The four minutemen --

Samuel Cook Jr., Benjamin Deland Jr., Ebenezer Goldthwaite and George Southwick Jr. --

grabbed their muskets and marched toward Concord, only to be killed by the retreating British troops on the first day of the war, April 19, 1775. On Saturday, they were honored in a headstone dedication ceremony at the Old South Burying Ground in Peabody.

"These guys were real heroes," added Peabody director of veterans services Chris Tighe. "They marched 17 miles to meet the British."

Lettich said town officials have been unable to determine the location of the actual graves. But she said the Veterans Administration provided official stones to honor the minutemen's participation in one of the most famous dates in American history.

A minister in colonial-era garb delivered the eulogies for the four minutemen in a historical re-enactment Saturday.

New gravestones honor Revolutionary War dead in Peabody