Delete comment from: Boston 1775
The good news is that your memory of Paul Revere’s Ride is correct; Fischer says on page 279 that John Adams rode out along the scenes of battle immediately after the fight. The book also offers vivid word-pictures (not in Adams’s words) of what he saw.
The bad news is that Fischer’s quotations and citation point to the same passage I quoted in this posting, in which Adams clearly stated that he went out “A few days after” the battle. So this was an error in the book.
Paul Revere’s Ride also stated, citing a biography by Bemis, that John Quincy Adams saluted the militiamen passing the family home in Braintree by performing the manual of arms (militia drill) for them. I loved that detail. I wanted to write about it today. And I couldn’t find a primary source.
In fact, when I looked in some other J. Q. Adams biographies, they told a different story: that militiamen camped near the farm taught Johnny the manual of arms after 19 Apr 1775. Reportedly one of those soldiers reminded him of it during a visit to the White House decades later. So I have a new lead to track down, but have to discard one of my very favorite images of the day.
Mar 19, 2008, 10:06:00 AM
Posted to What John and Abigail Really Saw