Ipswich Minutemen on April 18, 1775

Exerpt from: Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson, April 19, 2026.

On the evening of April 18, 1775, the people who lived in the British colony of Massachusetts had gone to bed with the sun, as usual. By the evening of April 19, everything had changed. In the past twenty-four hours, soldiers from their own government had opened fire on them, killing their own people. And Massachusetts men had fired back. It was hard to understand how things had gotten so bad.

British officials were determined to end what they saw as a rebellion. In April they ordered military governor General Thomas Gage to arrest colonial leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who had left Boston to take shelter with one of Hancock’s relatives in the nearby town of Lexington. From there they could seize the military supplies at Concord. British officials hoped that seizing both the men and the munitions would end the crisis.

But about thirty of the Sons of Liberty had been watching the soldiers and gathering intelligence. When the soldiers set out on the night of April 18, two Sons of Liberty flashed two lanterns in the steeple of the Old North Church—the highest point in Boston—to signal to watchers that the soldiers were traveling across Boston Harbor to Charlestown. Armed with that knowledge, messengers could avoid the troops and raise the alarm along the roads to Lexington and Concord.

Even before the British soldiers made it back down the Battle Road from Concord on April 19, militiamen—both white and Black, free and enslaved—from the Massachusetts countryside, furious that soldiers of their own government had shot at them and killed their neighbors, rushed to surround Boston, laying siege to the soldiers and British officials there.

By the next morning, more than 15,000 militiamen surrounded the town of Boston. The Revolutionary War had begun. Just over a year later, the fight that had started over the question of whether the king could be checked by the people would give the colonists an entirely new, radical answer to that question. On July 4, 1776, they declared the people had the right to be treated equally before the law, and they had the right to govern themselves.

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Ipswich minutemen who marched upon the alarm of April 19th

From the History of Essex County by M.V.B. Perley

COMPANY ONE

• 1st Lieut. Charles Smith
• Captain: Thomas Burnham
• 2nd Lieut.: John Farley
• Sergeants: Daniel Lord, Ebenezer Lord, John Potter, and John Lakeman
• Privates: Nehemiah Abbott, Nicholas Babcock, Samuel Baker, Elijah Boynton, John Brown 4th, Isaac Burnham Jr., Jeremiah Brown, Thomas Caldwell, Thomas Chun, Benjamin Cross, Nathaniel Cross, Nehemiah Choate, Nathaniel Dennis, Benjamin Emerson, Ephraim Fellows, John Fellows, Isaac Fellows, Nathan Fellows, John Glazier, James Harris, John Harris, Abraham Hodgkins, Nathaniel Heard, John Heard Jr, Thomas Hodgkins, Amos Heard, Ebenezer Kimball, Moses Kinsman, William Kinsman, Abraham Lord, Aaron Lord, Caleb Lord, Samuel Lord, John Manning, Elisha Newman, Samuel Newman, Nathan Parsons, William Goodhue, Francis Pickard, James Pickard Jr., John Porter, Jeremiah Rose, Simeon Safford, Moses Smith, Jr., Henry Speller, Benjamin Sweet, Daniel Lowe, Richard Shatswell, Philip Lord, Elisha Treadwell, Samuel Wallis, Nathaniel Wells.

COMPANY TWO

• Captain: Nathaniel Wade
• 1st Lieut.: Joseph Hodgkins.
• 2d Lieut.: William Dennis
• Sergeants: Aaron Perkins, Michael Farley Jr., Jabez Farley, Thomas Boardman, Asa Barker, John Graves
• Corporals: Francis Merrifield, Joseph Appleton Jr.
• Privates: Thomas Appleton, Samuel Burnham, Stephen Dutch, Jonathan Foster, John Fowler Jr, Joseph Fowler 3d, John Fitts Jr., Isaac Giddings, Daniel Goodhue Jr., William Goodhue, Ephraim Goodhue, Francis Hovey, Benjamin Heard, John Harris 5th, Nathaniel Jewett, Abiah Knowlton, Nathaniel Lakeman, Nathaniel Lord 3d, Charles Lord, Samuel Lord 5th, James Fuller Lakeman, Nathaniel Ross, Benjamin Ross, Nathaniel Rust Jr., Jabez Ross Jr., Kneeland Ross, Thomas Hodgkins 4th, Henry Spellar, Jabez Sweet Jr., John Stanwood, Isaac Stanwood, Daniel Stone, Nathaniel Souther, Edward Stacy, James Smith, Nathaniel Treadwell, Ebenezer Lakeman, Nathaniel March, John Peters, Nathaniel Brown.

This company was in service as minutemen until May 10th. The distance was eighty-eight miles.

COMPANY THREE

• Captain: Abraham How.
• 1st Lieut: Thomas Foster, Paul Lancaster.
• Sergeants: Dresser, Chapman
• Privates: Jeremiah Smith, John Joseph Caleb, Amos Jewett, Jr., John Perley, Jonathan Foster Jr., Samuel Moses Chaplin, Jr., Foster, Abraham How 3d, Allen Charles Davis, John Fowler Jr., Daniel Kimball Jr., Joshua George Abbott, James Smith, Joseph Philemon Foster, Timothy Morse, John Fowler, Elijah Foster, Moses Chaplin, Daniel Kimball, Allen Perley, Ezekiel Potter, Edmund Tenney, Moses Conant, John Chapman.

COMPANY FOUR

• Captain: Daniel Rogers.
• 1st Lieut.: Thomas Burnham.
• 2d Lieut. Abraham Dodge.
• Sergeants: Wallis, Treadwell.
• Corporals: Pearson, Appleton.
• Privates: John Andrews, William Baker, Philip Abbott, Jonathan Appleton, Samuel Beal, Benjamin Brown, Thomas Caldwell, Abraham Choate, John Cross, Aaron Day, Jeremiah Day, Thomas Day, Ebenezer Caldwell, Joshua Fitts, Ebenezer Goodhue, Barnabas Dodge. Samuel Henderson, Mark Haskell, John Hodgkins, Thomas Hodgkins, Jr., Richard Kimball, Jeremiah Kinsman, Israel Kinsman, Ephraim Jewett, Nathaniel Grant, Ebenezer Ilovey, Purchase Jewett, John Lord, Daniel Lord, Jr., Gideon Parker, Nathaniel Perley, Daniel Potter, Joshua Smith, Simon Smith, Robert Stocker, Richard Sutton, Moses Treadwell, Asa Warner, William Warner

TROOP OF HORSE

• Captain Moses Jewett
• Cornet: John Kinsman.
• Corporals: Nathaniel Smith, Nehemiah Choate
• Trumpeter: John Brown, Lieut. Robert Perkins
• Quartermasters: Elisha Brown, Pelatiah Brown, Nehemiah Brown.
• Clerk: John Pearson.
• Privates: Ebenezer Brown, John Bradstreet, Samuel Bragg, Allen Baker, Francis Brown, Joseph Brown, Jonathan Cummings, Pelatiah, Cummings, William Conant, Abner Day, John Emerson, Joseph Goodhue, Seth Goodhue, Mark Haskell, John Harris, Nehemiah Jewett, Aaron Jewett, Michael Kinsman, Joseph Metcalfe, Nehemiah Patch, Thomas Smith, Zebulon Smith, Nehemiah Jewett, Jr.