Paths of the Patriots
Hundreds of men and boys, from all towns, marched off to protect the military stores in Concord and stayed to support the conflicts. We consider the paths of these local men no less important than the Battle Road. They tell a story of the size and extent of the action. Each town has records of where the patriots gathered, where they lived, who went to war and the burial sites for those who did not survive. We will certainly never identify all the paths they took, but we know they are there, the silent footprints of our history.
The Paths of the Patriots project is a compilation of the regional stories relating to the emergence of our American form of Democracy dating from the mid-eighteenth century. The project includes identifying the paths used by the riders who spread the Alarm and the paths taken by men and boys in response to the call to arms during the Revolutionary War. Also identified are sites and stories of early town meetings, committees of correspondence and including the homes and farms of participating patriots.
Volunteers from the Freedom’s Way communities have spent hours collecting their local histories with the goal of developing historical self-guided tours. Where a community volunteer provided addresses and stories about local sites, student volunteers from the Sargent Shriver Job Corps have entered the information as it is provided onto the Freedom’s Way town pages. Volunteers are welcome to identify sites and to continue sending data that can be added to the town pages.
Brochures available.