The British are coming, the British are coming

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It’s Patriot’s Day in  Massachusetts or at least yesterday was.  This was a big day in Massachusetts. There were reenactments all over but the most traditional one is the one on the Lexington Green where the battle really took place. Then there’s the Boston Marathon, the world’s oldest annual marathon. I think the marathon gets more coverage than the reenactments! And we can’t forget the Red Sox even though their season so far has been really  forgettable. They were playing at Fenway Park and wonder of wonders, they WON! So much to do, so much to see, so little time!

I chose to travel to the Battle Green in Lexington to see their reenactment. It’s a bit over an hour from my house to Lexington.  They try to be as authentic as possible, even holding the reenactment at 5:30 am, daybreak. To allow time for parking and to walk to the green, I left my house at 4am and arrived in Lexington at a few minutes after 5am.

The pre dawn light was just beginning to lighten the sky.

As you know I scoped out the area last week so I would know where to park and were to get a good vantage point. It quickly became apparent that the trip was pretty much an exercise in futility. I made excellent time, there was no traffic even for a Monday. Many businesses close in Massachusetts to observe the holiday. We even get an extra day to file our income taxes.(Isn’t that special?).

I pulled into Lexington and headed for the Stop and Shop Parking lot but it was full already! I began to search for a parking spot. That quest took me almost 20 minutes so by the time I got parked, they were ringing the church bells on the green.  I loaded up with my camera, new lens and monopod and began hustling toward the sounds. As I reached the green I was shocked into standstill.  IT WAS PACKED! Who gets up at 5AM to watch grown people dress up and play dead people? Apparently a lot of people including young children.

The little rise I had staked out as mine was overflowing so there was no chance of getting up there. Plus loads of people had step ladders, not little ones either, big 6 ft step ladders and they ringed the back of the crowd that already surrounded the common. I could tell I wouldn’t be able to get close enough to see anything there. I continued to work my way around the common on the fringe of the crowd looking for any little opening I might be able to squeeze into but it wasn’t til I was well past the common that the crowd began to thin out.

Having driven all that way in the wee hours I wasn’t going to just turn around and go back home so I slid into a small opening right at the barricade. Clearly I wasn’t going to be able to use the new lens so I pulled out my favorite lens, my trusty 55-200mm telephoto. Oops, I left the polarizer on and it was wasn’t very light out.  But it was cold, and windy and that meant that my polarizer was stuck…again. Seems like it won’t budge when it’s cold. Warm the lens up to 70 degrees and the polarizer will come right off.  Boy is this morning off to a good start? (Not).

Anyway, it was time to try to improvise.  I upped the ISO and although I had wanted to use a small aperture to get a deep DOF , I decided to do the opposite to try to increase shutter speed so I could capture action. If the sun had been up higher and I could get the polarizer off, I probably wouldn’t have had to make these compromises.

Across the street was a building that I think is the Hartwell Tavern. That was where the Patriots gathered that fateful morning before heading to the green. I could see some reenactors milling around on the lawn. Someone was making a speech but we couldn’t tell what was being said because the speakers were pointed away from us and toward the crowd around the green. All of a sudden 3 of the Patriot’s raised their  rifles and a shot went off. Boy it was LOUD! Smoke billowed out and drifted on the breeze.  It caught all of us in my little corner off guard. I wasn’t the only one who jumped!

Right on the heels of that we heard someone yelling. We couldn’t make out exactly what was said but a rider came trotting up to the Patriots on the lawn. It was pretty clear this was the messenger bringing the news that the British were on the move, not Paul Revere because he had been captured, if you recall.

The Patriots began to run out of the Tavern and form up on the green. We began to hear drums and pretty soon the British came into sight marching at a  brisk clip right down the road where we were standing. They were going to go right past us.

The columns of Redcoats marched by us and formed up on the Green .

 They had 1 captive and suddenly someone yelled that the captive was escaping. A shot rang out and then chaos broke out. Rifles were firing, smoke was blowing and all of the players were yelling. The crowd was spellbound and those of us with cameras were all trying to jockey for position.

From my vantage point I could see the redcoats and the smoke and that was about it.

And then it was over.  8 Patriots had been killed that day. The British  formed up and marched away.

The crowd began to break up, many headed to the pancake breakfast. I chose to head to the Green to see what remained.

I’ll tell you what I saw when I finally got to the green in my next post. For  this one I will say a lesson learned for next year. Unless I want to be one of those people dragging a ladder around next year, I will have to get there much earlier than I did this time. I don’t need a super telephoto, a 200mm is more than adequate and be sure the polarizer is off! 🙂

Patriots Day

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Editor in Chief

Good Morning everyone. Editor-In- Chief Rocky here.  It’s very early but I wanted to give you all an update. Dusty has left the premises…yup, just like Elvis, she has left the building. Her office wanted her to work the 2nd shift today but when they found out what time she was getting up to drive to Concord they told her never mind. Can’t have her falling asleep at her desk!

 

The weather report is for a nice day today. It’s too early to tell right now if they are going to be right or not. The sun hasn’t even come up.We’re hoping it will be a pleasant day and that Dusty will get great pictures and have lots to share. After all she is certainly making the effort on this one!

 Did you know that she is not a morning person? Getting up before 4 am is pure torture for her. Give her a choice of sunrise or sunset, there is no choice. She’ll go for sunset every time! About the only time she drags herself out like this is to catch a plane when she travels. Then she consoles herself  that she can go back to sleep on the plane. Not so this time. She’ll have to stay awake all day now. I told her I would be happy to keep her up all night playing with the mousie but she didn’t appreciate that suggestion. I just thought it might be easier if she didn’t go to bed at all. She used to stay up all night when she was younger.

 Oh oh am I telling tales? I guess I better sign off this post. I think I’ll go take a cat nap. Wake me when Dusty gets back! I will want to “help” her edit any pictures she got!

 

 

The “Shot heard ’round the world”

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The phrase was first used in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s  Concord Hymn and refers to the first shots fired by the Patriots at  the North Bridge. 

 The first shots were actually fired at sunrise at Lexington. No one knows which side actually fired first. Some say it wasn’t the militiamen or the British, but rather a  spectator behind a hedge. Both sides generally agreed that it did not come from any of the men facing each other on the green that morning.  Still another theory was that there were multiple simultaneous shots. But whatever happened the militia was outnumbered and fell back. The British  proceeded on to Concord, where they searched for supplies. As the militia gathered at the North Bridge they saw wisps of smoke begin to rise over the village of Concord.

The Patriots at the bridge seeing the smoke thought that the Redcoats were burning the town. As they debated what to do, more and more men were streaming in from the surrounding towns, swelling the ranks of the militia. Captain Isaac Davis of Acton is credited with  saying “I’m not afraid to go, and I haven’t a man that’s afraid to go.”

The militia began to advance, 5 full companies from Acton, Concord, Bedford, and Lincoln, over 400 men, approaching a British force of  only 90-95 men. The militia had orders to load their guns but not to fire unless fired upon. The British were ordered to form up for street-firing but it was not an appropriate formation for the open path beyond the bridge. In the confusion a shot rang out, possibly a warning shot from British troops exhausted by the overnight march and early morning skirmish at Lexington. No matter, the damage was done and a volley of musket fire rang out.

At least 3 were killed and 9 wounded. the British regulars found themselves outnumbered and outmaneuvered. With their leaders wounded or dead, they broke ranks and retreated.

Meanwhile in the town, the accidental fire in the meeting-house was being extinguished by a bucket brigade that included  the British regulars. The routed British returned to Concord and instead of continuing their retreat stayed in town where they went back to searching for supplies and ate lunch. This allowed the patriots time to position themselves along the road back to Boston.

Through out the march back to Boston the British were harried and fired upon by the militia using what we would call today, guerrilla tactics. They shot from behind stone walls and fences and trees. they tracked through swamps and fields.  The ranks of the militia swelling as more and more men arrived from all over New England.

In the morning the British, now safely back in Boston, found that they were surrounded by a huge militia of over 15,000. This was the beginning of the Continental Army. The war of Independence had begun.

Much has been written about the running battle along Battle Road, far too much for this post or this blog, but this is the history behind the reenactment that takes place each Patriot’s Day in Lexington. With any luck, I will be one of the many who will be gathering this Monday in the early morning hours to take a step back in time.

Lexington and Concord…The Backstory

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The story of the Battle of Lexington and Concord has always sent chills down my spine. As I sat in that theater listening to the Road to Revolution I found myself tearing up. From Paul Revere’s ride to the “Shot heard ’round the World” there is something in this story that strikes a very deep chord.

On April 14, 1775 General Thomas Gage received the fateful instructions that would lead to the first blood being spilled in what would become the revolutionary war. The orders were to disarm the rebels and imprison their leaders, especially Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The orders gave a great deal of leeway to General Gage in executing these orders. This was to be handled with utmost secrecy so as not to alert the rebels.

On April 18, a contingent of 20 horsemen was sent out into the countryside in an attempt to intercept rebel messengers who might be traveling on horseback. The patrol was not as discrete as they might have been. They acted differently than patrols in the past. They stayed out late and openly questioned travelers about the whereabouts of Adams and Hancock with the unintended result of raising the alarm and alerting many of the residents thereby increasing the rebels’ preparedness.

The Lexington Militia started to muster that evening without any word from Boston.

On the afternoon of April 18, the British regulars aka “Redcoats” received the orders “to proceed from Boston “with utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will  seize and destroy… all Military stores… But you will take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property.” No written orders were issued for any arrests for fear of sparking an uprising.

The rebellion’s ringleaders with the exception of Paul Revere and  Joseph Warren had all left Boston by April 8 having received word from London that orders for their arrest were imminent. Adams and Hancock were staying in Lexington with relatives of Hancock where they thought they would be safe. Some weapons had indeed been stashed in Concord but the largest stores were much farther west in Worcester.

On the evening of April 18 the news finally came that the Redcoats were on the move. Joseph Warren told William Dawes and Paul Revere to ride to Lexington to warn Hancock and Adams of the troop movements, spreading the word along the way.

I’m sure everyone has heard of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere…One if by land and two if by sea while I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm, through every Middlesex Village and Town…. poetic yes, actual truth, well perhaps a bit exaggerated. In actual fact, Paul Revere was detained by a British Patrol. William Dawes and Samuel prescott were the riders that made it through. Revere was released serveral hours later but without his horse.

As the British marched through the night and the colonial militia began to gather on the green at Lexington, the stage was now set for the first skirmish of what would prove to be a long and bloody conflict before a new country would emerge, the United States of America.

My history teacher would be proud. Just proves I didn’t always sleep in class! In tormorrow’s post I’ll summarize the events of that morning. All in the hopes of setting the stage for my trip to Lexington on Monday.

Minute Man National Historical Park

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Boy when it rains around here it pours…buckets…and it was a cold rain. I wore my hoodie and brought my winter jacket plus a rain poncho. I still got cold and soaked but it’s a good thing I came up or I’d be in big trouble on Monday!

It’s easy to find the park but not so easy to find the Visitor Center. I made 3 stops before I found it and even then it’s quite a walk from the parking lot. On a nice day I am sure it’s beautiful but in the cold rain, not so much. It didn’t seem to stop the visitors. I saw quite a few with umbrellas and there were school buses of kids  at every stop I made.

Even so when I got to the Visitor Center it was quiet.

 I chatted with the rangers and took come pictures of the life-size cut-outs on exhibit.

 One of the rangers was asking me questions about my camera because I was taking pictures without the flash. As much as possible I prefer to use ambient light. (Of course that may change when I upgrade the flash) I demonstrated it to him by taking one shot with a flash and one without. Then I asked him which he liked better. He picked the one without the flash.

There was a woman dressed in period dress carrying ing a gun. I think they called them flint locks.

 I asked her if I could take her picture and if it was ok for me to post it. She said sure as long as I told everyone that she was a Park Ranger, not a volunteer.  So here’s the picture of the Park Ranger in period attire. 🙂

I found the National Park cancellation stamp and got my Passbook verified. Then I started asking questions. Turns out that the National Park does all of their events for Patriot’s Day on this weekend and it’s only done this time of year. They had a list of events on the desk and I asked them why it showed a whole list of things including a craft fair for Monday. The rangers explained that those events were by the town of Lexington and were not connected to the Park. With the ranger’s blessing I took a schedule of events for Monday. He told me that if I had never seen the reenactment that I should see it at least once because it is quite impressive.

They suggested I stick around and watch the movie The Road to Revolution. I was the only one in the theatre and one of the rangers remarked that I might be getting private showing. It was not to be. A group of kids came in. They were pretty rowdy at first but I have to give the chaperone’s credit. Once the movie started they quieted the kids down  right away.The movie was really good. I found it very moving as they explained the events that led up to the bloody battle and the start of the Revolutionary War. It story was presented in a multi media format. A holographic type figure narrated and comments came from invisible men in the tavern. The battle was shown in a movie to the right of the central figure. It’s hard to explain but it was very well done.

After the movie I headed back to the car and went in search of the places on the agenda in Lexington.  I found the Stop and Shop which is where the ranger suggested I park. I found the Green where the reenactment takes place. There is a sloping hill to the right of the green. I hope I can set up there because I should be able to shoot over the heads of the crowd.

I stopped for gas in Lexington and asked the attendant about the events. He wasn’t too enthusiastic at first but then he kind of perked up and said that if I had never seen it, that it was worth the early morning wake-up call.

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With that I turned my car back south toward home. I was wet and cold and ready to call it a day.