Patriot's Day commemorates the Battle of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. The Revolutionary War began there on 19 April 1775, and ended in Yorktown on 19 October 1781 when Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington.

On the evening of 18 April 18 1775, the British commander in chief of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, General Thomas Gage, was ordered to bring the colonies under control. He ordered Lt. Col. Francis Smith to destroy the Colonist's war supplies in Concord and to take Samuel Adams and John Hancock into British custody. Although Smith's orders were to be carried out in secret, physician Joseph Warren learned of the plans and sent Henry Dawes and Paul Revere to warn the patriots.

Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, by Grant Wood, a visual representation of the famous poem by

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Paul Revere's Ride (1863).

Paul Revere rode 16 miles from Olde North Church in Boston to Lexington. The British arrived in Lexington in the early dawn of 19 April 1775. The patriots and British confronted each other on the green and fired “the shot heard round the world.”

Who fired the first shot remains unknown.

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David B. Schlosser

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