Lexington Battle Green

Lexington
MA
Minute Man, 1899

The Minuteman on Lexington Battle Green

QUICK FACTS
  • Just above the Green is the Old Belfry (now replicated) whose bell summoned the militia that day.
  • Captain Parker and the other minutemen waited in nearby Buckman Tavern for the arrival of British troops.
  • The Minuteman Statue, sculpted by Massachusetts artist Henry Hudson Kitson, was erected in 1900.
  • Seven (of the eight) minutemen who died on the Common are buried beneath the Minuteman Statue.
  • There are reenactments of the Battle of Lexington / Concord on Patriot’s Day, which is an annual state holiday in Massachusetts. Lexington Battle Green serves as the main staging area.
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LOCATION

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Located across from the Lexington Visitors Center, Battle Green on 19 April 1775 was the Common at the center of Lexington. Neither the British Regulars nor the Lexington minutemen intended to fire the opening shot, but one was fired and a brief battle ensued. Eight colonial soldiers lost their lives; one Regular was wounded and later died. The War for Independence began. Today the triangular Battle Green includes the Minuteman Statue, representing Captain John Parker, who was the leader of the Lexington minutemen.

The Old Burying Ground

Located just a short walk to the north of Lexington Battle Green is the Old Burying Ground, with gravestones dating back to 1690. Captain John Parker is buried there as well as the wounded British soldier who died at Buckman Tavern three days after the event.
Associated People
Parker, John

As in the case of his career as commander-in-chief, Washington’s most important act as president was his giving up the office. The significance of his retirement from the presidency is easily overlooked today, but his contemporaries knew what it meant. Most people assumed that Washington might be president as long as he lived, that he would be a kind of elected monarch like the king of Poland. Hence his retirement from the presidency enhanced his moral authority and set a precedent for future presidents.

— Gordon S. Wood
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)