Sam the Minuteman

Summary

Sam the Minuteman is an easy-to-read story of the first battle of the American Revolution, told through a boy who lives through it. Sam Brown lives with his mother and father on a farm in Lexington, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1775. British soldiers are stationed in Boston, and the farmers of the countryside have formed companies of minutemen, men ready to turn out with their muskets at a minute's warning. Sam's father is one of them. One night Sam is woken by alarm bells and the sound of men running through the dark: the British are marching out of Boston. His father tells him to take his gun and come with him, and the two join the other minutemen gathering on the village green. They wait there through the cold hours of the night. At dawn the long red-coated column comes up the road, and the small company of farmers faces the trained soldiers across the green. Shots are fired, the British charge, and the minutemen break and scatter. Eight of them are killed, and Sam's friend John is shot in the leg; seeing his friend hurt, Sam learns how real and frightening war is. The British march on toward Concord, but the story does not end in defeat. Later that day, as the soldiers return along the road toward Boston, minutemen from many towns fire on them from behind stone walls, trees and buildings, and Sam joins the running fight that harries the column back toward the city. When it is over he goes home tired, but less afraid than when the bells first rang. Benchley's short, plain sentences are paired throughout with Arnold Lobel's drawings of farmhouses, the green at dawn, marching redcoats and the smoke of the skirmishes. Harper & Row published the book in 1969 as an I Can Read History Book, 62 pages long, for children reading on their own.

Top Lessons

• Courage is not the same as not being afraid

  Sam is frightened when the bells ring, frightened on the green at dawn, and frightened when John is hurt. He goes anyway, and keeps going. The book shows young readers that brave people feel fear but do what they ought to do in spite of it.

• War is real and costly

  The story does not make battle into a game. Eight men die on the green and Sam's own friend is shot. Benchley lets children see that the freedom Americans celebrate was won by ordinary farmers who were hurt and killed.

• Following a father's example

  Sam's father does not leave his son behind or send him alone; he takes him and stands beside him. The book shows a boy learning duty by watching and joining his father.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

The book is written for beginning readers and contains no medical treatment, but it does not hide the cost of battle: eight minutemen are killed on Lexington green and Sam's friend John is shot in the leg. These are the injuries of 18th-century musket fire, presented simply and without detail.

• The battle on Lexington green

  Eight minutemen are killed and Sam's friend John is wounded in the leg.