Episode 054: British Advance on Lexington and Concord

American Revolution Podcast

Michael Troy

Education, History

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2018

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the evening of April 18, 1775, Lt. Col. Smith leaves Boston via Charlestown. His goal is to seize and destroy munitions in Concord. Delays prevent his force from leaving Charlestown before Paul Revere and other riders alert the countryside. At around dawn on April 19, the regulars confront a group of militia on Lexington Green. The regulars at Lexington are an advance company led by a young Lieutenant. They fire on the militia before the main column arrives. When Col. Smith arrives, he stops the shooting and restores order. By then, many lay dead and wounded on the Green. Smith reassembles his column which marches on to Concord. In Concord, the militia get word of the attack at Lexington and pull back out of town to North bridge. The British arrive and search for munitions. Smith sends a force of light infantry across North bridge to Barrett's mill in search at munitions. While three companies hold North bridge, the militia strike, killing several regulars and retaking the bridge. The British at Barrett's mill are cut off, but manage to cross the bridge anyway, right past the militia, and rejoin the main force in Concord. Smith is now faced with having to march back to Boston through a gauntlet of hostile militia bent on payback. Visit my site at https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.
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0:33.4	Hello. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.
0:48.0	Today, episode 54, the British advance on Lexington and Concord.
0:54.0	Last week I talked about Paul Revere's ride to warn the colony about the imminent raid by soldiers on Concord.
1:01.0	The week before that I left off with General Gage getting ready to
1:05.2	deploy his soldiers on the evening of April 18th, 1775. Today we will pick up
1:12.0	there and follow the Army along its route to Lexington and Concord.
1:17.0	At around 10 p.m. on the evening of April 18th, after the ferry out of Boston and the land exit over Boston Neck were both closed,
1:26.0	Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, per General Gage's orders, began to assemble his soldiers.
1:32.0	Smith had only received his orders a few. began to assemble his soldiers.
1:39.5	Smith had only received his orders a few hours earlier and had to work quickly to collect his forces for the march.
1:45.0	The soldiers deployed for this mission did not come from any particular regiment. In a typical Army regiment there were two special companies.
1:49.0	Regimental commanders would put the largest and strongest soldiers in a company of grenadiers.
1:56.2	The grenadiers' original purpose, a century earlier, was to hurl large heavy grenades at
2:02.2	the enemy.
2:03.7	Although they no longer did that, commanders found Grenadiers useful as shock troops.
	...

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