04/19/2025
Revolution 250
As we celebrate Patriots Day across the state and the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution the focus of the events that shaped the beginnings of this country bring us to the battlefields of Lexington, Concord and Boston and the minutemen who served at the onset of the war. However the people of Mendon would play an integral part in this struggle for independence. Mendon Historian Richard Grady along with fellow Historian John Trainor have done extensive research on the role of Mendon in the Revolutionary War. Here we share the story prepared to help us understand the contributions made by the people of Mendon.
Patriots' Day: Mendon's Role in the American Revolution
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's breeze unfurled. Here once the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world."
Ralph Waldo Emerson's words remind us that April 19 is Patriots' Day, a day that calls to mind Paul Revere's ride, the Old North Church, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The towns surrounding Boston in 1775 had been eagerly preparing to avenge the Acts of Parliament that had closed the port of Boston and shut down Massachusetts state government and placed it under British rule. General Thomas Gage became the new governor. One of his rules was that no towns could conduct town meetings without his permission. In the spirit of rebellion, the towns brazenly defied General Gage. They replaced the dissolved legislature with the Provincial Congress and communicated freely through committees of correspondence. Town meetings were held in many towns in outright defiance. One of the towns, thirty miles southwest of Boston, had leaders who were closely acquainted with the leaders of the Sons of Liberty. The cries for freedom from tyranny that came from Boston were echoed at town meetings in this small, patriotic farming town that clamored for independence. It was the town of Mendon.
The people of Mendon were active participants in the events leading up to the American Revolution. As early as 1767, residents voted at a town meeting to boycott any products from Britain, including tea, that were taxed without their consent. On March 1, 1773, voters supported and endorsed nineteen resolutions from a letter from the Sons of Liberty denouncing the injustices of Great Britain for denying them their rights and liberties. They formed a committee of correspondence by town meeting vote in 1774 in order to share ideas with other towns. They elected Joseph Dorr to represent Mendon at a meeting of the Provincial Congress in Concord. The congress authorized towns to increase their stock of weapons, ammunition, and military supplies. Mendon patriotically obliged.
Mendon's militia, in 1775, was made up of four companies that included one hundred sixty-four men. About a third of them were designated as minutemen, ready to march on a minute's notice. Each soldier was equipped with a firearm, a bayonet, a pouch, a knapsack, and thirty rounds of ammunition. He received military training three times a week. Training fields were located at Colonel Calvin Smith's property (Hood Plaza), a field off Gaskill Street, and a training area at Founders' Park. The soldiers were well-prepared for combat.
On April 15, 1775, the Provincial Congress became aware that General Gage was preparing to send British soldiers to Lexington to arrest ringleaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and then move on to destroy ammunition supplies allegedly hidden in Concord. It was voted to secretly relocate the ammunition in nine remote towns, one of them being Mendon. It is not known if the supplies ever reached Mendon's ammunition magazine located on a rocky hill overlooking Providence Road. A few days later, in the early morning of April 19, 1775, seven hundred Red Coats marched to Lexington and encountered a company of minutemen at the village green. After some tense moments, an unauthorized shot was fired that changed history. Several minutemen were the first soldiers to sacrifice their lives for the sake of liberty. The British regulars marched on to Concord, where they met stronger resistance, and found very little ammunition to destroy. Their march back to Boston was devastating, as patriots from the surrounding towns ambushed them along the way, killing seventy-three. The war for independence had begun.
In response to the shot heard around the world, Mendon's soldiers mustered at Founders' Park across from Ammidon Tavern and marched on to Boston by way of Middle Post Road. The town supported the Revolutionary War with soldiers, finances, clothing, food, and military supplies. It quartered prisoners of war and took in thirty Charlestown residents left homeless after their city was burned at the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was a Post Road stopover for military units, including Nathan Hale and his troops who had breakfast at Ammidon Tavern in January 1776. The most famous soldier to be born in Mendon was Alexander Scammell, who was born in 1744 near the site of Crossroads (The Larches) off Williams Street (now Milford). At Valley Forge he was named by George Washington to be the Continental Army's adjutant general. He was mortally wounded at Yorktown in 1781. Mendon's contributions had been significant.
Patriots' Day is celebrated with the Boston Marathon, a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, and perhaps a day off from work. It also should be remembered that it is the anniversary of one of the most important days of our history. A nation was launched that day. Mendon has reason to take great pride in its role in the American Revolution. Historian G.B.Williams said, "Through all the years of the great contest, all testimony goes to show that no community surpassed this in devotion to liberty, influence in the colony, or in patriotic service. Men of Mendon fought at Bunker Hill, Long Island, Valley Forge, Bennington, Saratoga, and Yorktown." We are grateful and proud.
Richard Grady
Mendon, MA
