Good Morning: American insurgents warned for impending action

[Okla-homey]

April 18, 1775 Revere and Dawes warn of British attack

232 years ago on this day in 1775, British troops march out of Boston on a mission to confiscate the American arsenal at Concord MA and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from the city to warn Adams and Hancock and warn the the local populace that the Brits were on the way.

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Paul Revere, one of the colonies' most prominent silversmith's by day, revolutionary firebrand by night.

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Revere's lesser known and fellow warning rider William Dawes

By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government had approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and sensing war was inevitable, had begun to train gunowners to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops who occupied Boston.

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Samples of Revere's silver creations.

In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from Great Britain to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against Concord and Lexington.

The New England Patriots (not affiliated with the National Football League) had been preparing for such a British military action for some time, and, upon learning of the British plan, Revere and Dawes set off across the Massachusetts countryside.

They took separate routes in case one of them was captured: Dawes left the city via the Boston Neck peninsula and Revere crossed the Charles River to Charlestown by boat.

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Boston's Old North Church, the tallest building in the city. Its steeple was used to display the signal lanterns

As the two couriers set out their warning mission, Patriots in Charlestown waited for a signal from Boston informing them of the British troop movement. As previously agreed, one lantern would be hung in the steeple of Boston's Old North Church, the highest point in the city, if the British were marching out of the city by Boston Neck, and two lanterns would be hung if they were crossing the Charles River to Cambridge.

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One of the two signal lanterns hung in the steeple. This one is on display in the Concord MA museum.

Two lanterns were hung, and the armed Patriots set out for Lexington and Concord accordingly. Along the way, Revere and Dawes roused hundreds of Minutemen who were armed with their personally owned firearms who set out to block and oppose the British.

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Revere arrived in Lexington shortly before Dawes, but together they warned brewer-patriot Sam Adams and noted large signature writer John Hancock and then set out for Concord. Along the way, they were joined by Samuel Prescott, a young Patriot who had been riding home after a date with a lady friend.

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Let's Get Ready to RRRRRRRRRRumble!

Early on the morning of April 19, a British patrol captured Revere, and Dawes horse went lame, forcing him to walk back to Lexington on foot. However, Prescott escaped and rode on to Concord to warn the Patriots there. After being roughly questioned for an hour or two, Revere was released when the patrol heard Minutemen alarm guns being fired on their approach to Lexington.

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Major John Pitcairn, Royal Marine. After earning his place in history on this day, he was killed later at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Much later, his son, who would also become a Royal Marine took part in a British scientific expedition during which he explored a small Pacific island which bears his name. It was on that island that the HMS Bounty mutineers eventually made their home and upon which their descendents still live.

About 5 a.m. on April 19, 700 British troops under Major John Pitcairn arrived at the town to find a 77-man-strong colonial militia under Captain John Parker waiting for them on Lexington's common green. Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation, the Americans began to drift off the green.

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One of a pair of pistols carried by Major John Pitcairn that day. Picairn was a Scot and his pistol is typical of the type carried by those folks during the era. Made entirely of steel, after firing, it was used as a convenenient club to brain one's opponent if he was still breathing.

Pitcairn's men began to display signs they knew what was coming. At the point, the brave Royal Marine officer was heard to loudly proclaim, "Steady Men, stand your ground! If they mean to have a war, let it begin here!"

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First shots of the American Revolution at Lexington MA

Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead and 10 others were wounded; only one British soldier was injured. The American Revolution had begun.

After the short skirmish in Lexington, the British officers marched their force on to Concord. There the Americans already had carried off most of their stores, but the British destroyed what they could (gun carriages, entrenching tools, flour and a liberty pole).

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Concord bridge, site of another patriot stand. Minuteman statue in the background on the side the patriots defended.

At Concord's North Bridge the growing American forces inflicted fourteen casualties on a British platoon, and about noon Smith began marching his forces back to Boston. The road back had turned into a gauntlet as the embattled farmers from "every Middlesex village and farm" sniped from behind stone walls, trees, barns, houses, all the way back to Charlestown peninsula.

By nightfall the Redcoat survivors were safe under the protection of the fleet and army at Boston, having lost 273 men along the way, while the Americans lost 95.

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Minuteman statue at Concord Bridge. The figure has lain aside his plow, taken up his personally owned flintlock musket and is itchin' for a fight.

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The Minuteman statue is memorialized by the Air National Guard emblem

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and in this one too!

also relevantly, your correspondent's daughter was born 21 years ago on this day in 1986. Happy Birthday Viktoria Marie. Don't get too wasted.:P

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[fadada1]

sweet. you gotta wonder if these men were scared out of their minds. not that they were fighting, but that the vegas odds had them as a significant underdog. surely they knew what they were up against by picking a fight with the biggest bully on the planet.

[SoonerStormchaser]

Actually, the French were equally big bullies at that time...now, EVERYONE loves to pick on the French.

[Okla-homey]

Actually, the French were equally big bullies at that time...now, EVERYONE loves to pick on the French.

and the French, ever the gamesmen jockeying for an advantage, successfully leveraged our little piccadilloe with the Mother Ship into a way to stick-it-to their historical enemy by helping us gain our freedom while reaping benefits in the process. Within 15 years of our revolutionary victory, Congress passed the "non-intercourse acts" making it a federal crime for Americans to trade with France as a "cold war" raged between the US and revolutionary France.

[fadada1]

and the French, ever the gamesmen jockeying for an advantage, successfully leveraged our little piccadilloe with the Mother Ship into a way to stick-it-to their historical enemy by helping us gain our freedom while reaping benefits in the process. Within 15 years of our revolutionary victory, Congress passed the "non-intercourse acts" making it a federal crime for Americans to trade with France as a "cold war" raged between the US and revolutionary France.
you made that up.

[Hamhock]

Within 15 years of our revolutionary victory, Congress passed the "non-intercourse acts" making it a federal crime for Americans to .


someone might oughta tell SAS this law has been repealed.

[TUSooner]

Interesting how quickly we 'Mericans learned to "fight dirty" like the Injuns. Nice jovb, Homey.

[XingTheRubicon]

<Robert Wuhl> What about Israel Bissel?!?!?! <Robert Wuhl>

[Okla-homey]

you made that up.

did not.


Non-Intercourse Act
March 1, 1809

An ACT to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies; and for other purposes.

Be it enacted . . ., That from and after the passing of this act, the entrance of the harbors and waters of the United States and of the territories thereof, be, and the same is hereby interdicted to all public ships and vessels belonging to Great Britain or France, excepting vessels only which may be forced in by distress, or which are charged with despatches or business from the government to which they belong, and also packets having no cargo nor merchandise on board And if any public ship or vessel as aforesaid, not being included in the exception above mentioned, shall enter any harbor or waters within the jurisdiction of the United States. or of the territories thereof, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, or such other person as he shall have empowered for that purpose, to employ such part of the land and naval forces, or of the militia of the United States, or the territories thereof, as he shall deem necessary, to compel such ship or vessel to depart.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall not be lawful for any citizen or citizens of the United States or the territories thereof, nor for any person or persons residing or being in the same, to have any intercourse with, or to afford any aid or supplies to any public ship or vessel as aforesaid, which shall, contrary to the provisions of this act, have entered any harbor or waters within the jurisdiction of the United States or the territories thereof; and if any person shall, contrary to the provisions of this act, have any intercourse with such ship or vessel, or shall afford any aid to such ship or vessel, either in repairing the said vessel or in furnishing her, her officers and crew with supplies of any kind or in any manner whatever, or if any pilot or other person shall assist in navigating or piloting such ship or vessel, unless it be for the purpose of carrying her beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, every person so offending, shall forfeit and pay a sum not less than one hundred dollars, nor exceeding ten thousand dollars; and shall also be imprisoned for a term not less than one month, nor more than one year.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That from and after the twentieth day of May next, the entrance of the harbors and waters of the United States and the territories thereof be, and the same is hereby interdicted to all ships or vessels sailing under the flag of Great Britain or France, or owned in whole or in part by any citizen or subject of either; vessels hired, chartered or employed by the government of either country, for the sole purpose of carrying letters or despatches, and also vessels forced in by distress or by the dangers of the sea, only excepted. And if any ship or vessel sailing under the flag of Great Britain or France, or owned in whole or in part by any citizen or subject of either, and not excepted as aforesaid, shall after the said twentieth day of May next, arrive either with or without a cargo, within the limits of the United States or of the territories thereof, such ship or vessel, together with the cargo, if any, which may be found on board, shall be forfeited, and may be seized and condemned in any court of
the United States or the territories thereof, having competent jurisdiction, and all and every act and acts heretofore passed, which shall be within the purview of this act, shall be, and the same are hereby repealed.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That from and after the twentieth day of May next, it shall not be lawful to import into the United States or the territories thereof, any goods, wares or merchandise whatever, from any port or place situated in Great Britain or Ireland, or in any of the colonies or dependencies of Great Britain, nor from any port or place situated in France, or in any of her colonies or dependencies, nor from any port or place in the actual possession of either Great Britain or France. Nor shall it be lawful to import into the United States, or the territories thereof, from any foreign port or place whatever, any goods, wares or merchandise whatever, being of the growth, produce or manufacture of France, or of any of her colonies or dependencies, or being of the growth, produce or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, or of any of the colonies or dependencies of Great Britain, or being of the growth, produce or manufacture of any place or country in the actual possession of either France or Great Britain: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect the cargoes of ships or vessels wholly owned by a citizen or citizens of the United States, which had cleared for any port beyond the Cape of Good Hope, prior to . . . [December 22, I807,] . . . or which had departed for such port by permission of the President, under the acts supplementary to the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States. SEC. II. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is authorized, in case either France or Great Britain shall so revoke or modify her edicts, as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, to declare the same by proclamation; after which the trade of the United States, suspended by this act, and by the. . . [Embargo Act] . . . and the several acts supplementary thereto, may be renewed with the nation so doing:

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That so much of the . . .
[Embargo Act] . . . and of the several acts supplementary thereto, as forbids the departure of vessels owned by citizens of the United States, and the exportation of domestic and foreign merchandise to any foreign port or place, be and the same is hereby repealed, after . . . [March I5, I809,] . . . except so far as they relate to Great Britain or France, or their colonies or dependencies, or places in the actual possession of either....

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That during the continuance of so much of the . . . [Embargo Act], . . . and of the several acts supplementary thereto, as is not repealed by this act, no ship or vessel bound to a foreign port, with which commercial intercourse shall, by virtue of this act, be again permitted, shall be allowed to depart for such port, unless the owner or owners, consignee or factor of such ship ol vessel shall, with the master, have given bond with one or more sureties to the United States, in a sum double the value of the vessel and cargo, if the vessel is wholly owned by a citizen or citizens of the United States; and in a sum four times the value, if the vessel is owned in part or in whole by any foreigner or foreigners, that the vessel shall not leave the port without a clearance, nor shall, when leaving the port, proceed to any port or place in Great Britain or France, or in the colonies or dependencies of either, or in the actual possession of either, nor be directly or indirectly engaged during the voyage in any trade with such port, nor shall put any article on board of any other vessel; nor unless every other requisite and provision of the second section of the act, entitled "An act to enforce and make more effectual an act, entitled An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, and the several acts supplementary thereto," shall have been complied with....

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That so much of the . . . [Embargo Act] . . . and of the several acts supplementary thereto, as compels vessels owned by citizens of the United States, bound to another port of the said States, or vessels licensed for the coasting trade, or boats, either not masted or not decked, to give bond, and to load under the inspection of a revenue officer, or renders them liable to detention, merely on account of the nature of their cargo, (such provisions excepted as relate to collection districts
adjacent to the territories, colonies or provinces of a foreign nation, or to vessels belonging or bound to such districts) be, and the same is hereby repealed, from and after . . . [March I5,1809]

Sec 8. And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue and be in force until the end of the next session of Congress, and no longer; and that the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States, and the several acts supplementary thereto, shall be, and the same ate hereby repealed from and after the end of the next session of Congress.

[Frozen Sooner]

Can't remember the name of the French dude who was coming to help and ended up getting mobbed in Boston, dragged from his horse, and hung. I know it took some fancy talkin' by our guys to keep the French from getting PO'd about it.