Americans again stand with muskets in hand

Americans again stand with muskets in hand

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This is the week it all began -- when a nation arose that would blaze across the stage of history "trailing clouds of glory."

Some say America started on July 4, 1776, when a congress in Philadelphia proclaimed, "These United Colonies are and of a right ought to be Free and Independent States."

In fact, America's birthday is April 19. On that day in 1775, the labor pains started on the Lexington green. The baby was delivered at Concord's North Bridge.

The midnight ride of Paul Revere. The shot heard 'round the world. In the wake of Sept. 11, Americans are once again rallying to freedom's cause. Now, as then, there's a price to be paid.

"Violence never solves anything," peeped the perpetual children of the peace-at-any-price camp following the World Trade Center attack.

News flash: Lexington and Concord weren't love-ins. The British suffered about 250 casualties that day; Americans, around 90. Colonials waged a brutal guerrilla war against retreating redcoats, firing from behind stone walls and trees.

If April 19, 1775, had been a day of peaceful protest (if the Minutemen had met advancing British with slogans instead of shot), the rebellion would have died aborning. The Founding Fathers would have danced the minuet at the end of a rope. And we would now be in mourning for Britain's queen mother.

America was born on the battlefield. Our union was preserved by a civil war. During World War II and the Cold War, our way of life was protected by armed might. Thus it will always be.

As George Orwell told World War II-era pacifists, "Those who abjure violence can only do so by others committing violence in their behalf." C.S. Lewis noted the triumph of pacifism would lead to "a world in which there will be no pacifists" -- the lions having long ago picked their teeth with lamb bones.

Americans are a remarkably peaceable people. The cowboy slander notwithstanding, we are slow on the draw.

We didn't enter World War I until the final 18 months. The world was at war two years before America joined the fray in 1941, and then only after we were attacked. Look at the terrorist outrages we suffered before retaliating after Sept. 11.

Our violence is defensive. Unlike Europe, America never had crusades, inquisitions, pogroms or genocide. The blood-drenched idols of communism and fascism were erected in the Old World, not the New. Time and again in last century, we took up arms to save Europeans from their own stupidity.

Prior to Lexington and Concord, the colonists endured a growing tyranny by the British crown -- injustices enumerated in the Declaration of Independence -- before rising in rebellion.

But once roused, Americans are a force to be reckoned with. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is said to have observed, "I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve."

Ordinarily gentle Americans are fierce in the defense of the homeland.

And what do we fight for today? Exactly what those embattled farmers ("their flag to April's breeze unfurled") stood for at America's dawn -- independence, the rights of man, our homes and families, and justice.

The British monarchy believed in a divine right to rule its colonies as it chose. Islamicists believe they are empowered by G-d to annihilate infidels and spread their faith to the furthest corners of the Earth.

But there are differences, as well.

Today's foe is harder to define, more diffuse, more barbarous. The British army was gentleman-led; it did not make war on women and children. In the great struggle of the 21st century, the enemy (numbering in the millions) is merciless, maniacal and inspired by a vision of paradise achieved on a mound of corpses.

America is no longer a nation of villages and sturdy yeomen. Still, we have a common cause with the Minutemen.

In each generation, Americans stand "by the rude bridge," muskets in hand. And not for ourselves alone. In 1775, it was to establish the universal principle of self-determination. Today, it's for a world governed by ballots, not terrorist bombs. This makes us still humanity's last, best hope.

I'm surprised that Mr. Feder forgot one of the most important aspects of the events at Lexington and Concord.

The British patrol was on its way to Concord to seize an arsenal of weapons being used by American colonists to defy the will of His Supreme Brittanic Majesty, King George III. The British colonial governor of Massachusetts had ordered the seizure of these weapons to end armed popular resistance to the Crown and its tax collectors.

At Lexington, the officer in charge of the patrol had ordered, "Lay down your arms, you rebel bastards!" ("Bastard" was the favorite epithet of the era because in most cases in was true. It was the Golden Age of Illegitimacy.) The firefight that resulted was not enough to prevent the patrol from reaching Concord, where the soldiers did no more damage to the arsenal than a group of errant schoolboys could have done in the same amount of time.

The real battle and test of arms came on the return march to Boston where the patrol was almost destroyed by the armaments of angry colonists using Indian guerilla tactics that the soldiers of the Crown were not prepared to counter.

The colonists' memories of the cause of the Lexington/Concord incident was the reason there is a Second Amendment in the Constitution today. It should be the object lesson of this article.

"The real battle and test of arms came on the return march to Boston where the patrol was almost destroyed by the armaments of angry colonists using Indian guerilla tactics that the soldiers of the Crown were not prepared to counter. "

I recall reading an old article (American Heritage, I think) that made the claim that, on that day at least, the colonists were pretty bad shots. They had counted the number of musket balls that had been found along the road and compared it to the losses suffered by the British. I think they only hit the target (a moving mass of soldiers in close formation) about 2-3% of the time. Maybe the British light infantry protecting the flanks were very effective at keeping them away from the column, or maybe it was just the inherent innaccuracy of the old smoothbore muskets that kept their losses from being even higher.

Thought I'd throw that out there...

Seems like I read somewhere that it took 7,000 rounds of small arms ammo to inflict one casualty in World War Two.

In fact, many of the colonists had rifled muskets which gave them longer range and greater accuracy than the British, who issued smooth bore muskets with a max effective range of about 50 meters.

Rifled muskets, because of the rifling, were slower to reload. But they were definitely better than anything the Brits had. Ooops.

Walt

it's tough to hit your target when you are someone else's target.

Right; the Brits would fire vollies at their elusive targets sheltering behind rocks and trees.Bound to throw off your aim, seriously.

Sometimes they would have several dozen troops charge a farm house and put the colonists to the bayonet if they could catch them.

In WWII, most ammo was fired for supressive effect, so that is not strictly a good comparison with the Minutemen.

Walt

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