People's War: Original Voices of the American Revolution - Hardcover

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The first shots of the war

There is no definitive account of exactly what happened soon after dawn on the green at Lexington, but, keenly aware of the importance of public opinion at home and in Great Britain, the Massachusetts Provincial Council immediately afterward appointed a committee, chaired by Dr. Benjamin Church, which in a short while produced A Narrative of the Excursion & Ravages of the King’s Troops, which began:

“On the nineteenth day of April, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, a day to be remembered by all Americans of the present generation, and which ought, and doubtless will, be handed down to ages yet unborn, the troops of Britain, unprovoked, shed the blood of sundry of the loyal American subjects of the British king in the field of Lexington…” It was acknowledged that some of these men were armed (as they should have been, since they were all militiamen who had been called out several hours earlier by Captain John Parker on news of the British approach), but

this small party of the inhabitants were so far from being disposed to commit hostilities against the troops of their sovereign that, unless attacked, they were determined to be peaceable spectators of this extraordinary movement. Immediately on the approach of Colonel Smith with the detachment under his command they dispersed; but the detachment, seeming to thirst for blood, wantonly rushed on, and first began the hostile scene by firing on this small party, by which they killed eight men on the spot and wounded several others before any guns were fired upon the troops by our men. Not contented with this effusion of blood, as if malice had occupied their whole souls, they continued the fire, until all of this small party who escaped the dismal carnage were out of the reach of their fire. Colonel Smith, with the detachment, then proceeded to Concord, where a party of this detachment again made the first fire upon some of the inhabitants…

The Excursion & Ravages was substantiated by numerous sworn depositions. Elijah Sanderson, for example, did “testify and declare” that as the redcoats approached “I heard one of the regulars, whom I took to be an officer, say, ‘Damn them—we will have them!’ and immediately the regulars shouted aloud, run and fired on the Lexington company, which did not fire a gun before the regulars discharged on them…” Another witness: “I, John Robbins, being of lawful age, do testify and say, that on the nineteenth instant, the company under the command of Captain John Parker, being drawn up some time before sunrise, on the green or common, and I being in the front rank, there suddenly appeared a number of the king’s troops, about a thousand as I thought, at the distance of about sixty or seventy yards from us, huzzaing, and on a quick pace towards us, with three officers in their front on horseback, and on full gallop towards us; the foremost of which cried, ‘Throw down your arms, ye villains! Ye rebels!’ Upon which, said company dispersing, the foremost of the three officers ordered their men saying, ‘Fire! By God, fire!” at which moment we received a very heavy and close fire from them; at which instant, being wounded, I fell, and several of our men were shot dead by me. Capt. Parker’s men, I believe, had not then fired a gun.”

David Welch, aged seventeen, serves as a ranger in the woods of Vermont

It fell to my lot to be placed the most westerly man of our party as we marched northward. In this way of marching, about the middle of the day, I had, as I afterwards found, become separated upward of half a mile from my companions, when I discovered through a thicket of hemlock brush the appearance of a smoke evidently indicating the fact of there being a fire. We were then in a wilderness some fifteen miles beyond our then most frontier garrisons. Immediately on making this discovery, I crept with the utmost caution toward the spot from whence the smoke rose. Presently I saw through the bush two Indians sitting by a smoke that appeared to have been kindled to keep off the mosquitoes. I instantly laid myself flat down, keeping my eye upon the spot to see if there were more than the two. In a few moments I became impressed with the belief that there were but the two. I was not more than eight rods [about forty-five yards] distant from them.

After much hesitation as to what might be most proper, I finally came to the conclusion that my companions were proceeding on and might perhaps soon be surprised, as there might be more Indians within a short distance. I drew my gun, and whilst lying thus flat on the ground, I took deliberate aim at one of the Indians and shot him dead. The other Indian instantly sprung upon his feet, seizing his gun, and started to run. Without reflecting upon the consequence, I immediately run after him, having my gun unloaded. The Indian made but a few leaps after I started before he turned and fired upon me, but his fire missed as I supposed by several feet. He then dropped his gun and came at me with his tomahawk. I encountered him with my empty gun. The first blow which he aimed with his tomahawk I warded off with my gun, and in doing it I was so fortunate as to hook the deadly weapon from him. It fell upon the ground rather behind me. I was then encouraged and sprung to get the tomahawk, in which effort I succeeded. Whilst I was yet bent in picking up the tomahawk, the Indian, who had drawn his knife, gave me a cut, giving me a deep but short wound upon my right leg a little above my knee. He then aimed a second stroke at me with the same weapon. This blow I warded off with my left hand, in doing which I received a wound between the thumb and the forefinger. About the same instant, with the tomahawk I hit him a blow on the head which brought him to the ground, and with another blow after he had fallen I made sure he was beyond doing me any further harm.

I immediately secured the guns of the two dead Indians and had the three, including my own, ready charged before my companions, who had heard the fire, came up. The corporal, after seeing what was done, ordered our immediate retreat, which we did toward Rutland Fort, where we arrived the next day some time in the afternoon, bringing with us the guns of the two dead Indians and their tomahawks and knives.

A southern belle has some unwelcome visitors

Rebecca Motte, Eliza Wilkinson… was a widow, but young and pretty and not, it seems, greatly bereaved—in the words of Elizabeth Ellet, editor of The Women of the American Revolution, she was “beautiful, with fascinating manners, quick at repartee, and full of cheerfulness and good humor.” Her house on Yonge’s Island, thirty miles south of Charleston, was separated from the mainland by a small creek and approached from the road by a long avenue hedged on either side with rose bushes. There was a gate where the avenue met the road.

Eliza, who told her story in a series of letters written in a “clear and feminine” hand, had at first refused to believe “the terrible accounts of the actions of the British troops at the northward; but (fool that I was) I thought they must be exaggerated,...