A series of events will mark Patriots Day and the 251st anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War.
The Acton Minute Men fire a single musket salute during the Meriam’s Corner Parade and Exercise on Saturday. Photo: Ken McGagh/The Acton Bridge
Concordians and compatriots came together Saturday for the Meriam’s Corner Exercise and Parade. The annual event is a remembrance of the April 19, 1775, confrontation between Colonial militia and retreating British soldiers that marked the beginning of fighting along the 16-mile “Battle Road” to Boston. A series of events around town will mark Patriots Day and the 251st anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War.
Photos: Ken McGagh/The Acton Bridge
The Acton Independent Battery fires a cannon salute.The Acton Minute Men on the march.The Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes & Drums march down Old Bedford Road.The Acton Minute Men pass the saluting members of the Acton Independent Battery as they march from the Ripley Building to the Nathan Meriam House.The Middlesex County 4-H Fife and Drum Corps, with standard bearer Jackson White, 8, of Acton at far left, play their way along the parade route.Playing an imprisoned King George with a modern twist, Jeffrey Merriam of Uxbridge, center, flanked by sons Eric and Zachary Merriam, walks the parade route. The trio were among many descendants of the Meriam family on hand, some with one ‘“r” in their last names and others with two.Mark Bailey of the Bedford Minutemen, as the cornet (flag-bearer), carries the Bedford flag, followed by the Acton Police Honor Guard.Acton 2026 Honored Citizen Pete Funkhouser marches in the parade.Merriam descendants including Allan Van Wert of Leominster, right, a seventh-generation descendent of Capt. Amos Merriam, wave from the steps of the Nathan Meriam House.
