For weeks and weeks, we’ve been saying that we were going to go see the annual re-enactment of the so-called “Battle Of Lexington” on the Lexington Battle Green. Charlotte is waaaaay into the Revolutionary War and Paul Revere in particular, and we are always looking for related places and events to go to, but the battle re-enactment has always eluded us. That’s primarily because it’s so freaking early in the morning. In their desire to be faithful to the events of the day, the re-enactment is always scheduled to begin around 6:00 a.m.

Which means, of course, that you have to get up earlier than that in order to get out the door and reach Lexington Center for the appointed hour. Unfortunately, none of us are early birds. We figured setting the alarm clock for 5:00 a.m. would be sufficient. HAH! Though the three of us, especially my wife the slugabed, deserve a huge amount of credit for actually getting up with the alarm and being out the door by 5:30, we were so far off in our estimation of how to see this event that dopeslaps are in order all the way around. It’s only 15-20 minutes from our house to downtown Lexington, but that means we arrived around 5:50 for an event that starts at 6:00 and only lasts about 10 minutes. The crowd was already big enough that we had no chance of seeing anything, and a quick reconnaissance drive around Lexington confirmed our suspicions that there would be no parking close enough to let us walk back over in time, either.

Barely awake and now disappointed with our failure, there was not much else to do at 6:00 except drive to the nearest IHOP and have breakfast. Now that we know better, we promised one another that next year we’ll get up at 4:00 a.m., which might give us a better shot. Adam at Universal Hub, who lives all the way down in Roslindale, managed to get his tuchus to Lexington and snap some pictures (including the one at the top of this post). He also recommends bringing a ladder to get up above the crowd if you’re more than a few rows deep in the pack if you want to see anything. That sounds wise.

Quite frankly, even though we’d have liked to have seen the Battle Green event, our disappointment wasn’t too severe because on Saturday we went to the Minuteman National Historical Park just a few miles away on the far side of Lexington to see the re-enactment of the fighting between the redcoats and the militiamen as the British retreated from Concord later in the morning of April 19, 1775. In the last few years, the National Park Service has been able to acquire all the land along Rt. 2A in Lexington from Hanscom AFB all the way to the Concord town line and have made a re-creation of sorts of the “Battle Road” that runs parallel to the modern highway. Along this road are a number of historical markers and some farmhouses and taverns that figure into the events of the day. The re-enactors portraying the British regulars were mustered at one of the farmhouses, and the Colonial re-enactors were mustered down the road at the Hartwell Tavern. Visitors had the chance to meet with the re-enactors who were more than ready to answer questions about their subject, pose for photo ops, and even demonstrate some of their drills. The British even fired their field artillery. I spent a good amount of time talking to a man who portrays a captain of light infantry as part of the 10th Regiment re-enactors group.

As the hour for the skirmish arrived, both groups marched to the Concord end of the road and we found a viewing point a few hundred feet away from the tavern, which was the central point of the action. While we waited for the men to work their way back down the road, other re-enactors (mostly women) talked to the crowd and answered questions. After a while, we could hear the regular report of gunfire coming from the infantry ranks and the ragged return fire from the Americans. Eventually they appeared within sight, the Minute Men dashing one or two at a time through a field to hide behind rocks and trees, followed by row after row of redcoats marching in their inexorable way, stopping to fire line by line. The Yanks then hid themselves in the tavern, only to be rousted out as the advance troops (the light infantry) came to the house, along with a pair of officers on horseback. It was extremely entertaining, even with the long wait for the action. Plus, it’s the same groups of re-enactors who were out there on the Battle Green yesterday morning, so in that sense we felt like we really had just as good an event, if not better, to see.

I have a ton of photos to share with you that I will post on my flickr account as soon as I can winnow them down and clean them up a bit.