The American Revolution, often viewed through the lens of soldiers and statesmen, holds a lesser-known narrative: the experiences of its civilian children. These young witnesses provide a unique, albeit often overlooked, perspective on the war’s impact. However, authentic contemporary accounts written by children are scarce. Most of these stories emerged decades later, passed down through generations, and were documented in the 19th century or beyond. Here are four such narratives, starting with those from the Battles of Lexington and Concord and concluding with the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The first child witness account comes from Elizabeth Clarke. Elizabeth was the daughter of the Reverend Jonas Clarke, and at the time of the Battle of Lexington, she was twelve years old. On April 20, 1835, Elizabeth wrote to her niece, Lucy Ware Allen, to describe how her family prepared to flee as British troops advanced toward the town. She also recalled the somber return to witness the burial of the fallen militiamen from Captain John Parker’s Company, noting the fear that British regulars would desecrate the dead as they retreated from Concord. According to the young Clarke, “In the afternoon, Father, Mother with me and the baby went to the Meeting House. There was the eight men that was killed, seven of them my Father’s parishioners, one from Woburn, all in Boxes made of four large boards nailed up and, after Pa had prayed, they were put into two horse carts and took into the graveyard where some of the neighbors had made a large trench … there I stood and there I saw them let down into the ground … my Father thought some of the men had best cut some pine or oak bows and spread them on their place of burial so that it looked like a heap of brush.”1
Sketch of Bunker Hill Battle, S. Swett
| Annin & Smith sc., 1826Anna Munroe of Lexington, nearly four years old, on April 19, 1775, later recalled to relatives the chaotic evacuations her family endured. Her memories, pieced together from her mother’s accounts, illuminated the terror and uncertainty faced by civilians during the Battles of Lexington and Concord. As she remembered, young Anna could only directly recall “seeing the men in red coats coming toward the house and how frightened her mother was when they ran from the house,” as Lord Percy’s reinforcements engaged the harassing minutemen and militia—however, her mother’s stories filled in the gaps. Anna recounted, “Mother told her of her very unhappy afternoon. She held Anna by the hand, brother William by her side and baby Sally in her arms . . . She could hear the cannon firing over her head on the hill. She could smell the smoke of the three buildings which the British burned between here and the center of Lexington. And she did not know what was happening to her husband, who was fighting, or what was happening within her house. . . Anna’s mother used to talk to her of what happened on April 19 and she remembered that her mother used to take her on her lap and say: ‘This is my little girl that I was so afraid the Red coats would get.’”2
In 1850, attorney Josiah Adams of Framingham refuted Lemuel Shattuck’s History of Concord, which downplayed Acton’s role at the Battle of Concord, by publishing a letter with eyewitness accounts, including that of thirteen-year-old Charles Handley, who witnessed the day’s events from Brown’s Tavern near the north Bridge.
After searching Barrett’s farm, a British detachment returned toward the main force, stopping briefly outside Brown’s tavern. Handley’s subsequent testimony recounted, “At the time of the fight, the British, consisting of about one hundred, had returned from Col. Barrett’s as far as the tavern, and three or four officers were in the house, taking some drink … The officers offered to pay, and Mrs. Brown declined; they told her not to be afraid, for they should do her no harm, and paid for their drink.” While the officers and soldiers relaxed on the tavern’s lawn, fighting erupted at the North Bridge. Surprisingly, Handley heard the gunfire, but the officers he tended to did not. “I heard the guns at the bridge, but the British did not appear to hear them. They marched on very soon but were in no haste. It was always said that they did not know the fight till they passed the bridge and saw the men that had been killed.”3
Battle of Bunker Hill, E. Percy Moran, 1909
| Public domainDorothea Gamsby was the daughter of John and Margaret Gamsby and the niece of Loyalist Sir John Nutting. She arrived in Boston with her aunt and uncle before April 1773. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, she was just ten years old.4 In the pre-dawn hours of June 17, 1775, Dorothea was roused from sleep. She recounted, “Aunt and her maid, walked from room to room sometimes weeping … It was scarcely daylight when the booming of the cannon on board the ships in the harbour shook every house … We were by this time thoroughly frightened.” As the battle intensified, Dorothea and her aunt moved to another location, granting them a clear view of the fighting. Gamsby described the scene: “The glittering host, the crashing music, all the pomp and brilliance of war, moved on up toward that band of rebels, but they still laboured at their entrenchment, they seemed to take no heed - the bullets from the ships, the advancing column of British warriors, were alike unnoticed … At length one who stood conspicuously above the rest waved his bright weapon, the explosion came attended by the crash … the shrieks of the wounded and the groans of the dying. My aunt fainted ... I screamed with all my might.”5
Dorothea’s narrative poignantly captured the war’s grim reality. She described,
“Charleston was in flames; women and children flying from their burning homes … By and by, drays, carts and every description of vehicle that could be obtained were seen nearing the scene of conflict … then came the loads of wounded men attended by long lines of soldiers ... a sight to be remembered … there is nothing but woe and sorrow and shame to be found in the reality.”6
Lexington Battle Monument
These four accounts, from Lexington and Concord to Bunker Hill, reveal the American Revolution’s impact on children. Despite differences in time and circumstance, Elizabeth, Anna, Charles, and Dorothea share vivid glimpses of fear, confusion, and lasting scars. Through the filter of memory and passed down through generations, their stories remind us that the effects of war extend beyond the battlefield, touching even the youngest lives. Their narratives deserve attention—not just for their historical significance but for the human perspective they provide on a conflict often portrayed in broad strokes.
NOTES
1 Elizabeth Clarke to Lucy Allen, April 20, 1835, taken from Elizabeth Clarke, “Letter of Miss Betty Clarke,” Lexington Historical Society Proceedings (Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Historical Society, 1908), 4:92. 2 Carrie E. Bacheller, Munroe Tavern: The Custodian’s Story (Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Historical Society, date unknown), 6-7. 3 Josiah Adams, Letter to Lemuel Shattuck, of Boston, from Josiah Adams, of Framingham (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University, 1850). 4 Dorothea’s granddaughter, Mrs. Marcus D. Johnson, documented Dorothea’s reflections on her experiences in Boston during the 1830s or 1840s. These accounts were ultimately passed down to Dorothea’s great-grandson, Charles D. Johnson, who edited and published a North Stratford, New Hampshire newspaper called The Coos County Democrat. Dorothea’s recounting was featured in that newspaper as a series of articles from 1859 to 1862. 5 “10-Year-Old Loyalist Watches Battle of Bunker Hill,” New England Historical Society, June 13, 2022, https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/10-year-old-loyalist-watches-battle-bunker-hill/. 6 Ibid.
