| Brooks Hill | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theAmerican Revolutionary War | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
| Massachusetts Bay |  Great Britain | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Loammi Baldwin | Francis Smith | ||||
  Location within Massachusetts | |||||
Brooks Hill is a historicAmerican Revolutionary War site associated with the revolution's first battle, the 1775battles of Lexington and Concord. It was here, beside theBattle Road, that theBritish regulars passed on their marches to Concord from Boston, and again on their retreat east.[1] It has also been referred to asHardy's Hill.[2]
Named for the Brooks family, today's Brooks Village Historical Area is located immediately to the north ofRoute 2A (the North Great Road), nearBattle Road (or Bay Road), inLincoln, Massachusetts. It is today part ofMinute Man National Historical Park.[1]
The area was inhabited around twelve thousand years before the arrival of European immigrants.Algonquin people lived beside theMusketaquid River prior to the establishment of the Concord plantation.[2]
The summit of the hill is around 600 yards (550 m) south of Route 2A; the Historical Area, meanwhile, is located around 1 mile (1.6 km) southeast ofMeriam's Corner inConcord, Massachusetts, immediately to the east (and across the Concord/Lincoln town line) of theSamuel Brooks House, on Lexington Road.[2]
Brooks Village continues east for around 660 yards (600 m), before a steep descent into Elm Brook, which marks the starting point ofElm Brook Hill.[2]
The British began their eighteen-mile journey back to Boston from Concord around noon. Around the same time, large numbers ofcolonial militia (known as minutemen) began to take their positions atop the Brooks Hill plateau. The first to arrive were 180 men fromWoburn, who arrived via the meeting house in Lincoln. MajorLoammi Baldwin took some respite at one of the farmhouses of the Brooks family.[2]
As their enemies drew nearer, but possibly before any altercation at Meriam's Corner had begun, Baldwin had his soldiers move east to Elm Brook Hill.[2] A short while later, gunfire did begin in the area between Meriam's Corner and Brook's Hill.[2]
Two companies of minutemen and militia arrived from EastSudbury and met the British column on the southern side of the Bay Road, near its intersection with Brooks Road.[2] When the Britishrearguard began to climb Brooks Hill, part of the colonists sprinted across the low open fields on the northern side of the road to position themselves near Elm Brook Hill.[2]