MURDER IN CONCORD: THE EXTENDED VERSION

When they disembarked near Phipps Farm in Cambridge, it was into waist-deep water at midnight. They did not carry knapsacks, since they would not be encamped. They carried their haversacks food bags , canteens, muskets, and accoutrements, and marched off in wet, muddy shoes and soggy uniforms. As they marched through Menotomy , sounds of the colonial alarms throughout the countryside caused the few officers who were aware of their mission to realize they had lost the element of surprise.

At about 3 am, Colonel Smith sent Major Pitcairn ahead with six companies of light infantry under orders to quick march to Concord. At about 4 am Smith made the wise but belated decision to send a messenger back to Boston asking for reinforcements. Although often styled a battle, in reality the engagement at Lexington was a minor brush or skirmish. Of the militiamen who lined up, nine had the surname Harrington, seven Munroe including the company's orderly sergeant, William Munroe , four Parker, three Tidd, three Locke, and three Reed; fully one quarter of them were related to Captain Parker in some way.

After having waited most of the night with no sign of any British troops and wondering if Paul Revere's warning was true , at about 4: He knew that most of the colonists' powder and military supplies at Concord had already been hidden. No war had been declared. The Declaration of Independence was a year in the future.

He also knew the British had gone on such expeditions before in Massachusetts, found nothing, and marched back to Boston. Parker had every reason to expect that to occur again. The Regulars would march to Concord, find nothing, and return to Boston, tired but empty-handed. He positioned his company carefully. He placed them in parade-ground formation, on Lexington Common. They were in plain sight not hiding behind walls , but not blocking the road to Concord. They made a show of political and military determination, but no effort to prevent the march of the Regulars.

Rather than turn left towards Concord, Marine Lieutenant Jesse Adair, at the head of the advance guard, decided on his own to protect the flank of the British column by first turning right and then leading the companies onto the Common itself, in a confused effort to surround and disarm the militia. Major Pitcairn arrived from the rear of the advance force and led his three companies to the left and halted them. The remaining companies under Colonel Smith lay further down the road toward Boston.

A British officer probably Pitcairn, but accounts are uncertain, as it may also have been Lieutenant William Sutherland then rode forward, waving his sword, and called out for the assembled militia to disperse, and may also have ordered them to "lay down your arms, you damned rebels! Both Parker and Pitcairn ordered their men to hold fire, but a shot was fired from an unknown source.

We had a man of the 10th light Infantry wounded, nobody else was hurt.

19-Year-Old Accused Of Murder In Concord Park

We then formed on the Common, but with some difficulty, the men were so wild they could hear no orders; we waited a considerable time there, and at length proceeded our way to Concord. According to one member of Parker's militia, none of the Americans had discharged their muskets as they faced the oncoming British troops. The British did suffer one casualty, a slight wound, the particulars of which were corroborated by a deposition made by Corporal John Munroe. After the first fire of the regulars, I thought, and so stated to Ebenezer Munroe Some witnesses among the regulars reported the first shot was fired by a colonial onlooker from behind a hedge or around the corner of a tavern.

Some observers reported a mounted British officer firing first. Both sides generally agreed that the initial shot did not come from the men on the ground immediately facing each other. Yet another theory is that the first shot was one fired by the British, that killed Asahel Porter, their prisoner who was running away he had been told to walk away and he would be let go, though he panicked and began to run. Historian David Hackett Fischer has proposed that there may actually have been multiple near-simultaneous shots. In response the British troops, without orders, fired a devastating volley.

This lack of discipline among the British troops had a key role in the escalation of violence. Witnesses at the scene described several intermittent shots fired from both sides before the lines of regulars began to fire volleys without receiving orders to do so.

A few of the militiamen believed at first that the regulars were only firing powder with no ball, but when they realized the truth, few if any of the militia managed to load and return fire. The rest ran for their lives. We Nathaniel Mulliken, Philip Russell, [and 32 other men The regulars then charged forward with bayonets. Captain Parker's cousin Jonas was run through. Eight Lexington men were killed, and ten were wounded. The only British casualty was a soldier who was wounded in the thigh. Jonathon Harrington, fatally wounded by a British musket ball, managed to crawl back to his home, and died on his own doorstep.

One wounded man, Prince Estabrook , was a black slave who was serving in the militia. The companies under Pitcairn's command got beyond their officers' control in part because they were unaware of the actual purpose of the day's mission. They fired in different directions and prepared to enter private homes.

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Colonel Smith, who was just arriving with the remainder of the regulars, heard the musket fire and rode forward from the grenadier column to see the action. He quickly found a drummer and ordered him to beat assembly. The grenadiers arrived shortly thereafter, and once order was restored among the soldiers, the light infantry were permitted to fire a victory volley, after which the column was reformed and marched on toward Concord.

In response to the raised alarm, the militiamen of Concord and Lincoln had mustered in Concord. They received reports of firing at Lexington, and were not sure whether to wait until they could be reinforced by troops from towns nearby, or to stay and defend the town, or to move east and greet the British Army from superior terrain. A column of militia marched down the road toward Lexington to meet the British, traveling about 1.

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Caution prevailed, and Colonel James Barrett withdrew from the town of Concord and led the men across the North Bridge to a hill about a mile north of town, where they could continue to watch the troop movements of the British and the activities in the center of town. This step proved fortuitous, as the ranks of the militia continued to grow as minuteman companies arriving from the western towns joined them there. When the British troops arrived in the village of Concord, Lt.

Smith divided them to carry out Gage's orders. The 10th Regiment's company of grenadiers secured South Bridge under Captain Mundy Pole, while seven companies of light infantry under Captain Parsons, numbering about , secured the North Bridge, where they were visible across the cleared fields to the assembling militia companies. Captain Parsons took four companies from the 5th, 23rd, 38th and 52nd Regiments up the road 2 miles 3. These companies, which were under the relatively inexperienced command of Captain Walter Laurie, were aware that they were significantly outnumbered by the plus militiamen.

The concerned Captain Laurie sent a messenger to Lt. Using detailed information provided by Loyalist spies, the grenadier companies searched the small town for military supplies. When they arrived at Ephraim Jones's tavern, by the jail on the South Bridge road, they found the door barred shut, and Jones refused them entry.

According to reports provided by local Loyalists, Pitcairn knew cannon had been buried on the property. Jones was ordered at gunpoint to show where the guns were buried. These turned out to be three massive pieces, firing pound shot, that were much too heavy to use defensively, but very effective against fortifications, with sufficient range to bombard the city of Boston from other parts of nearby mainland. They also burned some gun carriages found in the village meetinghouse, and when the fire spread to the meetinghouse itself, local resident Martha Moulton persuaded the soldiers to help in a bucket brigade to save the building.

Of the damage done, only that done to the cannon was significant. All of the shot and much of the food was recovered after the British left. During the search, the regulars were generally scrupulous in their treatment of the locals, including paying for food and drink consumed. This excessive politeness was used to advantage by the locals, who were able to misdirect searches from several smaller caches of militia supplies. Barrett's Farm had been an arsenal weeks before, but few weapons remained now, and according to family legend, these were quickly buried in furrows to look like a crop had been planted.

The troops sent there did not find any supplies of consequence. As the militia advanced, the two British companies from the 4th and 10th Regiments that held the position near the road retreated to the bridge and yielded the hill to Barrett's men.

UPDATE: Concord Police Arrest 58-Year-Old Antioch Man For Murder Of Woman On Main Ave. (PHOTO)

Five full companies of Minutemen and five more of militia from Acton , Concord, Bedford and Lincoln occupied this hill as more groups of men streamed in, totaling at least against Captain Laurie's light infantry companies, a force totaling 90—95 men. Barrett ordered the Massachusetts men to form one long line two abreast on the highway leading down to the bridge, and then he called for another consultation. While overlooking North Bridge from the top of the hill, Barrett, Lt. John Robinson of Westford [71] and the other Captains discussed possible courses of action.

Captain Isaac Davis of Acton, whose troops had arrived late, declared his willingness to defend a town not their own by saying, "I'm not afraid to go, and I haven't a man that's afraid to go. Barrett told the men to load their weapons but not to fire unless fired upon, and then ordered them to advance. Laurie ordered the British companies guarding the bridge to retreat across it. One officer then tried to pull up the loose planks of the bridge to impede the colonial advance, but Major Buttrick began to yell at the regulars to stop harming the bridge. The Minutemen and militia from Concord, Acton and a handful of Westford Minutemen, advanced in column formation, two by two, led by Major Buttrick, Lt.

Robinson, [73] then Capt. Davis, [74] on the light infantry, keeping to the road, since it was surrounded by the spring floodwaters of the Concord River. Captain Laurie then made a poor tactical decision. Since his summons for help had not produced any results, he ordered his men to form positions for "street firing" behind the bridge in a column running perpendicular to the river. This formation was appropriate for sending a large volume of fire into a narrow alley between the buildings of a city, but not for an open path behind a bridge.

Confusion reigned as regulars retreating over the bridge tried to form up in the street-firing position of the other troops. Lieutenant Sutherland, who was in the rear of the formation, saw Laurie's mistake and ordered flankers to be sent out. But as he was from a company different from the men under his command, only three soldiers obeyed him. The remainder tried as best they could in the confusion to follow the orders of the superior officer. A shot rang out.

It was likely a warning shot fired by a panicked, exhausted British soldier from the 43rd, according to Captain Laurie's report to his commander after the fight. Two other regulars then fired immediately after that, shots splashing in the river, and then the narrow group up front, possibly thinking the order to fire had been given, fired a ragged volley before Laurie could stop them.

Two of the Acton Minutemen, Private Abner Hosmer and Captain Isaac Davis, who were at the head of the line marching to the bridge, were hit and killed instantly. The Americans commenced their march in double file… In a minute or two, the Americans being in quick motion and within ten or fifteen rods of the bridge, a single gun was fired by a British soldier, which marked the way, passing under Col. Four more men were wounded.

Major Buttrick then yelled to the militia, "Fire, for God's sake, fellow soldiers, fire!

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The few front rows of colonists, bound by the road and blocked from forming a line of fire, managed to fire over each other's heads and shoulders at the regulars massed across the bridge. Four of the eight British officers and sergeants, who were leading from the front of their troops, were wounded by the volley of musket fire.

At least three privates Thomas Smith, Patrick Gray, and James Hall, all from the 4th were killed or mortally wounded, and nine were wounded. I was an eyewitness to the following facts. The people of Westford and Acton, some few of Concord, were the first who faced the British at Concord bridge. The British had placed about ninety men as a guard at the North Bridge; we had then no certain information that any had been killed at Lexington, we saw the British making destruction in the town of Concord; it was proposed to advance to the bridge; on this Colonel Robinson, of Westford, together with Major Buttrick, took the lead; strict orders were given not to fire, unless the British fired first; when they advanced about halfway on the causeway the British fired one gun, a second, a third, and then the whole body; they killed Colonel Davis, of Acton, and a Mr.

Lieutenant Hawkstone, said to be the greatest beauty of the British army, had his cheeks so badly wounded that it disfigured him much, of which he bitterly complained. On this, the British fled, and assembled on the hill, the north side of Concord, and dressed their wounded, and then began their retreat. As they descended the hill near the road that comes out from Bedford they were pursued; Colonel Bridge, with a few men from Bedford and Chelmsford, came up, and killed several men. The regulars found themselves trapped in a situation where they were both outnumbered and outmaneuvered.

Lacking effective leadership and terrified at the superior numbers of the enemy, with their spirit broken, and likely not having experienced combat before, they abandoned their wounded, and fled to the safety of the approaching grenadier companies coming from the town center, isolating Captain Parsons and the companies searching for arms at Barrett's Farm. The colonists were stunned by their success. No one had actually believed either side would shoot to kill the other. Some advanced; many more retreated; and some went home to see to the safety of their homes and families.

Colonel Barrett eventually began to recover control. Lieutenant Colonel Smith heard the exchange of fire from his position in the town moments after he received the request for reinforcements from Laurie. He quickly assembled two companies of grenadiers to lead toward the North Bridge himself. As these troops marched, they met the shattered remnants of the three light infantry companies running towards them.

Smith was concerned about the four companies that had been at Barrett's, since their route to town was now unprotected. When he saw the Minutemen in the distance behind their wall, he halted his two companies and moved forward with only his officers to take a closer look. One of the Minutemen behind that wall observed, "If we had fired, I believe we could have killed almost every officer there was in the front, but we had no orders to fire and there wasn't a gun fired.

At this point, the detachment of regulars sent to Barrett's farm marched back from their fruitless search of that area. They passed through the now mostly-deserted battlefield, and saw dead and wounded comrades lying on the bridge. There was one who looked to them as if he had been scalped, which angered and shocked the British soldiers. They crossed the bridge and returned to the town by The regulars continued to search for and destroy colonial military supplies in the town, ate lunch, reassembled for marching, and left Concord after noon.

This delay in departure gave colonial militiamen from outlying towns additional time to reach the road back to Boston. Lieutenant Colonel Smith, concerned about the safety of his men, sent flankers to follow a ridge and protect his forces from the roughly 1, colonials now in the field as the British marched east out of Concord.

To cross the narrow bridge, the British had to pull the flankers back into the main column and close ranks to a mere three soldiers abreast. Colonial militia companies arriving from the north and east had converged at this point, and presented a clear numerical advantage over the regulars.

As the last of the British column marched over the narrow bridge, the British rear guard wheeled and fired a volley at the colonial militiamen, who had been firing irregularly and ineffectively from a distance but now had closed to within musket range. Two regulars were killed and perhaps six wounded, with no colonial casualties. Smith sent out his flanking troops again after crossing the small bridge. On Brooks Hill also known as Hardy's Hill about 1 mile 1. Smith withdrew his men from Brooks Hill, and the column continued on to another small bridge into Lincoln, at Brooks Tavern, where more militia companies intensified the attack from the north side of the road.

The regulars soon reached a point in the road now referred to as the "Bloody Angle" where the road rises and curves sharply to the left through a lightly-wooded area. Additional militia flowing parallel to the road from the engagement at Meriam's Corner positioned themselves on the northwest side of the road, catching the British in a crossfire, while other militia companies on the road closed from behind to attack. In passing through these two sharp curves, the British force lost thirty soldiers killed or wounded, and four colonial militia were also killed, including Captain Jonathan Wilson of Bedford , Captain Nathan Wyman of Billerica , Lt.

The British soldiers escaped by breaking into a trot, a pace that the colonials could not maintain through the woods and swampy terrain. Colonial forces on the road itself behind the British were too densely packed and disorganized to mount more than a harassing attack from the rear. As militia forces from other towns continued to arrive, the colonial forces had risen to about 2, men.

The road now straightened to the east, with cleared fields and orchards along the sides. Smith sent out flankers again, who succeeded in trapping some militia from behind and inflicting casualties. British casualties were also mounting from these engagements and from persistent long-range fire from the militiamen, and the exhausted British were running out of ammunition. When the British column neared the boundary between Lincoln and Lexington, it encountered another ambush from a hill overlooking the road, set by Captain John Parker's Lexington militiamen, including some of them bandaged up from the encounter in Lexington earlier in the day.

At this point, Lt. Smith was wounded in the thigh and knocked from his horse. Major John Pitcairn assumed effective command of the column and sent light infantry companies up the hill to clear the militia forces. The light infantry cleared two additional hills as the column continued east—"The Bluff" and "Fiske Hill"— and took still more casualties from ambushes set by fresh militia companies joining the battle.

In one of the musket volleys from the colonial soldiers, Major Pitcairn's horse bolted in fright, throwing Pitcairn to the ground and injuring his arm.

Year-Old Accused Of Murder In Concord Park « CBS San Francisco

A few surrendered or were captured; some now broke formation and ran forward toward Lexington. In the words of one British officer, "we began to run rather than retreat in order. We attempted to stop the men and form them two deep, but to no purpose, the confusion increased rather than lessened. Upon this, they began to form up under heavy fire.

Only one British officer remained uninjured among the three companies at the head of the British column as it approach Lexington Center. He understood the column's perilous situation: A full brigade, about 1, men with artillery under the command of Earl Percy, had arrived to rescue them. It was about 2: Joseph Thaxter, wrote of his account:.

We pursued them and killed some; when they got to Lexington, they were so close pursued and fatigued, that they must have soon surrendered, had not Lord Percy met them with a large reinforcement and two field-pieces. They fired them, but the balls went high over our heads. But no cannon ever did more execution, such stories of their effects had been spread by the tories through our troops, that from this time more wont back than pursed.

We pursued to Charlestown Common, and then retired to Cambridge. When the army collected at Cambridge, Colonel Prescott with his regiment of minute men, and John Robinson, his Lieutenant Colonel, were prompt at being at their post. In their accounts afterward, British officers and soldiers alike noted their frustration that the colonial militiamen fired at them from behind trees and stone walls, rather than confronting them in large, linear formations in the style of European warfare. He has been previously convicted in California for burglary, theft, and narcotic related crimes, police said.

Concord Police want to thank businesses in the community for their cooperation, because they say without their assistance in providing access to their cameras, they would not have been able to catch this suspect. Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact Detective Phalen at Those wishing to remain anonymous may contact the anonymous tip line at Obvious meth head, I can tell from the self inflicted scratch wound on his face and seeing a few meth heads in my time. Recidivism with a capital R.

After the 4th or 5th or 6th or th conviction, these Clowns should be euthanized. Thank You Claycord for the info. As usual not covered by the East Bay times which is no longer relevant for Contra Costa. First I have heard of this.

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Another man killing a woman! I hate that I have to always think that there are idiots who prey on women! Drugs or no drugs some men are predators! It has become the norm for us to read about a murdered body found in a place like a parking lot in Concord. And what do we have to look forward to. A bunch of parolees moving Into our community.

A story about a woman who was murdered and you all feel the need to chime in with comments about the killers appearance? If I had a genie in a bottle I would wish for meth to be eradicated!! Just a guess on that was involved, but seriously can we come up with major comprehensive ideas on how to get rid of that poison? What a scary looking dude!!! The dope sucked the life right out of that one. The business people I know are always telling me tales of their encounters. Sad, sad world folks! I was worried about them because there are several kids camps at that park.



Glad they caught this guy! Our friends and family feel very sad about this whole thing we tried hard to get him back on track does anyone know who the unfortunate woman was that was murdered. She is a homeless person. Claycord — Talk About Local Politics. He was arrested without incident around Friday when detectives saw him leaving his home in the area of Grant Street and Revere Drive, Wiesendanger said.

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