Historic leaves, volume 2, April, 1903 - January, 1904

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[79] men and of men with sand—was laid the foundation of a new commonwealth, was born a new nation—the mightiest of any age. Here the very wind tells of devotion and of struggle, and here may this monument ever stand to show not only the appreciation in which you hold the deeds of the fathers, but also that it may be the witness that the generation of to-day values its magnificent heritage, and is true to the ideals of those who bequeathed it.

Congratulations, then, again to Somerville that it possesses this interesting historic park, and congratulations on having a citizenship with the patriotism, the public spirit, and the generous heart to conceive and carry out this noble memorial.

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Address by Lt.-Governor Guild.

Mr. Guild said in part:—

The monument we meet to dedicate is fittingly enough a suggestion of the battlemented turrets of a flag-tower. Here lay the embattled lines that for the last time saw a foreign foeman tread the soil of Massachusetts. Here for the first time was hoisted the first flag of an American Union.

Not here but on a neighboring height was stored the powder of the Middlesex towns so desired by General Gage, but though his soldiers on September 1, 1774, did secure ‘212 Half Barrels of Powder’ belonging to King George, they were too late to secure the rebel powder, for Medford, the last of all the towns to act, had carried hers away just forty-eight hours before.

From this historic height, now shorn, alas, at the command of commerce, of its yet loftier peak, the country folk of the Mystic valley saw this first hostile demonstration of the Revolution. Hither, too, came the British raging with the march and fight that had lasted well-nigh twenty-four hours on that historic nineteenth of April, for the battle that began on Lexington Common ended on the slopes of Prospect Hill. The British flankers surprised the American minutemen, firing upon the column in the street below. The boys fled before the redcoats. James Miller, of Somerville, alone showed that the gray hairs of age may outdare at times even the red blood of youth.