Battles of Lexington and Concord: A History from Beginning to End

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American War of Independence, an introduction into years of combat that would pit the forces of the Thirteen Colonies against the world’s mightiest empire, Great Britain. The events of April 19, 1775 have been commemorated in poetry and have become part of the sweeping legend of the American fight for independence. Yet when Paul Revere and William Dawes left Boston on the night of April 18 to warn the towns that the British were coming, there were no Americans. The colonies were British subjects who owed their allegiance to King George III.

Nonetheless, hostilities had been percolating since the previous decade, when the British, needing to replenish the Royal Treasury after fighting the French and Indian War on the North American continent, began levying taxes against their colonial subjects. Massachusetts, in particular, resented the taxes, and the Sons of Liberty, a Patriot organization dedicated to independence from Great Britain, capitalized on the seething emotions of the people to stir up resistance.

The Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Boston Tea Party in 1773 brought the colony to the point of revolt, and weapons and ammunition were being hidden in neighboring towns around Boston. It was to capture those weapons that the British left Boston on the night of April 18, 1775, unaware that their movements were being watched and that couriers were ready to alert Lexington and Concord that soldiers were on their way.

When the British arrived, the militias were waiting, and as the day went on, more and more colonial soldiers joined the forces in defense of their towns and their colony. By the end of the day, as the harried, bloodied, and weary British returned to Boston, the colonial forces had achieved their first military victory and the American Revolution had begun.