — JOB vii. 1, 9, 10. 1 Beneath Old Roof Trees, 168-170, 166. Brown. Boston Herald, April 18, 1894. Acton Celebration, 1835, 19. History of Middlesex County, I, 261, 244. Hurd. Account of the Union Celebration at Concord, 1850, 93. Captain Davis is said to have had a presentiment of trouble, because shortly before, on returning home, he and his wife found a large owl indoors, sitting on his gun, which stayed 'round several days. Mrs. Isaac Davis continued to live in Acton to a great age. She was subsequently married in 1782 to Samuel Jones, and in 1802 to Francis Leighton. In her 89th year she made a deposition respecting Captain Davis's death, and through the efforts of the Rev. Mr. Woodbury received an annuity of fifty dollars from the Commonwealth, and $200 from the National Government. In her gratitude she hobbled to a chest and begged Mr. Woodbury 1 "to take his pay" by accepting as a keepsake the buckles that Captain Davis wore when he fell. It is now high time to go back to Captain Parsons' command, left all this while at the Barrett homestead. When they had finished eating, one of the soldiers offered Mrs. Barrett payment, which she refused with the words, "It is the price of blood," but the soldier was not satisfied until he had flung the coin in her lap. The commanding officer then started to his feet crying, “We shall have hot work before night, let us go," and the companies filed off as they had come. After they were gone it was discovered that fifty dollars had been pilfered from the Colonel's desk.2 As they went along back, the soldiers came to Mrs. Brown's tavern, and three or four of the officers went into the house to take some drink. The boy, Charles Handley,' was there and says: "The soldiers were sitting by the roadside, and some drink was carried out to them. The officers offered to pay, and Mrs. Brown declined; they told her not to be afraid, for they should do her no harm, and paid for their drink. I heard the guns at the bridge [a mile to the southeast] but the British did not appear to hear them. They marched on very soon, but were in no haste. It was 1 History of Middlesex County, I, 260, 262. Hurd. 2 Under Colonial Roofs, 173. Jones. Acton Celebration, 1835. |