Battles of Lexington and Concord

Paul Revere is remembered as the lone hero who alerted colonists that “the British are coming.” However, William Dawes also rode out to warn that the Regulars (not “the British”) were on the move. Revere also arranged for signal lanterns to be lit in the Old North Church belfry, shown in this 1939 linocut. One light if the Regulars took a land route, two by water. It was the latter. When both riders were captured en route to Concord, their alarm was already racing across New England. 

After confronting the British Regulars on Lexington Green, militia Captain John Parker ordered his men “to disperse and not to fire” when a shot rang out from an unknown person. The British reacted by firing, killing 8 and wounding 10 of Parker’s men. Parker's deposition presents the American perception of the battle. What happened when the Lexington militia faced British Regulars is still debated, but who fired the first shot is likely to remain a mystery.

The British Army suffered three times the number of colonial casualties. One of them was Lieutenant Edward Thorton Gould, a British prisoner of war injured at Concord. Other British officers insisted that colonists had fired first at Lexington. But, Gould claimed in this deposition to his American captors “which party fired first I cannot exactly say.” The Massachusetts Provincial Congress’s purpose in collecting these accounts was to demonstrate to officials in London and the Continental Congress that the militia only fired in self defense.

This account of eight minutemen from the town of Lincoln, Massachusetts, notes that reports of fatalities at Lexington had been received in Concord. However, no one at the time was certain of the details. Although colonists had already been killed at Lexington, the minutes-long battle at North Bridge came to be understood as the start of the Revolutionary War. As this deposition states, “then & not before . . . [Americans] fired upon the Regulars.”

Approximately 4,000 minutemen and militia descended on Lexington and Concord throughout April 19. Firing on the British from various positions during their retreat to Boston, militia inflicted heavy casualties along Battle Road. Among them were dozens of patriots of color, like free Black minuteman Cuff Whittemore. After the battles, New Englanders continued to arrive, besieging Boston and forming a force that would become the Continental Army. This testimony from Whittemore’s pension application notes that he enlisted in May 1775 and served “untill the peace took place.” 

Revolutionary leaders knew the importance of getting their version of events to London first. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress commissioned a packet ship that delivered this address from its president, Joseph Warren, before the British report arrived. Announcing that "Hostilities are at length commenced . . . We determine to die or be free,” Warren also stressed the colonists' hope for reconciliation. It took a further year of war before Americans resolved to declare independence from Great Britain.