Patriots Day

Capt. John Baker, died in 1781, aged 75.

Roslindale is not the sort of place you associate with the Revolution, but it turns out a cemetery there, by the side of a road Washington's forces used to ferry supplies from Dedham to Boston, was the final resting place for a number of Revolutionary War soldiers.

You can see the remains of the Walter Street Burying Ground on Peters Hill in the Arnold Arboretum. Go into the Peters Hill entrance of the Arboretum where South Street meets Walter Street and start up the path on the hill. As you walk, keep in mind that back in the day, Roslindale as a place didn't exist - the area was a hinterland of the town of Roxbury. And Walter Street, then known as the Dedham Road was a key supply route for the Americans.

Paul Revere hoofed it out of the North End this morning to warn the colonists the Redcoats were coming.

Afterwards, Minutemen stood at attention in front of the Paul Revere statue and Old North Church as Taps were played and a wreath laid at a memorial for fallen patriots on the Prado.

The Patriots Day parade in Arlington was fun, but it didn't really have a lot of Minutemen - way more Shriners, in fact (and a troop of Civil War re-enactors, um, what?).

Just in time for Patriots Day, the BPL has posted Marathon photos by Leslie Jones, including the immortal Johnny Kelley finishing the race second in 1940 and on the way to his first-place finish in 1945 (on far right; in Natick Center, ye ed thinks):

Mikesssss photographed the annual midnight bike ride along the Marathon route. Later, Photographynatalia photographed some of the survivors runners:

Grenadiers fall back

Late reports from Concord have the Redcoats retreating in disarray toward the center of town after a rout at the North Bridge by hastily assembled Minutemen. Some photos.

Paul Keleher watched the Marathon near the Newton/Wellesley line. He captured both the women's leaders (winner Sharon Cherop was fifth at that point) and the men (winner Wesley Korir was fourth):

Nathanael Hevelone captured a pair of demotivators along the Marathon route today.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Minutemen, members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co. a few politicians and some bystanders marched from City Hall to the North End today to commemorate the rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes. The procession stopped at Dawes's grave at King's Chapel Cemetery and at Revere's grave at the Granary Burying Ground, to present a wreath and play taps, before continuing down Bromfield, Washington and Congress streets and then down Hanover into the North End, where a modern-day Paul Revere waited on a horse so that he could take off towards Lexington to warn the colonials.

Redcoats, that is, not Red Sox:

Greg Cook has more photos from today's annual recreation of the Battle of Old North Bridge.

Greg Cook rose early today to take in the Patriots Day battle re-enactments in Lexington and Concord.

Yeah, sure, most of the people running the Marathon today had your basic boring running outfits on. But then there were the outliers, like the Cat in the Hat and Minnie Mouse (safely separated by a couple miles):

J.L. Bell runs down Revolutionary events in the area this weekend.

A classic photo.

Patriot and Redcoat run the Marathon. And yes, she got all the way to Brookline holding a hobby horse.

Presidents' Day was a couple months ago, Abe:

That's a lot of runners on Beacon Street:

Furore as Redcoat stabs, beats Jason Russell to death in front of his own home this very afternoon.

Reports reach us that chastened regulars beating a slow retreat from their whupping at North Bridge in Concord this morning set upon the citizens of Menotomy, attempting to ransack and burn down houses in the village as brave patriots assembled at Jason Russell's house to try to stop them.

Attacked from two sides, the Patriots fell victim to His Majesty's Loathsome Musketballs and Swords:

J.L. Bell posts a deposition from Edward Thoroton Gould, a lieutenant in His Majesty's 4th Regiment of Foot who was on the front line at the Battle at the Old North Bridge.

... On our arrival at that place, we saw a body of provincial troops, armed, to the number of about sixty or seventy men. On our approach, they dispersed, and soon after firing began, but which party fired first I can not exactly say, as our troops rushed on shouting and huzzaing previous to the firing, which was continued by our troops so long as any of the provincials were to be seen. ...

Father Austin Fleming, who lives in Concord, reports:

Just after midnight tonight I'll hear a fife and drum corps marching down Main Street to the green in Monument Square, where I live.

Only in Concord, Massachusetts might a parade pass by your home at midnight! ...

If it's cool, look for Bill Rodgers.

Aaron Donovan loves when friends jump into the Marathon to run for awhile with their friends.

Paul Kelleher captures the women leaders at mile 17 (he took more Marathon photos, too).

This little kid just stood in Washington Square with his hand out today. It was amazing how many runners gave him a hand slap.

Faegirl spots the modern-day Paul Revere after he rowed across the Harbor to Charlestown.

Once again, the Regulars marched right through Lexington Green at dawn, killing a few colonists standing in their way as they headed toward Concord in search of militia munitions.

You learn a lot at the annual re-creation of the battle (which from start to finish, takes maybe five minutes, and most of that is the British soldiers assembling, locking bayonets and shouting "Huzzah!" before they shoot the first Minuteman and then stomp on him). To start, somebody from the Lexington Minutemen gives you an explanation of what you're about to see.

But you also learn that there are a couple thousand other insane people willing to get up before the crack of dawn to watch the battle. And because of that, and because Lexington Green is flat, you learn that if you ever make the trek again, you either need to make like the veteran battle-goers and bring a ladder to climb up on (or, at the minimum, a sturdy bucket) or you need to be nine years old and adept at worming your way through the crowd to the very edge of the battlefield.

It was puzzling at first to hear the victorious Redcoats march off the Green while their fifers played "Yankee Doodle Dandy," until I remembered that they were playing it to insult the Minutemen - who, by the end of the day, adopted the song as their own.

Father: So what'd you think?
Son: It's the same every year.

The dead, the dying and the incongruous:

Calm amid the chaos:

BattleRoad.org has a complete calendar of events for today and tomorrow - and historical info.

J.L. Bell finishes up destroying every myth we hold dear about Paul Revere, ending with the fable that his ride actually made a difference.

Photos: Patriots Day in Concord.