Battle of Lexington and Concord, 250th anniversary

Young man, what we meant in going for those red-coats was this: we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should.

-- Captain Levi Preston, veteran of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, 1842

A quarter of a millennium ago today, April 19, 1775, the first military conflict of the American Revolution began at the town green in Lexington, Massachusetts, leading to a confrontation at the Old North Bridge in Concord, where the first Redcoats fell, and a long pursuit as King George's troops retreated from Concord to Charlestown.

Last night there was a re-enactment of Paul Revere's ride, beginning at the Old North Church in Boston, and early this morning, there was a battle re-enactment, followed by a 5K run, parades, and other festivities in Lexington and Concord through the day. Over 200,000 people were expected to attend. On Monday, Patriot's Day holiday in Massachusetts, the annual running of the Boston Marathon will take place, recreating another long journey connected with a long-ago battle.

This weekend is the opening salvo of 15 months of celebrations leading up to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026.

Historian Tara Ross has published two of her "This Day in History" articles to mark the occasion, with links to other resources. From her account of Paul Revere's ride:

Revere arrived in Lexington in time to warn Hancock and Adams. Then he and [William] Dawes set off for Concord to help secure the weapons and supplies there. They were soon joined by another rider, Dr. Samuel Prescott. Unfortunately, the trio was stopped by British officers. Prescott and Dawes escaped, but Revere did not. One of the British officers, Revere later wrote, "Clapped his pistol to my head, called me by name, & told me he was going to ask me some questions, & if I did not give him true answers, he would blow my brains out."

In her article on the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Ross points out that there had been previous acts of violence by the colonials against the British, but this was different:

Some argue that Concord was the site of the "shot heard 'round the world," not Lexington. The logic is that the first serious British casualties that day were at Concord: That part of the day felt more like American patriots seriously taking on the British. A counterargument: Americans had gone after British soldiers and officials before, drawing blood as they had during the Gaspee Affair (1772) and the Battle of Golden Hill (1770). Moreover, they'd taken other defiant actions, such as destroying Massachusetts Lt. Governor Thomas Hutchinson's home (1765). Concord was not the first instance of American patriots taking on the British in a serious way. Lexington's claim to "shot heard 'round the world" is because those were the shots from which we could not turn back. Every other preceding event had been resolved in some way that did not bring about full-blown war. But there would be no coming back from the shots taken on Lexington Green in April 1775.

Eyewitness accounts of the events of April 18 and 19, 1775, were gathered within the week by members of the Massachusetts legislature and were forwarded to the newly assembled Second Continental Congress the following month, included in the Journal of the Second Continental Congress beginning on page 29 of the linked version.

On April 22d. the Massachusetts Congress appointed a committee to collect testimony on the conduct of the British troops in their route to Concord, to be sent to England by the first ship from Salem. Mr. Gerry, Colonel Cushing, Colonel Barrett, Captain Stone, Dr. Taylor, Messrs. Sullivan, Freeman and Watson, and Esquire Jonas Dix constituted this committee; and on the 23d, Gerry and Cushing were joined with Dr. Church to draw up an account of the "massacre" of the 19th. The report and narrative were submitted on the 26th, and a number of scribes named to make duplicate copies. One set was entrusted to Captain Richard Derby, who was to hasten to London and deliver them to Franklin. On May 2d, Gerry, Warren, Dexter, Col. Warren and Gerrish were ordered to send a second set to the Southern colonies, to be transmitted to London, and a third set to the Continental Congress. The copies sent to the Congress are in Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 65, vol. I, folios 11-51.

This testimony was published as a pamphlet: NARRATIVE, OF THE EXCURSION and RAVAGES OF THE KING'S TROOPS Under the Command of General GAGE, On the nineteenth of APRIL, 1775. TOGETHER WITH THE DEPOSITIONS Taken by ORDER of CONGRESS, To support the Truth of it.

Here is the preface to the depositions, summarizing the events:

ON the nineteenth day of April one thousand, seven hundred and seventy five, a day to be remembered by all Americans of the present generation, and which ought and doubtless will be handed down to ages yet unborn, in which the troops of Britain, unprovoked, shed the blood of sundry of the loyal American subjects of the British King in the field of Lexington. Early in the morning of said day, a detachment of the forces under the command of General Gage, stationed at Boston, attacked a small party of the inhabitants of Lexington and some other towns adjacent, the detachment consisting of about nine hundred men commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Smith.

The inhabitants of Lexington and the other towns were about one hundred, some with and some without fire arms, who had collected upon information, that the detachment had secretly marched from Boston the preceeding night, and landed on Phip's Farm in Cambridge, and were proceding on their way with brisk pace towards Concord (as the inhabitants supposed) to take or destroy a quantity of stores deposited there for the use of the colony; sundry peaceable inhabitants having the same night been taken, held by force, and otherwise abused on the road, by some officers of General Gage's army, which caused a just alarm to the people, and a suspicion that some fatal design was immediately to be put in execution against them.

This small party of the inhabitants so far from being disposed to commit hostilities against the troops of their sovereign, that unless attacked were determined to be peaceable spectators of this extraordinary movement; immediately on the approach of Colonel Smith with the detachment under his command they dispersed; but the detachment, seeming to thirst for BLOOD, wantonly rushed on, and first began the hostile scene by firing on this small party, in which they killed eight men on the spot and wounded several others before any guns were fired upon the troops by our men. Not contented with this effusion of blood, as if malice had occupied their whole soul, they continued the fire, until all this small party who escaped the dismal carnage, were out of the reach of their fire.

Colonel Smith with the detachment then proceeded to Concord, where a part of this detachment again made the first fire upon some of the inhabitants of Concord and the adjacent towns, who were collected at a bridge upon this just alarm, and killed two of them and wounded several others, before any of the Provincials there had done one hostile act.

Then the Provincials (roused with zeal for the liberties of their country, finding life and every thing dear and valuable at stake) assumed their native valour and returned the fire, and the engagement on both sides began.

Soon after which the British troops retreated towards Charlestown (having first committed violence and waste on public and private property) and on their retreat were joined by another detachment of General Gage's troops, consisting of about a thousand men, under the command of Earl Percy, who continued the retreat, the engagement lasted through the day, many were killed and wounded on each side, though the loss on the part of the British troops far exceeded that of the provincials: the devastation committed by the British troops on their retreat, the whole of the way from Concord to Charlestown, is almost beyond description, such as plundering and burning of dwelling houses and other buildings, driving into the street women in child-bed, killing old men in their houses unarmed.

Such scenes of desolation would be a reproach to the perpetrators, even if committed by the most barbarous nations, how much more when done by Britons famed for humanity and tenderness.

And all this because these colonies will not submit to the iron yoke of arbitrary power.

At the top of this article, I have a quote from Levi Preston, a veteran of the battle, explaining why he joined the fight. In 1894, historian Mellen Chamberlain addressed the Sons of the American Revolution at their commemoration of the 119th anniversary of the battle, meeting at the church in Concord. Chamberlain's remarks are preserved in his book John Adams, the Statesman of the American Revolution. In his speech, Chamberlain recounted his 1842 interview with Captain Levi Preston, then 91 years old: