The Shot Heard ‘Round the World

Jill's Journal: Here’s the difference between traveling as adults and traveling as kids. It was a rainy day, a very rainy day with some shallow flooding on streets. As we hydroplaned through a flooded area while simultaneously being doused with what had to be about 50 gallons of water onto our windshield by an oncoming truck, Rob and I were white-knuckling it and just hoping we would all make it through alive. The girls in the back? They were laughing hysterically and thought it was better than a roller coaster. “Can we do it again?” “That was so cool!” “I liked that!”

Luckily, we lived and got to enjoy an amazing day in Lexington and Concord, literally where the Revolutionary War began.

We started with a peek at the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington, where Paul Revere knocked on the door at 1am to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams, important leaders of the Patriots’ cause and signers of the Declaration of Independence, that the British were marching toward them with the probable intent of arresting them. Before they were Americans, the colonists were British subjects. Seeking independence counted as treason. If captured, Hancock and Adams would have been shipped back to England in chains, tried for treason, and executed. They were staying at this 1698 house, then the parsonage, on this night.

Next was the fascinating Buckman Tavern, which was built in 1690. About 30 Minute Men (so named because they promised to be ready at a moment’s notice) gathered in the wee hours of April 19, 1775 to drink ale. Today we think of a tavern as a bar, but then it was a gathering place and a spot where someone could get nourishment of both food and drink (everyone, even children, drank ale or hard cider or tea as they didn’t know yet how to properly disinfect the water). We stood in the exact room where the Minute Men must have excitedly discussed the night’s impending events. Bar orders of the era are still chalked on the tap room wall. And the preserved front door (now safely inside and under Plexiglas) has a musket hole in it from the skirmish at dawn.

The Lexington Green, just steps out of the front door of the Buckman Tavern. The Lexington Minute Men (whose numbers swelled to about 75) filed out of the tavern and bravely faced down the 700 British troops here, simply intending to show them they would defend their small community of Lexington if they had to. The British major commanded, “Ye villains, ye rebels, disperse!”

Colonist Captain John Parker, who led the severely outnumbered Lexington farmers, said to his men, “Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here!” From somewhere, a shot rang out. Within a moment, eight of the Minute Men were dead and 10 wounded. The skirmish was later labeled the Battle of Lexington and officially marked the start of the war.


The British marched on toward Concord, where the Colonist rebels were storing their arms. The path the British took, later named Battle Road, is largely covered over by today’s Route 2A. However, a small section still exists in the Minute Man National Historic Park.

Here is the site where Paul Revere and fellow rider William Dawes were captured by a British patrol. Another messenger, Samuel Prescott (who joined them when “returning from a lady friend’s house at the awkward hour of 1am”), escaped by jumping his horse over a rock fence and riding on toward Concord to warn the colonists there. And no, there isn’t supposed to be a pond in the middle of the monument – we just had that much rain.

As we drove into Concord, we passed the Grapevine Cottage, which has nothing to do with the Revolution, but is really interesting. Ephraim Bull spent 10 years experimenting here before debuting the grape he developed, now known as the Concord Grape. It was such a hit that in 1853, growers were offering him $1,000 a seedling. A few years later, Dr. Thomas Welch first pasteurized juice from the Concord Grape. Today, the headquarters of Welch’s, known the world over for grape juice and grape jams and jellies, is still in Concord, which has a modern population of only about 17,000. The Grapevine Cottage, where it all started, is privately owned and, actually, has a for sale sign in front of it! For a mere $549,000, it can be yours. :)

A couple of doors down from the Grapevine Cottage is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house and Louisa May Alcott’s house, both of which we saw yesterday. And around the corner is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house, shown here.

The illustrious Concord authors lived only steps from each other, so it’s only fitting they be buried steps from each other too. A stop at Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery brought us to Author’s Ridge, where Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Alcott all rest. The picture shows the Alcotts on the lower left, the Thoreaus next to them on the upper left, and the Hawthornes across the walkway on the upper right. The Emersons are a few more steps up the path.

We stopped at the Concord Museum only minutes before closing time. For a small donation, the kind people escorted us back to their number one attraction, the only surviving lantern from the two hung in the Old North Church in Boston that fateful night. “One if by land, two if by sea…”




And finally, the pièce de résistance of today’s journey: the Old North Bridge. We walked the quarter mile through the rain from the parking lot to the Concord River. Here stands the reconstructed bridge which was so instrumental to the start of the War. Some 400 farmers waited there for the 700 British, intent on not letting them cross. The famous “shot heard ‘round the world” rang out when they met and the first true battle of the Revolution, the Battle of Concord, commenced. The fields have not been changed over the years and across the river, the Old Manse still stands, where parson William Emerson (grandfather of Ralph Waldo) watched the blood spill.

Here stands the Battle Monument, or Minute Man Statue, by Daniel Chester French. The statue has become the logo of the National Guard, is on U.S. savings bonds, and is on the 2000 Massachusetts quarter. The dreary weather and near dusk conditions didn’t do this snapshot any favors, but the place itself is powerful. And nearby is the grave of British soldiers who fell that day.

The Colonists’ ranks grew as the day wore on and more farmers and other ordinary men joined them. Eventually, they basically chased the British back to Boston for a stunning victory in the first battle of the War for Independence.

Concord and Lexington truly mark the birth of our nation. It struck me that Massachusetts marks both the start of settling the New World and the start of our new country. What a blessed state. Massachusetts is the land of the Pilgrims and the Patriots.

I’ve always considered myself patriotic, but being here where the Revolution started and walking in the footsteps of those true patriots was a powerful experience and humbled me tremendously. It gave both Rob and me such a deep appreciation for the forefathers of our country, and especially for the ordinary men who were willing to give their very lives to defend freedom for future generations. They weren’t ordinary at all, but extraordinary. It is awe-inspiring and very, very humbling. I only hope we can instill a love and appreciation of this great country into our growing girls.