Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775): War Begins

The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on 19 April 1775 in eastern Massachusetts, were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. A British column sent to destroy militia supplies at Concord clashed with colonists at Lexington at dawn, was confronted at Concord’s North Bridge, and then fought its way back to Boston under fire from thousands of militiamen. By nightfall Britain and its colonies were at war.

Background and the march

Since the Intolerable Acts of 1774, Massachusetts had been in open defiance of British rule. General Thomas Gage, both military commander and governor, controlled Boston with several thousand troops, but outside the town an unofficial Provincial Congress governed, collected taxes and trained the militia. Special companies of “minutemen” were formed to turn out at a moment’s notice.

The Provincial Congress gathered arms, powder, cannon and provisions in inland towns, especially Concord, about 18 miles (29 km) from Boston. In April 1775, Gage received orders from London to act firmly against the rebellion. He decided on a surprise raid to destroy the Concord stores, which he hoped would avoid bloodshed while weakening the colonists’ ability to fight.

On the night of 18 April, about 700 grenadiers and light infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, with Major John Pitcairn of the Royal Marines as second-in-command, were ferried across the Back Bay from Boston to Cambridge. The crossing and assembly were slow, and the troops waded through marshland before starting their march in the early hours of 19 April.

The secret was already out. Patriot leaders in Boston had been watching the troops, and Dr Joseph Warren sent riders including Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn the countryside, as told in Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride. Church bells, signal guns and further riders spread the alarm from town to town, and militia companies across the region began to assemble.

The clash on Lexington Green

Pitcairn’s advance companies reached Lexington at about sunrise, around 5 a.m. On the village green stood the town’s militia company under Captain John Parker, a veteran of the French and Indian War. Estimates of his men range from about 60 to 80, with onlookers nearby. They were not blocking the road to Concord, and Parker seems to have intended a show of resolve rather than a fight.

Pitcairn ordered the militia to lay down their arms and disperse. As Parker’s men began to break up, still holding their muskets, a shot rang out. Its source has never been established. The British soldiers, without orders, opened fire and charged with bayonets. Eight militiamen were killed and ten wounded; one British soldier was slightly wounded. The officers restored order with difficulty, the column fired a victory volley, and the march to Concord resumed.

The fight at North Bridge

The regulars reached Concord at about 8 a.m. Warned in advance, the townspeople had moved or hidden most of the stores. The troops found and destroyed three cannon, some gun carriages, entrenching tools and provisions, and threw barrels of musket balls into a pond. Meanwhile, several companies were sent across the North Bridge to search Colonel James Barrett’s farm.

Militia from Concord and neighbouring towns had gathered on high ground overlooking the bridge, and their numbers grew to about 400. When they saw smoke rising from the town, where the British were burning gun carriages and a fire had spread briefly to the town house, they believed the soldiers were setting Concord alight. Led by Major John Buttrick, they marched towards the bridge.

The roughly 100 regulars guarding it fired first, killing Captain Isaac Davis and Private Abner Hosmer of the Acton company. Buttrick ordered his men to fire back. The volley killed or mortally wounded three British soldiers and wounded several officers, and the outnumbered regulars fell back into the town. This was the first time colonial militia had fired on British troops under orders.

The retreat to Boston

Shortly after noon Smith began the march back to Boston. At Meriam’s Corner, just outside Concord, militia who had arrived from other towns opened fire, and for the rest of the day the column was attacked from behind stone walls, trees, houses and hills along the road. The colonists fought less as formed units than as moving groups, firing and then running ahead to new positions.

The fiercest fighting came at places such as the “Bloody Curve” in Lincoln and, later, in the village of Menotomy (now Arlington), where fighting went from house to house. Flanking parties of regulars broke into homes suspected of sheltering snipers; at the house of Jason Russell, Russell and a number of militiamen who had taken refuge there were killed. Menotomy saw some of the heaviest losses of the day on both sides. Near Lexington, Captain Parker’s company, including survivors of the morning, ambushed the column again in an action later called “Parker’s Revenge”.

By the time the exhausted column reached Lexington in mid-afternoon, it was close to collapse. It was saved by a relief brigade of about 1,000 men with two field guns under Brigadier Hugh, Lord Percy, which Gage had sent that morning. The combined force pushed on through constant fire and reached the safety of Charlestown, across the river from Boston, after dark.

Key people

Thomas Gage planned the raid as a limited police action; its failure ended his hopes of a peaceful outcome. Francis Smith commanded the expedition, and John Pitcairn led its advance guard at Lexington.

John Parker, captain of the Lexington militia, stood his men on the green in the face of a much larger force. Hugh Percy, a young aristocratic officer, saved Smith’s column with his relief brigade and skilled rearguard tactics. On the colonial side, Joseph Warren and William Heath helped coordinate the militia during the retreat.

Consequences

Within days, militia from across New England surrounded Boston, beginning a siege that lasted almost a year. In June, the British attack on colonial fortifications at the Battle of Bunker Hill proved costly for both sides.

Both sides raced to publish their version of events. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress collected sworn statements from witnesses insisting the regulars had fired first, and sent them to London on a fast ship that arrived ahead of Gage’s own report. When the Second Continental Congress met in May 1775, it soon adopted the army besieging Boston as a Continental Army and appointed George Washington to command it.

The day also reshaped opinion beyond New England. News carried by express riders reached New York within days and the southern colonies within weeks, and in many places royal governors lost what remained of their authority as local committees took control. In Britain, the reports confirmed King George III and his ministers in the view that the colonies were in rebellion and would have to be subdued by force.

Memory of the battles grew quickly. Concord’s townspeople raised a monument at the North Bridge in 1836, and for its dedication on 4 July 1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the “Concord Hymn”. Daniel Chester French’s statue of a minuteman leaving his plough was unveiled there for the centennial in 1875. Today the battlefield road is protected as Minute Man National Historical Park, established in 1959, and Massachusetts and Maine mark Patriots’ Day each April with re-enactments on Lexington Green and at the bridge.

By the numbers

Myths and facts

Myth: the battles were fought only by farmers with hunting guns. Many militiamen were indeed farmers, but they were organised in trained companies with officers, and many had served in earlier wars.

Myth: the “shot heard round the world” was fired at Lexington. Emerson’s phrase, from his 1837 poem “Concord Hymn”, refers to the North Bridge at Concord, where the militia first fired back under orders.

Myth: it was a single battle. In reality it was a running fight of about 18 miles (29 km) lasting most of the day, across several towns.

Timeline

• 1775, 18 April, about 10 p.m.: British troops begin crossing from Boston to Cambridge; Revere and Dawes ride to warn the countryside.
• 1775, 19 April, about 5 a.m.: Shots are fired on Lexington Green; eight militiamen are killed.
• 1775, 19 April, about 8 a.m.: The British column arrives in Concord and searches for stores.
• 1775, 19 April, mid-morning: Militia and regulars exchange fire at the North Bridge.
• 1775, 19 April, about noon: The retreat begins and fighting erupts at Meriam’s Corner.
• 1775, 19 April, mid-afternoon: Lord Percy’s relief brigade meets Smith’s column near Lexington.
• 1775, 19 April, evening: The British reach Charlestown; the siege of Boston begins.
• 1775, 17 June: The Battle of Bunker Hill is fought outside Boston.

Why it matters

Lexington and Concord turned a political crisis into a war. The day showed that colonial militia could stand up to British regulars, rallied opinion throughout the colonies, and began the eight-year conflict that ended with American independence.