Sixty-five of the king's soldiers had been killed, one hundred and eighty wounded, and twenty-eight taken prisoners; while of our people fifty-nine were killed, thirty-nine wounded, and five failed to answer to the roll call, having, most like, crawled away, as do the lower animals, to die alone. All this had been done within and around that town we had so lately visited, and yet Archie, Silas and I, who counted ourselves as being keen-witted, had failed to have the slightest inkling of what was so near at hand. While we had been making simple plans for the future, loitering in Boston when we might have been of service elsewhere, our people were being shot down by the lobster backs, and as these thoughts came into my mind I felt as if I had committed some grievous sin in laying up against Samuel Hadley the charge of being inhospitable, for he was among the first to yield his life in behalf of the Cause. Doctor Warren was there, and also my father, while most like the old woman's son, Hiram Griffin, helped to do that which proclaimed to the king our readiness to give our lives rather than submit to injustice. As I counted over those whom I knew and guessed had taken part in that battle, it seemed to me as if of all who would serve the Cause, our Minute Boys were the only ones absent. It is needless for me to set down all the unavailing words of regret which were spoken among us that night after having heard the news, for it can readily be fancied how we reproached ourselves, and how bitter was our disappointment. In our shortsightedness and inability to realize that the work at Lexington and Concord was but the beginning of the struggle against the king, we failed to understand that we would again and again have ample opportunity of showing what it might be possible for us lads of Boston to do. What at this day seems to me strangest, was that in our grief and vexation we failed to make any plans for future work. It was as if we had come to believe that the butchery at Lexington ended it all, and we Minute Boys would no longer be needed. Perhaps our dullness may be accounted for by the fact that there was so much of excitement on this night and the next day, that we hardly had time to think of ourselves. Those yet remaining in Boston, who were devoted to the Cause, gathered here and there to talk over what at the same time brought us sorrow and rejoicing--sorrow that so many of our people had been slaughtered, and rejoicing that the struggle against British misrule had finally begun.