By Julie McCay Turner
On the morning of April 19, 1775, Captain Jonathan Willson is reported to have said of the Bedford Minuteman Company’s pre-dawn breakfast — cold gruel and warm beer in the tap room at Fitch Tavern –“It’s a cold breakfast, boys, but we’ll give the British a hot dinner. We’ll have every dog of them before night.”
As the Brits retreated from Concord Captain Willson perished at the Bloody Angle in Lincoln, but the memory of that first breakfast is ingrained in the Bedford Minuteman Company’s collective memory, and Willson’s quote began the meal that today’s Minutemen enjoyed on Monday morning.
Lea Ann and Michael Knight, current owners of the Fitch Tavern, hosted the Bedford Minutemen at 5:45 am, before the Company began Monday’s march to Concord where the Bedford Flag traditionally leads Concord’s Patriot’s Day parade. Instead of cold gruel and warm beer, however, the Knights prepared a feast of bacon, sausage, eggs, and beans.
It has been reported that Bedford’s Minuteman Company reached Concord on foot, in time to lead the parade when it stepped off at 8:45 am.
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