APRIL 18, 1775 - April 18, 2025

The 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution.

I live in a part of Boston where Paul Revere's house is just a minute's walk from my home. 

The Old North Church is across the street from me, through a park where Benjamin Franklin's family home once stood, and where Cyrus Dallin's famous statue of Paul Revere stands.

I am surrounded by and am reminded daily of our country's history and the men and women who said NO! to tyranny, and wonder if Americans still have the courage to oppose men who would be kings.

Paul Revere’s Ride

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

Concord Hymn

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

   Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood

   And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

   Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

   Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,

   We set today a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

   When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare

   To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

   The shaft we raise to them and thee.

 

On April 19, 1775, at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, the first battle of the American Revolutionary War took place, where colonial minutemen and militia companies engaged British Army troops, resulting in casualties on both sides and a British retreat.