on either side, until the word fire was given by the said officer as above.

I shall not trouble you with more particulars, but give you the substance as it lies in my own mind, collected from the persons whom I examined for my own satisfaction. The Lexington Company upon seeing the Troops, and being of themselves so unequal a match for them, were deliberating for a few moments what they should do, when several dispersing of their own heads, the Captain soon ordered the rest to disperse for their own safety. Before the order was given, three or four of the regular officers, seeing the company as they came up on the rising ground on this side the meeting, rode forward one or more, round the meeting-house, leaving it on the right hand, and so came upon them that way; upon coming up one cried out, “you damned rebels, lay down your arms;” another, “stop, you rebels;” a third, “disperse, you rebels,” &c. Major Pitcairn, I suppose, thinking himself justified by Parliamentary authority to consider them as rebels, perceiving that they did not actually lay down their arms, observing that the generality were getting off, while a few continued in their military position, and apprehending there could be no great hurt in killing a few such Yankees, which might probably, according to the notions that had been instilled into him by the tory party, of the Americans being poltrons, end all the contest, gave the command to fire, then fired his own pistol, and so set the whole affair agoing. The printed account says very different; but whatever the General may have sent home in support of that account, the publick have nothing but bare assertions, and I have such valid evidence of the falsehood of several matters therein contained, that with me it has very little weight. The same account tells us, that several shots were fired from a meeting-house on the left, of which I heard not a single syllable, either from the prisoners or others, and the mention “of which it would have been almost impossible to have avoided, had it been so, by one or another among the numbers with whom I freely and familiarly conversed. There is a curious note at the bottom of the account, telling us, that notwithstanding the fire from the meeting-house, Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn, with the greatest difficulty kept the soldiers from forcing into the meeting-house, and putting all those in it to death. Would you not suppose that there was a great number in the meeting-house, while the Regulars were upon the common on the right of it, between that and the Lexington Company? Without doubt. And who do you imagine they were? One Joshua Simonds, who happened to be getting powder there as the Troops arrived; besides whom, I believe there were not two, if so much as one; for by reason of the position of the meeting-house, none would have remained in it through choice but fools and madmen. However, if Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn’s humanity prevented the soldiers putting all those persons to death, their military skill should certainly have made some of them prisoners, and the account should have given us their names. To what I have wrote respecting Major Pitcairn, I am sensible his general character may be objected. But character must not be allowed to overthrow positive evidence when good, and the conclusions fairly deduced therefrom. Besides, since hearing from Mr. Jones in what shameful abusive manner, with oaths and curses, he was treated by the Major at Concord, for shutting the doors of his tavern against him and the Troops; and in order to terrify him to make discoveries of stores; and the manner in which the Major crowed over the two four-and-twenty pounders found in the yard, as a mighty acquisition, worthy the expedition on which the detachment was employed, I have no such great opinion of the Major’s character; though, when he found that nothing could be done of any great importance by bullying, blustering, and threatening, he could alter his tone, begin to coax, and offer a reward. It may be said this Jones was a jailer; yes, and such a jailer as I would give credit to, sooner than the generality of those officers that will degrade the British arms, by employing their swords in taking away the rights of a free people, when they ought to be devoted to a good cause only. There were killed at Lexington eight persons—one Parker of the same name with the Captain of the company, and two or three more, on the common; the rest on the other side of the walls and fences while dispersing. The soldiers fired at persons who had no arms. Eight hundred of the best British Troops in America having thus nobly vanquished a company of non-resisting Yankees while dispersing, and slaughtering a few of them by way of experiment, marched forward in the greatness of their might to Concord. The Concord people had received the alarm, and had drawn themselves up in order for defence; upon a messenger’s coming and telling them that the Regulars were three times their number, they prudently changed their situation, determining to wait for reinforcements from the neighbouring Towns, which were now alarmed; but as to the vast numbers of armed people seen assembling on all the heights, as related in the account, ’tis mostly fiction. The Concord Company retired over the north bridge, and when strengthened returned to it, with a view of dislodging Captain Laurie, and securing it for themselves. They knew not what had happened at Lexington, and therefore orders were given by the commander not to give the first fire. They boldly marched towards it, though not in great numbers, (as told in the account,) and were fired upon by the Regulars, by which fire a Captain belonging to Acton was killed, and I think a private. The Reverend Mr. Emerson of Concord, living in the neighbourhood of the bridge, who gave me the account, went near enough to see it, and was nearer the Regulars than the killed. He was very uneasy till he found that the fire was returned, and continued till the Regulars were drove off. Lieutenant Gould, who was at the bridge, and was wounded and taken prisoner, has deposed that their Regulars gave the first fire there, though the printed narrative asserts the contrary; and the soldiers that knew any thing of the matter, with whom I conversed, made no scruple of owning the same that Mr. Gould deposed.

After the engagement began, the whole detachment collected together as fast as it could. The narrative tells us, that as Captain Parsons, returned with his three companies over the bridge, they observed three soldiers on the ground, one of them scalped, his head much mangled, and his ears cut off, though not quite dead; all this is not fiction, though the most is. The Reverend Mr. Emerson informed me how the matter was, with great concern for its having happened. A young fellow coming over the bridge in order to join the country people, and seeing the soldier wounded and attempting to get up, not being under the feelings of humanity, very barbarously broke his skull, and let out his brains with a small axe, (apprehend of the tomahawk kind,) but as to his being scalped and having his ears cut off, there was nothing in it. The poor object lived an hour or two before he expired. The detachment, when joined by Captain Parsons, made a hasty retreat, finding by woful experience that the Yankees would fight, and that their numbers would be continually increasing. The Regulars were pushed with vigour by the country people, who took the advantage of walls, fences, &c., but those that could get up to engage were not upon equal terms with the Regulars in point of number any part of the day, though the country was collecting together from, all quarters, and had there been two hours more for it, would probably have cut off both detachment and Brigade, or made them prisoners. The soldiers being obliged to retreat with haste to Lexington, had no time to do any considerable mischief. But a little on this side Lexington Meeting-House where they were met by the Brigade, with, cannon, under Lord Percy, the scene changed. The inhabitants had quitted their houses in general upon the road, leaving almost every thing behind them, and thinking themselves well off in escaping with their lives. The soldiers burnt in Lexington three houses, one barn, and two shops, one of which joined to the house, and a mill-house adjoining to the barn; other houses and buildings were attempted to be burnt, and narrowly escaped. You would have been shocked at the destruction which has been made by the Regulars, as they are miscalled, had you been present with me to have beheld it. Many houses were plundered of every thing valuable that could be taken away, and what could not be carried off was destroyed; looking-glasses, pots, pans, &c., were broke all to pieces; doors when not fastened, sashes and windows wantonly damaged and destroyed. The people say that the soldiers are worse than the Indians; in short, they have given the Country such

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