[Lexington and Concord Militia]. A rare militia payroll from the battles of Lexington and Concord, the first military engagements of the Revolutionary War

Property from Joseph Rubinfine, American Historical Autographs

[LEXINGTON AND CONCORD MILITIA]

MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT, BEING A PAYROLL OF A MILITIA COMPANY COMMANDED BY CAPT. GERSHOM NELSON

11/4 pages (13 x 7 3/8 in.; 330 x 188 mm) on a single leaf, (Mendon, Massachusetts), [1]9 April 1775, vertically ruled, docketed in a near contemporary hand on verso; light wear, a few short fold separations and neat repairs, trimmed slightly at right edge, just clipping the right rule, and docket. 

A rare militia payroll from the battles of Lexington and Concord, the first military engagements of the Revolutionary War

Listing Captain Nelson, Lieutenants Jesse Whitney and Josiah Nelson, and forty-one enlisted men (three sergeants, three corporals, and thirty-five privates) who marched on notice of the "Lexington Alarm," with their pay for an unspecified period. A contemporary docket on the verso describes this document as "Muster roll of Capt. G. Nelsons Company at march from Mendon to Roxbury on the [1]9th of April 1775 at the alarm of the Battle of Lexington. Time of service from 3 to 10 ½ days..." 

Mendon, Massachusetts, is located in southern Worcester County, about thirty miles from Lexington. Owing to this distance, news of the hostilities would not have arrived to Capt. Nelson's company until too late on 19 April. Notwithstanding the rapid deployment of the young "minutemen," there was not sufficient time to reach the scene of the British retreat along the road back to Boston until the action was over. It appears likely that they were diverted to encamp at Roxbury and would join the spontaneous siege line instead. By the following morning militia units from locations farther afield than Mendon had arrived. 

Mendon had four organized militia companies, with Captain Nelson's fourth company designated as minutemen, in keeping with the practice of assigning about one-fourth of the militia as such. They would have been under order to march within thirty minutes of sounding the alarm. Thus they left first, probably around noon, with the other three companies following with the town's two cannon. 

Over the ensuing years Mendon has been rightly proud of providing considerably more than its requirement of troops to the war effort. Most of the men on this roll served later, and on more than one occasion. Isaac Chapin was at the Valley Forge winter encampment, and Darius Holbrook was on the Boston siege line all summer.