Pageant Exhibition Panel 18 - The Gathering of the Militia

Image is the eighteenth photograph in the Lancaster Massachusetts 1912 Fourth of July Pageant Exhibition created by the Thayer Memorial Library.

From the archives at the Thayer Memorial Library, Lancaster, Massachusetts. http://thayermemoriallibrary.org

The gathering of the Minutemen in Lancaster during Episode IV, The Minutemen, in the Lancaster, Massachusetts 1912 Fourth of July Pageant. The photograph shows the men of the Lancaster Militia with their rifles gathering in the town common after the call was raised to defend Boston against the British. The woman and children rush off to say their farewells. On the morning of April 19, 1775, the news that the British troops under General Thomas Gage had left Boston for Lexington and Concord, and that the first shots had been fired there in the American Revolutionary War reached Lancaster. The calls went out across the region, and men swarmed to the town common to join the American forces and come to the aid of Boston. In the end two hundred and fifty men set out from Lancaster. Most remained in Cambridge for only two weeks, but a third remained in service for the remaining months of 1775. The photograph is mounted on heavy cardboard and has text describing the activity and history depicted in the photograph. The text for this image has been transcribed. Pageant at Lancaster, Massachusetts, July 4, 1912.MINUTE-MEN The group of farmers disperse, and run to their various homes to spread the news to get their arms and ammunition, and then from all directions the inhabitants come rushing in, and report themselves to the captain of the troops. Affecting farewells take place between the men and the women and girls who have followed them. To the drum and fife the men march off.