Posted on 04/19/2008 9:45:53 PM PDT by kingattax
It's been 233 years since a scared but determined group of Massachusetts militiamen stood on the village green in Lexington and faced off with British regulars who had entered the town searching for powder and ball.
No one knows who fired the first shot but the result was tragic. Eight militiamen were killed and 10 wounded in the first pitched battle of the Revolution. No one could have forseen what would ensue over the coming years; independence, hardship, civil war, and the final victory at Yorktown. But there is little doubt that as a result of British oppression in Massachusetts, the colonies were united and determined to win their rights.
Strangely, only two states celebrate and remember this day in history as a holiday. Jules Crittenden has a great piece up on his blog with actual accounts of what happened :
Patriots Day may be the least known American holiday, and the day most deserving of our recognition. Observed in Massachusetts and Maine only. Don’t know it? It marks the day, April 19, 1775, on which Americans took up arms against their king, and bled, at the crack of terrible dawn.
All Americans should mark this day when our ancestors made the terrible choice to take up arms and fight for their liberty. And part of this day was memorialized in one of our best known poems; Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride.
" Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light,— One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
The last several years, I honor Revere's ride with an account of what actually happened that historic night as well as filling in a little background on the man I call a "Founding Brother" of the revolution:
The image has captured the imagination of American school children for almost 150 years. A lone rider, braving capture at the hands of the British, riding along the narrow country lanes and cobblestone streets of the picturesque towns and villages of New England, shouting out defiance to tyranny, raising the alarm “To every Middlesex village and farm,” his trusty horse carrying him on his ride into legend.
To bad it didn’t quite happen that way.
Take a little time today to recall those brave men at Lexington and Concord who reluctantly and wthout a little trepidation, took up arms to fight the best army in the world and secure their freedom against what they saw as an oppressive tyranny.
I will never forget the day in June,1970 when I stood on a cold rainy afternoon at the Concord Bridge and truly felt the spirit of those great patriots from almost two centuries ago.
No one else was around.It was one of the most moving and spiritual moments of my life.
These are some of our forefathers who are turning in their graves at the national disgrace that is the next election. IMO, none of the three candidates are worthy of anything but our disgust.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone,
That memory may their deeds redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
O Thou who made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free, —
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raised to them and Thee.
Good post
well said ETR
As I watch John Adams, finished reading AJ Langguth’s Patriots and just read everything I can on that era and those men, I can’t help but feel similarly. I want to revisit the Jefferson Memorial, Mt Vernon, Monticello and various other places with that renewed spirituality regarding the eternal cause of Liberty.
I would like to have that experience. I will have to add it to my list of things to do.
For me, it was standing on the green at Lexington. From there, I moved on to Concord. They really were inspirational places.
It was the highlight of my trip to Boston about five years ago.
Post#4 is the Concord Hymn which was written to dedicate the memorial placed there on the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, as I recall. It's short but to the point.
Yes,I spent so many thrilling moments at our great historical sites.Gettysburg,Mount Rushmore,Monticello,Jamestown,the Washington Monument,The Smithsonian Museum.
Made me really appreciate this great country more than all the school textbooks I read put together.
Try to see it away from tourist season.Its almost a religious experience.
Thanks for posting the hymn.Beautiful.
I didn't post it. BigCinBigD did. And I agree it is very nicely written. I have intended to commit it to memory, but haven't managed it yet. It really troubles me that so many young people today have no notion of what happened on that day and what the result was.
These were real people beset by a government out of control. If we continue to cede more and more power to our government it will happen again.
Thanks, I am sure the current crop of students have never had to recite this poem.
barbra ann
s/b " ... who reluctantly and NOT without a little trepidation ..."
This is litotes.
s/b " ... who reluctantly and NOT without a little trepidation ..."
This is litotes. ( Sorry about that. )
Too bad the residents there today stand for tyranny. Their ancestors would hang their heads in shame.
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