charge of the British
camp with the local rank
of brigadier general.
Within a year, lingering re-
sentment over British tax-
ation policies culminated
in open defiance of
British authority. Wishing
to prevent hostilities from
arising, Gage felt it neces-
sary to confiscate caches
of military stores that the
colonial militia had accu-
mulated. On April 19,
1775, he dispatched Lt.
Col. Francis Smith on
his fateful march to Con-
cord. The first shots were
fired on Lexington Green
that morning, and by the
time Smith’s column
reached Concord that af-
ternoon swarms of angry
colonials lined the road,
firing at them. It was only
with the greatest diffi-
culty that the British unit survived the return
march to Lexington, but Smith’s command
was at the point of collapse.
Fortunately, Smith had earlier requested
reinforcements from Gage, and Percy was en-
trusted with a relief force to meet him. Curi-
ously, he had been up with his assembled
command since four o’clock that morning but
spent several hours waiting for the Royal
Marines to arrive. Those troops, in turn, were
delayed as the aide sought to deliver orders to
their commander, Maj. John Pitcairn—not
realizing he had accompanied Smith’s col-
umn. It was not until 9 A.M.that Percy de-
camped Boston Common and marched
through Cambridge, now eerily deserted. His
force at that time consisted of the Fourth,
23rd, and 47th Regiments, backed by an addi-
tional 450 marines and two small field pieces
(around 1,400 rank-and-file). Percy finally ren-
dezvoused outside of Lexington around 3 P.M.
with Smith’s disorganized column, which was
exhausted and near the
breaking point. He then
halted and allowed the
men to regain their com-
posure. During this inter-
val, even greater numbers
of colonial militia came
up and began sniping, but
fresh volleys and cannon
fire kept them at bay.
Percy was now con-
fronted by one of the
most difficult military
maneuvers of all: a fight-
ing withdrawal under fire.
Using the redcoats’
vaunted discipline, Percy
kept his rear guard
leapfrogging each other
by company, while light
infantry flanked and
scoured the road of mili-
tiamen. “We retired for 15
miles under an incessant
fire,” he later reflected,
“which like a moving cir-
cle surrounded and followed us wherever we
went.” The Americans sustained their share of
casualties yet kept up a desultory stream of
musketry. Percy’s column continued taking
losses, and at one point his enraged soldiers
burned several houses suspected of harboring
snipers. Having persevered as far as Menot-
omy, Percy then made the fateful decision not
to retrace his tracks back through Cambridge,
which in all likelihood was swarming with
militia. Instead, he ordered his column to veer
northeast toward Charleston, a route five
miles shorter and, as he correctly assumed,
less well guarded. This adroit maneuver saved
the British column from impending annihila-
tion. Percy’s men wearily trudged into
Charlestown around sundown, exhausted but
intact. British casualties were in excess of 260
killed and wounded, against American losses
half as large.
Percy’s performance on this occasion can-
not be underestimated. Smith had so totallyPERCY, HUGH
Hugh Percy
Lexington Historical Society