Stoneham’s Minutemen

Early on the night of April 19, 1775 post rider Dr. Martin Herrick rode from Medford to Woburn, Stoneham, Reading and Lynn End (Lynnfield), hammering on doors, windows shutters and shouting the message that “The Regulars are Out.” 

After additional signals of the discharge of muskets in front of the Meeting House as a general alarm, Stoneham’s Minute men gathered to march to Lexington. Below are the names of the the over 60 men who marched “on the Alarm of April 19, 1775.”

The British Army was already enroute back to Boston from Concord by the time the Stoneham Company marched over 9 miles to Lexington. Here Captain Samuel Sprague ordered the company to split into smaller groups of 3 or 4. As Silas Dean wrote in his History of Stoneham,

“their numbers were so small that he thought it would be well to separate and each one look out for himself. They accordingly separated into companies oi three or four, and scattered themselves abroad. Ebenezer Bucknam, Timothy Matthews, and James Willey went in company together. Somewhere in the vicinity of Lexington they were discovered by some British Regulars. A bullet passed between the left ear and skull of Bucknam, also through the hats of both Matthews and Willey.”

Stoneham men were among the many men present from across eastern Massachusetts and even some from New Hampshire who harassed the exhausted regular army soldiers all the way back to Boston.

Stoneham is not always given credit for being present on April 19, but as the original wages list below shows, they were officially recognized by the Province at the time and paid for their service in responding to the Alarm. Total wages owed the company ended up being £ 42.18.6.

While Stoneham suffered no serious casualties on April 19, two of the Minutemen present that day would lose their lives in the Revolutionary War – William Conary (d 1778) and Benjamin Tayler (d. 1776). You can learn more about Stoneham’s other soldiers in our April Tidbit and soon on our Revolutionary War page.

Stoneham Massachusetts Minute Men who marched on April 19, 1775