It was “the shot heard ‘round the world,” though no one knows who fired it. But the path of American and world history was changed forever.
April 19 marks the anniversary of the clashes at Lexington and Concord, Mass. between colonial militia and British regulars in 1775 that opened the Revolutionary War, and climaxed of a series of tensions between the crown and the American colonies. The engagements are often shrouded in legend, rather than fact.
The royal governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Gage, was known for his hard line against the people of his colony, including his introduction of the four Intolerable Acts to retaliate against the Boston Tea Party.
As unrest simmered among the colonials by April 1775, Gage and the British feared the existence of a Massachusetts militia store of weapons and powder at Concord, twenty miles northwest of Boston.
Gage, who was under pressure from London, ordered an expedition of British regulars to march on Concord and capture the supplies. However, the Americans, in particular Dr. Joseph Warren, learned of Gage’s plan, possibly from the governor’s wife, who was sympathetic to the colonial cause.
Warren, who is one of the underrated figures of the early American effort in the war, sent a pair of couriers, Paul Revere and William Dawes, around 10 p.m. on April 18 to ride through the Massachusetts countryside on separate routes, to warn residents of the impending British advance.
Revere, who was captured by the British during his ride, was immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” a dramatic, though inaccurate, version.
It is unlikely, however, that he frequently uttered the famous phrase, “the British are coming.” Rather, a series of secret signals, including knocks on homes, bells, drums, guns, fires, and a trumpet were used to warn residents.
Warren, however, may have believed that the biggest threat was the potential capture of John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who had left Boston under fear of arrest. The patriots, who had been tipped to the British plans, had removed and hidden most of the military stores at Concord.
At around 5 a.m., a column of 700 regulars under Lt. Col. Francis Smith, an aging British officer, arrived in Lexington, around six miles southeast of Concord. At Lexington, the redcoats were confronted by around 70 militia under Capt. John Parker, who suffered from tuberculosis.
Parker ordered his badly outnumbered men to disperse, though none did. In the confusion of the moment, a single shot was fired, though no one is certain by whom, or where it came from. A few more shots were fired before the British unleashed a volley that left eight colonials dead.
The British proceeded on to Concord and arrived at 7 a.m. to search for the military supplies, finding only a small fraction of them. Meanwhile, thousands of militia, known as “Minutemen” because they were said to be ready on a moment’s notice, descended on the areas around Concord and Lexington.
Some of the British retreated outside Concord to the North Bridge, where around 400 militia organized to consider an attack. One militia commander, Capt. Isaac Davis, was ready, declaring “I’m not afraid to go, and I haven’t a man that’s afraid to go.”
As Davis and other Americans advanced, the British opened fire, killing Davis and another man. Major John Buttrick, who lived in Concord, then screamed to his militia, “Fire, for God’s sake fellow soldiers, fire!”
The return volley killed three regulars while wounding nine others. Many in the British force were inexperienced in combat, and with their leadership in disarray, the regulars broke and fled.
Though there had been firing earlier in the day, the exchange at the North Bridge has been immortalized as “the shot heard ‘round the world” by numerous sources.
For the next several miles, a running battle ensued as the Americans peppered the British retreat with consistent fire from behind walls, trees, hedges, and buildings. The British continued fleeing until they rescued by a reinforcing column under Lord Earl Percy, who had been sent by Gage.
Dozens more casualties on both sides came at the battle of Metonomy on the return to Boston, which became the bloodiest exchange of the day, though it is often overshadowed by Lexington and Concord.
Totals of participants, as well as the numbers of killed and wounded, vary greatly, and are disputed by many scholars. Reference historian Mark Mayo Boatner lists the number of Americans in the battles at 3,763, with 1,800 British engaged throughout the clashes of the day. Some forty-nine Americans were killed with 39 wounded, while 73 British were killed and 174 wounded.
The events of Lexington and Concord galvanized the patriots, and stunned the British on “the efficiency, for short and sudden effect, of the levies of the New England townships,” in the words of one source. Though the clashes had been disorganized and frantic, the Americans had made a stirring statement against Britain, which was widely considered to be the top military power in the world.
Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Ill. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.