Since the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774, Boston had been awhirl in anger, protests, and rioting. Still, many patriots hoped war could be avoided. They were well aware that England was a formidable enemy (a major fighting force), while the widely scattered colonies had scant military experience. But, just in case the worst happened, the patriots decided to collect some weapons and store them in Concord, a small town about twenty miles northwest of Boston. Companies of minutemen were formed (men who could be ready to fight on a minute’s notice), and committees of observation were appointed to watch and report on the activities of British troops.
In April 1775, British General Thomas Gage (1721–1787), then governor of Massachusetts, heard about the weapons buildup in Concord. He had been ordered by King George to take some definitive action and show Bostonians who was boss. Gage decided to send troops to Lexington and Concord to seize the weapons stashed there and to capture John Hancock (1737–1793) and Samuel Adams, two colonial freedom-fighters who were in hiding from British authorities. Massachusetts patriot-spies found out about Gage’s plans almost instantly. On the night of April 18, Paul Revere (1735–1818) and William Dawes (1745–1799) rode from Boston to Lexington and Concord, respectively, to prepare Americans for the arrival of British forces. From their legendary rides came the famous line: “The redcoats are coming.”
As British soldiers made their way across the Massachusetts countryside, church bells rang, warning drums beat, and guns were fired to alert citizens of their approach. At dawn on April 19, between 40 and 75 patriot soldiers gathered at Lexington to greet part of the British force of 700 men. Realizing they were outnumbered, the Americans were about to disband when the first shots were fired—shots that were “heard ‘round the world.” Eight Americans were killed and one British soldier was wounded. Each side claimed the other fired first. Though undeclared, the American Revolution had begun.
The British called for reinforcements. Before they arrived, 700 British soldiers marched on Concord, where they met resistance from a force of about 450 Americans. Again, guns fired, with each side denying responsibility for the first shot. The British began a retreat to Boston but met with even more resistance all along the way. When the smoke cleared, 49 Americans lay dead, and more than 40 were wounded or missing. On the British side, 73 were killed, 174 were wounded, and 28 were missing.
Immediately, propaganda artists set to work offering wildly differing versions of the events of April 19, 1775. (Propaganda is biased or distorted information spread by persons who wish to present only their point of view and thus further their own cause.) The Massachusetts Spy of May 3, 1775, presented this version of events:
AMERICANS! forever bear in mind the BATTLE OF LEXINGTON! where British Troops, unmolested and unprovoked, wantonly [maliciously] and in a most cruel manner fired upon and killed a number of our countrymen, then robbed them of their provisions, ransacked, plundered and burnt their houses! nor could the tears of defenceless women, some of whom were in the pains of childbirth, the cries of helpless babies, nor the prayers of old age, confined to beds of sickness, appease their thirst for blood!—or divert them from their DESIGN OF MURDER and ROBBERY!
In England, it was reported that Americans had scalped British soldiers, both dead and dying. A British soldier’s account of the Americans’ treatment of his comrades appears in John C. Miller’s Origins of the American Revolution. According to the soldier, the Americans were “full as bad as the Indians for scalping and cutting the dead Men’s Ears and Noses off, and those they get alive, that are wounded and can’t get off the Ground.” The British army claimed to have burned only those houses from which patriot soldiers were firing and accused the Americans at Lexington of firing first. What’s more, they complained, the Americans did not fight fairly, but “ran to the Woods like Devils,” running from tree to tree, taking shots at the British, then falling to their bellies to reload, instead of remaining standing to present a fair target.
General Gage’s report to the British secretary of war made the incident seem unimportant: “I have now nothing to trouble your lordship with, but of an affair that happened here on the 19th.” When members of the British government heard the gory details that came later, they were stunned. Great Britain had never had to use force to control its American subjects. Clearly, the conditions were ripe for a war, and what was more, America had proved that her fighting men were not afraid to stand up to trained British soldiers.
