'Shot Heard Around The World'

Article by Mike Edwardson. Edited and researched by Mike Edwardson.

The battles fought at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts on 19th April 1775 were the opening shots of the American war of Independence, the start of a war that shook the British Empire to its foundations and gave birth the United States of America as a self-governing, firmly separate nation. The first shot fired on the 19th April (whether by American militiaman or British soldier, nobody has been sure for 236 years) has often been extolled as ‘the shot heard across the world’, as though announcing the momentous occasion to a shocked, sharply inhaling global populace. 

That’s not quite the reality of course. But it was the start of a pivotal war when the local militiamen fronted up to oncoming British soldiers at Lexington green. The British under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith were marching to disarm the militia; as political conflict had grown ever more heated between the colonists and the mother country, the ever increasing army presence in the colonies was starting to take the threat of full-scale rebellion seriously and moved to confiscate the substantial armoury of the local militia around Boston. But of course, then as now, try and take away an American’s weapon and you’re more than likely to meet a steely stare and an iron voice challenging you to take it ‘out of my cold, dead hands’. 

The stand-off lasted only a short while before somebody fired the first shot; A British officer (probably Marine Major John Pitcairn, but accounts are uncertain, as it may also have been Lieutenant William Sutherland) rode forward, waving his sword, and called out for the assembled throng to disperse, and may also have ordered them to “lay down your arms, you damned rebels!” and shortly after this the shot rang out. Most accounts have it as a militiaman firing first; a few (American) versions have it as a British shot, but either way, that first crash of musketry was multiplied as fire was exchanged and the British soldiers bayonet charged the rebels of the green. What followed was an aggressive British advance to Concord, where the greater part of the militia’s arms were said to be located, though they faced a fighting retreat from the Lexington rebels who were joined at Concord by many of their brethren eager to join in the fighting. At Concord Bridge, the British troops found that the strength of opposition was such that they could go no further, and positions were reversed as they attempted their own withdrawal. Harried intensely by the guerrilla-militiamen, they completed an arduous, painstaking retreat to Boston, bloodied by the days fighting. The British suffered 79 men killed the colonists 49. For the first time a battle had been fought between colonist and Briton; from here on in, all but the most optimistic realised, the dispute over the governance of the colonies would be settled by war. 

Whilst rebellion was a horrible prospect for Lord North’s administration, and ultimately for all but the most zealous colonists, it was nothing original. Not yet. The true power of the revolution would be held in the political ideals which it’s ideologues espoused, the vision of the world which they claimed to be creating. The first days fighting was, at the time, the beginning of simply another regrettable outbreak of civil violence which British territories had suffered on and off for centuries. Some people were shocked, but others, especially Whigs, had seen the writing on the wall some time ago and while saddened were hardly surprised. The western world at large took note, but largely with a mixture of glee and furtive shoulder glancing. For France, Spain, The Netherlands and other imperial rivals to Britain, this was an event which could potentially be taken advantage of to weaken Britain’s formidable might. But it was also a reminder that rebellion is an ever present threat to regimes who fail to appease an aggrieved populace; Britain’s ailment one day might be France’s or Spain’s the next. 

The significance which the day has been accorded is a retrospective application, given years after the event and largely because the rebellion did ultimately succeed. But that’s not to diminish it. To succeed, after all, the revolution had to start somewhere and it’s only right that its beginning is celebrated. It may not have carried any great momentous aura at the time, but that’s the point. It was a risky venture, a partly accidental and messy confrontation, but it lead to the birth of a new country. It didn’t shake the world at the time so much as vaguely worry it, but because of what it ultimately produced, 19th April 1775 can be said to have had aftershocks that were far more powerful than the initial quake, and which truly shook the world. 

• 19th April 1775-Battle of Lexington and Concord begin the American War of Independence.

• American Force: Begins with 77 men, ends with 3,800. British Force: Begins with 400, ends with 1,500.

• Casualties: American: 49 killed, 39 wounded, 5 missing. British: 73 killed, 174 wounded, 53 missing.

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