Today I'm going to talk about the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The Village Green in Lexington, Massachusetts is where Captain Parker and his men stood up to the Regular Army & refused to surrender their arms on the morning of the 19th of April, 1775.
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| Lexington, Massachusetts |
In the 5th grade I had to memorize the poem by Longfellow about this day... "Oh listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the 18th of April in Seventy Five...." That poem colored all my knowledge about that day & place ... at least until I went to the Minuteman National Historical Park, stood on the green in Lexington, and read a lot of plaques talking about that day.
The Minute Man National Historical Park was a good place to visit. The staff was knowledgeable, friendly, worked very hard to help you understand what life was like back then, and what happened on that day. Well worth the time to go there!
Back to April 19th, 1775...
It had already been a long day for the 700 Regulars. The goal of this operation was to seize the arms the colonists had stockpiled in Concord. The troops mustered around 9pm the evening before, to load on the boats for the ride to Charlestown.
Once arrived, they then marched all night, arriving in Lexington around day break.
But the colonists had been warned. The alarm for the militia was out and the men of Lexington armed themselves and stood well away from the road to Concord.
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| The far right corner is where Capt Parker & his men formed up. They were about as far from the road that the regulars were marching on as they could get. |
When the regulars saw the armed men formed up on the far side of the green, they left the road and marched directly up to them.
Words were spoken, demands were made and rejected. Someone, no one knows who, fired a shot. That shot started it all. The eight Americans who died there on the Lexington Green that morning are now buried there....
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| The marker where the men are buried |
The Regulars continued on to Concord and searched in vain for the arms, the arms had been moved because of the warnings. The Concord men stood at the far side of town, just over the bridge. Around 0930 fighting broke out, that was the first time the colonists had been ordered to fire on the Kings troops. Two colonials and two Regulars died.
The regulars having completed their mission to search for arms in Concord (and not finding them), then started the long march back to Charlestown & Boston. On the way back they were met by a relief force of about 1,200 Regulars out of Boston.
When the Regulars had marched out of Charleston/Boston the night before, word went out to the local militia. By the time the Regulars were heading back, thousands of armed militia from far & wide had shown up. It was a constant skirmish all the back for them.
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| These were the towns where that answered the call that went out that night |
The road they marched on is now called Battle Road.
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| Battle Road |
There are small British Union Jack flags marking the graves where the British regulars were buried.
I found it a very moving place....
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| The casualty list from that day |
Thus began the war that didn't end until eight years later, on September 3rd, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed.
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