Battle Line Boulder (Line of the Minute Men)

Located on the northwest corner of the Battle Green, the Battle Line Boulder/Line of the Minute Men Memorial marks the approximate location where the Minute Men gathered in formation under the direction of Captain John Parker for the Battle of Lexington.

Cited as the second location to be marked in the 1884 Report of Lexington’s Committee on Monuments and Tablets, it is described as the site where the band of minute men stood guard over their homes and peaceful village as a disciplined force of British soldiers ten times their number invaded. The report further notes, “that a band of untrained farmers, knowing nothing of war should thus form in military array and stand their ground, on the approach of a hostile force so superior in every way, resolved to resist aggression but in no case be the aggressors, may well excite the admiration of mankind.”

Weighing between twelve and fifteen tons, the monument is a roughly hewn boulder that was brought to the common from “the old Muzzey Place,” two miles away in the western part of town. It retains its natural form with the exception of its front face, which features an inscription of a powder horn, a musket, and a famous quote attributed to Captain John Parker. The cost of the monument, exclusive of the foundation and filing surrounding it, was $245.

The committee believed that the monument’s materials and design were fitting tributes to the character of the Lexington Minute Men, who, “like the granite of their farms… were rough and rude, unlearned and uncultured in the knowledge and accomplishments of the world, but firm as the everlasting rock in their devotion to justice, to liberty and to free institutions.”

The inscription reads:

LINE OF THE MINUTE MEN
APRIL 19 1775
STAND YOUR GROUND
DON’T FIRE UNLESS FIRED UPON
BUT IF THEY MEAN TO HAVE A WAR
LET IT BEGIN HERE
CAPTAIN PARKER