April 19 (1775) is the anniversary of the first shots fired in America’s Revolutionary War. The towns of Lexington and Concord both claim the war started in their town. The first American deaths occurred in Lexington, where neither side had orders to fire on the other and 8 Americans were killed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson lived in Concord at the time when he was composing the poem (1837). The house was the one his grandfather and father (then a young child) had witnessed the skirmish at the Old North Bridge which was about 300 feet from their home. Whether they were the first actual shots of the Revolution or not, the Concord farmers turned soldiers fired the first deliberate volley by Americans acting under orders, caused the first British deaths, and the first British retreat at the Old North Bridge.
In 2022 My DH and I took a selfie by the Minute Man Statue there which is engraved with the first stanza of Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” which coined the phrase, “the shot heard round the world."
