Landscape Changes

At the time of the battle, this area was a cleared pasture owned by Samuel Brooks, whose house stands on Battle Road. Rather than the forested landscape seen today, the landscape in 1775 was predominantly open farmland. A common myth about the fighting on April 19 is that the colonists hid in the woods and fired at the British column, but in fact there were only occasional woodlots, and cover more often came from stone walls, houses, and outbuildings. Stone walls running through or along woods indicate that the land was once cleared, as farmers removed stones to use the fields and often piled them into walls instead of carting them away.

Concord, Massachusetts · United States