Dan Bradford.
Greetings today fellow Appleseeders! If you are like me, you can't wait for this special weekend. :~
For some reason I am super excited for our special Patriot's Day Celebration.
Some of you had this event last weekend due to range availability, etc.
So Huzzah and good job! :bow: :---
Each year this day on social media we have many 'historians' who still have not figured out the location of "the shot heard 'round the world".
As Appleseeders, we know the location of "the shot heard round the world" was at the North Bridge of Concord. NOT at Lexington where the first shots were fired.
These words are NOT just tongue in cheek as written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, son of William Emerson.
Before you like and share the April 19th, 1775 stories on your favorite social media, please give a gentle correction when needed if you see this mistake.
Otherwise we simply enable these 'historians' to remain historically incorrect, thus disparaging the sacrifices of our Founders.
Details matter. Our Founders would be appalled by us not knowing this.
Still, there is one historian who gets it wrong each year and many have told her in kind and gentle words, but to no avail. :'(
I often post this:
Today we celebrate the birth of our Nation. It was birthed by effective marksmanship on April 19, 1775. That was the first day of the Revolutionary War. This is NOT the same as the American Revolution. There are 6 famous words associated with this day and they were coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandson. Emerson's grandfather, William Emerson was a minister in Concord and witnessed that battle. Those 6 famous words are "the shot heard round' the world".
Again, this refers to the famous 3-4 minute battle at the North Bridge of Concord. Those 6 famous words were contained within his poem called the Concord Hymn. If you hear any 'historians' today proclaim that these 6 words were referring to Lexington Green, where the first shots were fired on April 19th, 1775, they are wrong and have not studied their history deeply enough. If any 'historians' say the American Revolution started on April 19th, 1775, they are also incorrect.
Now go do something patriotic today and celebrate liberty as it was meant to be. Make John Adams proud!
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/wcVVC9.png) (https://imageshack.com/i/powcVVC9p)
Thanks Brother! :F
Jerry
I get asked about this quite often. I most always suggest folks do some research and decide for themselves. (Same suggestion I make when pressed on who I think fired first at Lexington.
I must ask where are you actually finding definitive proof that North Bridge is the place of "The Shout Heard 'round the World", other than "The Concord Hymn,"?
I have spent hours on the internet and have read a dozen books. What I have read seems to be pretty much equal in saying The Shot Heard 'round the World" was Lexington vs Concord.
This is what the Minute Men NPS says about it.
"No one can dispute Lexington's claim to the first shots, and sadly, the first colonial casualties of the Revolutionary War. However the "shot heard round the world" is not a reference to the first shot.
Emerson's poem is definitely referring to the fighting at the North Bridge, where colonial militiamen were first ordered to fire on British soldiers, thus committing treason. Here also the first British soldiers were killed.
However, in a larger sense, was Emerson actually referring to a musket shot? Some argue that the true "shot heard round the world" is not a physical musket shot, but the ideals of liberty and self-determination."
https://www.nps.gov/mima/learn/education/the-shot-heard-round-the-world.htm
Well,
today I asked a lot of colleagues which day in history we have today - and no one knew. But - now they do! I gave them the quick Spiel of the Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, King George acting like a Dictator, not in accordance with the Constitution, East India Trading Company getting slaves from Africa to the Americas for Cotton picking, Cotton then to India in exchange for Opium, Opium to China, tea from China to Europe - BIG profits all around and how the American settlers disrupted this big money enterprise. Yes, not quite the excerpt we present, but then again I wasn't on the line to represent us at that moment. Many were hugely surprised and thanked me! Must have informed around 20 people today, which I was happy about.
For those who've followed our Amateur Radio activities: we've reached over 1000 Hams so far through combination of internet and on air activities, very happy about that as well! More "Special Event Stations" are definitely in the works! People need to know their history.
:F
Excellent work mi fren'.
It is true, some historians still get it wrong, and apparently even some of the staff/publications at the NPS.
One well know historian whose initials are TR, gets it wrong every year on FB while continuing to dishonor our heritage.
The "shot heard 'round the world" is sometimes generically, albeit erroneously,
used to describe the first shots of Lexington. But according to Emerson himself, this famous "shot"
he was referring to, occurred at the North Bridge of Concord.
The Minuteman statue-depicting Isaac Davis- below represents the icon of Project Appleseed.
It is our avatar on the Project Appleseed forums. It is emblazoned on all our instructor gear and accessories.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/PYQgJa.png) (https://imageshack.com/i/pnPYQgJap)
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/q4UOTj.jpg) (https://imageshack.com/i/pmq4UOTjj)
This statue is right at the entrance of North Bridge of Concord. This statue was designed by Concord resident
Daniel Chester French who was a sculptor. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson, also of Concord,
who suggested to French that he talk to the 1875 Centennial Statue Committee which was to honor the 100th
year of the Battle of Concord at the Old North Bridge.
Emerson had previously written the Concord Hymn in 1835,
at the request of the newly formed Battle Monument Committee, to immortalize the North Bridge fight (minus the battle details).
1835 was to be the 200th anniversary of the founding of Concord.
It was the dedication one of the first monuments to military, the Obelisk that stands on the opposite end of the
Old North Bridge. That was one of the Nation's first military type monument and was finally erected in 1836.
Much like John Adams' definition of the American Revolution, the Concord Hymn, according to Emerson
was designed to live on in the hearts and mind of the people.
French was finally tasked to make a statue. French wanted the likeness of a Minuteman and settled on Isaac Davis.
He interviewed many relatives of Davis. The story of Isaac Davis is powerful and moving.
Isaac Davis was the first to die at the North Bridge of Concord and it is his likeness on this statue.
The words inscribed at the base of the Minuteman statue are from the Concord Hymn.
Again, this hymn was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, actually the grandson of William Emerson.
When the fierce fighting broke out at the North Bridge of Concord On April 19th, 1775
William Emerson was a pastor trying to calm the local residents of Concord. Predominately the elders,
the very young and the infirmed.
As a tribute to the Concord Battle at the Old North Bridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the Concord Hymn.
Those famous 6 words did not occur in that order until Emerson wrote the Concord Hymn.
The first stanza is even written on the Minuteman statue at the North Bridge in Concord.
It is:
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 entire Concord Hymn was first sung on July 4,1837. On the 200 year anniversary of the founding of Concord.
This was when the first Obelisk Monument (at the opposite end of the bridge) was dedicated to the memory of those
who fought at Concord.
The "flood" from the line "rude bridge that arched the flood", referred to swollen spring waters that were common to
all the rivers around the Boston area.
Below is a replica of the original "arched" bridge.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/N5yMeJ.jpg) (https://imageshack.com/i/pnN5yMeJj)
"The shot heard 'round the world" was clearly written for Concord and not Lexington.
The Minuteman statue-depicting Isaac Davis- below is located at Concord's North Bridge with those famous 6 words
"the shot heard round the world".
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/DJF1KQ.jpg) (https://imageshack.com/i/pmDJF1KQj)
This link pretty much echoes much of the rest of "the shot heard round the world" history.
http://historyofmassachusetts.org/where-did-the-shot-heard-round-the-world-happen/
And remember:
The 'shot heard round the world' is not one you can hear, but rather an idea, which so many all over the world took as inspiration for their own struggles of liberation.
2019 bump. :snipersmi :snipersmi
2020 bump....
2021 Bump...
Stay the course our cause is just.
I'll say it to you the way my Daddy said it to me, ya'll.
The Shot Heard 'Round the World is a metaphor of sorts (and we Appleseeders do love us a good metaphor :cool2: )
The Shot refers to the first taken by the colonists in active rebellion against their oppressors. That shot changed everything they thought they knew about the world. Why was it so important? Because it reverberated it ways beyond recoil and impact. It sent the army of the strongest nation on earth LITERALLY running for their lives, and were they running from an army? From trained soldiers? Mercenaries? No sir. They were running; running as fast as their wounded bodies and wounded pride would carry them, from ordinary folk, defending their ordinary homes, their ordinary lives, and their basic liberties. Something that was completely unprecedented. It was so significant that less than a decade later, it gave courage to the French people, who staged a Revolution of their very own.
My Dad said this: The Shot itself could arguably have been in one of two places: Concord Bridge, the first time the militia sent the Redcoats running. Or Merriam's Corner, the first time the Militia fired upon those same Redcoats without having been fired upon first. There's merit to either argument in terms of historical significance. But Lexington, he said, was a largely one-sided battle, with the Militia on the receiving end. And let's face it, the British Army firing on civilians for dumb reasons wasn't all that unusual, and had it happened on its own, and not within the context of the rest of the events of that day, it would have had a similar effect, historically, as the Boston Massacre; as fuel for for the flames. Heck, it even happened in a similar way. Some ding dong got ahead of his superiors and fired when he shouldn't have, and set off a chain reaction. But the colonists didn't fire a shot at Lexington that changed the course of history. Evidence would tend to suggest that they didn't fire many shots at all.
At both Concord and Merriam's Corner, however, they did, and the reports of those shots did, indeed, echo around the world.
They still do.
That's the story as I learned it at my Daddy's knee. Take it for what it is.
Happy Patriots' Day, all. As TaosGlock said, stay the course. :F