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Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts · 19 April 1775 · Massachusetts militia and minutemen

The Shot Heard Round the World

Two riders went out in the night. By morning the farmers of Massachusetts were in the road, and by sundown they had chased the King’s regulars all the way back to Charlestown.

The Battle of Lexington, 19 April 1775: Parker’s militia return fire on the Green as the regulars advance (William Barnes Wollen, 1910).

The moment · About 09:30 · 19 April 1775

Smoke is rising from Concord. About 400 militiamen march down the hill toward the North Bridge, Acton’s company in front. The regulars fire. Capt. Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer fall dead. Major John Buttrick gives the order.

Fire, fellow soldiers, for God’s sake, fire!Major John Buttrick
The Battle of Lexington, 19 April 1775: Parker’s militia return fire on the Green as the regulars advance (William Barnes Wollen, 1910).. William Barnes Wollen / National Army Museum.
~4,000militiamen answered the alarm
18 miof retreat under fire, Concord to Charlestown
273British killed, wounded or missing
2lanterns in the Old North steeple

In April 1775 General Thomas Gage ordered his best troops to march on Concord, 18 miles from Boston, and destroy the cannon and powder the colonists kept there. The colonists had planned for this night all winter. Riders, church bells and signal guns would raise the countryside. Before the regulars got there, the countryside was waiting for them.

0 2 4 6 8 MI NORTH BRIDGE · 09:30 CONCORD REVERE TAKEN · 01:00 LEXINGTON · 05:00 MENOTOMY MEDFORD CHARLESTOWN · 19:30 BOSTON BRITISH COLUMN, OUT AND BACK PAUL REVERE, 18 APRIL, 23:00 BOSTON TO CONCORD · ABOUT 18 MILES BY ROAD ABOUT 16 MILES IN A STRAIGHT LINE
Revere’s ride and the British march from Boston to Concord and back, drawn to scale.

  1. Two if by sea

    Dr. Joseph Warren learns that the regulars are forming at the bottom of Boston Common. He sends William Dawes out over Boston Neck and sends for Paul Revere. Revere has already arranged a signal with friends in Charlestown. A friend climbs the steeple of the Old North Church with two lanterns. Two friends then row Revere across the Charles, right past the British man-of-war Somerset, as the moon rises.

    Revere, recalling the planIf the British went out by Water, we would shew two Lanthorns in the North Church Steeple; & if by Land, one, as a Signal.

  2. The midnight ride

    In Charlestown, Revere borrows a horse from Deacon John Larkin and sets off about eleven. Two British officers try to cut him off past Charlestown Neck. He turns, outruns them and takes the Medford road. In Medford he wakes the captain of the minutemen, and after that, he wrote, he “alarmed almost every House” until he reached Lexington. He finds John Hancock and Samuel Adams at Rev. Jonas Clarke’s house. Dawes rides in half an hour later.

  3. Captured in Lincoln

    Revere and Dawes push on for Concord with young Dr. Samuel Prescott. Halfway there, a British patrol traps them in a pasture. Prescott jumps his horse over a stone wall and carries the alarm to Concord. Dawes gets away. A British major puts a pistol to Revere’s head. Revere tells him that 500 Americans will be there shortly. By now bells and signal guns are ringing in town after town.

  4. Lexington Green

    Drummer William Diamond beats to arms. Capt. John Parker forms about 70 men on the Green. Light infantry under Major John Pitcairn come on at the run, and Pitcairn shouts at them to lay down their arms. Parker orders his men to disperse and not to fire. A shot rings out, then British volleys and a bayonet charge. Eight Lexington men die. Jonas Parker, the captain’s cousin, is bayoneted trying to reload.

  5. Concord waits

    About 700 grenadiers and light infantry under Lt. Col. Francis Smith march into Concord. Col. James Barrett pulls the militia back across the North Bridge to the high ground above the river. Companies keep arriving from Acton, Bedford, Lincoln and Carlisle. Three companies of regulars hold the bridge while others search Barrett’s farm. In town, the regulars burn gun carriages, and smoke rises over Concord.

  6. The North Bridge

    Barrett orders the men forward, with orders not to fire unless fired upon. Major John Buttrick leads about 400 of them toward the bridge, Capt. Isaac Davis’s Acton minutemen in front. His men remembered Davis saying he had not a man afraid to go. The 96 regulars fire. Davis and Abner Hosmer fall dead. Buttrick gives the order, and for the first time Americans fire on the King’s troops by command. Three regulars die. The rest break and run.

    The Engagement at the North Bridge in Concord, Plate III of Amos Doolittle’s 1775 engravings: the regulars fire first at the bridge as Col. Robinson and Major Buttrick lead the militia down to it.
    The Engagement at the North Bridge in Concord, Plate III of Amos Doolittle’s 1775 engravings: the regulars fire first at the bridge as Col. Robinson and Major Buttrick lead the militia down to it.. Amos Doolittle after Ralph Earl (1903 reprint) / Concord Museum; photo Daderot.
    Major Buttrick at the bridgeFire, fellow soldiers, for God’s sake, fire!

  7. Battle Road

    At noon Smith starts back for Boston. At Meriam’s Corner fresh companies from Reading, Chelmsford and Billerica open fire, and the running fight begins. At the Bloody Angle, Woburn men under Major Loammi Baldwin pour fire into the column from the woods and kill at least eight. On a rocky hill at the Lincoln line, John Parker’s company, bloodied that morning, waits and strikes the regulars again.

  8. Percy’s rescue

    Near Lexington, Smith’s exhausted men meet a relief brigade of about 1,000 men and two cannon under Lord Percy. Together they keep falling back, and the militia keep coming. Gen. William Heath and Dr. Warren rally the companies. At the Foot of the Rocks in Menotomy, a British bullet knocks the pin from Warren’s hair. The fiercest fighting of the day is house to house through Menotomy.

  9. Back to Charlestown

    At dusk the column stumbles across Charlestown Neck to the protection of the Navy’s guns. The British have lost 73 killed, 174 wounded and 26 missing. Forty-nine Americans are dead. The next morning the militia start to ring Boston, and within a week about 20,000 of them have the King’s army penned in.

The men

Dr. Joseph Warren, engraved by Thomas Illman after the portrait by John Singleton Copley.Age 33
Patriot leader who sent the ridersJoseph Warren

Boston physician and the leading Son of Liberty still in town. He gathered the reports on the regulars, sent Revere and Dawes into the night, then rode out and fought along Battle Road himself. Killed at Bunker Hill eight weeks later.

Paul Revere, painted by John Singleton Copley about 1768, holding one of his own silver teapots.Age 40
Express riderPaul Revere

Boston silversmith and engraver who had carried the patriots’ dispatches to New York and Philadelphia. He set up the lantern signal, rode to Lexington with the alarm and woke nearly every house on the way.

The Lexington Minuteman by Henry Hudson Kitson (1900), long called the statue of Capt. John Parker, on Lexington Green in 1929. No free portrait of John Parker is available.Age 45
Captain, Lexington militiaJohn Parker

Veteran of the French and Indian War who fought at Louisbourg and Quebec. Sick with tuberculosis, he stood his company on the Green at dawn, then led the survivors back out to hit the regulars again that afternoon. He died that September.

The Major John Buttrick House on Liberty Street, Concord, his farm near the North Bridge, photographed for the Historic American Buildings Survey. No free portrait of John Buttrick is available.Age 43
Major, Concord minutemenJohn Buttrick

Concord farmer whose land overlooked the North Bridge. He led the march on the bridge and gave the first order for Americans to fire on the King’s troops. He served again in the Saratoga campaign.

By the numbers

~700grenadiers and light infantry in the column that marched on Concord
8Lexington men killed on the Green at dawn
400 to 96militia against regulars at the North Bridge, roughly
30age of Capt. Isaac Davis of Acton, the first American officer killed in the war
26towns that lost men killed, wounded or missing that day
49Americans killed between Lexington and Charlestown
73British soldiers killed
20,000militiamen around Boston within a week
The North Bridge over the Concord River, where the militia fired on the King’s troops at about 9:30 on 19 April 1775.
The North Bridge over the Concord River, where the militia fired on the King’s troops at about 9:30 on 19 April 1775.
The Struggle at Concord Bridge, engraved by W. J. Edwards after Alonzo Chappel, about 1859.
The Struggle at Concord Bridge, engraved by W. J. Edwards after Alonzo Chappel, about 1859.
The Battle of Lexington, Plate I of the engravings Amos Doolittle made from sketches of the scene in the weeks after the battle and published in December 1775.
The Battle of Lexington, Plate I of the engravings Amos Doolittle made from sketches of the scene in the weeks after the battle and published in December 1775.
Daniel Chester French’s Minute Man (1875) at the North Bridge, cast from Civil War cannon, with the first stanza of Emerson’s Concord Hymn on its base.
Daniel Chester French’s Minute Man (1875) at the North Bridge, cast from Civil War cannon, with the first stanza of Emerson’s Concord Hymn on its base.
A View of the South Part of Lexington, Plate IV of Doolittle’s engravings: Lord Percy’s brigade meets Smith’s retreating column as houses burn.
A View of the South Part of Lexington, Plate IV of Doolittle’s engravings: Lord Percy’s brigade meets Smith’s retreating column as houses burn.
A tin lantern the Concord Museum keeps as one of those flashed from the steeple of Christ Church, the Old North Church, for Paul Revere.
A tin lantern the Concord Museum keeps as one of those flashed from the steeple of Christ Church, the Old North Church, for Paul Revere.

Watch, listen, see

Films, photographs and first-hand accounts from across the web. Each opens in a new tab.

The Shot Heard Round the World: A Nation Is Born at Lexington and Concord.
Video · 15 minA Nation Is Born

A short film with actors on Lexington Green and at the North Bridge, the morning the war began.

American Battlefield Trust
Lexington and Concord: The Revolutionary War in Four Minutes.
Video · 5 minLexington and Concord in Four Minutes

A fast, clear telling of 19 April 1775, from the midnight ride to the retreat.

American Battlefield Trust
Paul Revere, painted by John Singleton Copley about 1768, holding one of his own silver teapots.
DocumentRevere’s Own Account

Revere’s handwritten letter of about 1798: the lanterns, the row past the Somerset, his capture and the first shots.

Massachusetts Historical Society
The Battle of Lexington, Plate I of the engravings Amos Doolittle made from sketches of the scene in the weeks after the battle and published in December 1775.
DocumentCaptain Parker’s Sworn Deposition

Parker’s sworn statement of 25 April 1775 on the morning his company stood on Lexington Green.

National Archives
The North Bridge over the Concord River, where the militia fired on the King’s troops at about 9:30 on 19 April 1775.
Document19 April, Hour by Hour

Minute Man National Historical Park’s timeline of the day, from Revere’s crossing to Charlestown Neck at dusk.

National Park Service
A tin lantern the Concord Museum keeps as one of those flashed from the steeple of Christ Church, the Old North Church, for Paul Revere.
PhotosThe Lantern, Drum and Bridge

Objects from the day: a signal lantern, William Diamond’s drum, a North Bridge beam and Abner Hosmer’s powder horn.

Concord Museum
The steeple of the Old North Church in Boston’s North End, where two lanterns hung on the night of 18 April 1775.
DocumentThe Real Story of the Ride

How Revere, Dawes and Prescott carried the alarm, drawn from Revere’s own written accounts.

Paul Revere House
A View of the South Part of Lexington, Plate IV of Doolittle’s engravings: Lord Percy’s brigade meets Smith’s retreating column as houses burn.
DocumentToday in History: 19 April

The Library of Congress page for 19 April, led by Lexington and Concord and “Yankee Doodle.”

Library of Congress

“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.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Concord Hymn,” sung at the Concord Battle Monument, 4 July 1837

After

The militia did not go home. They dug in around Boston, and on 17 June they made the British pay more than a thousand casualties for Bunker Hill. Joseph Warren died in the redoubt there. John Parker died of tuberculosis that September. Paul Revere served as an artillery officer and later rolled the copper that sheathed the hull of USS Constitution.

Washington took command of the army at Cambridge in July. On 17 March 1776 the British sailed out of Boston for good, eleven months after the regulars had marched out to Concord.

For the battle’s 100th anniversary, Concord unveiled Daniel Chester French’s bronze Minute Man beside the North Bridge, cast from Civil War cannon, with Emerson’s first stanza on its base. Today Minute Man National Historical Park keeps the bridge and miles of the Battle Road as the farmers knew them.

Primary sources