MA, USA
Jason Russell
1715–1775 · Farmer · Civilian Victim
1715–1775
Farmer · Civilian Victim
Jason Russell, about sixty years old and lame, refused to flee when militia gathered at his house on April 19. "An Englishman's home is his castle," he reportedly said. When British soldiers stormed the house seeking the militia firing from within, Russell was killed in his doorway, shot and bayoneted. His death became a symbol of British brutality and civilian suffering. His house, preserved as a museum, still shows the bullet holes from that day's fighting.
In Arlington
- Apr 1775Jason Russell House Attack(Homeowner/Victim)
Jason Russell, a lame old man who refused to flee his home, was killed in his doorway as British soldiers stormed the house seeking militia who had fired from within. Inside, eleven militiamen had taken refuge; all but one were killed or wounded. The house became a symbol of the day's violence—civilians and soldiers dying together in domestic spaces. Russell's death, along with the killing of his wife's relatives sheltering there, showed that this would not be a gentlemen's war.
- Apr 1775Menotomy Casualties Tallied(Farmer)
When the fighting ended and counts were made, Menotomy proved the deadliest location of April 19. Forty British soldiers had been killed and many more wounded. Approximately twenty-five Americans died, including militia from multiple towns and civilians like Jason Russell. The bodies were gathered, the wounded tended. The stone walls and houses bore the marks of the fighting. More men died in this single stretch of road than in the famed battles at Lexington Green and Concord Bridge combined.