Battle of Lexington and Concord

19 April 1775

American Victory

On 19 April 1775, the British commander in Boston, Massachusetts, ordered troops to seize military supplies stored by the colonists in Lexington and Concord. Message riders such as Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott sent out advance warning to the militia in Middlesex County. British Regulars dispersed the Lexington militia company on its own town green, exchanging fire in a confused affair that marked the first shots of the Revolution. Continuing on to Concord, British Regulars and Colonial Minutemen clashed at North Bridge. Realizing the countryside was alarmed against them, the Regulars began their march back to Boston. This turned into a near rout as thousands of militia and Minutemen poured harassing fire into the column. The Regulars barely made it to the safety of their fleet in Boston harbor. Within days, Boston was surrounded by 20,000 militiamen.

The spark lit in Massachusetts soon spread throughout the rest of the colonies. The news that speedy couriers riding horses to exhaustion carried through the colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia was of a savage, unprovoked British attack and of farmers rising in the night to protect their lives, their families, and their property. Lexington, like Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor, and September 11 in later years, furnished an emotional impulse that led all true patriots to gird themselves for battle. Militia from other New England colonies poured in to join the Massachusetts men; together they soon formed a ring around Boston. Other forces under Ethan Allen of Vermont and Benedict Arnold of Connecticut seized the British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, strategic positions on the route between New York and Canada. These posts yielded valuable artillery and other military stores. The Second Continental Congress, which assembled in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, found itself forced to turn from embargoes and petitions to the problems of organizing, directing, and supplying a military effort.  

Boatner, Mark Mayo, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, Stackpole Books, 1994.

Ferling, John, Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence, Oxford University Press, 2007.

Ferling, John, Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War the Won It, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.

Middlekauff, Robert, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Philbrick, Nathaniel, Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, Penguin Books, 2017.

Savas, Theodore P. & J. David. A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution, New York: Savas Beatie LLC, 2006. 

Stewart, Richard W., ed. American Military History. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. American Historical Series. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 2009.

Tucker, Spencer, ed. American Revolution: The Definitive Encyclopedia and the Document Collection (5 volumes), ABC-CLIO Publishing, 2018.