Did you notice something new at Battle Road Day this year? A pair of oxen were the eye-catching and historically accurate additions to the civilian evacuation along Battle Road for Minute Man National Historical Park’s signature Patriot’s Day event.
Miles Conklin, a dairy farmer from Haverhill, NH, generously loaded up his two oxen and trailered them to Minute Man to portray a key piece of this year’s tactical demonstration. As Miles explained, “I like having the animals in public—it’s a chance to illustrate how draft animals played a role in the history of our country.”
The two-year-old oxen pair, Meat and Loaf, were named in the year of the passing of famed singer, Meatloaf. They performed on cue as they pulled a hand-crafted historical cart built by Eric Swanson. The cart was loaded with young children and invalid family members fleeing from the fighting, as would have happened on April 19, 1775.
Families along the Bay Road on April 19, 1775, were forced to flee to safety. As noted in an account from Rebecca Fiske, who lived on the Bay Road, “Sometime after, on their arrival at Concord, a report of musketry was once more heard, and in broken and incessant volleys. It was a sound of death to us. All now was trepidation, fever, and rushing to arms; women and children bewildered and scouring across the fields. With much ado we succeeded in yoking our oxen and getting father on his bed into an ox-cart, and thus moving him off as carefully as we could to a neighbor’s house, at some distance from the highway, on which we expected the enemy to return.”
The Friends of Minute Man is thankful to donors of the Friends of Minute Man Patriots’ Day 250th Anniversary Fund for making this possible. We are grateful to Miles Conklin, Meat and Loaf, Eric Swanson and Adam Hodges-LeClaire for organizing this addition to the park’s Battle Road Day!
Written by Jennifer Pierce, Visitor Services Manager at Minute Man National Historical Park.
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Image courtesy of Kristin Basnett: A pair of oxen pull a blue wagon with civilians fleeing from the battle on April 19, 1775. This scenario was part of the Battle Road Day reenactments at Minute Man National Historical Park in 2024.