The Americans of that greatest generation stood for liberty at all costs and created a country. These times illustrate how far America has fallen.

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On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere and William Dawes made their famous rides to Lexington and towns along the way warning of British troops heading in their direction with the intent to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock and capture the American armory at Concord.

FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS:

On the night of April 18, the royal governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, commanded by King George III to suppress the rebellious Americans, had ordered 700 British soldiers, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith and Marine Major John Pitcairn, to seize the colonists’ military stores in Concord, some 20 miles west of Boston.

A system of signals and word-of-mouth communication set up by the colonists was effective in forewarning American volunteer militia men of the approach of the British troops. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” tells how a lantern was displayed in the steeple of Christ Church on the night of April 18, 1775, as a signal to Paul Revere and others.

On April 19, 1775, British and American soldiers exchanged fire in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. At Lexington Green, the British were met by approximately seventy American Minute Men led by John Parker. At the North Bridge in Concord, the British were confronted again, this time by 300 to 400 armed colonists, and were forced to march back to Boston with the Americans firing on them all the way. The American Revolution had begun.

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CONCORD HYMN by RALPH WALDO EMERSON (APRIL 19, 1836):

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By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood

And fired the shot heard round the world.

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The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

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On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We set today a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

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Spirit, that made those heroes dare

To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

The shaft we raise to them and thee.

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© 2020 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.