Lexington and Concord, Battles of

LEXINGTON AND CONCORD, BATTLES OF

LEXINGTON AND CONCORD, BATTLES OF. On the evening of 18 April 1775 the British military governor of Massachusetts sent out from Boston a detachment of about 700 regular troops to destroy military stores collected by the colonists at Concord. Detecting the plan, the Whigs in Boston sent out Paul Revere and William Dawes with warnings. At sunrise on 19 April, the detachment found a part of the minuteman company already assembled on the Lexington green. At the command of British Major John Pitcairn, the regulars fired and cleared the ground. Eight Americans were killed and 10 were wounded. The regulars marched for Concord after a short delay.

At Concord the outnumbered Americans retired over the North Bridge and waited for reinforcements. The British occupied the town, held the North Bridge with about 100 regulars, and searched for stores to burn. The smoke alarmed the Americans, and, reinforced to the number of about 450, they marched down to the bridge, led by Major John Buttrick. The regulars hastily reformed on the far side to receive them and began to take up the bridge planks. Buttrick shouted to them to desist. The front ranks of the regulars fired, killing 2 Americans and wounding more. Buttrick gave the famous order, "Fire, fellow soldiers, for God's sake, fire!" The American counterattack killed 2 and forced the British from the field. The Americans did not pursue, however, and the British marched for Boston about noon.

At Meriam's Corner their rear guard was fired upon by rebels from Reading, and from there to Lexington the British were under constant fire from snipers. By the time they reached Lexington, the regulars were almost out of ammunition and completely demoralized. They were

saved only by the arrival of Sir Hugh Percy with a column from Boston and two fieldpieces. When they marched on again, the militia dogged them all the way to Charles-town, where, before sundown, the regulars reached safety under the guns of the fleet.

The casualties of the day bear no relation to its importance. Forty-nine Americans and 73 British were killed; the total of those killed and wounded of both sides was 366. But the fighting proved to the Americans that by their own method they could defeat the British. In that belief, they stopped the land approaches to Boston before night, thus beginning the siege of Boston.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cress, Lawrence D. Citizens in Arms: The Army and the Militia in American Society to the War of 1812. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982.

Martin, James K., and Mark E. Lender. A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763–1789. Arlington Heights, Ill.: Davidson, 1982.

Shy, John. Toward Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965.

———. A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.

Allen French / a. r.

See also Boston, Siege of ; Bunker Hill, Battle of ; Minutemen ; Revere's Ride ; and vol. 9: Battle of Lexington, American and British Accounts .