Free Republic

History is always a little more complex than a child knows. When I was a boy, my father would rouse my brothers and me — plus the dog — just after sunrise on Patriots Day. We’d walk to the bottom of our street to catch a glimpse of the men and boys marching down Strawberry Hill Road, bound for the Old North Bridge in Concord. There were never more than a few dozen from Acton, but we heard the drums long before they appeared through the tall, thick trees that line the roads of our Massachusetts town. Now and then,...

I live near this event (The April 19th Reenactment of the encounter between Colonials and the British at the Old North Bridge) but had only gone to it once before many years ago, and it was rainy with no visibility of the event due to crowd size. I determined it wasn't worth going to again until this anniversary. I thought this would be something I should go to. In 1976, the 200 Year Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I had no opportunity to see any of it because I was an E2 Airman Apprentice doing Scullery Duty in the...

Many volumes have been published telling of the events leading up to the Revolutionary War, as well as the fighting on the first day, April 19, 1775—some more fictitious than true. However, using primary accounts, extant arms, archaeological finds and by studying the battle damage left behind, today we have a much better understanding of what happened, along with the types of firearms that were being used by the men who fought on that pivotal day. On the night of April 18, 1775, about 750 British regulars began a march from Boston, Mass., to Concord, a town about 18 miles...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed three gun control bills on Thursday. The bills ban certain gun mods, make gun shops post clearer warnings, and change how gun sales are tracked. “New Yorkers are sick of weapons manufacturers ignoring their role in the gun violence epidemic,” said Democratic Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, who sponsored the bill in the Assembly. “Glock has known that its pistols can be easily and cheaply converted into illegal fully-automatic machine guns. It’s time to put people over profit.” S745/A439 changes how credit cards categorize gun vendors, requiring the companies to use new merchant codes for...

The 250th Anniversary of "The Shot Heard 'round The World" is upon us. Any plans you have to celebrate The Battle of Lexington and Concord? This is a bucket list item for me and I plan to be there, celebrating the many kinfolk who took part that day. There were many precusror events to the American Revolution but this is the event where the die was cast. If July 4, 1776 was the birth of our nation, this was the conception.

A popular California restaurant is closing following a lawsuit centered around its "ladies' night" events. Lima, a family-run restaurant in Concord, California, is shutting its doors next week after settling a discrimination lawsuit over its ladies' night promotions. The restaurant posted on Facebook earlier this month that it was "unable to fully recover" from the lawsuit and the "compounded" issues it faced regarding increased operation costs.(snip) Gender-based promotions, such as ladies' nights, have faced legal trouble under the California Civil Rights Act. In 1985, the state's Supreme Court ruled that ladies' day promotions at car washes and elsewhere and ladies'...

Police in Concord are investigating after someone vandalized a Satanic Temple holiday display at the State House. The statue, which the city sanctioned after explaining it was allowed because of the First Amendment, was unveiled Saturday night and was damaged shortly after. Visitors to the State House on Tuesday could see a Christmas tree, nativity scene and Bill of Rights display, but the Satanic Temple holiday display was taken down after it was damaged. The display depicted the pagan deity Baphomet and the Satanic Temple's seven fundamental tenets. In one hand, the figure held an apple to honor Isaac Newton...

The Trump presidency will oversee the World Cup, the Olympic Games and the 250th anniversary of the USA.During the next four years, the spotlight will be on America because the US is hosting a series of international events and marking a major milestone in the nation's history.

PlayStation will be taking its new Firewalk-developed live services game “Concord” offline this Friday and issuing refunds to players just two weeks after its Aug. 23 launch. The team-based first-person shooter game is reported to have drawn a historically small audience during its initial availability across PlayStation 5 and PC, with third-party PC-based gaming data website SteamDB showing 30 current in-game players at the time of publication on Tuesday. At the peak in its short history, “Concord” had 697 concurrent players, drastically low for a PlayStation new release, and ranked toward the bottom of PlayStation’s weekly sales charts. In “Concord,”...

CONCORD, Mass. — Five musket balls that were fired during the event known as "The Shot Heard Round the World" on April 19, 1775, were recently discovered at Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts. National Park Service archeologists discovered the musket balls while conducting compliance activities in preparation for the park’s Great American Outdoors Act project. According to the National Park Service, early analysis of the 18th-century musket balls indicates they were fired by colonial militia members at British forces during the North Bridge fight. The North Bridge battle site is a key location within the National Historical...

A family in Concord, New Hampshire, is at a loss of what to do about a growing homeless encampment that is directly behind their historic house. Robin Bach and her husband have worked hard to restore their 19th century Walker residence for their children, ages 8 and 11, to enjoy for years to come, the Concord Monitor reported Saturday. However, there is an expanding homeless encampment in the woods on their property that has given them cause for concern because no one seems to know who is responsible for it. Bach said her children are afraid to play outside and...

After months of delays, the battle between landlords and tenants in one Bay Area city has come to an end. A rent control ordinance in the city of Concord went into effect Friday after its opponents failed to get enough signatures to place the issue on the November ballot. “We are thrilled that the people of Concord have spoken again in favor of people over corporate greed,” Rhea Elina Laughlin, executive director of advocacy group Rising Juntos, said in a statement. The ordinance reduces the annual percentage by which landlords can raise rent in Concord and bolsters certain eviction protections....

On April 19, 1775, seventy-eight-year-old Captain Samuel Whittemore crouched behind a stone wall next to his home. Whittemore’s old fingers tightly gripped his musket and his pistol. A sword hung from his belt. A phalanx of Redcoats looted homes as they retreated back to Boston. The senior Patriot, who had resisted tyranny and the rule of the Crown for years, planned to fight to the death to defend his home.When the British troops approached, he blasted away, slaying two Redcoats and wounding or killing a third with his sword. The Redcoats then unleashed their fury on Whittemore, shooting him in...

“To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” — George Mason of Virginia In April of 1775, the British Royal Military Governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, sent 800 British Army Regulars, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, on a preemptive raid to seize guns from American patriots at Lexington and Concord.

During the first six decades of the eighteenth century, the American colonies were mostly allowed to govern themselves. In exchange, they loyally fought for Great Britain in imperial wars against the French and Spanish. But in 1763, after the British and Americans won the French and Indian War, King George III began working to eliminate American self-government. The succeeding years saw a series of political crises provoked by the king and parliament. What turned the political dispute into a war was arms confiscation at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775.

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — The author of “Little Women” may have been even more productive and sensational than previously thought. Max Chapnick, a postdoctoral teaching associate at Northeastern University, believes he found about 20 stories and poems written by Louisa May Alcott under her own name as well as pseudonyms for local newspapers in Massachusetts in the late 1850s and early 1860s. One of the pseudonyms is believed to be E. H. Gould, including a story about her house in Concord, Massachusetts, and a ghost story along the lines of the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol.” He also found...

by Jason DeWitt | RNNThe blonde varsity cheerleader repeatedly told this bully she did not want to fight, but the big bully didn’t listen. That was a big mistake, and every painful moment was captured on video.Savannah Sprague from California warned a bully that she did not want to fight. Varsity cheerleader Savannah Sprague repeatedly told a bully that she did not want to fight. Apparently, she was left with no choice but to defend herself, fight back, and come out on top. “No, nobody wants to fight. You guys want to fight us. Nobody speaks on you guys, nobody...

The sun never set on the British Empire. It was the largest empire in world history. Out of nearly 200 countries in the world, only 22 were never controlled, invaded or attacked by Britain. In April of 1775, the British Royal Military Governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, sent 800 British Army Regulars, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, on a preemptive raid to seize guns from American patriots at Lexington and Concord. George Mason of Virginia stated: "To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." A warning was sent from...

On April 19th, 1775, at about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town’s common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment’s hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green.Suddenly, the “shot heard around the world” was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or...

Full title: Archaeologists uncover secrets of historic Revolutionary War battle site BOSTON – Archeologists using 21st-century technology are mapping out the exact spots British soldiers and Colonial militiamen were standing as they fired at each other during a pivotal skirmish on the first day of the American Revolution. Parker's Revenge, as the fight is known, occurred on April 19, 1775, after the battles of Lexington and Concord as the redcoats retreated to Boston. Capt. John Parker, commander of the 77-member Lexington militia, had met the 700-strong British column on the green at 5:30 a.m. Eight of his men were killed...