Part 4 - Bloody Butchery by Three'oEight

[308LIBERTY]

Part 4: Bloody Butchery

Daylight is barely breaking when the redcoats finally make it to Lexington, Major Pitcairn in the lead. It's already been a hard night with no sleep, little food and the troops have barely begun to dry out from the trek across the river. Within a half mile, he begins to hear young William Diamond sounding his muster drum to gather the minutemen. Only about 70 of Captain Parker's men remain nearby, but they quickly fall into ranks, well away from the road to Concord and with no intention of interfering. Captain Parker then orders his men "Stand your ground! Don't fire unless fired upon! But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here!"

When Pitcairn arrives and sees the small band of colonists standing on the green, he immediately heads in their direction, ordering them to "Lay down your arms, you damned rebels and disperse!" Outnumbered 10 to 1, Captain Parker realizes the futility of his situation and begins to order his men to move out, not to disarm, but to leave the Green. About half begin to do so although a few either don't hear the order or they are too stubborn to move. The Captain's cousin Jonas Parker places his hat on the ground, puts his powder and ball inside and prepares for whatever might come.

From somewhere, a shot rings out! Nobody knows who fired first and the details are still hotly debated, but the impact of that shot changes history. The redcoats immediately start firing on the colonists, even those who've turned away to leave. A few brave souls return fire. The ever tenacious Jonas Parker, already shot and wounded, is killed by a bayonet while trying to reload his musket. In a matter of minutes, 8 colonists lay dead and at least 10 more are wounded. Jonathan Harrington  drags himself bleeding across the road and dies on his doorstep in the arms of his wailing wife and young son looking on. Within a few short minutes the scene has erupted into chaos as the eager redcoats began charging after the colonists, killing or maiming anyone caught in their path.

When Lt. Col. Smith finally arrives on scene, he is aghast at the lack of discipline being shown and orders his drummer to muster the troops back into formation. Despite the fact they have just slaughtered a group of their OWN countrymen, the troops are then ordered to fire a victory volley and cheer Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah! As sons, brothers, fathers and even grandfathers lay dead or dying, they celebrate as if a great victory has been achieved. Shortly after, some of Captain Smiths' men suggest they should turn around and head back to Boston before things go from bad to worse. Smith proudly orders them to move on towards Concord, despite their concerns. Before long the piper and the drum begin playing a merry tune as if nothing significant even happened.

The first AMERICANS to fall in a battle that will rage on for 8 long years are as follows:

John Brown
Samuel Hadley
Caleb Harrington
Jonathan Harrington
Robert Monroe
Isaac Muzzy
Jonas Parker
Asahel Porter

These are names most of you have probably never heard, yet they deserve our honor and respect. They died not only defending Liberty for themselves, but for you and me. Only 1 British soldier was even wounded on Lexington Green, so who do YOU think fired first? This is what we refer to as the first strike of the match, because sometimes it takes a bit more effort to get a fire going. It will now be up to Concord to determine the next step a fledging nation will take on it's path to independence. Before the day is through, the redcoats will have to march back through Lexington to face Captain John Parker and his men one more time. How do you imagine that will turn out?

[theri]

I belive that in paragraph 4 it should be "Lt. Col. Smith" not "Captain Smith".

[308LIBERTY]

Good call theri, Thanks.

[Shooter30-06]

I have to go back and look at "Paul Revere's Ride" but it was my recollection that Lt. Jesse Adair made the on the spot decision to turn the regulars toward the Lexington Green.  I have always emphasized in this regard that a mere junior officer radically changed history by this decision.  Is this wrong?