Harry Gould – Concord

9C Harry GouldMistakes happen.  This card is wrong.

On the morning of April 19th, Harry Gould was just eighteen. However,  he was not from Lexington, but from Concord.  And he didn’t muster on Lexington Green but in Concord.

History reports that Harry was “panic struck at the first sound of the British drums.”  We also know that, as the Redcoat Army approached Lexington, the early morning sun glinted ominously on the British Bayonets. But Harry wasn’t in Lexington.

As a side note, the movie “April Morning” does an amazing job of portraying the sound of the drums.  I had never given the noise much thought, thinking that the whole music-to-make-war-by thing was rather silly.  Then I watched that movie.  The sound of the drums was overwhelmingly loud.  Scary loud.  I can imagine this young man being terrified by the sound.

Let’s also remember that blood had already been shed that morning.  The Concord Militia and those gathered there knew that things had gone south in Lexington.  They were likely still hoping to not have further bloodshed, but they also were aware that this might be impossible now.

So, as they watched the eight hundred Redcoat soldiers approach, the sights and sounds incredibly frightful, thirty-two year old Reverend William Emerson (Grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson) moved quietly among the American soldiers, encouraging them.  Like his counterpart in Lexington, Reverend Jonas Clarke, he had been preparing his congregation for this day.  They had taught them about Liberty and Tyranny and the just cause of standing in the face of evil.

“Stand your ground, Harry, your cause is just and God will bless you,” Emerson told him.

They stood their ground.  Their cause was just.  And God did bless them.

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