Patriots' Weekend at Minute Man: Reenacting Lexington and Concord, 2019

Massachusetts marks Patriots' Day on the third Monday of April, for the fighting at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 — the opening shots of the American War for Independence. So much happens around it, at Minute Man National Historical Park and in the towns involved that day, that the celebration spreads over several days. In 2019 it marked the 244th anniversary.

British regulars outside the Whittemore House on the Battle Road, Lexington, April 13, 2019. NPS

Saturday: Parker's Revenge

On April 13, the park staged its full reenactment of the running battle along the Battle Road, at the place known as Parker's Revenge, on the Lincoln–Lexington town line. More than 300 reenactors played civilians, colonial minutemen and militia, and British Army regulars.

The site has recently been dug by archaeologists in a project sponsored by the Friends of Minute Man, the Park Service and the reenactment community. What they found now fills a new exhibit on the rally of Captain John Parker and the Lexington militia — the first to meet the British column that morning, who returned to fight it again on its way back.

Sunday: the search of the Barrett Farm

The Barrett Farm in Concord was one of the places General Thomas Gage named in his orders as holding military supplies to be seized. Reenactors in British uniform searched the farmhouse, and more than 400 visitors toured the house before the soldiers arrived.

Monday: rain at North Bridge

Patriots' Day itself opened in torrents of rain, as it had the year before. Some reenactors stayed away from North Bridge, and the commemoration and the Concord parade looked likely to be cancelled — but visitors came anyway and were given an impromptu ceremony on the bridge and a smaller parade.

Who made it happen

Staff from other national parks came to help — Gateway, Independence, Fort Stanwix, Boston, Valley Forge, Lowell, Longfellow, Salem and Fort Necessity — along with the emergency services of Lexington, Lincoln and Concord and the Massachusetts State Police.

Sources

Written from "Patriots' Weekend 2019," Minute Man National Historical Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.