Battles of Lexington and Concord

Paul Revere’s midnight ride came just in time. The British were trying to sneak in an attack under the cover of darkness, capturing the seat of the nascent rebellion and bringing its two leaders, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, to trial. The colonist expected an attack to come soon, and Revere’s brave ride gave them a valuable couple of hours to prepare — the Lexington minutemen greeted the approaching troops with muskets, and farmers and minutemen from the surrounding communities joined in.

On this day, April 19, in 1775, the musket fire exchanged at Lexington and Concord between the minutemen and the British marked the start of the Revolutionary war.

The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was born after the battles, but he captured their spirit beautifully in his poem Concord Hymn, dedicated to the opening of a monument in Concord. The first stanza of his poem read in part “Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world” — introducing the famous phrase “shot heard round the world” into the lexicon.