Watson's Corner is the historical name for an intersection in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
, at the corner of Rindge Avenue and
Massachusetts Avenue. It was part of a wider area called Watson's Plain in colonial and Revolutionary War times and well into the 19th century.
[''Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge: Northwest Cambridge'', 1977, , Cambridge Historical Commission, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 14-16, 39]
Watson's Corner gained notability on account of a
skirmish
Skirmishers are light infantry or light cavalry soldiers deployed as a vanguard, flank guard or rearguard to screen a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line, an i ...
that occurred there on April 19, 1775 in connection with the
Battles of Lexington and Concord. A marker at 2154 Massachusetts Avenue commemorates the skirmish.
An account of this event from the Cambridge city website
describes the scene thus:
[An obvious typo has been corrected.]
:At Watson’s Corner (the present intersection of Rindge and Massachusetts avenues) Cambridge
patriot
A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism.
Patriot may also refer to:
Political and military groups United States
* Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution
* Patriot m ...
s lay in wait behind a pile of
barrels, but were surprised by flanking
redcoats. John Hicks and Moses Richardson of Cambridge and Isaac Gardner of
Brookline were killed, as was William Marcy, a "simple-minded youth" who thought he was watching a
parade.
["The American Revolution Comes to Cambridge, Part III: Retreat: Deadly Skirmishes in North Cambridge" Retrieved 1 May 2016]
References
{{coord, 42, 23, 33.6, N, 71, 7, 29.9, W, region:US, display=title
History of Cambridge, Massachusetts
Massachusetts in the American Revolution