The retreat of the King’s troops from the battles of April 19th were not a simple matter of walking the miles back to Boston. General Heath’s moving circle of fire made the going slow and very hazardous for the Redcoats.
“During the whole of the march from Lexington the Rebels kept an incessant irregular fire from all points at the Column, which was the more galling as our flanking parties, which at first were placed at sufficient distances to cover the march of it, were at last, from the different obstructions they occasionally met with, obliged to keep almost close to it. Our men had very few opportunities of getting good shots at the Rebels, as they hardly ever fired but under cover of a Stone wall, from behind a tree, or out of a house; and the moment they had fired they lay down out of sight until they had loaded again, or the Column had passed.”
This narrative comes from the diary of Redcoat fusilier Frederick MacKenzie.
Remember, this Redcoat army was not at all familiar with the street fighting that was handed to them by the “shopkeepers and farmers” of the militias that day. Particularly infuriating was the rebels firing from inside the houses along the road – the front doors of these houses were mere feet from the road.
MacKenzie goes on, “If we had had time to set fire to those houses many Rebels must have perished in them, but as night drew on Lord Percy thought it best to continue the march.”
Later, he tells us more, “Those houses would certainly have been burnt had any fire been found in them, or had there been time to kindle any; but only three or four near where we first formed suffered in this way.”
So, if these Redcoats had only had trusty Zippo lighters, who knows how many houses would have survived along the way from Lexington back to Boston.