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Captain John Parker and 77 armed Americans stood on Lexington Common on what revolutionary Samuel Adams proclaimed “a glorious morning for America.”
It was April 19, 1775.
The “shot heard ‘round the world,” as Ralph Waldo Emerson later called it, was about to ignite the American Revolution and change world history forever.
Parker was 45 years old and riddled with tuberculosis. He roused his weakened body just after midnight, when the cry reached Lexington and echoed by a network of alarm riders through the Massachusetts countryside.
“The regulars are out!” Paul Revere himself warned the people of Lexington.
Now, at dawn, Parker’s small volunteer militia confronted a terrifying sight: A power of 700 British regulars, extremely educated troopers, skilled killers, well-armed brokers of the strongest empire on Earth.
The Lexington Minuteman Statue superimposed in American flag against blue sky. Lexington Common, Massachusetts. (H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images)
The Redcoats had been decided to squash a colonial rise up that had been percolating in close by Boston for practically a decade.
The British hoped to grab a cache of colonial weapons and insurgent leaders John Hancock and Sam Adams, who had been in Lexington that very morning.
“I think Parker and his men were obviously scared. I think they would have been angry and motivated, too.”
“I think [Parker and his men] were obviously scared,” Dan Davis, senior schooling supervisor for American Battlefield Trust, informed Fox News Digital.
“I think they would have been angry and motivated, too, to protect their families and homes … They had a very large British force marching through their town.”
A Lexington Minuteman waits on Lexington Common, in the pre-dawn hour. The Battle of Lexington is commemorated on Patriots’ Day, April 18, 2022, in Lexington, Massachusetts. The city pays tribute to these who died on the morning of April 19, 1775. (Joanne Rathe/The Boston Globe through Getty Images)
Parker had been elected captain of the native militia — the Lexington Training Band, as they referred to as themselves — referred to as minutemen in widespread lore.
They had been farmers, blacksmiths, cordwainers and wagon makers. Many of the males had been intently associated — no extra distant than cousins.
Most had been religious Christians and terribly well-read for frequent folks.
“We were probably the most literate country in the world at the time,” Parker biographer Bill Poole, former president of the Lexington Historical Society, informed Fox News Digital.
His assertion is supported by many colonial students.
“Principally,” he added, “because we were great Bible readers.”
American troops had been mocked as “Yankee psalm-singers” by their British foes, David McCullough notes in his guide “1776,” an epic look at the dramatic 12 months that adopted
American silversmith, engraver and Revolutionary patriot Paul Revere (1735-1818) rides to warn the folks of Massachusetts that the British troops had been advancing by boat, April 1775. He reached Lexington to warn minutemen there earlier than being stopped by the British on the technique to Concord. (Interim Archives/Getty Images)
The outstanding literacy of the colonists is taken into account a serious purpose why revolutionary beliefs that toppled millennia of monarchial hierarchies took root so deeply amongst Americans in the 1700s.
Massachusetts was the middle of the motion. The colony had a protracted simmering feud with Britain that reached its breaking level a 12 months earlier with Parliament’s Intolerable Acts.
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Among different indignities, the acts closed the port of Boston, the supply of the colony’s prosperity, and restricted the cherished custom of city assembly in communities like Lexington. Colonists had been outraged.
The second of fact got here on Lexington Common.
“Throw down your arms! Ye villains, ye rebels,” a British officer, most certainly Major John Pitcairn, reportedly ordered the vastly outnumbered American volunteers.
“If they mean to have a war, let it begin here.” — Captain John Parker
Parker and his males defied the order.
“Stand your ground, do not fire unless fired upon,” Parker informed his males. “If they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
‘We trust in God’
Captain John Parker was born in Lexington on July 13, 1729, to Lt. Josiah and Anna (Stone) Parker.
Some of his ancestors had arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony as early as 1635, giving the Parker household roots as deep as another in the future United States.
British troopers hearth upon members of the native militia firm throughout the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Lexington on Lexington Common on Monday, April 15, 2019, in Lexington, Massachusetts. (Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald through Getty Images)
“A stout, large-framed man of medium height,” Poole writes in his biography of Parker.
Captain Parker is commonly described as a mechanic. He was, in essence, a woodworker — making spinning wheels, press screws and compass packing containers.
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He earned his army coaching in the French and Indian War (1756-63), although a number of specialists be aware there isn’t a documented proof of his service, simply oral historical past and circumstantial proof.
He reportedly educated with Rogers’ Rangers. It was a bunch of New Hampshire troopers instructed in irregular warfare — guerilla warfare. United States particular forces hint their roots to Rogers’ Rangers and its “28 rules of ranging today.”
Those techniques proved vital to Parker’s management all through the day.
A pair cease to pose subsequent to an enormous American flag held on the facet of Carey Memorial Library after watching the reenactment of the Battle of Lexington Green, a quick but essential marker of the American Revolution informed and celebrated for 248 years. The Battle of Lexington is commemorated on Patriots’ Day, April 17, 2023, in Lexington, Massachusetts. The city pays tribute to these who died on Lexington Common on April 19, 1775. (Joanne Rathe/The Boston Globe through Getty Images)
The members of the Lexington Training Band had been citizen-soldiers, certain not by army professionalism however by religion and a vow to one another.
It learn: “We trust in God that, should the state of our affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything dear in life, yea and life itself, in support of the common cause.”
“We trust in God.” — Lexington militia’s vow
It didn’t take an incredible army thoughts to grasp that the volunteer militia, outnumbered practically 10 to 1, was no match for the firepower of the British Empire arrayed earlier than them.
Parker’s solely hope was to keep away from a struggle, delay the Redcoats lengthy sufficient to permit extra minutemen to collect and confront the British power someplace later and in a extra advantageous place.
The first photographs of the American Revolution had been fired in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775. Print reveals line of minutemen being fired upon by British troops. Engraving, circa 1903. Virginia orator Patrick Henry had referred to as upon his colonists to lift a militia solely 4 weeks earlier, famously demanding, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” (VCG Wilson/Corbis through Getty Images)
Fate had different plans. The shot that adopted on Lexington Common, that ignited the American Revolution, stays a thriller to historical past.
The firefight shortly turned a rout.
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“The British light infantry fired, ‘made a huzza,’ and ran furiously toward the retiring militia,” Alexander R. Cain writes in his historical past of the encounter, “We Stood Our Ground.”
Cain can be a member of the Lexington Minute Men, a bunch of historians and volunteers who maintain alive the legacy of Parker and his males.
The Americans returned hearth, however had been overwhelmed and scattered.
When the smoke cleared, greater than a dozen Americans lay useless or wounded. Nearly one-third of the 77 males who stood on Lexington Common that morning could be killed (11 of them) or had been wounded by the finish of the day.
Jonas Parker, the captain’s cousin, gave his life gruesomely on Lexington Common.
Lexington Minuteman Jonas Parker was shot, then killed by bayonet after vowing by no means to run from the British. A reenactor lays useless after being bayonetted by one of His Majesty’s Regulars, one of the first casualties of the Battle of Lexington Green. The Battle of Lexington is commemorated on Patriots’ Day; the city pays tribute to these who died on April 19, 1775. (Joanne Rathe/The Boston Globe through Getty Images)
Parker was “standing … with his [musket] balls and flints in his hat on the ground between his feet,” in accordance with an account by fellow Lexington militiamen Ebenezer Munroe.
Parker bravely declared “he would never run,” Munroe stated.
Jonas Parker, he stated, “was shot down at the second fire … I saw him struggling on the ground, attempting to load his gun … as he lay on the ground they (ran) him through with the bayonet.”
The slaughter of citizen-soldiers occurred in entrance of the whole village.
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“As the regulars left the onslaught behind them, wives, children and the spectators emerged from hiding and made their way onto the common,” writes Cain.
“Many were overcome with emotion and grief at the sight of husbands, sons, brothers, cousins and neighbors lying dead or wounded on the field.”
Parkers’ revenge
The British, with only some of their males wounded, marched previous the carnage and made their approach towards Concord, seven miles to the west.
But Parker’s delaying tactic labored.
Street indicators in Lexington, Massachusetts, bear an emblem at present that pays homage to Captain John Parker and the city militia, 77 males who stood up 700 British Redcoats on April 19, 1775, and fought the first battle of the American Revolution. “What a glorious morning for America.” (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
As the residents of Lexington tended to the wounded on the frequent, “over 200 men from Woburn’s militia and minuteman companies arrived in Lexington,” in accordance with Cain.
“Disturbed at what they saw, the men halted and assisted the Lexington residents in treating the wounded and carrying the dead into the meetinghouse. Afterward, the Woburn men reassembled and resumed their march toward Concord.”
The armed American residents turned again the British troopers in Concord.
The 200 Woburn males had been simply the tip of the spear. Thousands extra minutemen started to reach from communities from all throughout Massachusetts.
The armed American residents turned again the British troopers in Concord and started chasing the troops again to Boston, choosing off Redcoats alongside the approach.
Boston Tea Party, Dec. 26, 1773. Inhabitants of Boston, Massachusetts, dressed as American Indians, threw tea from vessels in the harbor into the water as a protest against British taxation: “No taxation without representation.” Late nineteenth century wooden engraving. (Photo12/Universal Images Group through Getty Images)
“Almost 2,000 militiamen … had descended to the area, and more were constantly arriving,” notes History.com.
Parker miraculously gathered his troops after the shock the males witnessed in the morning. They lay in ready to ambush the British as they fled again to Boston.
“Some wore bandages stiffened from the blood of wounds they had suffered in the morning, and they were anxious to revenge themselves and their dead neighbors,” reviews American Battlefield Trust.
The King’s Regulars shoot one final spherical on Lexington Common throughout the annual Patriots’ Day reenactment of the Battle of Lexington on Apr. 17, 2017. (Joanne Rathe/The Boston Globe through Getty Images)
They shot and killed an unknown quantity of British. The day resulted in an unbelievable victory for America’s citizen troopers.
The British by the finish of the day suffered about 300 killed and wounded, to fewer than 100 for the Americans. They retreated to Boston.
Thousands of American militiamen laid siege to the British in Boston for practically a 12 months earlier than the Redcoats lastly fled on March 17, 1776. Massachusetts had gained its rise up against the British Empire whereas the American Revolution moved to different colonies.
His heroics gave rise to the Declaration of Independence the following 12 months.
“The site of Parker’s Revenge is the first of many fields where brave American soldiers turned defeat into victory,” writes American Battlefield Trust.
Patriots’ Day
John Parker succumbed to the tuberculosis that plagued him on Lexington Common on Sept. 17, 1775. He was solely 46 years previous.
His heroics gave rise to the Declaration of Independence the following 12 months — and to a courageous and daring new nation, the United States of America.
James Lee is the captain commanding the Lexington Minutemen, a bunch of reenactors, patriots and American historical past fans. By firm custom, he’ll painting Capt. John Parker in the annual reenactment of the “shot heard ’round the world,” which occurred on Lexington Common on April 19, 1775. (Michael Duncan Smith)
He by no means noticed both.
No portrait of Parker exists. But his picture lives on in American lore as the inspiration for the well-known Minuteman Statue on Lexington Common; and in the nation’s religion of an armed citizenry as a bulwark against tyranny, encoded in the Second Amendment.
His legacy additionally survives in the United States Army Reserve — impressed by his selfless instance of citizen-soldier dashing to the assist of their nation in want.
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The U.S. Army Reserve motto, “Twice the Citizen,” pays deference to the stand of Parker and the 77 that morning, whereas its official emblem, a person in colonial headgear, is named The John Parker.
The Lexington Minuteman Statue superimposed against an American flag in a blue sky, Lexington Common, Massachusetts. James Lee (at proper) portrays Capt. John Parker throughout the annual reenactment on Lexington Common. (Getty Images/Michael Duncan Smith)
Sprawling and serpentine Minute Man National Park traces the lengthy route of the “glorious day” in American historical past. Recent analysis has uncovered particulars of the website of Parker’s Revenge.
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The stand of Parker’s 77, and the bigger Battles of Lexington and Concord, are celebrated annually as Patriots’ Day, statewide holidays in Massachusetts and Maine, on the Monday closest to April 19.
The festivities start at daybreak with the reenactment of the Battles of Lexington and Concord; and celebrations happen in different communities as effectively, particularly these who despatched minutemen to struggle the British that morning.
The large American flag was unfurled over the Green Monster throughout the nationwide anthem. The Boston Red Sox hosted the Minnesota Twins in the annual Patriots’ Day morning MLB baseball sport at Fenway Park in Boston on April 18, 2022. (Jim Davis/The Boston Globe through Getty Images)
Lexington has reenacted the stand of its 77 males yearly since 1791.
The Boston Red Sox play a house sport at Fenway Park each Patriots’ Day at 11 a.m. It is the solely morning sport on the Major League Baseball calendar annually.
“He stood as a sick and weakened but powerful man for the rights of all Americans.” — Bill Poole, historian
The streets of Boston and different Bay State communities erupt with events and parades on Patriots’ Day as the Boston Marathon winds its approach from western suburbs into downtown Boston.
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It is one of the most eagerly anticipated days of the 12 months in Massachusetts, amongst different issues marking the arrival of spring.
Few Patriots’ Day celebrants at present know the patriot who impressed the festivities.
“Captain Parker stood in defiance of a very powerful military power, the most powerful nation on Earth,” stated Poole, the Lexington historian.
The Minuteman Statue in Lexington, Massachusetts, is supposed to depict Captain John Parker, who led the outnumbered Lexington militia against the British regulars on April 19, 1775. The ensuing skirmish, the “shot heard ’round the world,” ignited the American Revolution. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
“He stood for the rights of the community and the rights of the individual. He stood as a sick and weakened but powerful man for the rights of all Americans and, as such, should be held as a hero.”
To learn extra tales on this distinctive “Meet the American Who…” collection from Fox News Digital, click on right here.
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