[67] of Danvers minute-men, marched with his company sixteen miles in four hours, full half the way upon the run, to Menotomy. Two companies of minute-men and three companies of militia, amounting to probably more than one hundred and fifty men, left Danvers at different hours and on different roads; they ran more than half the way, and reached Menotomy near the same time.
A little west of the meeting-house is a hill around which the road wound in such manner as to conceal the British. Many of the men of Danvers went into a walled enclosure, and piled bundles of shingles which were lying there, to strengthen their breastwork; rumor had deceived them as to the force of the enemy; it was certainly their expectation here to have intercepted their retreat. Others selected trees on the side of the hill, from which they might assail the enemy. But they had little space for preparation; they soon saw the British in solid column descend the hill on their right, and at the same moment discovered a large flank guard advancing on their left. The men in the enclosure made a gallant resistance, but were overpowered by numbers—some sought shelter in a neighboring house, and three or four, after they had surrendered themselves prisoners of war, were butchered with savage barbarity.1 Captain Foster, with some of his men on the side of the hill, finding themselves nearly surrounded, made an effort to gain
