Shot Heard 'Round the World

LEXINGTON & CONCORD

On the night of April 18, 1775, 700 British soldiers loaded onto boats for the long row across the Charles River from Boston to the mainland at Cambridge. Oars creaked as Royal Navy sailors ferried 11 light-infantry companies and 10 of grenadiers to their landing place. It was not until 1:30 p.m. April 19 that the column set off on foot to Concord, Massachusetts.

Lt. Col. Francis Smith led the expedition, with Marine Maj. John Pitcairn second in command. Smith was carrying out the orders of Maj. Gen. Thomas Gage, the commander of His Majesty’s forces in North America, who, in turn, was acting on instructions from his sovereign, King George III.

On April 14, Gage learned the crown had declared Massachusetts to be in rebellion and ordered bold military action to solve the growing political problem.

The cautious Gage aimed his blow at Concord, where recent intelligence indicated the rebels were storing caches of military supplies, powder, ammunition, gun carriages and cannon. Gage’s adjutant estimated New England could field an army of 30,000 men. It was artillery that most worried Gage. Field guns could transform the militia into a formidable foe, and heavy guns around Boston could threaten the British fleet — his lifeline.

If he could make an example at Concord, it would possibly dampen the colonials’ appetite for rebellion. This is why some 700 young British men marched through the night the 20 miles to Concord.

The British march was not unexpected. The Massachusetts Committee of Safety had established a complex network of early warning communications for just this eventuality. Alarm riders — including Paul Revere — were speeding the news north, south and west. Soon, church bells in a 20-mile radius around Concord rang to alert their militia companies. This sophisticated system of communication was due to reforms the previous year.

After years of resistance to increasing British interference in economic and political matters in Massachusetts, Gage had dissolved the Massachusetts Assembly in 1774. Undeterred, the assembly simply adjourned to Concord where it met as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress.

One of its first acts was to reform the militia. Towns held elections for new officers, replacing loyalists or incompetent individuals with experienced commanders, many of whom were veterans of the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Militia regiments formed by county and began training.

By direction of the Continental Congress, reformed militia regiments enlisted one quarter of their troops into a select body of militia directly under the control of the Committee of Public Safety. With increased standards of readiness and because of their requirements to be ready to march at a moment’s notice, they were called “Minutemen.”

Minute companies were typically under the command of combat veterans and manned by younger, more physically fit men with revolutionary leanings. Towns levied taxes to equip their minute companies to a higher standard, with bayonets and cartridge boxes. By April 1775, Massachusetts had around 20,000 troops under arms. The unwitting Smith was walking into territory within a day’s march of 14,000 troops in 47 regiments that had been training all winter for such a moment.

Like National Guard units today, they were bound together by more than just a common goal: They had ties of kinship and friendship.

 

Lexington Muster

Around midnight April 18, Capt. John Parker of the Lexington militia company learned of a British scouting party from his first sergeant, William Munroe. Appointed commander by the selectmen of Lexington, Parker, a veteran of the French and Indian War, was not taking any chances and summoned his company.

By 1 a.m. April 19, about 100 members of the Lexington company assembled on the village green. Parker met with his officers. They agreed that their role was to protect the town, but decided they would not provoke the British regulars, “even should they insult us.” Parker sent out a patrol and dismissed the rest of his men with instructions not to go far.

Like National Guard units today, they were bound together by more than just a common goal: They had ties of kinship and friendship. Most had known each other their entire lives. There were multiple sets of brothers, cousins, uncles and nephews, fathers and sons. Some were free, some were enslaved. Some were white, others were black. Rather than go home, most adjourned to the local tavern to wait.

Near dawn, Parker’s scouts came back with news that a strong British column had entered the town. Parker ordered his drummer to sound the cadence for assembly, and about 76 members of the Lexington militia gathered on the village green, a grassy common area. Parker arrayed his force into two ranks, careful not to block the road to Concord. The British could pass unmolested if they wished.

Meanwhile, Smith, the British ground commander, ordered Pitcairn ahead with the light companies to clear the route to Concord. Before entering Lexington, Pitcairn ordered his men to halt and load their muskets, cautioning them not to fire without orders. Gage had not given Smith any written rules of engagement if he met with armed opposition. Militia and redcoats had stared each other down all that spring in various encounters without bloodshed.

As the regulars came level with the Lexington green, the lead two companies rushed ahead without orders. Pitcairn, momentarily separated from his command by the meeting house at the tip of the green, spurred his horse to the left to rejoin his men. By the time he had, his two companies were in line of battle and facing Parker’s company. Pitcairn ordered the militia to disperse. Parker complied, ordering his men to fall back.

An unknown person fired a shot. The British opened fire and rushed forward with fixed bayonets. Some militia returned fire, while others fled. Pitcairn and the other officers were unable to restore order until Smith arrived. It took 30 minutes to get the column back on the road, but by 5:45 a.m., Smith and his men were heading to Concord, about seven miles away.

They left behind eight dead or mortally wounded members of the Lexington militia. Ten more, including African American Prince Estabrook, were wounded. Parker tended to his dead and wounded as shocked and grieving families arrived to find what had happened. Then, embodying the resilient spirit of the militia, he gathered his troops and marched off towards Concord after the British.

Not Disorganized Farmers

In Concord, Col. James Barrett mustered his militia regiment and the town’s minute battalion. They had received little news after the first alert at 2 a.m. He had five companies on hand and posted three to the north, screening the road from Lexington. Before long, the redcoats came into sight.

Barrett and Maj. John Buttrick of the minute battalion decided to yield the town altogether and marched their command outside of town just under a mile to Punkatasset Hill, where they could observe the town and the North Bridge. Barrett rode off to his farm to oversee the movement of cannon buried in his garden while Buttrick took charge of the growing muster.

Smith, meanwhile, was eager to search Concord and return to Boston. Already, he could see a mass of militia forming outside the town. He ordered light-infantry companies to cover the bridges around the town and sent his grenadiers to examine buildings and lots. Three light companies — about 100 men — guarded North Bridge, wary of the growing force on the hill.

The grenadiers began a thorough but polite search of Concord. They missed many supplies because they took townspeople at their word, but managed to find some tents, spades and gun carriages. Piling them up, they set them alight. The flames spread to a nearby building, starting a small fire that the grenadiers helped quench.

By 10 a.m., Barrett had returned to find about 500 troops in two regiments. After about 30 minutes during which the leaders deliberated, they suddenly saw smoke rising from Concord. Barrett’s regimental adjutant, Joseph Hosmer, spoke up: “Will you let them burn the town down?” Barrett would not.

With the orders, “Don’t fire first,” Barrett ordered Buttrick to lead his battalion of about 250 men towards North Bridge in column of companies. From the bridge, British Lt. William Sutherland noted with some alarm that these were not disorganized farmers: “They began to march by divisions down upon us from their left in a very military manner.”

Capt. Isaac Davis led the way with his well-trained Acton Minute Company. As Davis’ company drew closer, the British withdrew across the bridge and appeared to be trying to tear up the planks. Buttrick called out to them to cease destroying public property and the minutemen quickened their pace. Seconds later, the British light infantry opened fire. Davis and Pvt. Abner Hosmer were both killed instantly, with several men wounded.

“Fire!” Buttrick ordered. “For God’s sake, fire!”

The Minutemen opened at first a scattered and then steady fire on the British, as more companies came abreast of the bridge. The “shot heard ‘round the world” of American citizen-soldiers striking their first blow against the crown came in the form of deadly fire that killed and wounded nearly all the British officers. After several minutes, the light infantry fled back towards Concord. Buttrick led his men across the bridge and awaited further developments.

The militia not only began the American Revolution, but also played a key role in the creation of the U.S. Army.
 

Bloody Retreat

Smith realized he had to leave. Loading his wounded onto wagons, he began the march back to Boston. The road narrowed to cross a stream just east of town at a spot called Meriam’s Corner.

As the companies compressed to cross the bridge, the next exchange of fire occurred. Both sides claimed the other fired first. Regardless of who shot first, gunfire ensured from both sides and did not cease until darkness.

Smith’s column now ran a gauntlet of fire. Framingham and Sudbury companies assaulted them on Hardy’s Hill. Smith formed a rearguard and pushed his light infantry out on each flank as the column approached an s-curve in the road. Here, the British ran into two deadly ambushes from fresh formations at the “bloody angle.”

Fighting through it, the column trailed its dead and wounded as it headed back to Lexington, where Parker had prepared another ambush. The Lexington men wounded Smith and sent the column into a panic. Only the prompt arrival of 1,000 redcoats in Lexington prevented Smith’s total defeat.

After a brief rest, the combined British forces pushed back towards Boston. Brutal urban fighting took place in Menotomy, where both sides took the majority of their casualties. Much of the fighting was hand-to-hand. Sam Whittemore, 78, dropped three regulars with a brace of pistols and his musket, before being shot, bayoneted 13 times and left for dead. He survived and lived nearly two decades longer.

The British column torched any house from which it received fire and used artillery to clear the road to Charlestown. As darkness fell, the beleaguered command stumbled back to the safety of the Royal Navy’s guns. The British had lost 73 dead, 174 wounded and 26 missing. At least 50 militia were dead, 39 wounded and five were missing. Neither side knew it at the time, but the struggle for American independence had begun.

The Massachusetts troops settled into a siege of Boston and called on their neighbors for support. By June, militia units from Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island had joined the New England Army of Observation. On June 14, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia created the Continental Army — and adopted the New England army into it.

The militia not only began the American Revolution but also played a key role in the creation of the U.S. Army.

Maj. Jonathan D. Bratten is command historian for the Maine National Guard. He has written extensively on the history of Guard units from states across New England, including To the Last Man: A National Guard Regiment in the Great War, 1917-1919, the story of Maine’s 103rd Infantry Regiment in World War I. The book earned him the U.S. Army Historical Foundation distinguished writing award in 2020.

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TOP PHOTO: A National Guard Heritage Painting by Don Troiani depicts the exchange of fire at North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. (Courtesy of National Guard Bureau)