UPDATED Sept. 3: They, too, shall be honored.
The Arlington 250th Committee and His Majesty’s 10th Regiment of Foot met at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, in the Old Burying Ground, for the unveiling and commemoration of the memorial to the fallen British soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Battle of Menotomy on April 19, 1775.
YourArlington asked George Parsons how this event came to be. The historical society’s first vice president who served as president from 2020-23 wrote this week:
“The idea for this memorial came up during the planning for the enslaved-persons monument last year. The two monuments are twins and are located near each other in the Old Burying Ground.”
Read a YourArlington feature about the 2023 event >>
‘First American Civil War’
British flags at Old Burying Ground in 2023. / Richard Duffy photoRichard Duffy photo
“What we call the American Revolution could also be termed the ‘First American Civil War,’ because the people of Menotomy in 1775 considered themselves British. Many of their complaints about the British government were based on the idea that they were being denied their rights as British citizens.
“We are honoring these men who answered the call of king and country, because as soldiers in any age, they had little say in where they were sent and what they were asked to do. They were sons and brothers whose families never saw them again.”
Take a moment and consider that thought. And then this little-reported news:
“Someone in Arlington has been honoring these brave men for many years,” Parsons continued. “Around April 19th every year, someone or some group has been placing small British flags along the back wall of Old Burying Ground based on historical records of where these men had been buried in a mass grave.
“This monument is meant to be a permanent expression of the remembrance intended in those small British flags.
“We have also affixed a QR code on a porcelain plaque on the reverse side of the monument.”
Duffy notes placement of flags
Local historian Richard Duffy, asked to comment, noted Aug 30: “It’s interesting that the flags happened to be placed where the trenches for the mass burial(s) took place, because the written background was vague and the trenches could have extended much further from the central path in the burying ground, where an open brook once ran. The exact location wasn’t known until ground-penetrating radar studies in September 2020, and not publicized until later.”
He wrote that the British Union Jack flags are accurate to the 1775 design, because the red diagonal cross of St. Patrick (for Ireland and called a “saltire”), which is seen on top of the diagonal white cross of St. Andrew (for Scotland) was not adopted until 1801.
Code yields more info
Scanning that code brings the visitor to a page on the society’s website that will provide much more information on who these men were and the story of the battle of that day than could possibly be put on a stone, he wrote.
The QR code is reproduced in the program, he wrote, and the webpage will be expanded in the coming months and years.
One of the monument sponsors is the British and Commonwealth Remembrance Project.
ACMi on Revolution 250:
June 26, 2019: Battle Road Byway Committee announces new website
This news announcement was published Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, based on information from the Town of Arlington. It was updated Aug. 29 with details from George Parsons and Aug. 30 with Richard Duffy comments, and on Sept. 3, to add flag photo.
