[78] of the conflict as they continued their retreat below Cooper's Tavern are here reproduced from that work:—
Edward Hall, 1st. Lieut. of the Royal 43d Regiment, was wounded in the arm at Concord, and was brought down in a chaise in the centre of the troops. The horse was not so swift as the men, and falling a little into the rear he was wounded again, in the shoulder, this time mortally, near Samuel Butterfield's. When Mrs. Butterfield, who lived on the north side of the road, returned to her own house she found her best bed covered with blood and occupied by this British officer, and a wounded Provincial (Hemenway of Framingham) in the other bed. The American recovered, but the officer lingered along a fortnight and then died, having received every attention from his hostess; supplies, also, and nurses for him, were sent out from Boston with a flag of truce.1
Lieut. Bowman met at North Cambridge a soldier who had straggled some distance away from his comrades. It was man to man in single combat, and it happened that neither gun was loaded. The Briton rushed at his antagonist with fixed bayonet; nothing daunted, Bowman awaited the attack with clubbed musket, and striking aside the bayonet with one blow felled the soldier to the ground and took him prisoner.Gordon says the Regulars, when near Cambridge, were upon the point of taking a wrong road, which would have led them into the most imminent danger, but were prevented by the direction of a young gentleman, residing at the college; by which means they made good their retreat, a little after sunset, over Charlestown neck to Bunker Hill. The point of departure of the British from the main road through Cambridge, was by Beach Street, in the present North Cambridge, into the Milk Row Road. From the westerly border of Menotomy to this point, says Paige, “their passage was through a flame of fire.” Gen. Heath, who had taken command of the Provincials, says (Memoirs, p. 14), “The militia continued to hang on the rear of the British, until they reached Bunker's Hill in Charlestown; and it had become so dusk, as to render the flashes of the muskets very visible. At this instant, an officer on horseback came up from the Medford road, and inquired the circumstances of ”
