A Bloody Butchery by the British Troops: or, the Runaway Fight of the Regulars

This broadside was published in Salem, Massachusetts, within days of the fighting at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The names of forty colonists who were known to have died and twenty wounded are listed in the right side. An elegy to the immortal memory of those who died is included at the bottom. There are other obvious features of this broadside that make it quite clear that part of the purpose for this publication was to increase the tension between the colonists and the army and gain the support of people in the colonies to support the defense of their lives, property and liberty. Later research found that 73 regulars or officers were killed and 174 wounded as a result of all the fighting that took place from shortly after dawn to nearly midnight that day. For the colonists, 49 were confirmed dead and 41 were wounded.