# Canonical recap data for Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775)
# Source: https://recap.at/1775/lexington-concord
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: lexington-concord
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1775/lexington-concord"
title: Battles of Lexington and Concord
aliases:
- Lexington and Concord
- The Shot Heard Round the World
- April 19, 1775
- Battle of Concord
- Battle of Lexington
subtitle: The opening skirmishes of the American Revolutionary War marked the first military engagements between colonial militia and British regulars, yet remain unrecapped.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1775-04-19
datePrecision: day
year: 1775
decade: 1770
country:
name: United States
slug: united-states
summaryShort: The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, were the first major military actions between the British Army and Patriot militias from British America's Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolutionary War. The opposing forces fought day-long running battles in Middlesex County in the Province of Massachus
summaryLong: The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, were the first major military actions between the British Army and Patriot militias from British America's Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolutionary War. The opposing forces fought day-long running battles in Middlesex County in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge.
lede: On April 19, 1775, British regulars and American colonist militias clashed in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, marking the first military engagement of the American Revolutionary War. What started as a British attempt to seize stored weapons and arrest colonial leaders escalated into running battles across Middlesex County, leaving over 270 casualties and shattering any remaining hope for peaceful reconciliation.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/The_Battle_of_Lexington.jpg/1280px-The_Battle_of_Lexington.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Battles of Lexington and Concord"
importance: 89
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: British force
  value: 700-800 regulars from Boston garrison
- label: Colonial militia response
  value: Roughly 3,500-4,000 assembled by day's end
- label: Lexington casualties
  value: 8 Americans killed, 10 wounded; 1 British soldier wounded
- label: Concord casualties
  value: 2 Americans killed; 3 British killed, 9 wounded
- label: Total engagement distance
  value: Approximately 16 miles from Lexington to Concord to Boston
- label: British retreat timeline
  value: Forced back to Boston by midday under militia harassment
- label: Weapons seized
  value: British recovered minimal supplies; militia had moved most stores
- label: Date
  value: April 19, 1775
timeline:
- date: 1775-04-18
  title: British mobilization
  description: 700 British regulars under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith depart Boston at night to march on Concord and seize colonial weapons and supplies.
- date: 1775-04-19
  title: Paul Revere rides
  description: Revere crosses the Charles River and rides toward Lexington to warn colonists; Samuel Adams and John Hancock are sheltering there.
- date: 1775-04-19
  title: Lexington confrontation
  description: Captain John Parker's militia of roughly 70 men assembles on Lexington Common. The British column arrives at dawn; a shot is fired—the identity of the shooter remains disputed—and fighting erupts, killing 8 Americans.
- date: 1775-04-19
  title: Concord bridge battle
  description: Roughly 400 colonial militia engage British forces at the North Bridge in Concord, killing 3 British soldiers. The British retreat and abandon efforts to fully search for weapons stores.
- date: 1775-04-19
  title: Running battles
  description: As British regulars march back toward Boston, militia fire on them from behind walls and buildings throughout Middlesex County. Reinforcements swell militia ranks to several thousand.
- date: 1775-04-19
  title: Retreat to Boston
  description: British forces reach Charlestown by afternoon, having suffered over 70 casualties. The militia lay siege to Boston, effectively trapping the garrison.
- date: 1775-05-10
  title: Second Continental Congress convenes
  description: The Congress meets in Philadelphia and begins organizing military forces, moving toward formal independence from Britain.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord"
  title: Battles of Lexington and Concord
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: Lexington and Concord transformed colonial resistance from political protest into armed conflict, forcing wavering colonists to choose sides and convincing many moderates that independence was now inevitable. The militia's ability to muster quickly and inflict real casualties on professional soldiers shattered the myth of British military invincibility and energized the Continental Congress to form a standing army.
categories:
- war
taxonomy:
domain: military
eventTypes:
- war
- insurgency
canonicalClasses:
- conflict
- mobilization
impactRadius: national
velocity: sudden
predictability: forecastable
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: birth
metaDescription: First major battle of the American Revolution, April 19, 1775. British regulars vs. colonial militias in Massachusetts.
wikidataQid: Q778010
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The Massachusetts Spy
  publisherSlug: massachusetts-spy
  headline: BLOODY BUTCHERY OF THE BRITISH TROOPS
  publishedAt: 1775-04-20
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - no live archive URL recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - A full account of the skirmish at Lexington and subsequent pursuit to Concord, wherein the regulars fired upon the militia without provocation, killing eight minutemen on the Common and wounding many more in running battles throughout the day.
  significance: 90
  type: newspaper
  region: Massachusetts, British America
- publisher: The Pennsylvania Journal
  publisherSlug: pennsylvania-journal
  headline: OPEN WARFARE BETWEEN BRITISH AND COLONISTS IN MASSACHUSETTS
  publishedAt: 1775-04-27
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - no live archive URL recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Reports from Worcester and Boston confirm that armed conflict has erupted in earnest, with hundreds of militia engaging redcoat regulars in pitched battles near Boston, marking the commencement of hostilities that many feared inevitable.
  significance: 88
  type: newspaper
  region: Pennsylvania, British America
- publisher: The London Gazette
  publisherSlug: london-gazette
  headline: DISTURBANCES AT LEXINGTON AND CONCORD - OFFICIAL ACCOUNT FROM GENERAL GAGE
  publishedAt: 1775-06-10
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - no live archive URL recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - General Thomas Gage reports to the Crown that armed rebels assembled in Massachusetts and fired upon His Majesty's troops, necessitating military response to suppress the unlawful insurrection and restore order in the Province.
  significance: 85
  type: newspaper
  region: Great Britain
- publisher: The Virginia Gazette
  publisherSlug: virginia-gazette
  headline: MILITIA AND REGULARS CLASH IN MASSACHUSETTS - MINUTEMEN ENGAGE BRITISH FORCES
  publishedAt: 1775-05-04
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - no live archive URL recallable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Accounts from Massachusetts detail a day of combat wherein local militia companies turned out at dawn to confront British regulars marching to seize colonial military stores, resulting in casualties on both sides and galvanizing patriot sentiment across the colonies.
  significance: 82
  type: newspaper
  region: Virginia, British America
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260606214906/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-06
  label: Battles of Lexington and Concord
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord"
