Patriots’ Day
Celebrated the third Monday in April, Patriots’ Day is a Massachusetts legal holiday that commemorates the first armed engagement between British soldiers and colonial militiamen at the Battles of Lexington & Concord, on April 19, 1775. On that pivotal day, three citizen soldiers from Acton were among the first battle deaths of the Revolutionary War—Captain Isaac Davis, and Privates Abner Hosmer and James Hawyard. In 1851, the Isaac Davis Monument was erected in Acton Center in their memory.
Acton’s role
- Acton Memorial Library Introduction to “Not Afraid to Go” exhibit (Acton Memorial Library YouTube channel)
- Deposition of the Wife of Captain Isaac Davis. 1834. (Town of Acton historical documents on microfilm)
- Josiah Adams, An address delivered at Acton, July 21, 1835, being the first centennial anniversary of the organization of the town : with an appendix, … 1835.
- Rev. James Trask Woodbury, Speech Delivered in the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, February 3, 1851, Upon the Question of Granting Two Thousand Dollars to Aid the Town of Acton in Building a Monument Over the Remains of Capt. Isaac Davis, Abner Hosmer, and Jas. Hayward, Acton Minute Men, Killed at Concord Fight, April 19, 1775. 1851. (Internet Archive)
- Rev. James Fletcher, Acton in History: Compiled for the Middlesex County History. 1890. (Internet Archive)
- Harold R. Phalen, History of the Town of Acton. 1954. (Internet Archive).
- Acton Historical Society, “Soldiers and Sailors of the American Revolution Buried in Acton Cemeteries.” (web)
- Acton Historical Society, “Revolutionary War Markers and Monuments in Acton.” (web)
More on the Battles of Lexington and Concord
- Concord Musuem, “The Shot Heard Round the World: April 19, 1775” (web)
- Frank Warren Coburn, The Battle of April 19, 1775: in Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville and Charlestown, Massachusetts. Special Limited Edition with the Muster Rolls. 1912. (Internet Archive)
- Harold Murdock, The Nineteenth of April, 1775. 1923. (Internet Archive)
- Allen French, The Day of Concord and Lexington: The Nineteenth of April 1775. 1925. (Internet Archive)
- David Hackett Fischer. Paul Revere’s Ride. 1994. (Overdrive audiobook)
- Phillip S. Greenwalt and Robert Orrison, A Single Blow: The Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Beginning of the American Revolution: April 19, 1775. 2018 (Hoopla eBook)
- Walter R. Borneman, American Spring: Lexington, Concord, and the Road to Revolution. 2014. (Overdrive audiobook)
Kids may enjoy:
- April Morning, by Howard Fast, a coming of age novel set during the Battle of Lexington (Young Adult, Overdrive eBook).
- Battles of Lexington and Concord, by John Hamilton (juvenile nonfiction, Hoopla eBook)
- Dramatic reading of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s classic poem, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” by C-David Cottrill, produced by Ron Hall. (YouTube)
- Liberty’s Kids, animated historical fiction television series for children originally broadcast by PBS ( Hoopla)