Posted on 06/16/2016 8:13:52 AM PDT by dware
National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed by elements of a para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.
Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group's organizers as criminals, issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government's efforts to secure law and order. The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed widespread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons.
Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting in early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.
One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily. Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition.
However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government's plans. During a tense standoff in Lexington's town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists. Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange.
Ironically, the local citizenry blamed government forces rather than the radical extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces over matched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.
Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops.
Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as "ringleaders" of the extremist faction, remain at large.
And this, people, is how the American Revolution began on April 19, 1775.
( by Ed Schriber Col. USMC (Ret.)
bump
On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops set off from Boston toward Concord, Massachusetts, in order to seize weapons and ammunition stockpiled there by American colonists. Early the next morning, the British reached Lexington, where approximately 70 minutemen had gathered on the village green. Someone suddenly fired a shotits uncertain which sideand a melee ensued. When the brief clash ended, eight Americans lay dead and at least an equal amount were injured, while one redcoat was wounded. The British continued on to nearby Concord, where that same day they encountered armed resistance from a group of patriots at the towns North Bridge. Gunfire was exchanged, leaving two colonists and three redcoats dead. Afterward, the British retreated back to Boston, skirmishing with colonial militiamen along the way and suffering a number of casualties; the Revolutionary War had begun. The incident at the North Bridge later was memorialized by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1837 poem Concord Hymn, whose opening stanza is:By the rude bridge that arched the floodEmerson penned "Concord Hymn" for the dedication of a battle monument at the site of the North Bridge. At the dedication ceremony on July 4, 1837, a group of townspeople sang the poems 16 lines to the tune of a traditional hymn called "Old Hundredth." Emerson, a Boston native born in 1803, spent portions of his childhood in Concord (where his grandfather, a minister, had witnessed the 1775 battle at the North Bridge from his nearby home) and moved there permanently in 1834. He went on to become one of the countrys leading intellectuals and lived in Concord until his death in 1882. [Elizabeth Nix, What was the "shot heard round the world"?
Their flag to Aprils breeze unfurled
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
Bkmk
Thanks for clearing up that Lede thing :)
Bill O'Reilly hosted a historical documentary last week on Fox, about the American Revolution starting five years earlier when a 9-year-old rebel boy was shot and killed. Everyone knows of the later shootings in 1775, but the origins of the Revolutionaries banding together started with that boy being shot in a crowd protesting.
And this time around, with the shooting and death of a cowboy as he stepped outside his truck... #rememberlavoy
My pleasure. ;’)
Inspiring.
The O’Reilly doc I watched was Legends & Lies - The Patriots The Rebellion Begins S2E1. The incident of the rebel boy being shot and killed predated the Boston Massacre of 1770 where five American colonists were killed in a protest demonstration by British soldiers. The boy being shot and killed led to a banding together of colonists to take action, happened some months earlier than the massacre. Interesting history.
his grandfather, a minister, had witnessed the 1775 battle at the North Bridge from his nearby home
The Old Manse, still extant and a favorite haunt of mine in my younger years. I used to date a girl who, dressed in period costume, would lead tours of the old building. You can still see, in an upper window, where the ministers wife had scratched testimony to the skirmish, with her diamond wedding ring.
Concord Mass - a favorite place for any historian. Still, mostly the same as it was in 1775.
Neat!
Neat!
Of course, in Mass., the proper response would be, “wicked pissah”
I might add, also, that the current denizens of Lexington & Concord, are all flaming liberals.
Sad. Very sad...
Excellent.
Oh yeah...USA USA!!
Libs, including limo libs, like not having to think about things -- just regurgitate the talking points. After PBS and NPR are both defunded, libs everywhere in the US will be unable to speak.
After PBS and NPR are both defunded...
I must admit, to my shame, that I have my car radio tuned to NPR.
2 reasons
No commercials, & we must ALL know, what the enemy is up to, at ALL times...
“Some will refuse, and they will be dealt with, harshly. Most will follow orders.”
Tell everyone here how you know this with such certainty.
Historically, Whiskey Rebellion.
Bkmk
:’)
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