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The battles of Lexington and concord fought on April 19th started the American Revolutionary war. The fighting started on the Lexington Green and soon the British were hastily retreating under intense fire. Many more battles followed, and in 1783 the colonists formally won their independence. The redcoats had better weapons than the militias and they were a lot bigger army. The militiamen didn’t want to fight, instead they wanted to talk and come to an agreement.
The battle of lexington and concord started because General Gage, a loyalist to the king, had received secret instructions to take the patriots’ weapons. The British general wanted to capture two minute men, John Hancock and Sam Adams then they were off to concord. The British soldiers had to march through Lexington to get to concord and take the military guns and ammunition. They were planning on marching only to Concord, but since they had met up with patriots ready to fight in Lexington, a battle started there and took time out of getting the Redcoats to concord right away even took a few soldiers from the British Army.
Paul Revere never shouted the legendary phrase “The British are coming!” as he passed from town to town, which later he was held responsible for. This would’ve confused most of the Americans and they would not know what to do. Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty warned the minutemen that the British soldiers would be coming across the Charleston River coming into Lexington.
Word spread from town to town, and militias prepared to confront the British and help their neighbors in Lexington and Concord and signed their names to fight, gathered ammunition, a gun, water, and a pound of bread. About 700 British troops arrived in Lexington and came upon 77 militiamen gathered on the Lexington town green where the battle began. When Captain Parker assembled his small army near Lexington, he realized they were too small to take on the British force.
Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless you are fired upon, but if they mean war, let it begin here, he encouraged his men. Both Captain Parker and the British officers gave their men orders not to shoot. Captain Parker even ordered the men to disband to ease the commotion, but, his men could not hear him well enough when he ordered due to the commotion and his encounter with tuberculosis earlier. Few shots fired, and none of them laid down their weapons. At that point, an unknown shot came from someone in the ranks or hiding behind the walls and trees. The British soldiers, probably without orders, then opened fire on the Americans.
To this day, no one knows which side fired first. Several British shots were afterwards unleashed before order could be restored. When the smoke cleared, eight militiamen lay dead and nine were wounded, while only one Redcoat was injured. The British soldiers then continued into Concord to search for arms, not realizing that most of the minutemen had already been relocated. They decided to burn what little they found, and the fire got slightly out of control. Hundreds of militiamen who took over the high ground outside of Concord incorrectly thought the whole town would be torched and all of their belongings and family would be gone.
After searching Concord the British prepared to return to Boston, located 18 miles away. By that time, almost 2,000 militiamen (known as minutemen for their ability to be ready on a moment’s notice) had relocated and settled onto the area, and more were constantly arriving. At first, the militiamen simply followed the British column. Fighting started again soon after and the hundreds of scattered militiamen in groups of three to four minutemen were firing at the redcoat soldiers from behind trees, stone walls, houses and sheds that were found in forests and open land. The minutemen fired from behind trees, stone walls, houses, and sheds so that the British redcoats would not know where they were firing from and the Redcoats would be unable to fire back.
Before long, British troops were abandoning weapons, clothing and equipment in order to take away any extra weight and were able to retreat faster. The hundreds of scattered minutemen relocated every once in awhile to shoot at more Redcoats in the same forests. This method helped them kill faster, keep themselves from getting shot at, and using this method the minutemen will be able to keep killing the Redcoats and stay successful. The battles of Lexington and Concord were over and the colonists did not show great marksmanship that day, considering they never wanted violence with the Redcoats, yet they wanted to compromise.
Nearly 3,500 militiamen firing constantly for 18 miles only killed or wounded roughly 250 British Redcoats, and only about 90 killed and wounded on their side. Nevertheless, the militiamen proved they could stand up and battle to one of the most powerful armies across the whole world and beat them. News of the battles quickly spread, reaching London by May 28th. By the following summer, a full-scale of independence had broken out. Many more battles followed, and in 1783 the colonists earned their independence. The colonists celebrated their first engagement of their fight for freedom. Although this was a small, short battle, the significance of this event that had began the American Revolution, which would change the view on the American history forever. The American Revolution has begun.
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