Just in case you were wondering what yesterday’s post would look like in Sons of Liberty (I know I was), here’s the objectives sheet:

On this day, two hundred and thirty-two years ago, a column of British regulars approached Lexington. They had marched all night on a “secret” mission into Massachusetts, their objective the colonial weapons stores at Concord. They were to quietly remove the arms from colonial hands before the colonials knew what had happened. Their secret mission, however, had been made public knowledge thanks to the efforts of Paul Revere and a dozen other riders who had warned the countryside that “the Regulars are coming!” The column marched into Lexington, an overlookable hamlet at a crossroads on the way to Concord, and found the town’s militia waiting for them.

You know that much already. This is what you might not know, and the following is unvarnished, documented fact:

A few days before, General Gage had issued orders to the Regulars in Massachusetts to treat surrendering colonists gracefully… excepting if said colonists were John Hancock or Sam Adams, who were to be clapped in irons if found. Hancock and Adams were in hiding… in Lexington.

Paul Revere had galloped from Boston out to Lexington because his spy network had intercepted British battle plans. Most of the Regulars marching in the column, by contrast, did not know what their mission was even as they approached Lexington. Revere worked with other express riders, but he himself headed to Lexington because he knew that Hancock and Adams were staying there, directly in the path of the British battle plans.

Revere alerted Lexington, told Hancock and Adams to get out of town, and rode on to Concord, as well. Then he came back to Lexington. Why? Because he knew Hancock and Adams. When Revere returned, Hancock was oiling his gun and cursing that the Regulars wouldn’t run him out of town without a fight. Eventually, they convinced Hancock he was more valuable to the movement alive and active than dead and vindicated. Revere rode back towards Boston, towards the British column.

Revere was captured by a forward scouting party, along with two compatriots he’d picked up on the way. When questioned, Revere blithely answered with colonial pride, confounding the soldiers, and proceeded to pump the Regulars for information even as he spouted misinformation at them. He was buying time: the scouting party was dangerously close to Lexington, and more than capable of capturing a buggy with Hancock, Adams, and Hancock’s fiancee and future mother-in-law.

Meanwhile in Lexington, the militia had assembled on the town commons. Another rider rode up from the east. The countryside was full of wild rumors, and this rider reported with full confidence that the Regulars were not headed through Lexington. The militia began to disperse. Half of them headed for the tavern, since they were up, anyway. It was an old New England tradition not to carry loaded weapons into taverns, which seems pretty sensible. Before stepping inside, the lot of them discharged their rifles into the air.

Less than a mile away, the Regulars leading Revere and company towards Lexington heard the crack of rifles echo over the New England countryside. Revere nodded confidently and told the soldiers that the militia had assembled. Continuing through Lexington would be certain death. The scouting party, uncertain of what to do, released Revere. Taking his horse, they headed cross-country back towards the column. Revere walked back to Lexington.

The British column could now be seen in the distance in the weak morning light. Revere headed directly to where he had left Hancock and Adams. They were gone, but John Lowell, Hancock’s confidential clerk, came to Revere in a panic. He had seen Hancock and Adams off, but only afterwards remembered Hancock’s trunk, left behind in the rooms above the tavern. In the trunk were Hancock’s papers and correspondence, the lot of which would implicate every member of Hancock’s network if they fell into British hands.

Revere and Lowell hurried towards the tavern. They found the town commons deserted, of course, and the tavern full. Revere raised the alarm again, assuring the militiamen that the British were coming, and could even be seen from the common. The townsfolk headed outside; Revere and Lowell headed upstairs. The trunk was huge: six feet long, made of oak covered with leather, and full of paper. Heavy. The two of them put their backs into it and lugged the thing downstairs.

Outside, the minutemen had reformed their line. The forward portion of the British column had stamped right past the town church, its bell ringing the alarm, and to the other side of the green. The British officers, true to form, were not at the front of the column, so the Regulars stood, waiting anxiously for orders on how to deal with the handful of colonials with guns formed up in a ragged line. The colonials, for their part, waited to see what the Regulars did.

Then Paul Revere staggered backwards out the front door of the tavern and onto the town commons, lugging the gigantic trunk full of incriminating papers, with Lowell on the other end. The two of them proceed to carry the thing across the common, through the militia’s lines. One wonders what the British soldiers at the front of the column made of the situation; without orders, nobody stopped them.

Revere and Lowell carted the trunk into the woods just outside of town. Later, Revere would recall that he did not see the first shot fired, but he heard it, and looking back he saw the battle begin. He saw, in fact, the entire war begin. He saw the United States begin. Heavy trunk aside, that seems to be a pretty awesome place to be.