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What Happened at Lexington
find the most reliable source to be, the Sermon of the Reverend Jonas Clark, Pastor or the church at Lexington on the First Anniversary of the Battle, April 19, 1776. His detailed descriptions of the events were more consistent with research that I had collected on the battle. I also to into account the time frame of his sermon, a year after the event meant he did not have to spice up the story or make false statements to entice support of the colonist struggle for independence. (Preachers don’t lie)
The other accounts seem to be fairly accurate with one or two areas being discriminately different depending whether they were British or American. In the diary of Lieutenant John Barker, he describes seeing between 200 and 300 men formed on the common and Maj Pitcairn’s report to General Cage supports that but not one of the American accounts mentions remotely near that amount. I think the British elevated the numbers to make the battle seem more respectable. In some of my reading I felt they had a tendency to inflate the circumstances of events so as not to look like bullies.
Another account where both sides differ on is who fired the first shot. In all three British accounts it had the Americans as firing the first shot. Lt Barker reporting the militia fired one or two shots and Maj Pitcairn reporting four or five shot fired while Captain John Parker said that his men did not provoke any action. I tend to think that the militia did fire the first shot, only because the lack of training and unit cohesion. The militias were ordinary people that came from their farms and homes when the call came to arm. They may have had some prior training but not to the extent of the British who were all trained professional soldiers taught to follow orders. Maj Pitcairn more likely overstated the number of shots in his report to make his actions seemed more justified to Gen Cage.
The last difference I could identify was how the battle was actually described. Capt Parker states the British “furiously” rushed in and fired leading others to believe the British gave the minutemen no warnings. In the letter from Joseph Warren to the Town of Massachusetts he writes that the “Regulars rushed in with great violence” continuing to fire until the minutemen maid there escape. These accounts of course are biased because at the time the militia was trying to gain support from those colonists still undecided on whom to side with.
Over all it is pretty obvious that the British accounts, as well as the American accounts, of events during the Revolution will be worded to reflect independent views of actions taken. Each side has an obligation to their people to paint the best picture in order to get the reaction desired and I think [next page]