The "Battle" took on an almost mythical quality in the American consciousness. Dr. Benjamin Church, a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and the Committee of Safety, informed General Gage in March 1775, that the colonial militiamen "from their adroitness in the habitual use of the firelock suppose themselves sure of their mark at a distance of 200 rods". Joseph Thaxter, wrote of his account: We pursued them and killed some; when they got to Lexington, they were so close pursued and fatigued, that they must have soon surrendered, had not Lord Percy met them with a large reinforcement and two field-pieces. [44] This group of militiamen was part of Lexington's "training band", a way of organizing local militias dating back to the Puritans, and not what was styled a minuteman company. For months the local people had abused and taunted them. [133], Ralph Waldo Emerson immortalized the events at the North Bridge in his 1837 "Concord Hymn". Seventy-three British soldiers were killed and over 200 were wounded. There are walking trails with interpretive displays along routes that the colonists might have used that skirted the road, and the Park Service often has personnel (usually dressed in period dress) offering descriptions of the area and explanations of the events of the day. The Battles of Lexington and Concord marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War. The initial mode of the Army's arrival by water was signaled from the Old North Church in Boston to Charlestown using lanterns to communicate "one if by land, two if by sea". It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark. [32] Additional riders were sent out from Concord. In the 1990s, parallels were drawn between American tactics in the Vietnam War and those of the British Army at Lexington and Concord.[137]. [62], We Nathaniel Mulliken, Philip Russell, [and 32 other men] do testify and declare, that on the nineteenth in the morning, being informed that a body of regulars were marching from Boston towards Concord About five o'clock in the morning, hearing our drum beat, we proceeded towards the parade, and soon found that a large body of troops were marching towards us, some of our company were coming to the parade, and others had reached it, at which time, the company began to disperse, whilst our backs were turned on the troops, we were fired on by them, and a number of our men were instantly killed and wounded, not a gun was fired by any person in our company on the regulars to our knowledge before they fired on us, and continued firing until we had all made our escape. Robinson arrived earlier with several Westford Minutemen after he was alerted by rider at his home in Westford-David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride, Oxford, page 146. ", "What aim?" Thaxter served as a Minuteman under Lt. Col. Robinson on the Concord Bridge, April 19, 1775, Muster rolls for the militia and minute companies converging at this point are included in, Both the British and the local militias were armed with smooth-bore muskets that had an effective range of aimed fire of only 80-100 yards (75-90 m), although the musket ball could have serious effect at a greater distance, if it happened by chance to hit a person. Years later, an eye-witness who was on Lexington Green recalled Captain John Parker saying: "Stand your ground! [83], The colonists were stunned by their success. Recognizing the historic weight of the day, Russell . The British soldiers escaped by breaking into a trot, a pace that the colonials could not maintain through the woods and swampy terrain. As these troops marched, they met the shattered remnants of the three light infantry companies running towards them. [114], A large militia force arrived from Salem and Marblehead. When he saw the Minutemen in the distance behind their wall, he halted his two companies and moved forward with only his officers to take a closer look. [86], Lieutenant Colonel Smith heard the exchange of fire from his position in the town moments after he received the request for reinforcements from Laurie. Gage quickly sent over line companies of two fresh regimentsthe 10th and 64thto occupy the high ground in Charlestown and build fortifications. Historian David Hackett Fischer has proposed that there may actually have been multiple near-simultaneous shots.[60]. Battles of Lexington and Concord. For the American Civil War battles, see, Newspaper articles published near the time of the battles. [112], The fighting grew more intense as Percy's forces crossed from Lexington into Menotomy. The ride of Revere, Dawes, and Prescott triggered a flexible system of "alarm and muster" that had been carefully developed months before, in reaction to the colonists' impotent response to the Powder Alarm. At this point, Lt. Col. Smith was wounded in the thigh and knocked from his horse. asked Percy. In the years leading up to the war, Great Britain had imposed a series of laws that displeased the colonists. The Minutemen and militia from Concord, Acton, Lincoln and a handful of Westford Minutemen, advanced in column formation, two by two, led by Major Buttrick, Lt. Col. Robinson,[77] then Capt. Percy could shift his units more easily to where they were needed, while the colonial militia was required to move around the outside of his formation. (He recovered from his wounds and later died in 1793 at age 98. [46] Thaddeus Bowman, the last scout that Parker had sent out, rode up at a gallop and told him that they were not only coming but coming in force and they were close. [152], "Battle of Lexington" redirects here. Barrett ordered the Massachusetts men to form one long line two abreast on the highway leading down to the bridge, and then he called for another consultation. Smith sent out his flanking troops again after crossing the small bridge.[91]. It was fought in the towns of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts , and the roads in between on April 19, 1775. 17750427 Battles of Lexington and Concord - The Maryland Gazette (Annapolis).jpg 4,000 3,500; 663 KB. By afternoon, many regimental commands were fundamentally present and acting in a coordinated manner. Some observers reported a mounted British officer firing first. This convoy was intercepted by a small party of older, veteran militiamen still on the "alarm list", who could not join their militia companies because they were well over 60 years of age. (He was later compelled to leave the country for inadvertently supporting the enemy. As they descended the hill near the road that comes out from Bedford they were pursued; Colonel Bridge, with a few men from Bedford and Chelmsford, came up, and killed several men. Of the damage done, only that done to the cannon was significant. [63], The companies under Pitcairn's command got beyond their officers' control in part because they were unaware of the actual purpose of the day's mission. General Thomas Gage was the military governor of Massachusetts and commander-in-chief of the roughly 3,000 British military forces garrisoned in Boston. VIDEO | In honor of the 245th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington & Concord, we are releasing a new American Battlefield Trust branded version of our Lexington & Concord In4. [45], After having waited most of the night with no sign of any British troops (and wondering if Paul Revere's warning was true), at about 4:15a.m., Parker got his confirmation. The American militia were armed with muskets, blunderbusses and any weapons they could find. Some 500 yards (460m) further along, the road took another sharp curve, this time to the right, and again the British column was caught by another large force of militiamen firing from both sides. Flanking companies were sent to both sides of the road, and a powerful force of Marines acted as the vanguard to clear the road ahead. Fresh militia poured gunfire into the British ranks from a distance, and individual homeowners began to fight from their own property. [93] At this place, the militia company from Woburn had positioned themselves on the southeast side of the bend in the road in a rocky, lightly wooded field. Historian Mark Urban said that after telling them to disperse, Pitcairn signalled his soldiers to move forward and disarm the locals. Henry S. Commager, editor. The British Army set out from Boston to capture rebel leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington as well as to destroy the Americans store of weapons and ammunition in Concord. The documents were presented to a sympathetic official and printed by the London newspapers two weeks before Gage's report arrived. The battles of Lexington and Concord occurred three weeks after Patrick Henry (1736-1799) delivered his famous words, "Give me liberty or give me death." Although an earlier battle with the British had been fought in North Carolina, at Moore's Creek Bridge, Lexington and Concord became fixed in the public mind as the valiant start of American . Lexington and Concord Massachusetts | Apr 19, 1775 In this first battle of the American Revolution, Massachusetts colonists defied British authority, outnumbered and outfought the Redcoats, and embarked on a lengthy war to earn their independence. [36], Of the troops assigned to the expedition, 350 were from grenadier companies drawn from the 4th (King's Own), 5th, 10th, 18th (Royal Irish), 23rd, 38th, 43rd, 47th, 52nd and 59th Regiments of Foot, and the 1st Battalion of His Majesty's Marine Forces. In April 1775, when British troops are sent to confiscate colonial weapons, they run . Thirty towns from the surrounding area sent men into combat with many more on the way. [115] Although many of the accounts of ransacking and burnings were exaggerated later by the colonists for propaganda value (and to get financial compensation from the colonial government), it is certainly true that taverns along the road were ransacked and the liquor stolen by the troops, who in some cases became drunk themselves. However, in terms of supporting the British political strategy behind the Intolerable Acts and the military strategy behind the Powder Alarms, the battle was a significant failure because the expedition contributed to the fighting it was intended to prevent, and because few weapons were actually seized. Upon returning to Lexington, Lt. Col. Smith's expedition was rescued by reinforcements under Brigadier General Hugh Percy, a future Duke of Northumberland styled at this time by the courtesy title Earl Percy. [67] Two companies from the 4th and 10th Regiments were stationed to guard their return route, and one company from the 43rd remained to guard the bridge itself. Paintings of the Lexington skirmish began to portray the militia standing and fighting back in defiance. Politically disastrous for the British, it persuaded many Americans to take up arms and support the cause of independence. George Germain, no friend of the colonists, wrote, "the Bostonians are in the right to make the King's troops the aggressors and claim a victory". This system was so effective that people in towns 25 miles (40km) from Boston were aware of the army's movements while they were still unloading boats in Cambridge. [1] The battles were between British soldiers, who wanted to take away the colonists ' weapons and to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams on the way to Concord, and American colonists on April 19, 1775. Instead of a deliberate, orderly walk forward, many [British soldiers] started shouting and cheering, running towards the Americans withbayonets [still fixed]. Lieutenant Hawkstone, said to be the greatest beauty of the British army, had his cheeks so badly wounded that it disfigured him much, of which he bitterly complained. The militia (now numbering about 4,000) were unprepared for this movement, and the circle of fire was broken. He quickly assembled two companies of grenadiers to lead toward the North Bridge himself. Major Buttrick then yelled to the militia, "Fire, for God's sake, fellow soldiers, fire! "[113] He stayed and was killed in his doorway. [61], Witnesses at the scene described several intermittent shots fired from both sides before the lines of regulars began to fire volleys without receiving orders to do so. But in his obsession for secrecy, Gage had sent only one copy of the orders to the adjutant of the 1st Brigade, whose servant then left the envelope on a table. In Lincoln, they ran into the British patrol led by Major Mitchell. A militia unit that attempted an ambush from Russell's orchard was caught by flankers, and eleven men were killed, some allegedly after they had surrendered. [80], A shot rang out. After these delays, Percy's brigade, about 1,000 strong, left Boston at about 8:45a.m., headed toward Lexington. Instead, they surrounded Percy's marching square with a moving ring of skirmishers at a distance to inflict maximum casualties at minimum risk. The few front rows of colonists, bound by the road and blocked from forming a line of fire, managed to fire over each other's heads and shoulders at the regulars massed across the bridge. A column of militia marched down the road toward Lexington to meet the British, traveling about 1.5 miles (2km) until they met the approaching column of regulars. The Sons of Liberty. This step proved fortuitous, as the ranks of the militia continued to grow as minuteman companies arriving from the western towns joined them there. The regulars continued to search for and destroy colonial military supplies in the town, ate lunch, reassembled for marching, and left Concord after noon. The combined force of about 1,700 men marched back to Boston under heavy fire in a tactical withdrawal and eventually reached the safety of Charlestown. Captain Parsons took four companies from the 5th, 23rd, 38th, and 52nd Regiments up the road 2 miles (3.2km) beyond the North Bridge to search Barrett's Farm, where intelligence indicated supplies would be found. On the evening of April 18 General Thomas Gage, the British royal governor of Massachusetts, organized 700 British troops for a march to Concord. All now said the British fired first at Lexington, whereas fifty or so years before, they weren't sure. [117], The British troops crossed the Menotomy River (today known as Alewife Brook) into Cambridge, and the fight grew more intense. When they arrived at Ephraim Jones's tavern, by the jail on the South Bridge road, they found the door barred shut, and Jones refused them entry. Our people then fired over one another's heads, being in a long column, two and two; they killed two and wounded eleven. Even if Church meant yards rather than rods (600 feet versus 3300 feet), it is unclear whether he was profoundly ignorant of the capabilities of a musket, was exaggerating in order to mislead Gage (as Church later claimed when accused of being a spy), or was ridiculing the American militiamen.
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