James May-June 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 72
What happened was this: Americans and British soldiers shot and
killed each other that day in the opening skirmish of what became known
as the American Revolution. British
soldiers had been stationed in Boston
since 1768 and had been there in force
under General Thomas Gage since the
spring of 1774 when the Massachusetts Governing Act went into effect
following the destruction of the East
India Company’s tea during the Boston
Tea Party of December 1773. All of
this was linked to a change in British
policy following the end of the Seven
Years War in 1763, when colonial policy makers decided to tighten up the
administration of the empire.
The tightening began in earnest
with the Stamp Act in 1765, in an effort
to raise revenue, and from the beginning a majority of American colonials
opposed the policy. Sporadic violence
had broken out before—in the summer of 1765 and the so-called Boston
Massacre in 1770, and there had been
ongoing violence against and intimida-
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tion of royal officials in all colonies— but
nothing like the armed rebellion of April
19. Gage, the commander in chief of all
His Majesty’s forces in North America,
was also the royal governor of Massachusetts, and in early April he received
clear instructions from the ministry: nip
this growing rebellion and war of words
in the bud. Seize the ringleaders and
disarm the Americans.
Gage’s men were met at first
light on April 19 on Lexington green
by Captain John Parker and the Lexington militia, about 80 in number.
Parker, according to legend, told his
men, “Stand your ground. Don’t fire
unless fired upon. But if they mean to
have a war, let it begin here.” It did.
No one knows which side fired first,
but shots were exchanged, and eight
of the Lexington men went down.
The British then marched to Concord,
where they fought the Concord militia
at the Old North Bridge; after that it
was pure chaos, and the British army
had to fight its way back to Lexington
through an increasingly armed and
hostile countryside that had turned
out to fight them, thanks in part to
the alarm raised by Revere, William
Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott. The
British limped back into Lexington
shortly after noon and would have
been forced to surrender in a humiliating defeat if not for the arrival of reinforcements and artillery.
Lord Hugh Percy saved the British
army that day from an unmitigated
disaster, worthy of the rescue at
Dunkirk. He led his 1,500 men, many
of them wounded, back to Boston
over difficult narrow terrain along a
single narrow road, through an estimated 20,000 armed and furious
Americans, many of them marksmen.
It was a day and a nightmare that
none of those involved would ever
forget. The Americans kept up a relentless and furious fire, from behind
every fence, building, and stone wall
between Concord and Boston, and in
the end 73 British soldiers were killed,
174 wounded, and 26 missing, a casualty rate of 18 percent. The British
