The Shot Heard 'Round the World

I'm almost certain that every one of you has heard of the 'Shot Heard 'Round the World', as long as you've taken an American History class. Not the shot that kickstarted The Great War, but the shot that marked the beginning of the American Revolution.

I wont give you all the dates of all the significant events before the American Revolution, but the actual fighting for the war didn't start until April, 1775 (a full year before the Declaration of Independence was finalized). Before then, the Colonists on the American continent were just protesting the fact that they were being treated as second-class English citizens. As hostility grew between the Colonists and the British officers sent to calm them down, both sides started preparing for war.

Statue in Concord

In April, British troops started marching through to a place called Concord, where the rebellious colonists had a large stash of gunpowder, ammunition, and other stuff needed to win a war against a large empire. The British march was in itself interesting, but things didn't get heated until the soldiers got to the community called Lexington.

In Lexington, a company of armed rebels waited for the advancing British soldiers. They were given orders not to fire or act hostile in any way; in fact, there were really just supposed to stand there and look smart while the British stormed into town, to give the impression that the rebels were a more formidable foe than they really were. The British, however, were probably a bit confused, and decided to surround the rebel company and disarm them (totally ignoring their first job, which was to search the town for supplies).

A British officer ordered the rebels to lay down their weapons and disperse, and the captain of the colonist rebels also ordered his men to go home, but because there was so much confusion and shouting, few people did much of anything. Somewhere, a shot was fired out. No one is quite sure who fired the shot, or if anyone was hurt, but the British panicked and started firing at the rebels, who waited for a moment to start shooting back.

Another British officer arrived moments later, figured out what was going on, and managed to get everyone to stop, but not before a few of the rebels had been killed. The British fired some 'victory shots' into the air, forgot that they were supposed to be searching for supplies, and rode away to Concord, leaving a probably very confused mass of Lexington citizens behind.

Rebuilt Old North Bridge

This mystery shot fired in Lexington is believed by most people to be the 'shot heard 'round the world', but it's actually not. The 'shot heard 'round the world' wasn't fired until the British troops got to Concord, where they remembered what they were supposed to be doing and started pillaging the town - politely. The British soldiers knocked on doors and confiscated any firearms they found, paying for food and drink and even forming a bucket line when one of the gun-burning fires they started accidentally set fire to a local meetinghouse.

A rebel company, which had been waiting on a hill just out of town, saw the smoke from the fire and decided to advance. They came all the way up to the town bridge, called the Old North Bridge, joining up with a few more rebel companies. The British officers saw what was happening and lined their men up to meet them, even though at this point they had less men than the rebels and the rebels had the tactical advantage.

Neither side was ordered to shoot, but a shot rang out from the British line, followed by a couple more hesitant shots from soldiers who were probably tired and confused, and then an entire volley of shots from soldiers thinking they had missed the order to fire. Finally, the rebel companies were ordered to fire back, and what was left of the the British troops fled back towards the town, frightened by the surprisingly powerful rebel army, where the British reinforcements were starting to arrive.

What follows is what would have a tense standoff, with both sides glaring at each other from across the river, if it hadn't been for a man named Elias Brown, the town crazy. Elias came up to the bridge carrying a large barrel of cider and started selling to the soldiers, who I'm sure tried their hardest to maintain the seriousness of the moment.

The rebels by this point had retreated a bit, behind a stone wall, and the British soldiers decided to go back to searching the town, where they had lunch and then left.

The 'short heard 'round the world' actually refers to that first shot fired at the Old North Bridge in Concord by the rebels, but there's a monument for that special shot in Lexington as well. Why the confusion?

By this point, I assume you're already wondering 'Where does the phrase "the shot heard 'round the world" come from?' After some intense research (read: two minutes on Wikipedia), it turns out that the phrase originated from a poem written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1836, called the Concord Hymn. It was written for the dedication of the monument in Concord, and sung to the tune of "Old 100th" (which I recognized as also being the tune to "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow"). The first Stanza of Emerson's poem goes like this:

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.

Ever since Emerson wrote the poem, the phrase has been used to describe the beginning of the American Revolution, and later the start of the Great War, and a couple major moments in sports that I'm sure a few people still care about.

You may not have guessed it from the way I presented the facts, but the battle in Lexington was much more interesting to talk about than the battle in Concord, despite the fact that what happened in Lexington wasn't really a battle (historians or people who know anything about war will tell you it was really just a minor brush). So, in later years, when people talked about the first battle of the American Revolution, they talked about 'The Battles of Lexington and Concord', even though there was really just one battle on Concord, and a few shots fired in a skirmish in Lexington a few hours earlier.

No matter what people say, though, the only bits of history that remain in public memory are the bits that weren't boring. That's the reason why false statistics and misquotations are believed for so long - because they're interesting. A mystery shot firing out among two groups of tense soldiers is much more interesting than shots exchanged across a river, which is probably how most battles were fought back then. And for some reason, the phrase 'shot heard 'round the world' stuck in people's memories, while the rest of the poem, which put that phrase into context, was forgotten.

Knowing exactly which shot was the 'shot...' probably isn't going to save your life (though if it does, you've encountered some strange kidnappers or stumbled upon a time machine), and the chance that you'll be asked that question of Jeopardy or some other money-winning game show is slim, but it will make you sound super intelligent if you ever happen to visit Lexington or Concord. Arguing with tour guides is a supreme American pastime.