This obelisk, now alongside Pleasant Street near Concord Hospital, commemorates the killing of Obadiah Peters, John Bean, John Lufkin, Samuel Bradley and Jonathan Bradley on Aug. 11, 1746, by Abenaki warriors. The deaths are honored as victims of an Indian massacre, but in fact they were something else. What was it?

The deaths took place long ago, but the monument plays a role in the 20th century. That story is told in "Crosscurrents of Change," the Concord Historical Society's history of the capital city in the 20th century. Look for it later this year.

The granite obelisk honors the deaths of Obadiah Peters, John Bean, John Lufkin, Samuel Bradley and Jonathan Bradley on Aug. 11, 1746. This was not just an Indian massacre, as is widely believed. The marker for the battle between oncord militiamen and Abenaki warriors should properly be designated Concord's first war memorial, and the deaths were part of a skirmish in the French and Indian War, which raged from 1744 to 1763 in both Europe and North America.

The French army had armed the Abenakis with new guns and ammunition. It was a political struggle, but also it was a religious war between the French and Abenaki, who were Roman Catholic, and Concord's English Protestants.

This is the kind of in-depth analysis of the history that will be offered in "Crosscurrents of Change," the Concord Historical Society's history of the capital city in the 20th century due out later this year.