Word: lexington
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Excitement about Patriots’ Day runs high throughout Lexington. “You should arrive before 5 a.m. I know it’s early, but people start getting there at 3:30 a.m.,” advises Wayne McCarthy, executive officer of the Minute Men. Most of the younger attendees whined about the early hour, but once the gunpowder ignited, everyone was wide awake. And on Patriots’ Day, everyone is an expert. One older man quizzed the kids next to him about battle-specifics and then knowingly informed them how one of the Minute Men died...
...Lexington Minute Men have been in continuous existence since 1773, and though today there is no need for them to defend their town, men still take the Minute Man oath and join the same band that clashed with British troops 227 years...
Originally known as the Lexington Training Band, this local militia, like others around Massachusetts, was cobbled together from residents of the community, 144 in total. Each member took this oath in order to join: “We trust in God that, should the state of our affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything dear in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the common cause.” Today, rather than simply joining the band, applicants must be sponsored by members to gain admission. Now membership is capped at 77, to remain...
...read ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’ when I was 12,” says Dan H. Fenn Jr. ’44, a former Crimson president and Harvard lecturer. “I had always been fascinated with history and interested in Lexington in particular, because it was a time when people stood and fired on others who were part of their same community,” says McCarthy. Samuel A. Forman says he has always been interested in history, especially colonial Boston. He even wrote a historical novel about the siege of Boston...
Harvard students probably don’t think twice about the events behind the plaques and markers that adorn this campus. But next Patriots’ Day, student will be just a pre-dawn bike ride away from witnessing history in reenactment form. The Lexington Minute Men will be on the green—as they were more than 225 years...