Readiness

Patriot’s Day Battle Reenactment

Lexington Battle Green, Lexington, MA

In the murky dawn of April 19th, 1775, a British expeditionary force, on the orders of General Thomas Gage and led by Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, approached the small town of Lexington, Massachusetts. The soldiers, numbering between 800 and 900 men in 21 companies, had departed from Boston the night before.

Their mission: to find and capture Yankee munitions stored in Concord. By the time they reached Lexington however, they found themselves faced down by a growing number of local militiamen arrayed on the town Common. Major John Pitcairn's British light infantry was deployed on the Common directly opposite the band of minutemen led by Captain John Parker. "Stand your ground," Parker said to his apprehensive troops. "Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

No one knows for sure who fired the first shot of the first battle of the War for Independence. All that is certain is that a heavy toll was extracted from the defiant American militiamen. In the wild, undisciplined firing followed the first mysterious shot and two Lexington men fell dead on the line where they stood. Other militiamen briefly returned fire and then joined their comrades in a confused, smoke-shrouded retreat.

The British soldiers continued firing into the fleeing crowds, killing more Americans as they tried to escape back into their homes. Only when Colonel Smith himself arrived on the Common were the soldiers commanded to cease fire and form up. As the families of Lexington nursed their wounded and mourned their dead, the British column continued their march toward Concord.