Episode Details

On the night of April 18th, 1775, General Gage sent 700 of his best soldiers on a secret march to seize the militia’s weapons at Concord. The plan depended on speed and surprise, and he had neither. This is the story of the day the long argument became a war: Paul Revere’s ride and the alarm that outran the column; 77 farmers on Lexington Green and the shot no one could name; the fight at the North Bridge; and the 18 miles of running slaughter that followed, as thousands of militia fired the King’s troops back to Boston from behind every wall and tree on the road. It is told in the words of the men who were there, from Captain Parker’s ranks to Lord Percy, who marched out that morning despising the colonial militia as a rabble and wrote that night that whoever took them for an irregular mob would find himself much mistaken. By nightfall an army of farmers ringed Boston, and a decade of petitions was over.