 | Minute Men |
 |
-
Lexington, despite what you’ve always heard, had
NO minute men on the Green, technically. Not one. They
were all militia, including all our illustrious
Munroes. Lexington declined to subdivide its militia,
as other towns were doing and as the Provincial Congress had
ordered in October 1774. John Parker was all the Captain they
wanted. Towns had a lot of autonomy, in those days.
-
Our cousin (1C8R) Lieutenant
James Russell commanded
Carlisle’s contingent of
twenty-one Minute Men at the Bridge. His troops
included:
- 6GGF Pvt. Nathan
Munroe, at 58 Carlisle’s oldest Minute
Man;
- 6GU Pvt. Aaron Munroe,
Nathan’s 20-year-old
son, who would serve later at White Plains;
and
- 1C7R Pvt. Jonas
Munroe, Carlisle’s 18-year-old drummer
and the youngest of her Minute Men.
- 6GGF Pvt. Nathan
Munroe, at 58 Carlisle’s oldest Minute
Man;
- Oliver Wheeler II, our 5GGF and the second of three consecutive Olivers in our direct line, was a member of the Acton Militia and wore a sword that was displayed at the centennial festivities in 1875. Though called “of Acton,” Oliver Wheeler is listed among the Concord Minute Men. Nobody by that name appears among those of Carlisle.
| “One further comment might to [sic] made about the Carlisle Minutemen of 1775. It has been suggested in some histories that the Minutemen in the Revolutionary War were ‘mostly enthusiastic youths who were attracted by dangerous service.’. [punctuation sic] This was not apparently the case in Carlisle. Here, two of the Minutemen were 19, five were in their twenties, five in their thirties, two in their forties, one was 54, and one, 59. They were unquestionably enthusiastic in the defense of lives and liberties, but the majority of them were presumably not motivated by the recklessness of youth…” |
1Ruth Chamberlin Wilkins, Carlisle, Its History and Heritage. The Carlisle Historical Society, Inc. (Carlisle:1976), pp. 68-9.
| …Back (Sarah Henry) | Next (Isaac Wilkins…) |
| Presentations People Places Updates Do you know? | This Presentation: Carlisle, Page 27 |
| Carlisle Homesteads Ancestors Page Index | [MinuteMen.htm] |