SALEM — Rev250 isn’t until next year, but the 249th anniversary of Leslie’s Retreat will go down like no other in history.
Spread across two days, the celebration of Salem’s most noted contribution to the American Revolution will include an inaugural lecture honoring the “women who in meaningful ways participated in events leading up to the American Revolution,” organizers recently announced.
The lecture is named after Sarah Tarrant, a 33-year-old nurse known for her civil disobedience in the face of British soldiers engaging with Salem at the time (tinyurl.com/mutrhhh8).
“From a couple accounts, she was antagonizing British troops from her window, calling them out as they were forced and being humiliated in leaving Salem,” steering committee Co-Chairperson Jonathan Streff said.
This year’s events kick off Saturday, Feb. 24, with “Loyalists in our Midst,” a tour-based program at St. Peter’s Church from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A late-morning, 90-minute trolley tour will also run Saturday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
ON Sunday, a service at First Church will begin the day at 10:25 a.m. Alarms will sound at 11:30 a.m., however, prompting residents to “hang your flag, grab your noise makers, (and) join local churches for 15 minutes of ringing in the celebration.”
The March to the North River then begins at First Church at 11:30, terminating with a community re-enactment at Leslie’s Retreat Park at noon.
The inaugural Sarah Tarrant Memorial Lecture will bring attendees back to First Church at 2 p.m., with a follow-up closing at O’Neill’s Pub at 4 p.m.
The whimper before the bang
The story of Leslie’s Retreat is as much about what happened in Salem as what didn’t happen: the kickoff of the American Revolution, which played out a few months later with the pivotal “shot heard round the world” in Lexington.
“On Feb. 26, 1775, you have a moment where (Gen. Thomas) Gage is coming to Salem to basically try to shut down the rebellion and resistance,” Streff said. “They were coming for the gun carriages and cannons being held on the foundry on the North River. When the colonists in Salem found out that was happening, they assembled and prevented it from happening.”
As Col. Alexander Leslie arrived at the North River after marching from Marblehead, he found the drawbridge to the Northfields raised. The moment ended with a mutual agreement that the following day, the bridge would be lowered and Leslie would be granted access to conduct a much smaller search that, ultimately, yielded no results.
“At that point, they were moved to Danvers,” Streff said. “Then they marched back over the bridge, and there was a peaceful situation.”
The following April, British troops conducted the same search in Lexington and Concord, leading to the initial actions and gunfire that sparked the American Revolution.
For more information, including a full listing of events, visit shorturl.at/tPQR3.
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.