ran 3.3 miles
On this day in 1775, 700 British troops marched into Lexington on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and to seize their arsenal. What they found was 77 armed minutemen led by Captain John Parker awaiting them in the city. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the highly outnumbered Patriots to fall back. After a brief hesitation, the minutemen began falling back until one unknown soldier took it upon himself to fire his gun toward the British. This became known in history books as the “shot heard around the world”. Within seconds, musket smoke blotted the battlefield. By the end of the battle 8 minutemen were dead and 10 were wounded. One British soldier was injured.
Then came Concord. The British aimed to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Warned by Paul Revere and William Dawes that the British were coming Adams and Hancock fled and were able to escape.
When the British troops reached Concord they were encircled by hundreds of armed Patriots. A battle ensued forcing Lieutenant Colonel Frances Smith to pull his British troops away and to retreat back to Boston. Retracing a 16-mile journey, the British were constantly fired upon by Patriots waiting for them in hiding along the path of retreat. Finally reaching Boston, the British had nearly 300 casualties and the Patriots had less than 100.
The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American Revolution, which ultimately gave birth to the United States of America.
I wonder what these brave, rugged individuals who fought and died for the opportunity to embrace freedom and to escape the tyranny of overbearing government would think of America today.
230.9 miles to go.
Here is what happened one year ago on Day234.
