The Great Republic by the Master Historians The First Shots of the Revolution byBancroft, Hubert H.
[A magazine of military stores had been collected at the inland town of Concord,
about sixteen miles from Boston. This Gage learned of, and determined to
destroy. For this purpose he sent a force by night, on a secret and rapid march.
Several British officers posted themselves on the road leading to Concord to
intercept any messengers who might be sent out to give warning of this design.
But the patriots of Boston were too alert to be thus checked. No sooner had
indications of the enterprise appeared than messengers were abroad, and the
alarm was rapidly communicated by the ringing of bells and discharge of signal-
guns. One citizen of Concord, Reuben Brown by name, "rode a hundred miles in the
space of twenty-four hours in order to disseminate the intelligence." The story
of this expedition we select from Higginson's "History of the United States."]
When France, in 1763, surrendered Canada to England, it suddenly opened men's
eyes to a very astonishing fact. They discovered that British America had at
once become a country so large as to make England seem ridiculously small. Even
the cool-headed Dr. Franklin, writing that same year to Mary Stevenson in
London, spoke of England as "that petty island, which, compared to America, is
but a stepping-stone in a brook, scarce enough of it above water to keep one's
shoes dry." The far-seeing French statesmen of the period looked at the matter
in the same way. Choiseul, the prime minister who ceded Canada, claimed
afterwards that he had done it in order to destroy the British nation by
creating for it a rival. This assertion was not made till ten years later, and
may very likely have been an after-thought, but it was destined to be confirmed
by the facts..
Boston in the winter of 1774-75 was a town of some seventeen thousand
inhabitants, garrisoned by some three thousand British troops. It was the only
place in the Massachusetts colony where the royal governor exercised any real
authority, and where the laws of Parliament had any force. The result was that
its life was paralyzed, its people gloomy, and its commerce dead. The other
colonies were still hoping to obtain their rights by policy or by legislation,
by refusing to import or to consume, and they watched with constant solicitude
for some riotous demonstration in Boston. On the other hand, the popular leaders
in that town were taking the greatest pains that there should be no outbreak.
There was risk of one whenever soldiers were sent on any expedition into the
country. One might have taken place at Marshfield in January, one almost
happened at Salem in February, yet still it was postponed. No publicity was
given to the patriotic military organizations in Boston; as little as possible
was said about the arms and stores that were gathered in the country. Not a life
had been lost in any popular excitement since the Boston Massacre in 1770. The
responsibility of the first shot, the people were determined, must rest upon the
royal troops. So far was this carried that it was honestly attributed by the
British soldiers to cowardice alone. An officer, quoted by Frothingham, wrote
home in November, 1774, "As to what you hear of their taking arms to resist the
force of England, it is mere bullying, and will go no further than words;
whenever it comes to blows he that can run the fastest will think himself best
off. Believe me, any two regiments here ought to be decimated if they did not
beat in the field the whole force of the Massachusetts province; for, though
they are numerous, they are but a mere mob, without order or discipline, and
very awkward at handling their arms."
But, whatever may have been the hope of carrying their point without fighting,
the provincial authorities were steadily collecting provisions, arms, and
ammunition. Unhappily, these essentials were hard to obtain. On April 19,1775,
the committee of safety could only count up twelve field-pieces in
Massachusetts; and there had been collected in that colony 21,549 fire-arms,
17,441 pounds of powder, 22,191 pounds of ball, 144,699 flints, 10,108 bayonets,
11,979 pouches, 15,000 canteens. There were also 17,000 pounds of salt fish,
35,000 pounds of rice, with large quantities of beef and pork. Viewed as an
evidence of the forethought of the colonists, these statistics are remarkable;
but there was something heroic and indeed almost pathetic in the project of
going to war with the British government on the strength of twelve field-pieces
and seventeen thousand pounds of salt fish.
Yet when, on the night of the 18th of April, 1775, Paul Revere rode beneath the
bright moonlight through Lexington to Concord, with Dawes and Prescott for
comrades, he was carrying the signal for the independence of a nation. He had
seen across the Charles River the two lights from the church-steeple in Boston
which were to show that a British force was going out to seize the patricotic
supplies at Concord; he had warned Hancock and Adams at Rev. Jonas Clark's
parsonage in Lexington, and had rejected Sergeant Monroe's caution against
unnecessary noise, with the rejoinder, "You'll have noise enough here before
long: the regulars are coming out." As he galloped on his way the regulars were
advancing with steady step behind him, soon warned of their own danger by alarm-
bells and signal-guns. When Revere was captured by some British officers who
happened to be near Concord, Colonel Smith, the commander of the expedition, had
already halted, ordered Pitcairn forward, and sent back prudently for
reinforcements. It was a night of terror to all the neighboring Middlesex towns,
for no one knew what excesses the angry British troops might commit on their
return march..
Before 5 A.M. on April 19, 1775, the British troops had reached Lexington Green,
where thirty-eight men, under Captain Parker, stood up before six hundred or
eight hundred to be shot at, their captain saying, "Don't fire unless you are
fired on; but if they want a war, let it begin here." It began there; they were
fired upon; they fired rather ineffectually in return, while seven were killed
and nine wounded. The rest, after retreating, reformed and pursued the British
towards Concord, capturing seven stragglers,--the first prisoners taken in the
war. Then followed the fight at Concord, where four hundred and fifty Americans,
instead of thirty-eight, were rallied to meet the British. The fighting took
place between two detachments at the North Bridge, where
"once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world."
There the American, captain, Isaac Davis, was killed at the first shot, --he who
had said, when his company was placed at the head of the little column, "I
haven't a man that is afraid to go." He fell, and Major Buttrick gave the order,
"Fire! for God's sake, fire!" in return. The British detachment retreated in
disorder, but their main body was too strong to be attacked, so they disabled a
few cannon, destroyed some barrels of flour, cut down the liberty-pole, set fire
to the court-house, and then began their return march. It ended in a flight;
they were exposed to a constant guerilla fire; minute-men flocked behind every
tree and house; and only the foresight of Colonel Smith in sending for
reinforcements had averted a surrender. At 2 P. M., near Lexington, Percy with
his troops met the returning fugitives, and formed a hollow square, into which
they ran and threw themselves on the ground exhausted. Then Percy in turn fell
back. Militia still came pouring in from Dorchester, Milton, Dedham, as well as
the nearer towns. A company from Danvers marched sixteen miles in four hours.
The Americans lost ninety-three in killed, wounded, and missing that day; the
British, two hundred and seventy-three. But the important result was that every
American colony now recognized that war had begun..
The committee [of safety] had authority from the Provincial Congress to order
out the militia, and General Heath, who was a member of the committee, rode to
take command of the provincials, with Warren by his side, who was sufficiently
exposed that day to have a musket-ball strike the pin out of the hair of his
ear-lock. The two continued together till the British army had crossed
Charlestown Neck on its retreat, and made a stand on Bunker Hill. There they
were covered by the ships. The militia were ordered to pursue no farther, and
General Heath held the first council of war of the Revolution at the foot of
Prospect Hill..
It is always hard to interpret the precise condition of public feeling just
before a war. It is plain that the Massachusetts committee expected something
more than a contest of words when they made so many preparations. On the other
hand, it is evident that hardly any one looked forward to any serious and
prolonged strife. Dr. Warren wrote, soon after the 19th of April, "The people
never seemed in earnest about the matter until after the engagement of the 19th
ult., and I verily believe that the night preceding the barbarous outrages
committed by the soldiery at Lexington, Concord, etc., there were not fifty
people in the whole colony that ever expected any blood would be shed in the
contest between us and Great Britain." Yet two days after the fight at Lexington
the Massachusetts committee of safety resolved to enlist eight thousand men. Two
days after that the news reached New York at noon. There was a popular outbreak;
the royal troops were disarmed, the forts and magazines seized, and two
transports for Boston unloaded. At five o'clock on Monday afternoon the tidings
reached Philadelphia, when the bell in Independence Hall was rung, and the
people gathered in numbers. When it got so far as Charleston, South Carolina,
the people sized the arsenal, and the Provincial Congress proclaimed them "ready
to sacrifice their lives and fortunes." In Savannah, Georgia, a mob took
possession of the powder-magazine, and raised a liberty-pole. In Kentucky a
party of hunters, hearing of the battle, gave their encampment the name of
Lexington, which it still bears; and thus the news went on.
Meanwhile, on May 10, the Continental Congress convened, and on the same day
Ethan Allen took possession of the strong fortress of Ticonderoga. It was the
first act of positive aggression by the patriotic party, for at both Lexington
and Concord they were acting on the defensive. The expedition was planned in
Connecticut and reinforced in western Massachusetts, but the main reliance was
to be placed on Ethan Allen and his "Green Mountain Boys," whose daring and
energy were already well known. Benedict Arnold, who had been commissioned in
Massachusetts for the same purpose, arrived only in time to join the expedition
as a volunteer. On May 10, 1775, eighty-three men crossed the lake with Allen.
When they had landed, he warned them that it was a dangerous enterprise, and
called for volunteers. Every man volunteered. The rest took but a few moments.
They entered with a war-whoop the open wicket-gate, pressing by the sentinel,
and when the half-clad commander appeared and asked their authority, Allen
answered with the words that have become historic, "In the name of the great
Jehovah and the Continental Congress."
The Congress was only to meet that day, but it appeared already to be exercising
a sort of antenatal authority, and a fortress which had cost eight million
pounds sterling and many lives was placed in its hands by a mere stroke of
boldness. Crown Point gave itself up with equal ease to Seth Warner, and another
dramatic surprise was given to the new-born nation.
