New England townspeople kicked off the fighting during the American Revolution. Some gave their lives, others led troops, and non-combatants stayed home and did their parts. The region was prepared. Thanks to British requirements, each town had a trained militia that met regularly; the U.S. Army National Guard has its roots in this network.

Ready to respond in an instant, the Minutemen were part of the militia. When colonists learned the British would march on Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, the call went out. Not every town was close enough to take part when the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired, but they got there as quickly as they could and returned to fight during the Siege of Boston, which lasted almost a year.

Col. William Prescott

At the time of the American Revolution, Pepperell's William Prescott, at 50, was getting on in age. Nonetheless, the patriot was ready to use his skills to advance the patriot cause. His words carry on to this day: While leading the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill, he gave the command to a proud and fierce crew, “Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” (Maybe he never actually said it, according to the National Park Service. To make matters more confusing, the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on nearby Breed's Hill.)

Prescott was an experienced soldier, thanks to the British. He served in the provincial militia during the French and Indian War, between the British and the French, in North America, ending in 1763. He and 25 men under his leadership were responsible for driving a number of French-speaking, Catholic Acadians from their homes in New Brunswick in 1755, separating families and scattering them to English colonies. He was a captain when he left the British service. Fellow patriots George Washington, who rose to colonel, and Paul Revere, leaving as a second lieutenant, were also part of the British forces in pre-Revolutionary days.

In 1775, Prescott was back in North Pepperell, a farmer and the colonel of the Pepperell militia. With few exceptions, Massachusetts men between the ages of 16 and 60 were required to belong to and train a minimum of six days per year with their town's militia. Those chosen to be Minutemen received pay, better supplies and trained two days per week. Men not in the militia were required to keep firearms, have them inspected twice a year and turn out for emergencies.

The colonial forces in Boston during the first days of the American Revolution faced an uphill battle. As commander of the American men, Prescott, along with other leaders, chose to fortify nearby Breed's Hill, which was smaller than Bunker Hill and closer to Boston. Knowing the Americans had a scarcity of ammunition, his warning to hold fire until marksmen could hit their enemy was prudent. The exact words Prescott spoke are lost to history.

The hastily-assembled army fought valiantly against the far larger British forces, slaughtering the enemy and driving away two attacks on the hill before fleeing from the redcoats. The British carried the day but paid the price, with 1,054 killed or wounded. The Americans saw 450 such casualties. Pepperell sent some 60 men to Boston for the June 17 battle. Eight were killed, leaving behind widows, including one who was pregnant, and fatherless children. Another eight men were wounded.

After proving the colonial men could fight, Prescott enrolled in Washington's Continental Army as a colonel. A statue of the colonel, who was described as tall and muscular, stands at the base of the Bunker Hill Monument on Breed's Hill in Charlestown, where the battle was fought.

Capt. Prudence Wright

What were the women to do while the menfolk were off fighting the British? Plenty, as it turns out.

The list of domestic duties expected of a well-to-do farm wife is long: spinning, weaving, dyeing and knitting; candle-, spoon- and bullet-making; hunting and fishing; handling horses; food and drink preservation; soap-, mat- and hat-making; cooking; and childbearing and rearing.

The women of Pepperell and surrounding towns added one more duty to their never-ending tasks when the menfolk went to Concord in April of 1775. They formed a militia, naming Prudence Cumings Wright as the leader, and caught themselves a loyalist carrying documents as he crossed over a bridge spanning the Nashua River. Or, maybe they caught two loyalists; accounts vary.

These Yankee farm wives were politically savvy and supported their convictions. All were probably aware of the writings sent to and from the committees of correspondence set up after the French and Indian War discussing British policies. They burned tea at the church door to protest the Tea Act. In Boston, at the Boston Tea Party, male patriots threw the tea in the harbor in protest of the act. The women maintained a strong local intelligence network; they visited and exchanged information while industriously sewing or knitting as a good woman should — and drinking tea made from local plants.

Which leads us back to Prudence Wright. She visited her mother in Hollis, New Hampshire. Some of her family members were loyalists, others were patriots. Legend has it that she overheard one of her brothers talk about a messenger carrying papers for the British who would be traveling from Hollis through Pepperell. The rider would have to use the one bridge spanning the Nashua River, or get wet fording the river.

The women prepared. Dressed in men's clothing, between 30 and 40 of them lay in wait near the bridge with muskets and anything else that could be used as a weapon. Two men approached. One of them was Wright's brother, who turned back after hearing his sister's voice, knowing she would not let him pass. He was never seen again, or so one story goes.

The female militia, under the command of Capt. Wright, forced Capt. Leonard Whiting from his horse, found the papers and accompanied him to the tavern for the night. The next morning, they marched the messenger into custody in Groton and his papers were sent to a Committee of Safety at Charlestown.

Another version of the story has the women capturing both Whiting and one of Wright's brothers.

In 1777, the town paid the female militia 7 pounds, 17 shillings and sixpence for their service, referring to the group as the "Leonard Whiting guard (so called)," supposedly obscuring the identity of the group because the town could not pay women.

The Prudence Wright Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution carries the torch. The group replaced Wright's gravestone and recently renovated an old school for their chapter house. The Prudence Wright Overlook, beside the covered bridge on Groton Street, marks the place where the women did their part for liberty. The area looks a bit different: the simple Revolutionary War-era bridge was not a covered bridge.