On 19 April 1775, the brave Patriots at Lexington and Concord fired the opening volley for American liberty. Today we honor them, as well as those Patriots who continue in that tradition, shouldering the burden of American liberty, particularly those on the warfront with Jihadistan.
The famous Minuteman statue stands at the ready in the predawn hours in Lexington.
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.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.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
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.
Patriots’ Day civic holiday in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and state of Maine and a public school observance day in Wisconsin.
Traditionally it was designated as April 19 in observance of the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.
Observances and re-enactments of these first battles of the American Revolution occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington, MA, and The Old North Bridge in Concord, MA.
On the evening of April 18, 1775 General Thomas Gage, the British Commander in Chief of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was ordered to bring the colonies under control. He ordered Lt. Col. Francis Smith to destroy Colonist’s war supplies held in Concord. Smith was also instructed to take Samuel Adams and John Hancock into British custody. Smith’s orders were to be carried out in secret. However, Joseph Warren, a doctor, learned of the plans and sent William Dawes and Paul Revere to warn the Patriots.
Paul Revere rode 16 miles from Olde North Church in Boston to Lexington. The British arrived in Lexington in the early dawn of April 19, 1775. It was there that the Patriots or ‘Minutemen’ and British confronted each other on the green and “the shot heard round the world” was fired.
At Lexington Green, the British were met by 77 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. By the end of the day, the colonists were singing “Yankee Doodle” and the American Revolution had begun.
Wild Thing’s comment……..
The incident that precipitated the Alarm was a British raid on the colonial powder stored at the Powder House on the Somerville/Medford line. It was one of several “alarms,” including ones in Marblehead and Portsmouth, NH, that let the Provincials know the British were clamping down on them, militarily, before Lexington and Concord.
People armed were vital to this nation gaining freedom. Now, it’s vital to KEEPING it. One of the reasons the colonists were so pissed, was the British had come to confiscate their guns. Both the American and Texan revolutions began because of an attempt at “gun control”.
“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, ‘What should be the reward of such sacrifices?’ Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!”—Samuel Adams
“The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.”—Thomas Paine
“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!”—George Washington
“The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations… This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.”—John Adams
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”—Thomas Jefferson “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”—Patrick Henry
….Thank you Darth for the heads up that today is Patriot’s Day.
Paul Revere’s Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
——————————————————————————–
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,–
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
Then he said “Good-night!” and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,–
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,–
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse’s side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
>From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
Thank you for the reminder WT and Darth. It’s too bad that half the nation thinks it all started at Hyde Park, New York and ended at Warm Springs, Georgia from March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945. Such as U.S. history is taught these days. Thanks for the poem Mark.
Excellent post WT. Thanks for the reminder Darth. Little is taught in school now about the American Revolution. It was an armed revolution and today’s socialists in education fear arms. An armed populace is not politically correct in the minds of NEA employees.
And those great quotes and speeches by great men yearning for freedom from The Crown do not fit todays Liberal agenda of Big Government.
Mark, I love that, thank you so much for the “Paul Revere’s Ride”. Fantastic.
Jack yes it is so very sad these things are not taught like they used to be when I was a kid. So very sad so many children don’t even know about this.
Tom, thank you and that is so true. How different it is today with the liberal agenda for big government.
Oh yeah, one more thing about the American Revolution.
WE WON!
Tom, giggle….Yesssssss yipeeee!!!!!
GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU for not forgetting the Battles of Lexington & Concord! Our 77 minutemen were out manned and out gunned 77:700 but the Brits received their heaviest casualties when they went back to Boston … over 200 casualties.
Today’s DC aristocrats are NO DIFFERENT than the Brits of 1775…Today’s LIBERALS are yesterdays TORIES! And we REVOLTED then and it’s a damn shame we can’t do it all over again, eh?
DON’T TREAD ON ME & AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN 2008!
Wow…made the trek with my Cubs, have the same picture of the Bridge with my little ones on it.
Well worth the money spent to let CUBS ‘feel’ where this Country came from, and the birth pangs that it had….to make them Free People.
Thank you Miss Thing. Happy and Blessed Passover to you and your Fellah.
Wollf