"The ultimate authority … resides in the people alone. … The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any…" James Madison (Federalist No. 46)
Near midnight on April 18th, 41-year-old Paul Revere, who had arranged for warnings of British movements, departed Charlestown (near Boston) for Lexington and Concord to warn John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and other Sons of Liberty that the British Army was marching to arrest them and seize their weapons caches. After meeting with Hancock and Adams in Lexington, Revere was captured, but his Patriot ally, Samuel Prescott, continued to Concord and warned militiamen along the way.
The Patriots in Lexington and Concord, with other citizen militias in New England, were bound by "minute man" oaths to "stand at a minute's warning with arms and ammunition." The oath of the Lexington militia read thus: "We trust in God that, should the state of our affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything dear in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the common cause."
In the early dawn of April 19, their oaths would be tested with blood. Under the command of 46-year-old farmer and militia Captain John Parker, 77 militiamen assembled on the town green at Lexington, where they soon faced Smith's overwhelming force of seasoned British regulars. Parker did not expect shots to be exchanged, but his orders were: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."
Within close musket range from the Patriots' column, British Major John Pitcairn swung his sword and ordered, "Lay down your arms, you damned rebels!"
Not willing to sacrifice his small band of Patriots on the green, as Parker later wrote in a sworn deposition, "I immediately ordered our Militia to disperse, and not to fire." But his Patriots did not lay down their arms. Then under Pitcairn's orders, as Parker testified, "Immediately said Troops made their appearance and rushed furiously, fired upon, and killed eight of our Party without receiving any Provocation therefor from us." Ten other Patriots were wounded.
As the American militia retreated toward Concord with the British in pursuit, their ranks grew to more than 400
In Concord, the British divided to search for armament stores. Before noon, the second confrontation between regulars and militiamen occurred as 100 British light infantry from three companies faced the ranks of militia and minutemen at Concord's Old North Bridge. From depositions on both sides, the British fired first, killing two and wounding four.
This time, however, the militia commander, Major John Buttrick, ordered, "Fire, for God's sake, fellow soldiers, fire!"
And fire they did. The volley commenced with what poet Ralph Waldo Emerson later immortalized as "The Shot Heard Round the World." With that shot, farmers, laborers, landowners, and statesmen alike brought upon themselves the sentence of death for treason. In the ensuing firefight, the British suffered heavy casualties. In discord, the Redcoats retreated to Concord proper and, after reinforcing their ranks, marched back toward Lexington.
During their Concord retreat, British regulars took additional casualties in sporadic firefights. The most notable of those was an ambush by the reassembled ranks of John Parker's militia, which became known as Parker's Revenge. Despite reinforcements when they returned to Lexington, the King's men were no match for the Patriot ranks. The militia and minutemen inflicted heavy casualties upon the Redcoats along with their 18-mile tactical retreat to Boston.
By day's end, the Patriots suffered 49 killed, 39 wounded, and five missing. The British casualties totaled 73 killed, 174 wounded, and 26 missing.
Upon hearing of those first shots fired in what would become an eight-year struggle for American Liberty, Samuel Adams declared to fellow Patriot John Hancock, "What a glorious morning this is!"
Indeed it was and remains with every sunrise over our nation since.
Thus began the American Revolution a revolution not just for the people of Massachusetts but for the cause of Liberty for
all mankind, such rights not being temporal but
eternal.
