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Understanding 9/11tv Revolutionary War Collections CSPAN July 16, 2017 9:45am-10:01am EDT
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[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you were watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. >> american history tv is at the concord museum in concord, massachusetts. inside, we take a look at some of the collections dedicated to the very first few days of fighting during the revolutionary war. >> the concord museum was founded in 1886, the collection had been begun almost 30 years
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before that. it was a collection an individual started putting together of objects with histories, that's the important thing. he was only interested in objects that had histories. the institution was formed around that collection. our earliest object is a stone projectile point about 12,000 years old, not very long after the glacier retreated from this area. we have a very good collection of 17th and 18th century furniture, owned and in many cases made in concord. 19th century furniture, objects associated with the authors in concord and the great collection of objects related table 19th, to april 19, 1775. we have arguably more objects that were participants in the events of april 19, 1775 maybe
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than any other collection. we're going to take a look at a selection of those objects that arranged more or less chronologically, following the events of that epic day through the objects in our collection is strong enough that you can actually pick up on the high point all along the room. one of the most iconic objects in the museum collection is this lantern. it was in this collection even before the museum was formed, and this was in cummings davises collection by using 56. -- by 1856. it's been on view to the public since before the civil war. this is one of the two lanterns that was used as a signal from north church to christchurch in boston on the night of april 18. this was a signal not to paul revere, but arranged by paul
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revere to be flashed across the river for the advice of the provincial militia in charlestown. revere was planning to spread the alarm that the regulars were coming out to capture the supplies, and he knew that he didn't really have a very great chance of first getting across the river. he thought maybe i'd better have a backup, and this is the backup. he got across the signal so the day got underway. the way that longfellow put it was one of my land into by see, -- and two if by sea. and i on the opposite shore shall be. revere was in boston when the signal was posted, the signal was meant for someone else on the other shore. the way revere put it was if the british went out by water, we would show two lanterns in the north church steeple, and if by
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land, one is a signal. they knew they were going to concord, there are only two ways out of town to get to concord. there were two lanterns, only one of them survived. in this case, for the example of the target of the troops on april 19, they knew they were military stores in concord, because they had a pretty good spy network. as it happened, the provincials knew they knew that because we had a pretty good spy network too. it was pretty clear to both sides is something was going to happen, the only question was where and when. general gage determined the where when you gave the troops orders to go out to concord to seize and destroy the supplies they found. these are examples of some of those things.
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these wooden spoons were -- have a history of use in one of concord's militia companies. there were barrels of them that were being stored in concord as the provincial congress had ordered supplies for an army of 20,000. and not an army of one day, but an army that was meant to stay in the field. they had barrels wooden spoons, they have barrels of flour. and they had barrels of cannonballs, because the provincials had several cannons requiring all of those they could get their hands on. and these two in particular were thrown in to the mill pond by the british regulars on the 19th. that was their duty that day was to destroy these things and throw them into the mill pond. these came out of the mill pond in the 1850's and have what -- henry thoreau writes about in his journal because he knew
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immediately what they were when they came out. that shovel is what's called a shod shovel, meant for digging trenches for combat. and then up above it was a private sword from the 10th regiment, one of those companies that was in concord on that day that was captured on april 19 in the center of concord, it's history, it was a soldier who deserted. and this was his sword. it carries all the regimental markings of the tents on it, this was a private sword. this is the powderhorn of amos barrett, and he was in one of concord's minutes companies, the minute companies were the elite troops, the younger man, and they were charged with
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responding at a minute's notice to alarm. barrett was at the northbridge, and 50 years after the events, he wrote a letter wonderfully evocative describing what he did that day. and he says right in the beginning of it that those events of 50 years before were more present in his mind than even the events of a week ago. you could tell it from his language as he narrates what happens, he's right back there. it's really neat. and so having the object that was there in the first person account the goes with it, that's about as good as it gets. they are there above the bridge, watching the british and they started taking planks up off the bridge, so the provincials couldn't cross it. and that's when they marched
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down. that's -- even the british accounts say the same thing. they came down in martial order, so they aren't just a mom, they -- aren't a mob. they are an army. they marched down to the bridge, amos barrett said they fired three warning shots into the river. he said i saw them splash in the river, and then they fired on us. and captain davis was killed and mr. hosmer. there were two casualties on a regular side. and john buttrick gave the order to fire back. as far as i know, that's the first time provincial troops had ever been ordered to fire on regular troops in america. it's a pretty significant moment. maybe most significant is the fact that the order was obeyed.
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i think it also might be the last time that day that anybody was ordered to fire. the firing never stopped, but no one had to order fire again. there were several regulars who were killed and wounded and they retreated back into town and then started their retreat. back to boston. by the time they got to merriam's corner, this was about noon, there were 1200 provincials very now they are outnumbered. so an encircling fire began, that's how it was described. the provincials are going round and round the regular troops and firing on them. and that kept up for the whole rest of the day. and the regulars ran out and ammunition, they hadn't brought sufficient water for any rations and it was a long day.
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by the time they got to arlington, and would like some of them were throwing or -- ammo aside. carry gunpowder, when you can't get any further when you have now been watching -- marching for 12 hours straight. this seems to have been discarded that point. this is an officers must get, -- musket, and it seems likely to have been discarded rather than captured. no officers were killed at arlington. there were two brothers from watertown who heard about all this. they were too young to be in the militia, but they turned out anyways and went from watertown to arlington and got there in time in the afternoon to pick -- one brother picked this up and one brother picked this up. this is an officers sword, and i speak of -- piece of work. this is an officers must get --
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musket, and has the rack number five on the inspection plate. it was a big deal severity or -- to throw your equipment away. it seems to me that's a good indicator of what sort of day it was for these fellows to choose to throw those away. we brought a few additional object out from storage to give some further suggestions to the depth of the collection. these two actually go together. this is the powderhorn on the -- and the musket of a minuteman who responded to the alarm. he was in concord about 4:00 in the morning at the northbridge. this is his musket, and it is in
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many ways a typical middlesex county firearm. the militia and the minute companies were responsible for bringing their own arms when they responded to. in other words, you are not issued arms, you bring them from home. this is a fowler, what you use to hunt birds with, at its french. -- and its french. it's either going to be french or english or maybe dutch. this one is french. it was used, you can see, even after it's use of the battle, it was used until it fell apart. and that's why it survives, then seems to have gone into a barn and stayed there. it also retained its history. that's why it wasn't thrown out, because it was remembered that this took place, this took part
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in the battle at the north bridge. and then these are interestingly almost the only example of an item of costume -- certainly in our collection, but i don't really know of many that you could plausibly say was worn in concord in 1775, not by one of the militia, but by hannah hunt. she's born in 1763, she's 12 years old in 1775. if you can imagine these being the shoes of a 12-year-old, if that's possible. i like to think that she put these on on that day. the minutemen and militia who responded very often were dressed in their sunday best. that was kind of the way they
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turned out. because they knew it was an important event. the events of april 19 only took one day. the battle of the bridge only took a few minutes. it's one of those events in history where what comes before it is just unlike what comes after. this was really apparent to the people who actually participated. they knew their world had changed. it's our hope that this first-person encounter with real objects that were there can share some of that feeling with our visitors. changed. >> our cities tour staff travel to concord, massachusetts to learn about its registry. its rich history. learn more at
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c-span.org/citiestour. you're watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> coming up next, historians discuss new york city during the civil war, emphasizing residents' divided loyalty, despite being a union state. the causes andss effects of the city draft riots in 1853. the new york historical society hosted this event. it's about an hour. >> good evening, everyone, and welcome to new york historical society. i am vice president for public programs, and i am thrilled to welcome you to our spectacular robert h smith auditorium. tonight's program is part
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