2024 Life Logs, Day 297: Field Trip to Historic Lexington
Date: Thursday, October 24, 2024
Weather: Sunny AM, Turning Cloudy in the PM; High Temp 68, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
It is 10:30 pm on Tuesday evening, April 18, 1775. The Provincial leaders in Boston, Massachusetts, learn that British General Gage has issued orders for 700 British soldiers to march to Concord to remove all the military supplies the locals have gathered. The King of England wants Gage to calm things down in Boston and thinks removing the ammunitions will help to avoid a war. The colonists discover what is happening, and Paul Revere has two lanterns lit in the belfry of North Church to signal that the British are headed to Concord.
By midnight, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and other riders leave Boston to spread the word around the countryside. Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who are known revolutionaries, are hiding out at the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington.
Dawes and Revere arrive to warn them that they need to leave to avoid the British, ride on towards Concord, and are captured by a British patrol. Another rider, Samuel Prescott, rides on to carry the word to Concord. Dawes is released and later Revere is released and heads back to the Hancock-Clarke House to find Adams and Hancock have not left yet.
Fast forward to 5 am, now Wednesday, April 19. Lexington’s militia await the arrival of the British at Buckman’s Tavern in Lexington.
As the British approach, the militia gather on the Lexington Common. They are led by young Captain John Parker who tells the men, “Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
The British also have orders not to engage, but when they arrive, shots are fired. Eight British soldiers are killed, and more are wounded. The British escape to treat the injured at Munroe Tavern just a mile from the Lexington Commons and then regroup and head on to Concord.
By 7:30, the British arrive at the North Bridge in Concord and are met by 450 militia and minutemen. By 9 am, the militia see smoke coming from the center of Concord, assume the British are ransacking the town, and are now saying, “Let it begin here.”
4:30 pm, the British are outnumbered, drop their heavy arms, and hightail it back to Boston. The colonial forces have grown to 3,600 men.
7:30 pm, the British barely make it back to Boston by sundown. The American Revolution has begun.
The Encore field trip today began with a guided tour of the Hancock-Clarke House, then on to Buckman Tavern for a guided tour. We had lunch in Lexington center, walked up to the Belfry,
through the Lexington Common, 
and on to Munroe Tavern for one last guided tour. On our way out of town, we stopped by Wilson Farm Market which had everything fruit, vegetable, and pumpkin, 
and then home. It was a warm and gorgeous day, with a cloudless, deep blue sky in the morning, turning cloudy in the afternoon. But the colorful foliage in Lexington kept things bright. What a beautiful fall day for a wonderful field trip.
