Tag Archives: Parker’s revenge

Battle Road 250!

This upcoming Patriots’ Day weekend will see the Minute Man National Historical Park host Battle Road 250 with hundreds of Revolutionary War reenactors.

Honoring the day-long battles fought at Lexington and Concord and the roads around the two Massachusetts towns, the park says that over 750 reenactors will be on hand for the anniversary of the beginning of America’s War for Independence.

While several events are planned around the anniversary, it is the fast-paced Battle Road Tactical Demonstration that will draw the crowds. Told from both sides, that of the rapidly mobilized Colonial Minutemen and militia and the British Regulars – the hated “Lobsterbacks” – those in attendance will be able to drink in the sound of musketry and the thrill of historical interpretations on the hallowed grounds that helped establish Liberty.

The park’s social media accounts have been filled in recent days with images of past Battle Road demonstrations as well as recreated militia and Redcoats drilling and training in the use of the 1764 manual of arms.

Parker’s fowler, more than just a game-getter

Patriot militia Capt. John Parker stood on the Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, and met a unit of the King’s men in an engagement that produced the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” He was armed that day with a .64-bore French-style fowling piece, but before the day was out, courtesy of a follow-up ambush known as Parker’s Revenge, he picked up a discarded British 1756 Long Land (Brown Bess) musket to add to his collection.

How do we know for sure? Both guns are in the collection of the Massachusetts State House and were recently shown off to a group of experts very familiar with the subject.

More in my column at Guns.com