The Men of Freedom: Isaac Davis
The "Shot heard round the world" was fired on April 19th, 1775, at the Old North Bridge in Concord. Meet Isaac Davis, the model for the Minuteman statue in Concord and a good model for manliness today
We have finally arrived at Concord the morning of April 19th, 1775. Warned by the alarms initiated by Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott, minutemen from Concord, Acton, Lincoln, and other neighboring towns converged on Concord throughout the morning. The British would find very little in the way of munitions, but what they would find was an armed resistance -- an in the specific case of the Acton Minutemen Company, a very disciplined and trained force led by Captain Isaac Davis. I tell you the story of the Battle of Concord and the men at the center of this pivotal event from the Old North Bridge where the clash between the British regulars and local militiamen occurred and the “shot heard round the world” was fired. Here we will learn the powerful story of Isaac Davis: How he prepared, how he responded, and what sacrifice he ultimately made.
Isaac Davis is a model of masculinity we need today. He developed skills that made him useful to his community, he earned the trust of the people around him, he responded to the call to serve with excellence, and he was willing to take risks and pay the ultimate price for it. This is an important model of masculinity we should be offering young men in our homes and communities. Not all will want it or take it, but those who need it most will respond, ultimately making themselves more able to provide for others and to achieve satisfying life outcomes.
Coming up next: The British flee 14 miles down Battle Road to the safety of Boston proper, harassed as they go by thousands of incensed provincial minutemen.
Resources:
I can’t recommend Nathaniel Philbrick’s Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution highly enough. It ends with Bunker Hill but covers the decade before it thoroughly. I’ve read a lot of history books in my life, Philbrick’s ability to describe what appears to have happened, who the people involved are, and what motivated them, seems so effortless that you forget how hard it is to do until you read other historical books.
A book I left off my list before but want to add is Rick Atkinson’s The British Are Coming. Atkinson was privileged to have access to many British records previously unavailable to historians, giving his writing a perspective on the British that is regularly omitted from most—but especially American—writers’ accounts.
A lesser-known book, The Road to Concord, is a gem, written by J.L. Bell, a local writer whose blog Boston 1775 is an indispensable resource when studying the events of revolutionary Massachusetts. In particular, I like that Bell hunts down the origins of stories that have been retold so many times their truthfulness is by now assumed. He does so with respect and respectable honesty.
The Concord Museum opened its revamped exhibit on the events of April 19, 1775 in 2021. This is reason enough to come to Boston just to see this exhibit. Follow the detailed timeline of the events of that day in this remarkable and informative interactive exhibit.