The men were ready for the British soldiers, and years later they recounted the battles in their pension applications:
Dudley Porter
Porter recalls, “That on the 19th of April 1775; the day on which was fought the battle of Lexington he was attached to a Company of militia commanded by Capt. Samuel Belknap, which turned out & pursued the English detachment from Lexington to Concord-- Having formed an ambush near Concord we attacked the enemy, routed them & followed them to Charlestown. In this engagement I fired no less than sixteen rounds of ammunition; my Brother was killed & I narrowly escaped…”
Simeon Cobb
Cobb recounts, “That at the breaking out of the American revolution he resided at Taunton in the state of Massachusetts that previous to the battle of Lexington he enlisted in a Company of minutemen and on the first alarm that the British had left Boston in April 1775 he marched to Lexington in the company of Capt Abiathan Leonard…”
Silvanus Wood
Wood was one of the Minute Men at Lexington, and among those who followed the British to Concord where he took a grenadier prisoner. Wood believed him to be the first prisoner taken that day. He explains “Thee English soon ware on their march for Concord I helpt carry six dead into thee meeting house, & then sett out oafter thee enemy & had not an armed man to go with me but before I arrived at concord I see one of thee granadears standing sentinel. I coked my peace and run up to him seased his gun with my left hand, he surrendered his armour, one gun & bayonett a large utlash & brass fender one box over the shoulder with 22 rounds one box round thee wast with 18 rounds. This was the first prisoner that was known to be taken that day.”
Silas Burdoo
Burdoo volunteered for service on April 19, 1775 and was at the Battle of Lexington on the same day. The Daughters of the American Revolution's publication Forgotten Patriots lists Silas Burdoo as an African American soldier.
Daniel Brown
Brown explains that he “went to Boston in 1775 to buy goods, but volunteered his services and was in the Battle of Lexington.”
Thomas Gleason
Gleason’s pension describes his disability, that he “Was of the party which opposed the British troops at Lexington and Concord; lost a thumb by the bursting of his gun, and his hand otherwise injured.”
Israel Harrington
“Israel Harrington volunteered at Smithfield, Rhode Island, sometime in April, 1775 and was in the battle of Lexington; after which he served above nine months as sergeant in Captain Abraham Tourtillott's company, Colonel Olney's Rhode Island regiment and was in the battle of Bunker Hill.” His son frequently heard his Israel father talk of being in the “army & of the scenes he passed through at Lexington & Bunker hill.”
William French
French heard the alarm, but didn’t make it to the battle in time, “That in the year 1775 he was a minute man (so called) in Dunstable, and hearing that the British Troops had come out of Boston and were marching in the direction towards Concord Massachusetts he left his home on the nineteenth April AD 1775 and proceeded to Concord aforesaid and the British troops having left Concord on their return he proceeded on to Lexington where he staid [stayed] over night and the next day went to Cambridge…”
-1.png?upscale=true&width=680&upscale=true&name=unnamed%20(3)-1.png)
