Lexington: April 19, 1775

On April 19, the Lexington Institute honors our namesake historical event.  On April 19, 1775, a company of 70 defiant Massachusetts militiamen met the British redcoats at Lexington and in the battle fired the “shot heard round the world.” 

The Minute Men militia been alerted, of course, by express riders Paul Revere and William Dawes.  Dr. Joseph Warren, leader of the Patriots inside Boston, had a network of intelligence operatives amongst the citizens of Boston and was tipped off about the impending British raid.  Warren dispatched Dawes on horseback across the narrow land bridge then called the Boston neck.  Revere hopped the Charlestown ferry, then collected “a very good horse” from the Larkin family and rode into history. 

Paul Revere stated in 1775 that “it was supposed the British were going to Lexington, by way of the Cambridge River, to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock and then on to Concord to seize the Colony’s stores of guns and powder.”

Hancock and Adams were instrumental leaders of the burgeoning movement for independence.  The pair got away, and the American Revolution was born.  The war that began with the Battle of Lexington and Concord led to the July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence uniting of thirteen colonies into States.  Final victory for Gen. George Washington’s army came at Yorktown in 1781. 

Today, 249 years later, the nation born on that small green at Lexington stands for freedom with allies and friends around the world.