The Mythical Captain Roe
Except that no captain was killed on Lexington common; Capt. John Parker was in command, and survived. No one named Roe was killed, wounded, or, so far as we know, standing on Lexington common. No American named Roe was killed in battle anywhere on 19 Apr 1775.
A couple of months ago some researchers suggested to me that “Roe” could be a corruption of the name “Munroe.” There was a militia officer named Munroe killed at Lexington: Ensign Robert Munroe. However, while the story’s “Captain Roe” is a young unmarried man, Robert Munroe was sixty-two years old with a wife and grown children.
Other details of the start of “The White Horseman” don’t match the historical record, either. “Cambridge boys” did not march to Concord before the British troops. “Many squads of Americans” did not rush west past the Lexington militia. The British musket balls hit far fewer than “nearly half” of those men.
In sum, “The White Horseman” is not historically accurate. The unnamed “Soldier of the Revolution” who wrote it didn’t even try to be as historically accurate as possible; it wouldn’t have been hard in Boston in 1835 to find the names of the first casualties at Lexington, or to read accounts of the fight assembled by Elias Phinney or others.
The Boston Pearl writer fictionalized the famous story of the shooting at Lexington with new characters, details, and dialogue, in order to lay out a sentimental tale of young lovers torn apart by the nasty redcoats. Which naturally raises the question of what other details from “The White Horseman” we’re meant to believe.
COMING UP: Hezekiah Wyman enters the scene.
