The Forgotten Battle

Everyone knows Lexington and Concord. Arlington—Menotomy—gets overlooked, which is ironic because this is where the heaviest casualties occurred. Forty British dead, around twenty-five Americans. The fighting here wasn't the opening shot or the first real battle. It was something messier: a running fight through a town, soldiers killing civilians, militia shooting from houses. It doesn't fit the narrative of patriotic farmers defending liberty. It looks more like what war actually is—ugly, confusing, and deadly for everyone caught up in it.