John Brown spent his fifty-eighth birthday in the town the week before
he left for Harper's Ferry, and the gallows from which his "soul went
marching on." The United States officials who came to arrest Mr. Sanborn
for his knowledge of Brown's movements were advised by the women and men
of Concord to retreat down the old Boston road _a la_ British; and
when the call came for troops to put down the late Rebellion, Concord
was among the first to send her militia to the field under the gallant
young farmer-soldier, Colonel Prescott, who at Petersburg,


"Showed how a soldier ought to fight,
And a Christian ought to die."


[Illustration: R. Waldo Emerson]

In memory of the brave who found in Concord "a birthplace, home or
grave" the plain shaft in the public square was erected on the spot
where the Minute-men were probably first drawn up on the morning of the
nineteenth of April. 1775 to listen to the inspiring words of their
young preacher, Rev. William Emerson, and ninety years after in the same
place his grandson R.W. Emerson recounted the noble deeds of the men who
had gallantly proved themselves worthy to bear the names made famous by
their ancestors at Concord fight. The Rev. William Emerson in 1775
occupied and owned _The Old Manse_, which was built for him about
ten years before, on the occasion of his marriage to Miss. Phoebe Bliss,
the daughter of one of the early ministers of Concord. Mr. Emerson was
so patriotic and eager to attack the invaders at once, that he was
compelled by his people to remain in his house, from which he is said to
have watched the battle at the bridge from a window commanding the