Miserable: A British Fusilier’s Journey to Concord

BY JAIMEE LEIGH JOROFF

In 2020 or early 2021, did you try to visit Concord, or leave it to go anywhere? If yes, you might have experienced global variants of fate cannonballing you into history’s category of “people who tried to go somewhere and couldn’t quite make it.” And in this category, you would find First Lieutenant and Adjutant Welch Fusilier Frederick Mackenzie whose miserable attempted journey to Concord started in 1773, and like a stretching pandemic, never seemed to get better.

The only son of an Irish merchant, Mackenzie was born around 1731. At a young age, he received a commission in the British Army’s 23rd Regiment of Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. From his teenage years into his early thirties, he fought for England in both the War of Austrian Succession (174048) and the Seven Years’ War (1756-63). Ten peaceful years followed in which Mackenzie married and started a family.

The launch of the miserableness started on April 24th, 1773, when Mackenzie, his wife, young son James, the 23rd Regiment of Foot, and several hundred other soldiers, boarded seven troop transport ships and set sail from England headed to the American Colonies where they were to join other King’s troops in controlling Colonists threatening insurgency against The Crown.

Of varying ages and states of seaworthiness, the seven ships attempted to sail in formation: The Commodore’s ship in the front and a descending chain of command spread out behind. But, like pairing a Ferrari with a 1910 hand crank vehicle, the formation struggled with some ships straining to reign in their superior sailing power while others were stuck on the basics such as getting out of the harbor. In a letter home to his father, Mackenzie wrote, “The ship in which the Commodore was could not get out.”

At last, the fleet was in formation and under sail. Wrote Mackenzie, “as soon as we got quite clear of the land, we found a great swell from the Westward, and the Northwest, owing as the Sailors say, to the frequency of the winds from the opposite points…. This caused a great motion in the ship.” For nearly 100 hours, the ship was tossed on two sets of waves from different directions. Mackenzie recounted, “[the endless] great swell made us all very sick.”

©istock.com

A ferocious storm entrapped the fleet for days, and Mackenzie observed that “the sea [ran] so high, that not having seen anything of the kind before, I really thought that it would have overset us.”

For a few days, the seven ships lost each other, reuniting again just in time for the swift attack of another gale. Mackenzie and his fellow officers got their men below deck where, for eight hours, they were tossed in the listing wooden hull. Noted Mackenzie, “the Ship rolled so much the Gunnels were under water, and the Sea washed over the deck.”

The storms eventually calmed, but for Mackenzie, rest remained elusive. In stacked wooden bunks, Mackenzie shared a cramped sleeping cabin with his wife, young son, and several women passengers, one of whom he described as a difficult, loud complainer. Suffering uncontrolled seasickness, this disagreeable woman continuously vomited the entire seven weeks of the journey, especially at night when Mackenzie lay just feet from her in his cramped bed. The cabin was airless; the accumulated stench was so horrendous that Mackenzie feared his wife and child would suffocate in there without fresh air.

Finally, Mackenzie’s ship landed in New York. Time passed, and two years and one badly-behaved Boston Tea Party later, Mackenzie and the 23rd Regiment of Foot found themselves stationed in Boston, Massachusetts, where, in the early morning hours of April 19th, 1775,Mackenzie and his company were awakened with an urgent order: Hurry and join Brigadier General Earl Percy in marching to Concord to back up another brigade of soldiers.

The night before, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Smith, approximately 700 King’s troops had marched from Boston under cover of the midnight darkness and headed to Concord town where their orders were to find and destroy military provisions that spies had confirmed were being hidden there to supply a rebel Army. The mission had not started well. Colonist messengers, including Paul Revere, and Concord Doctor Samuel Prescott, had spread the word that “the Regulars are coming out!” alerting the Colonists of the troops’ movements. The element of surprise was compromised, and the race was on for Mackenzie and a fresh Brigade from Boston to get to Concord and back up Smith’s troops!

As described by Mackenzie, around 9 am, he and approximately 1,100 of Percy’s troops swiftly set out from Boston, marching over what is today’s Massachusetts Avenue. They were unaware that at the same time, twenty miles away in Concord, a battle was occurring at the North Bridge, killing and wounding both Colonists and King’s troops. Near noon, Mackenzie’s brigade was nearing Menotomy (today’s Arlington) still pressing for Concord where, unbeknownst to them, Smith’s brigade was beginning a retreat to Boston.

At 2 pm, with only four and a half more miles to Concord, Percy’s brigade arrived in Lexington. Recounted Mackenzie, “as we advanced, we heard [gunfire] plainer and more frequent… we were ordered to form the Line, which was immediately done by extending on each side of the road.” Stone walls and trees interrupted the line’s normal order, but it would have to do for a fight was descending on them. Just ahead, pursued by Colonists firing at them, Lt. Col. Smith’s exhausted brigade was approaching. Spotting Percy’s troops lined up to support them, they gave a loud cheer. For a few moments, their roaring voices seemed to halt the Colonists’ firing, but it soon started up again—from all directions— coming from unseen figures in the woods, behind stone walls, and in houses.

©istock.com

For half an hour, Mackenzie and his men held the line, forming the rear guard and allowing the other King’s troops to reform a column. As the column moved back towards Boston, Mackenzie and his fellow Officers attempted to keep order, but fear ran high and Mackenzie’s men wasted valuable ammunition, firing blindly at adversaries they could not see. Wrote Mackenzie, “Several of the troops were killed or wounded… and the soldiers were so enraged at the suffering from an unseen enemy, that they forced open many of the houses from which the fire proceeded and put to death all those found in them.” Some soldiers seeking revenge lingered too long in houses and were set upon and killed by Colonists who had been hiding inside. Outside, the running battle lasted for hours. In total, Mackenzie estimated there were 4,000 Colonists to their approximately 1,500 soldiers (other sources suggest the King’s troops were near 1,700).

The bloody day ended around midnight when the survivors of the King’s troops made it back to Boston. While Mackenzie emerged from the day physically unharmed, the memory of his miserable attempted journey to Concord was forever seared into his mind and history.

A Concord native, Jaimee Joroff is Manager of the Barrow Bookstore in Concord Center which specializes in Concord history, Transcendentalism, and literary figures. She has been an interpreter at most of Concord’s historic sites and is a licensed town guide.

Related Concord Places to Visit: Concord’s North Bridge and Visitor Center in Minute Man National Historical Park; Battle Road Trail in Minute Man National Historical Park

Sources: MacKenzie, Frederick, A British Fusilier in Revolutionary Boston, Harvard University Press, 1926

French, Allen, The Day of Concord and Lexington, The 19th of April, 1775, Little, Brown, & Co., 1925

Fischer, D.H., Paul Revere’s Ride, Oxford University Press, 1995

Bell, J.L., The Road to Concord, Westholme Publishing, 2016