The Shot Heard Round the World: The American Revolution Begins, April 19, 1775

Top: Concord Bridge. Bottom: Lexington Green. Right: Lexington Minuteman.

On this day, April 19, in 1775, a few shots were fired in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord, shots whose echoes shook the very foundations of the world and heralded the dawn of a new age.

When the Sons of Liberty found out that the British “Regulars” were planning to march from Boston to seize an arms cache in Concord—and possibly stop in Lexington to arrest Patriots John Hancock and Sam Adams—Paul Revere was sent to sound the alarm. Revere (whose ride ended in capture), William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott warned the Patriot leaders and militia during their historic ride, and the next day 700 British troops found themselves on Lexington Green facing a determined group of about 77 Patriots, including at least one slave, Peter Salem. “Throw down your arms! Ye villains, ye rebels,” a British major commanded arrogantly. But the Patriots weren’t interested in surrendering their guns to a tyrannical government, and the American Revolution began.

It is not known which side fired the first shot, later famously labeled the “shot heard round the world” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Unfortunately, since the Americans had been ordered by their commander to disperse if firing commenced, the exchange of fire resulted in only one British “Redcoat” being injured, while eight Patriots were killed and nine injured. But while Lexington might have seemed a promising start from the British point of view, they quickly learned to regret their mission into the Massachusetts countryside.

The British arrived in Concord only to find most of the arms they sought had been moved, so they started a fire to burn the remaining stores, a fire that threatened to get out of hand. Patriot militia, fearing their whole town would go up in flames, forced the British to fall back from Concord’s North Bridge.

By the time the British were heading back to Boston, some 2,000 “minutemen,” or Patriot militia nicknamed for their ability to be ready on a minute’s notice, were gathered. More militia kept coming throughout the day. British reinforcements arrived as well, but it was no help as minutemen fired from behind walls, sheds, trees, and houses much of the way back to Boston. The British did try to fight back, but many began to abandon not only clothing and equipment but even weapons in their haste to retreat and escape the Patriot militia’s intense fire. In his immortal poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described the events:

‘You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard-wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.’

Emerson also paid tribute to the Patriots’ courage in his “Concord Hymn” for the 1837 dedication of a Battle Monument to the heroes of that day:

‘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…

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
   To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
   The shaft we raise to them and thee.’

History.com notes, “The relatively low casualties of the Battles of Lexington and Concord proved they could stand up to one of the most powerful armies in the world. News of the battle quickly spread, reaching London on May 28. A few months later, the British narrowly defeated the Americans in Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, the low number of casualties once again showing the strength of patriot forces. By the following summer, a full-scale war of independence had broken out, paving the way for the creation of the United States of America.”

We Americans now face a tyranny in our own federal government worse than the dictatorial British empire that the colonists so bravely faced up to. Like the Patriots of that time, we too are pressured to surrender our guns, our rights, everything to the mercy of the federal government that labels modern Patriots as “extremists” and “domestic terrorists.” But the echoes of the shot heard round the world sound in our ears even today. Will we heed the call? Shall we too stand firm and determine that we will pass on to our children the heritage of liberty and courage, the heritage of the minutemen of Lexington and Concord, who fought and died to prove that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Lexington and Concord