Patriots' Day: Battles of Lexington and Concord -1775- "The Shot Heard 'Round The World"

On the 15 of April 1775, when General Thomas Gage, British Military Governor of Massachusetts, was ordered to destroy the rebel's military stores at Concord. To accomplish this he assembled the "Flanking units", including Light Infantry and Grenadiers, from his Boston Garrison. In charge he put Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith and Marine Major John Pitcairn. He also composed a relief column under the command of Lord Hugh Percy to leave 6 hours after the main column. In an attempt at secrecy he did not tell his officers his plan until the last minute. The problem with his security measures were that Boston had become a glass fishbowl. All rebel eyes were watching to see the British' next action, and when the garrison committed to an action, the Americans knew their every move.

At midnight on the 19th of April the British column, consisting of 650-900 troops left Boston, crossed the Charles River, followed closely by the alarm rider Paul Revere. As the British marched towards Concord, the entire countryside had been alerted to their presence, and rebel militia was deployed to meet them.

Until this time there was no armed resistance to the British that had resulted in loss of British life. Several Months earlier, Gage had attempted to destroy miliary arms at Salem and met with resistance but no shots were fired, and the British retreated without completing their objective. Lexington Militia Captain John Parker had heard of the events at Salem, and collected his men on Lexington Green to face the British column.

At dawn Smith's advanced parties under the command of Major Pitcairn, arrived at Lexington Green to see a group of armed Militia in formation across the Green. Pitcairn ordered the militia, led by John Parker, to be surrounded and disarmed. In response Parker ordered his men to disperse. Then a shot rang out. No one really knows who fired first, but the British, hearing the shot, fired upon the small group of militia, killing 8, and wounding 10 more. The militia then retreated into the woods to avoid the Briti sh fire.

The British column then advanced to Concord, and in spreading out to destroy some cannons believed to be at Provincial Colonel Barrett's farm encountered a group of armed militia at Concord North Bridge. This time when shots rang out the Americans were more prepared, and fired back in "The Shot Heard Round The World.", and so began the American Revolution. The short battle at the bridge was a rout, and the British abandoned the bridge, retreating to Concord center. Knowing that he was in a dangerous situation, Smith decided to return to Boston as soon as possible. In his retreat the real battle began.

Militia and Minutemen from all surrounding towns had marched toward Concord, and when the retreating column ran into this army they were outflanked, out gunned and scared. The Americans did not fight as the British did. Instead of forming an offensive line the provincials used small squad and company tactics to flank the column and inflicted heavy damage. Because the American's never formed a firing line the inexperienced British had little to shoot at. This style of flanking and shooting from behind trees, walls etc. destroyed the British morale, and they broke ranks while retreating towards Lexington.

Had it not been for the relief brigade of Lord Percy the British retreat would have been a disaster. Waiting at Lexington, Percy used his two cannon to disperse the provincials and collected Smiths troops back into regiments. He then led the retreat back to Boston. Under Percy's command the retreating column maintained control, even under heavy fire, and the retreat to Boston was a success. The British suffered badly, nearly 20 percent casualties, but more importantly, this action led to the siege of Bos ton and the start of the Revolutionary War.

Days later the men of Massachusetts used the engagement as propaganda to turn the public opinion to their cause. At the time of the battle only one third of the population believed in breaking from Britain.

Overview Of Events Precipitating Battle

Key Events Prior to Start of Action

Definition of Subject Matter

DATE	AMERICAN ACTIONS	BRITISH ACTIONS
14 APRIL 1775	Mass. Provincial Congress continues to illegally meet in Concord Mass with John Hancock and Sam Adams.	General Gage receives orders to take decisive action against colonials. It was recommended he arrest Mass. Provincial Congress. Gage decides to seize the military supplies at Concord.
15 APRIL 1775	Mass. Provincial Congress adjourns.	Eight Regiments of Grenadiers and Light Infantry are relieved from normal duties to learn "New Drill Formations." Naval vessels were loaded with longboats for troop transport.
16 APRIL 1775	Dr. Joseph Warren sends Paul Revere to Concord to warn Hancock and Adams of unusual British activities. Paul Revere arranges the signal of "One If By Land, Two if By Sea" with Charlestown residents to signal the route British were taking.	Gage keeps his objective secret from commanding officers in an attempt at security.
18 APRIL 1775	At ten that evening observing British maneuvers Dr. Joseph Warren sends for William Dawes and Paul Revere to take the message to Concord.	Smith is put in charge of "Flanking Units" and is given his orders to leave at midnight by sea to destroy military stores at Concord. Percy is put in charge of relief units to be deployed at 0600.

Two Contemporary Accounts of Lexington and Concord (1775)
from The Salem Gazette and The London Gazette

[Excerpted from American History Told by Contemporaries, Vol. II: Building of the Republic, Albert Bushnell Hart, ed. (New York, MacMillan, 1899), pp. ]

These two simultaneous accounts show the difficulty of establishing historical truth even by contemporaneous evidence. This battle was the turning-point between the period of protests and the period of resistance.

THE AMERICAN STATEMENT

Salem, April 25, 1775.

Last Wednesday, the 19th of April, the Troops of His Britannick Majesty commenced hostilities upon the people of this Province, attended with circumstances of cruelty, not less brutal than what our venerable ancestors received from the vilest Savages of the wilderness. The particulars relative to this interesting event, by which we are involved in all the horrours of a civil war, we have endeavoured to collect as well as the present confused state of affairs will admit.

On Tuesday evening a detachment from the Army, consisting, it is said, of eight or nine hundred men, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Smith, embarked at the bottom of the Common in Boston, on board a number of boats, and landed at Phipp's farm, a little way up Charles River, from whence they proceeded with silence and expedition on their way to Concorde, about eighteen miles from Boston. The people were soon alarmed, and began to assemble in several Towns, before daylight, in order to watch the motion of the Troops. At Lexington, six miles below Concord, a company of Militia, of about one hundred men, mustered near the Meeting-house; the Troops came in sight of them just before sunrise; and running within a few rods of them, the Commanding Officer accosted the Militia in words to this effect: " Disperse, you rebelsÑdamn you, throw down your arms and disperse;" upon which the Troops huzzaed, and immediately one or two officers discharged their pistols, which were instantaneously followed by the firing of four or five of the soldiers, and then there seemed to be a general discharge from the whole body: eight of our men were killed, and nine wounded. In a few minutes after this action the enemy renewed their march for Concord; at which place they destroyed several Carriages, Carriage Wheels, and about twenty barrels of Flour, all belonging to the Province. Here about one hundred and fifty men going towards a bridge, of which the enemy were in possession, the latter fired and killed two of our men, who then returned the fire, and obliged the enemy to retreat back to Lexington, where they met Lord Percy, with a large reinforcement, with two pieces of cannon. The enemy now having a body of about eighteen hundred men, made a halt, picked up many of their dead, and took care of their wounded. At Menotomy, a few of our men attacked a party of twelve of the enemy, (carrying stores and provisions to the Troops,) killed one of them, wounded several, made the rest prisoners, and took possession of all their arms, stores, provisions, &c., without any loss on our side. the enemy having halted one or two hours at Lexington, found it necessary to make a second retreat, carrying with them many of their dead and wounded, who they put into chaises and on horses that they found standing in the road. They continued their retreat from Lexington to Charlestown with great precipitation; and notwithstanding their field-pieces, our people continued the pursuit, firing at them till they got to Charl;estown Neck, (which they reached a little after sunset,) over which the enemy passed, proceeded up Bunker's Hill, and soon afterwards went into the Town, under the protection of the Somerset Man-of-War of sixty-four guns.

In Lexington the enemy set fire to Deacon Joseph Loring's house and barn, Mrs. Mullikin's house and shop, and Mr. Joshua Bond's house and shop, which were all consumed. They also set fire to several other houses, but our people extinguished the flames. they pillaged almost every house they passed by, breaking and destroying doors, windows, glasses, Ac., and carrying off clothing and other valuable effects. It appeared to be their design to burn and destroy all before them; and nothing but our vigorous pursuit prevented their infernal purposes from being put in execution. But the savage barbarity exercised upon the bodies of our unfortunate brethren who fell, is almost incredible: not contented with shooting down the unarmed, aged, and infirm, they disregarded the cries of the wounded, killing them without mercy, and mangling their bodies in the most shocking manner.

We have the pleasure to say, that, notwithstanding the highest provocations given by the enemy, not one instance of cruelty, that we have heard of, was committed by our victorious Militia; but, listening to the merciful dictates of the Christian religion, they " breathed higher sentiments of humanity."

The consternation of the people of Charlestown, when our enemies were entering the Town, is inexpressible; the Troops however behaved tolerably civil, and the people have since nearly all left the Town.

She following is a List of the Provincials who were killed and wounded:

[49 killed; 34 wounded; 5 missing.] . . .

Mr. James Howard and one of the Regulars discharged their pieces at the same instant, and each killed the other....

The publick most sincerely sympathize with the friends and relations of our deceased brethren, who gloriously sacrificed their lives in fighting for the liberties of their Country. By their noble and intrepid conduct, in helping to defeat the forces of an ungrateful tyrant, they have endeared their memories to the present generation, who will transmit their names to posterity with the highest honour.

THE BRITISH STATEMENT

Whitehall, June l0, 1775.

Lieutenant Dunn, of the Navy, arrived this morning at Lord Dartmouth's, and brought letters from General Gage, Lord Percy, and Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, containing the following particulars of what passed on the nineteenth of April last between a detachment of the King's Troops in the Province of Massachusetts-Bay, and several parties of rebel Provincials, viz:

General Gage having received intelligence of a quantity of military stores being collected at Concord, for the avowed purpose of supplying a body of troops to act in opposition to His Majesty's Government, detached, on the eighteenth of April at night, the Grenadiers of his Army, and the Light-Infantry, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, of the Tenth Regiment, and Major Pitcairn, of the Marines, with orders to destroy the said stores; and the next morning eight Companies of the Fourth, the same number of the Twenty-Third and Forty-Ninth, and some Marines, marched under the command of Lord Percy, to support the other detachment.

Lieutenant-Colonel Smith finding, after he had advanced some miles on his march, that the country had been alarmed by the firing of guns and ringing of bells, despatched six Companies of Light-Infantry, in order to secure two bridges on different roads beyond Concord, who, upon their arrival at Lexington, found a body of the country people under arms, on a green close to the road; and upon the King's Troops marching up to them, in order to inquire the reason of their being so assembled, they went off in great confusion, and several guns were fired upon the King's Troops from behind a stone wall, and also from the meeting-house and other houses, by which one man was wounded, and Major Pitcairn's horse shot in two places. In consequence of this attack by the rebels, the troops returned the fire and killed several of them. After which the detachment marched on to Concord without any thing further happening, where they effected the purpose for which they were sent, having knocked off the trunnions of three pieces of iron ordnance, burnt some new gun carriages and a great number of carriage-wheels, and thrown into the river a considerable quantity of flour gunpowder, musket-balls, and other articles. Whilst this service was performing, great numbers of the rebels assembled in many parts, and a considerable body of them attacked the Light-Infantry, posted at one of the bridges, on which an action ensued, and some few were killed and wounded.

On the return of the Troops from Concord, they were very much annoyed, and had several men killed and wounded by the rebels firing from behind walls, ditches, trees, and other ambushes; but the brigade, under the command of Lord Percy, having joined them at Lexington with two pieces of cannon, the rebels were for a while dispersed; but as soon as the troops resumed their march, they began to fire upon them from behind stone walls and houses, and kept up in that manner a scattering fire during the whole of their march of fifteen miles, by which means several were killed and wounded; and such was the cruelty and barbarity of the rebels, that they scalped and cut off the ears of some of the wounded men who fell into their hands.

It is not known what members of the rebels were killed and wounded, but it is supposed that their loss was considerable.

General Gage says that too much praise cannot be given to Lord Percy for his remarkable activity during the whole day; and that Lieutenant-Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn did every thing that men could do, as did all the officers in general, and that the men behaved with their usual intrepidity.

Return of the Commission, Non-Commission Officers, and Rank and File, killed, wounded, prisoners, and missing, on the 19th of April, 1775....

Total: One Lieutenant-Colonel killed; two Lieutenant-Colonels wounded; two Captains wounded; nine Lieutenants wounded; one Lieutenant missing; two Ensigns wounded; one Sergeant killed, four wounded, two missing; one Drummer killed, one wounded; sixty-two rank and file killed, one hundred and fifty-seven wounded, and twenty-four missing.

N. B. Lieutenant Isaac Potter reported to be wounded and taken prisoner.

Salem Gazette, April 25, 1775; reprinted in Peter Force, American Archives,

Fourth Series (Washington, 1839), II, 391-393 passim

Official bulletin, London Gazette, June lo, 1775; reprinted Ibid., 945-946

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