Battles of Lexington and Concord
After Paul Revere’s late-night ride on April 18th, 1775, which saw some 43 Sons of Liberty alert Patriots to the approach of British troops bound for Concord Massachusetts, at dawn the next morning, a column of 700 Redcoats faced off with 77 militiamen gathered at Lexington green.
“Throw down your arms, ye villains, ye rebels!”
British major
Shot Heard ‘Round The World
As the Patriots began their retreat from a heavily outnumbered British force, a lone shot of unknown origin rang out, igniting a tense volley of gunfire from both sides of the standoff. As the smoke cleared, eight Patriots lay dead and nine others wounded, while a lone soldier on the British line suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
That all changed when the British reached Concord, and when the Redcoats discovered that the bulk of military supplies had already been removed from the Concord Armory, they set the building ablaze, which soon grew out of control. Believing that Concord had intentionally been set on fire as a scorched-earth tactic by the British, hundreds of militiamen attacked a British unit defending Concord’s North Bridge, later immortalized by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson in the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”
Revolutionary War Minutemen
Known as minutemen for their ability to take up arms on a moment’s notice, some 2,000 Patriots took aim at the Redcoats during their 18-mile retreat towards Boston, who in turn grew evermore unhinged by the Patriots’ unconventional fighting style as militiamen fired at the retreating column from the safety of trees, houses and stone walls.
Despite the arrival of British re-enforcements from Boston, the British line soon splintered under a withering hail of gunfire, from a Patriot force that grew to 3,500 men by the time the Redcoats reached present day Arlington and Cambridge Massachusetts, where they reached the relative safety of naval support at Charlestown Neck.
Now considered the first battles of the American Revolutionary War, the Patriots were bolstered that day by their ability to stand up against the greatest military power in the world.
How Many Deaths at Lexington and Concord?
The day’s bloodshed witnessed 49 killed, 39 wounded and 5 missing for the Patriots, while the British suffered 73 deaths, 174 wounded and 53 missing, beginning a six-year period of protracted bloodshed during a young nation’s road to independence.