Every year, between Memorial Day and the 4th of July, I make a pilgrimage to the place where America began – the battlefield in Concord, Massachusetts. Today, it's a national park with beautiful green hills, flower beds, a meandering river and the Minuteman Monument.

The colonists gave birth to a new nation not on July 4, 1776 (with the signing of the Declaration of Independence), but at the Old North Bridge in Concord, on April 19, 1775. Words are fine and necessary, but nations, like individuals, are born in blood.

The Battle of Concord was the first time the colonists fired on British soldiers. The Redcoats on one side of the bridge first fired a warning volley, then one into the ranks of militiamen on the other side. Isaac Davis, commanding a company from nearby Acton, was shot in the heart and died on the spot. "Fire fellow soldiers, for God's sake fire!" cried Col. John Buttrick, another militia leader.

In Emerson's immortal words: "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world."

Since I first heard the Concord Hymn as a school boy, I've thrilled to those lines. Apparently, I'm part of a dwindling majority.

"Younger Americans Are Less Patriotic," The New York Times enthusiastically reported on July 4, 2014. While 81% of the Greatest Generation said they love America, only 58% of Millennials feel the same way. The Times called it a generational-gap on patriotism.

In part, this lack of ardor is because many Millennials are afraid to commit to anything – it might require them to actually do something – marriage, career or country. It's also the result of a refusal to teach American history in either the public schools or higher education.

In the National Assessment of Educational Progress, American history always ends up at the bottom of the heap.

In a 2014 survey sponsored by The American Revolution Center, 83% failed a basic test on America's founding. More than 50% attributed Marx's axiom ("From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs") to George Washington, Thomas Paine or Barack Obama. Of course, Obama is easily mistaken for the communist theoretician.

More than a third of those surveyed didn't know the century in which the American Revolution occurred. Half believed either the Emancipation Proclamation, the War of 1812, or the Civil War preceded the Revolution. A third of those surveyed did not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees a right to trial by jury. Over 50% thought our form of government is a democracy (a word found nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution) instead of a republic. In another survey, two-thirds of Americans couldn't name a single Supreme Court justice. In a poll of high-school juniors by the San Francisco Chronicle, only 8 out of 34 students correctly identified FDR as president during World War II. Incorrect answers included George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon and Winston Churchill.

In his First Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln appealed to "the mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land." But what happens when the chords of memory fray or snap?

What happens is 8 years of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton (one of the most corrupt politicians in America) almost elected president, Washington forcing Americans to buy health insurance, a majority of Americans opposing Trump's border wall (60% according to an April Pew Research poll), the Supreme Court ruling that two men or two women have a constitutional right to marry, the fantasy that Islam had something to do with America's founding, those who believe the Constitution mandates a "wall of separation" between church and state (67% in one poll), and those who want to "Get guns off the street," or the village green?

How can an American not take pride in his country, knowing that we started by defeating the greatest empire on earth, went on to adopt a Constitution that provides the best system of government yet devised, kept the nation united and ended the scourge of slavery in the Civil War, recovered from the devastation of the Great Depression, saved humanity from Japanese Imperialism, Nazism and communism, became the world's laboratory of invention in the 19th century and the powerhouse of production in the 20th – all the while creating a middle class rich in rights and prosperity? Only the pathetically ignorant or the soul-dead can fail to love such a country. ("Breathes there a man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land.")

The Minutemen and Militia at the Old North Bridge had their counterparts in the Battle of New Orleans, the boys in blue who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the Doughboys at Belleau Wood, the Boys of Pointe du Hoc (as Reagan called them) on D-Day, and all the rest of the heroes at the Chosin Reservoir, the Tet Offensive and Desert Storm.

Tragically, we are raising a generation of historical illiterates. The zombies of horror movies consume human flesh. America's zombies are eating this nation's heart and consuming its spirit.

North Bridge Questions

What is the name of the river?
The North Bridge spans the Concord River. Ironically, as Nathaniel Hawthorne once pointed out, the name Concord implies peace and harmony.

How old is the North Bridge?
The North Bridge that visitors walk over today is actually a recent (summer of 2005) restoration of the last bridge built on this site in 1956. The 1956 bridge is the fifth bridge to occupy this hallowed ground since the time of the battle in 1775. The bridge that was there in 1775, the "battle bridge," was taken down in 1788.

Are there really bodies buried in the Grave of the British Soldiers? Do we know who they were?
Yes, there are two soldiers buried in the grave. British military records indicate that there were three soldiers (all privates in the 4th Regiment) missing and presumed dead after the North Bridge fight: James Hall, Thomas Smith and Patrick Gray. One of these three men is buried in Concord center; there is a stone marker for him on Monument St. The other two are buried here.

Who wrote the poem on the British gravestone?
They came three thousand miles and died,
To keep the past upon its throne.
Unheard beyond the ocean tide,
Their English mother made her moan.
This is a stanza of a poem called “Lines” by James Russell Lowell.

Who sculpted the Minute Man Statue?
A young Concord man named Daniel Chester French won the contest to create a monument for the 100th anniversary of the battle (1875). Civil war cannons were melted down to create this cast bronze statue. French later created many other pieces of art, including the seated Lincoln statue in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Does the Statue represent a particular person?
No; it represents a (generic) farmer who leaves his plow and picks up his musket to defend his land and liberty. However, when French was researching the statue, he did make sketches of some of the descendants of Isaac Davis of Acton (killed at the Bridge). This statue is the logo for the National Guard, and is the one shown on the 2000 “Massachusetts” quarter. It is also on U.S. Savings Bonds, and was on War Bonds during WWII.

What was the reason for the British expedition to Concord?
On the evening of April 18, 1775, General Thomas Gage sent approximately 700 British soldiers out to Concord (about 18 miles distant) to seize and destroy military stores and equipment known to be stockpiled in the town. His orders to Lt. Col. Smith, the British officer who was to lead the expedition, were as follows:

Sir:
Having received intelligence, that a quantity of Ammunition, Provision, Artillery, Tents and small arms, have been collected at Concord, for the Avowed Purpose of raising and supporting a Rebellion against His Majesty, you will march with the Corps of Grenadiers and Light Infantry, put under your command, with the utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and destroy all Artillery, Ammunition, Provision, Tents, Small Arms, and all military stores whatever. But you will take care that the Soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants, or hurt private property.

Under great pressure from his superiors in England to bring Massachusetts back under control of the "lawful government," General Gage sent the troops to Concord in the hopes that by doing so, he could convince the colonists to back down, and thus avoid an armed rebellion.

General Gage also believed that seizing stockpiles of weapons was not only a militiary necessity, but also his prerogative as governor of the colony. The colonists actively disagreed.

Why were British soldiers guarding the North Bridge?
General Gage, in his orders to Lt. Colonel Smith, commander of the Britsh expedition to Concord, directed him to take control of the two bridges in town, the South Bridge and the North Bridge. "You will observe...that it will be necessary to secure the two bridges as soon as possible..."

Securing the bridges was necessary to prevent rebels from slipping across from remote parts of town to threaten the mission. Also, Lt. Colonel Smith sent seven companies across the North Bridge with orders to search for supplies and artillery known to be hidden at Barrett's farm, about a mile west of the bridge.

At that time, the colonists occupied the high ground overlooking the bridge. If they were to swoop down and take the bridge, the British soldiers at Barrett's farm would be cut off. Therefore, the British left three companies (about 96 men) at the bridge to guard it.

Where were the British and Colonial soldiers standing when shots were exchanged across the river?
When the British first deployed at the North Bridge, they were positioned on the west side of the river. This is the side where the Minute Man Statue now stands. The colonial militia, with over 400 men, occupied the high ground overlooking the bridge.

Sometime after 9:00 a.m. the militiamen, believing the town was being set on fire, marched down upon the bridge. According to one British officer, they did so "in a very military manner."

Hopelessly outnumbered by the advancing militia, the British soldiers pulled back to the east side of the bridge, where the 1836 Obelisk now stands, and hastily organized for defense. According to one British officer, "Captain Laurie made us retire to this side of the bridge, which by the bye he ought to have done at the first for the rebels were so near..."

Whe the shots were fired, the British were on the east side (1836 Obelisk) and the colonists were on the west side (Minute Man Statue).

Source:
https://www.nps.gov/mima/north-bridge-questions.htm

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