The Battle of Lexington (1775)

After years of intensifying hostilities between the British monarchy and the colonists, the prospect of war became inevitable. With Paul Revere’s fearless warnings that the British were marching to Concord to seize American arms, the local Minutemen–the armed militias formed in small towns to defend colonists' lives and properties–prepared to defend homes and ammunition stocks. On April 19, 1775, the British arrived at Lexington and encountered approximately 77 American Minutemen led by Captain John Parker. The first shot was red. To this day, no one knows by whom. It became known as the “shot heard ‘round the world.” The British fired a volley, mortally wounding eight American heroes, the rest of thousands of soldiers to lay down their lives to achieve independence from Britain.