Shot Heard 'Round the World
On the night of April 18, a force of 700 British soldiers headed for Concord. Thomas Gage, a British general, heard that the colonial militia had a major weapon storehouse at Concord, so he sent soldiers to destroy it. Local spies got the news to a patriot group, the Sons of Liberty, and they sound an alert that the British were coming. The British troops arrived at the town of Lexington at dawn. 70 armed members of the civilian militia, called minutemen, awaited the British advanced. The captain said, "Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here!". Suddenly, a shot was fired, but no one knew who shot it. The battle ended in minutes. 8 minutemen died, and 10 were wounded, but the British only had 1 person wounded. The British marched on to Concord, and destroyed the weapons they found there. As the British retreated to Boston, the roads were filled with minutemen. The minutemen fired from behind trees, fences, and buildings. At the end of the day, more than 250 British Redcoats were dead, missing, or wounded. The minutemen only had fewer than 100 casualties.