The Battle of Menotomy was a skirmish fought as the British retreated to Boston on April 19, 1775. The fight, often overshadowed by the Battles of Lexington and Concord, was brutal and bloody.

After the Battles of Lexington and Concord, British troops retreated to Boston. However, they were relentlessly harassed by thousands of militiamen who ambushed them from the surrounding woods and houses. The British soldiers, now under constant fire, were forced to slow their pace and fight their way back to safety.

As the Regulars approached the Village of Menotomy (known today as Arlington), they discovered the town’s layout, with with its sloping road flanked by houses and stone walls, provided the perfect opportunity for the colonial forces to set up ambushes and snipe at the advancing British soldiers.

The Regulars, determined to push through the village, were met with fierce resistance from the hidden militiamen. The fighting quickly devolved into a brutal house-to-house and hand-to-hand struggle. Lieutenant John Barker of the 4th Regiment of Foot described how no quarter was given to the enemy. “We were now obliged to force almost every house in the road, for the Rebels had taken possession of them and galled us exceedingly, but they suffer’d for their temerity for all that were found in the houses were put to death.”¹

During the fight, the retreating British troops ambushed Captain Gideon Foster’s company from Danvers and militiamen from the nearby towns of Lynn and Needham. Desperate to escape, the colonists fled toward Jason Russell’s house, suffering heavy casualties along the way. British soldiers pursued the survivors inside. By the end of the skirmish at the Russell House, twenty-one Massachusetts men inside or on the property were dead, with Danvers’ company experiencing the heaviest losses.

The Battle of Menotomy was the bloodiest engagement of April 19, 1775. At least forty British soldiers were killed, while colonial casualties included twenty-five dead and many more wounded. The town itself was also heavily damaged, with houses burned and property plundered by the retreating British troops. A few weeks later, Hannah Fayerweather Winthrop wrote to her friend Mercy Otis Warren to describe the carnage she observed the day after the fighting. “What added greatly to the horror of the Scene was our passing thro the Bloody field at Menotomy which was strewd with the mangled Bodies, we met one Affectionate Father with a Cart looking for his murderd Son & picking up his Neighbours who had fallen in Battle, in order for their Burial.”²

The Battle of Menotomy served as a stark reminder to the British of the fierce resistance they would encounter in their efforts to suppress the rebellion. It also underscored the brutality of the April 19 fight and the human cost of the conflict. Menotomy helped strengthen Massachusetts’ resolve to combat Crown oppression. While it may not be as famous as some of the other battles of the war, Menotomy remains a crucial part of American history.

NOTES:

1 “THE DIARY OF LIEUTENANT JOHN BARKER, Fourth (or The King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, From November, 1774, to May, 1776.” Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research 7, no. 28 (1928): 81–109. www.jstor.org/stable/44232571. 2 Massachusetts Historical Society. Letter from Hannah Winthrop to Mercy Otis Warren, circa May 1775, accessed January 25, 2025. www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=3335.