Snapshots with some historical interest

[DanK]

I thought these snapshots (that's all they are) might interest a few people.

The American Revolution started (well, the first shots were fired) on April 19, 1775. British regulars marched from Charleston (across a river from Boston) to Lexington and then to Concord MA, a distance of about 30 km each way. One of their goals was to capture gunpowder supplies that they had learned local residents had been stockpiling. When they got to the town green in Lexington, about 0.8 km from my house, they were met by a rag-tag small group of locals. Someone started shooting, and when it was over, the British were unscathed but 7 locals had been killed.

The British then marched to Concord, where there was in fact a stash of gownpowder, and they were confronted by a larger militia force on a bridge over the Concord River. No one knows who fired first, but shots were exchanged, and after that, the British retreated. Now, to the photographs:

The soil in the Boston area is extremely rocky, so to make agriculture possible, the colonists pulled huge numbers of rocks out of the ground and piled them along the edges of fields, creating the stone walls for which the area is famous. Here is snapshop that shows some of these walls on the actual route the British took:



While all this had been happening, colonists had been arriving from all over the area, some from as far away as Connecticut. As a result, when the British reached a point called since then "the bloody angle", about 23 km from their destination in Boston, they were met by a large number of colonists. The British numbered about 700, while there were about 1500 colonists in the area by them. Much of the route was then open farmland, but where it was forested, the colonists stood behind trees and crouched behind stone walls, while the British, in the style of the day, largely marched in tidy formations, wearing bright red coats. The result was heavy British casualties at various spots along the route.

This next snapshot is why I decided to write this:



When it was all over, colonists buried the British soldiers who were left behind. In some cases, the locations are still known, and there are a few monuments to them. This one is right by the Bloody Angle, where 8 British soldiers were killed. Someone, I don't know who, makes sure that there are fresh Union Jacks there, and at the bottom right, you can see that someone planted a homemade little cross.

[pschlute]

Very poignant.

[rpcrowe]

Hits home to me. My wife's ancestor, Abner Hosmer, was a Minuteman who met the British at Concord Bridge. He was killed in the first volley of British fire...

My ancestor's? They fought their share of the American Revolution in the American South. It is surprising how few Americans realize how much fighting went on in the colonies (now states) of South Carolina and North Carolina. The Battle of Kings Mountain on the NC/SC border was fought between Patriot and Tory militias with only one English soldier (Major Ferguson) present...

[pschlute]

I think it is a testament to the character of both nations that with the history that has gone before us we are now the best of friends (most of the time )

[escape]

I think it is a testament to the character of both nations that with the history that has gone before us we are now the best of friends (most of the time )

Amen to that.