The Woburn Town Militia
Major Loammi Baldwin, commander of the Woburn Militia on April 19th 1775 when they fought the British in Lexington.
History of the original Woburn Militia Company
Following the Tea Party incident in December 1773 the people of Woburn voted at a town meeting to build a house which to store the stock of ammunition. They appointed the Selectmen as a committee to procure and additional supply of ammunition consisiting of two barrels of powder, balls (bullets), and flints in proportion. On January 4, 1775 in a General Meeting the freeholders and other inhabitants of Woburn did pass a vote to choose a committee of three persons to draw a plan of enlistment of Minutemen to meet once a week in order to inform themselves in the science of handling their firelocks. It appeared that Woburn and her neighboring towns were ready and willing to defend their rights granted them by the English constitution.
On the night of April 18, 1775 the British troops left Boston and marched toward Lexington. Staying in Lexington at the time were John Hancock and Samuel Adams. It was decided that both should go to the Woburn home of Mrs Thomas Jones, and upon reaching the Jones house they sat down to a meal with Reverend William Marett, the new Woburn minister. A messenger came with word that the British were very close. Adams and Hancock hurriedly fled the house and went to Billerica (Present Day site is 55 Middlesex Trp behind office bldg. The foundation hole is still visible), from there they made their way to Philadelphia.
The alarm came to Woburn just before daybreak of the 19th by Stedmans' Express out of Cambridge. The first thing Captain Joshua Walker did was to send a messenger to Jonathan Proctor in Burlington (Woburn's second parish) to beat the alarm. The alarm spread throughout the village and in response came men such as Daniel, Samuel and Abijah Thompson, and Major Loamni Baldwin who led the men to Lexington. In all about 180 men from Woburn answered the alarm. When the group was halfway to Lexington they heard the firing of muskets.
Painting by Don Troiani www.historicalimagebank.com
Earlier that morning Asahel Porter and Josiah Richardson, both of Woburn, set out for the Boston market. Their way to Boston was through Menotomy along the same road that the British were marching to Lexington. They met the British in Menotomy and both Porter and Richardson were taken prisoner. Their horses were taken from them and they were forced to march with the British troops to Lexington. Just before arriving at the Green in Lexington the British released Porter and Richardson on the condition that they slowly walk away from the column. Richardson did as he was told but Porter walked a couple of steps and suddenly began to run. The firing had just begun and Porter was shot and killed, probably the first casualty of the Revolution.
On the same morning Sylvanus Wood, an inhabitant of Woburn, living with Deacon Obediah Kendell, heard the alarm bell in Lexington. Being curious he arose, took his gun and with his friend Robert Douglass went to Lexington. When they reached the Green they found Captain Parker and his men assembled outside Buckman's tavern. Wood asked Parker what was happening and found that the Regulars were marching. Captain Parker asked Wood and Douglass to join his company on the Green, which they both agreed. Wood was stationed at about the center of the company which was formed at the north end of the Green. He left his post and went from one end to the other counting the men in the line. He counted 38, finished and returned to his post just as the British appeared.
The British troops arrived and the militia began to disperse. A shot was fired and the American Revolution was now in the hands of the fighting men.
After the British left, Sylvanus Wood, who had retreated from the Green with the others returned and found the dead and wounded laying there. He helped carry them into the meeting house and left for Concord. Approaching the Bull tavern in Lexington he saw a British Grenadier of His Majesty's 10th Regiment of Foot (infantry) seated by the side of the road. Wood captured the soldier whose name was Samuel Lee and marched him back to the Green. He was credited with capturing the first British soldier and was later given a pension.
Personal account of Sylvanus Wood, Part One
Personal account of Sylvanus Wood, Part Two
The Woburn men under Major Baldwin came into Lexington after the battle. They saw the dead and wounded and after listening to the accounts of the battle they started off for Concord. The British having reached Concord and their job done began to march back to Boston. Meanwhile the militiamen from surrounding communities had been gathering along the road back towards Lexington. The British put flankers out along the sides of the road to keep the militia away from the main column.
Daniel Thompson of Woburn was behind the barn of the Hartwell Tavern in Lincoln. From this point he could shoot diagonally into the British column. As he was loading his musket a British soldier came up behind him and shot him. As the story goes his brother then shot the soldier. One of the armed men who did not march with the Woburn Company was fifteen year old Jonathan Thompson, nephew of Daniel. He obtained a musket and set out after the company. He met his father at the scene of the shooting and his father told him of his uncle's death and cautioned him to take care of himself. They parted and at Lexington Jonathan the father, being very tired, left the fighting. But young Jonathan kept going till the end of the day.
A turn in the road to Lexington has been since called "Bloody Angle". An ambush and severe fighting occured here with a number on both sides killed. It was here that Woburn men were most effective. Eight british soldiers were killed and a number wounded. Three of the woburn men were wounded, one was killed (Daniel Thompson)
HEZEKIAH WYMAN
and The legend of the White Horseman.
On the 19th of April 1775 when word was spread to gather in Lexington, news of the British advance came to Cambridge street where Hezekiah Wyman fifty-five years of age, mounted his white horse, and with musket in hand, set off for Lexington. Like other men from Woburn, he was too late for the fighting at Lexington Common but, continuing up the road, met the British soldiers returning from Concord. All along the route back to Boston was made the legend of the white horseman who charged again and again against the british, killing and wounding a number of the enemy, but always escaping untouched by the shower of bullets around him. According to the newspaper account (first printed in the Boston Pearl, repeated in the woburn Journal., 29 July 1887) "his exploits were well nigh fabulous."
When he met the British he began blazing away at them vigorously with his deadly firearm. Mounted on his strong steed he rode furiously in the direction of the British ranks. His aim was taken at close quarters, and his shots were sent with constant fatal effect.
"His tall guant form, his grey locks floating in the breeze, and the color of his steed distinquishing him from the other Americans, and the British gave him the name of "Death on the Pale Horse". The utmost endeavors of his enemies to kill him were unavailing. He passed through the whole melee unscathed and unhurt. Once a bayonet charge drove the old man and the party with which he was acting to a distance from the foe, but he was out of ammunition and was then compelled to pick some up, but he ere long returned to the charge and this time killed an officer, and after that exploit, the report of his piece was frequently heard till the close of the fight. His powerful white horse careening at full speed over the hills with the dauntless old man on his back, was continuously seen. The British learned to dread the frequent appearances of this dire rider at unexpected points along he route of their passage, for his aim was true, and the economical principals in which he was trained forbade his wasting powder and ball.
He lingered at Menotomy long enough to aid in a plot laid by Ammi Cutter for the taking of the british baggage wagon and their guards (with the old men ofMenotomy)... The story says that Hezekiah pursued the British even after they entered Charlestown and then, turning his horse's head, returned to his home.
Wyman's name appears on a list of those who either paid for others to serve or did their own personal service in Captain Samuel Belknap's company and is listed for five months service at Ticonderoga and three months in Jersey. In march 1777 the Town of Woburn voted to pay him 8 pounds, 16 shillings, and 10 pence in part for his service in the war. Wyman survived his part in the war as did the white mare, which he willed to one of his sons, and lived out his days, until his death during the summer of 1779 in his house not far from the corner of Cambridge and Wildwood streets (site of 195 Cambridge St.) He owned a large section of land upon which much of the west side is now built, where generations of descendants suceeded him. The neigborhood was often called Wyman Plains and, until recently, the family name was perpetuated through a succession of Wyman School.
written by Ellen Knight for the Winchester Archives.
In the following days the countryside waited to see the results of the 19th. Places like Lexington, Concord and other towns along the route cleaned up the debris left from the battle. Woburn's dead, Asahel Porter and Daniel Thompson, were brought home and buried on Friday the 21st at the First Burial Ground.
Loammi Baldwin at the Lexington Alarm
He was present in the Battle of Lexington. As early as 1768, he enlisted in a company of horse-guards, and was not wholly destitute of military experience when summoned a little before break of day to the fields at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. In his own statement he say: "We mustered as fast as possible. The town turned out extra-ordinary, and proceeded toward Lexington." Holding the rank of a major in the militia, he says, "I rode along a little before the main body, and when I was nigh Jacob Reed's (at present Durenville) I heard a great firing; proceeded on, soon heard that the regulars had fired upon Lexington people and killed a large number of them. We proceeded on as fast as possible and came to Lexington and saw about eight or ten dead and numbers wounded." He then, with the rest from Woburn, proceeded toward Concord by way of Lincoln meeting house, ascended a hill there and refreshed themselves a little. Then follows a particular account of the action and of his own experience. He had "several good shots." and proceeded on till coming between the meeting-house and Buckman's tavern at Lexington with a prisoner before him, the cannon of the British began to play , the balls flying near him, and for safety he retreated back behind the meeting-house, when a ball came through near his head and he further retreated to a meadow north of the house and lay there and heard the balls in the air and saw them strike the ground. Woburn sent to the field on that day one hundred and eighty men.
" MAJ Loammi Baldwin the commanding officer of the Woburn militia on 19 April 1775. He established the first successful ambush on the British that day at Bloody Angle. His forces destroyed the British command by injuring 9 out of the 10 officers in the leading companies. Loammi Baldwin remained in the militia, eventually being promoted to Colonel in early 1776.