Battle of Meriam's Corner

The Battle of Meriam's Corner was a skirmish that occurred immediately after the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. As British forces, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, began their retreat from Concord back toward Boston, colonial militias from surrounding towns rapidly mobilized.

Before 1775, the British imposed taxes and import duties on the American colonies, to which the Americans objected since they lacked British Parliamentary representation. In response to the Boston Tea Party and other acts of protest, 4,000 British troops were sent to occupy Boston under the command of General Thomas Gage and to pacify the restive Province of Massachusetts Bay.^[2] Parliament authorized Gage to disband the government of Massachusetts Bay, led by John Hancock and Samuel Adams, among numerous other powers, but the Americans formed the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and continued to meet. The Provincial Congress called for the organization of local militias and coordinated the accumulation of weapons and other military supplies.^[3] Under the terms of the Boston Port Act, Gage closed the Boston port, which caused much unemployment and discontent.^[4]

British forces went to seize military supplies from the town of Concord on April 19, 1775, but militia companies from surrounding towns opposed them at the Battles of Lexington and Concord.^[5] At Concord, some of the British forces were routed in a confrontation at the North Bridge. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, realizing he was now outnumbered and encircled, began his retreat.

Around noon on the 19th, the column of approximately 700 British regular soldiers began the return march from Concord to Boston.^[6] Lieutenant Colonel Smith, concerned about the safety of his men, sent flankers to follow a ridge and protect his forces from the roughly 1,000 colonials now in the field as the British marched east out of Concord. This ridge ended near Meriam's Corner, a crossroads about a mile (2 km) outside the village of Concord, where the main road came to a bridge across Elm Brook, a tributary of Mill Brook. To cross the narrow bridge, the British had to pull the flankers back into the main column and close ranks to a mere three soldiers abreast.

Newly arrived companies of militia from Reading, Chelmsford and Billerica arrived and took cover behind the Meriam houses and barns. First to arrive was a company of Reading minute men under the command of Captain John Brooks, a future American general and governor. They had separated from their regiment a few miles up the Bedford Road and pushed ahead towards Concord. When they arrived they saw the British light infantry descending Meriam Hill and pulling back towards the road to cross the bridge over Elm Brook. Thus temporarily without the protection of its flank guard, the British column was vulnerable to attack. Captain Brooks ordered his men to open fire.

As the last of the British column marched over the narrow bridge, the British rear guard wheeled and fired a volley at the colonial militiamen, who had been firing irregularly and ineffectively from a distance but now had closed to within musket range.^[7] The colonists returned fire, this time with deadly effect. Two regulars were killed and perhaps six wounded, with no colonial casualties. Smith sent out his flanking troops again after crossing the small bridge.^[8]

On Brooks Hill (also known as Hardy's Hill) about 1 mile (1.6 km) past Meriam's Corner, nearly 500 militiamen had assembled to the south of the road, awaiting an opportunity to fire down upon the British column on the road below. Smith's leading forces charged up the hill to drive them off, but the colonists did not withdraw, inflicting significant casualties on the attackers.^[9]