User:Humanracing/Joseph Hosmer(Massachusetts politician)

Joseph Hosmer

Joseph Hosmer was an American politician and carpenter from Concord. During the American Revolutionary War, Hosmer participated in the April 19th, 1775 battle at the North Bridge in Concord. Hosmer's house has been preserved as a historic site.

On April 19, Hosmer was ordered by Maj. Buttrick to leave his unit, a small horse troop, and assume the duties of adjutant. That day, at Punkatasset Hill, Hosmer made a speech to the leaders' council in which he allegedly said, "I have often heard it said that the British have boasted that they could march through our country, laying waste to the hamlets and villages and we would not oppose them. And I begin to think it true ..." Pointing to smoke rising from town, he demanded, "Will you let them burn the town down?"

Joseph Hosmer's younger brother, Private Abner Hosmer, was a blacksmith’s apprentice who was mortally wounded during the North Bridge battle when he engaged the British with the Acton Minutemen. Joseph Hosmer's son, Jonathan Hosmer, fought and died at the Battle of Bennington. ). Jonathan Hosmer's lean-to style house, built in 1760, is now owned by the Acton Historical Society.