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I remain speechless at the bravery shown on Lexington green that morning.

The Patriots were farmers, shopkeepers, blacksmiths and the like, somewhat trained but hardly the disciplined force fielded by the British.

Paul Revere and William Dawes had warned the countryside of the British approach, and that warning must surely have included the number of troops coming.

Imagine meeting up with 50 or so armed and like-minded civilians, knowing full well that several hundred of the King’s soldiers were headed your way. A few rounds of liquid courage at Buckman’s Tavern would hardly stop your knees from shaking.

Now take your little band across the street and stand in a line across the green, in the cold grey dawn. Hear the British drummer beating out time, the crunch of boots on gravel. Then see them ... hundreds of them ... row upon row ... men on foot and officers on horseback. All of them armed.

How on Earth did they find the raw nerve to stand their ground? Amazing!

Actually, the patriots at Lexington were not Minutemen. Lexington was too cheap to pay for the extra training required to earn the “Minuteman” designation. So, it was the Lexington Militia who stood on that triangle of grass facing the Redcoats.

Further, even that Militia was likely well-trained by officers who fought along side the Brits in Indian skirmishes during the French and Indian War. They may have been drilled equally as well as their Redcoat counterparts and as free men, were better-motivated.(Most of the Redcoat infantry was “impressed” into service.) Patriot leaders knew well that information about a British attack on “embattled farmers” would play better in New York and Philadelphia than if it was known that well-drilled Minutemen and Militia troops fought well against the Brit regulars that day.

Finally, “the shot heard ‘round the world” may likely have been fired by Paul Revere himself, who was sent back to Lexington by the fleeing Sam Adams, ostensibly to retrieve Adams’ papers from where Adams had stayed the night before. Many early accounts of the fight in Lexington, had the instigating shot coming from the corner of a house to the rear of the gathered Militia. When later asked if he knew anything about that famous shot, Revere remained vague and unwilling to state much about what he observed. Good ol’ Sam Adams was a very shrewd political agitator and organizer; he knew what it would take to stir up a revolution and its seems he had a bigger role (directing Revere to make sure something happened?) than most give him credit for that morning.