Hours of research at The Anchor and writing by candlelight in my colonial-esque room have culminated in a somewhat shoddy piece of literature on the Battle of Lexington and Concord (1775). I've only barely edited it, since it's more of a practice piece than anything else. As I've written before on here, I've been toying with the idea of a narrative history of the major western battles of the French and Indian War. Lexington and Concord took place twelve years after the French and Indian War ended, but I figured choosing an interesting "battle" from the War of Independence could wet my appetite and explore this type of writing. This "practice piece" is an 80-page (quasi)monograph of the fighting on April 19th, '75. Because I was just playing around with this, I haven't put together the bibliography; but rest assured, there's some high quality sources. A little sneak peak of the battle for those who (a) have never heard of it or (b) have heard of it and (understandably) don't plan on reading my attempt at being an historian:
A British dash for rebel supplies held in Concord is thwarted by express riders carrying news of the march. Thousands of militiamen and unattached volunteers stream in from the surrounding counties to converge on the British troops. A panicked skirmish at Lexington turns into a concentrated volley on Concord's North Bridge, and the sixteen-mile-long march back to Boston becomes a bloody gauntlet. By the time the British reach safety on the Charlestown peninsula at sundown, the orderly troops that had marched out of Boston the night before resemble nothing short of a panicked and bloodstained mob collapsing on the slopes of Bunker Hill.
Lexington and Concord by Anthony Barnhart
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