British Retreat Marker

Sited in a wall on Massachusetts Avenue in Lexington, the British Retreat Marker records the fact that a British field piece was planted on the hill to the south and several buildings in the neighborhood were burned, as noted in the 1884 Report of Lexington’s Committee on Monuments and Markers.

According to David Hackett Fischer in Paul Revere’s Ride (1963), it was here that British forces, on their retreat from Concord’s North Bridge, formed a line of battle and positioned their two six-pounder cannons nearby. While these cannons were uncomfortably close to their targets, Brigadier General Hugh Percy ordered them to be fired anyway. This successfully scattered the colonists and allowed the retreating British to reach safety. Percy then ordered a few of the nearby buildings to be set ablaze so his forces could retreat under the cover of the billowing smoke.

The historical marker commemorates the location of the fires and one of the six-pounder cannons:

ON THE HILL TO THE SOUTH
WAS PLANTED
ONE OF THE BRITISH FIELD PIECES
APRIL 19, 1775
TO COMMAND THE VILLAGE
AND ITS APPROACHES
AND NEAR THIS PLACE
SEVERAL BUILDINGS WERE BURNED