who fired first

A detailed Summary of who fired first


On April 19, 1775 shots were fired at Lexington Green starting the revolutionary war. Nobody can seem to agree on who fired the first shot. Each account written by witnesses about what happened is different in it's own way. According to the evidence presented, the only sensible answer to this two hundred and twenty-five-year-old mystery is that the colonists must have fired first. The diary entry by Lieutenant John Barker, a British officer, is very strong evidence against the colonists. Also the report from Major Pitcairn, commander of the first British party o enter Lexington, which was addressed to General Cage, his commander in Boston, strongly indicates that the colonists were the first to fire. Contributing to this powerful evidence is the fact that the colonists, who were inexperienced and unorganized, may have been extremely nervous.

John Barker, British Lieutenant, wrote in his diary shortly after the shooting at Lexington. In this entry he wrote that upon marching towards the colonists, one or two shots were fired by the colonists. Since Lt. Barker was in th


Major Pitcairn was the commander of the first party that entered the Lexington green. He led the troops in to the commons area upon what he says was about two hundred colonist rebels, a similar number to that which was stated in John Barker's diary entry, as his troops went towards the colonists there were shots fired from them. This caused the British to fire back killing several colonists. Major Pitcairn also stated that the man wounded was in the tenth infantry. Due to the fact that this letter was intended for his commander, who would eventually find out the truth anyway, there is little chance that Pitcairn would want to lie. In his letter he also states that he told the infantry not to fire, if his intentions were to lie to General Gage then he would probably not want to tell him how the troops disobeyed the repeated orders. This report is another strong piece of evidence that the British have on their side.

e actual battle, there is little chance that his information was grossly wrong. Given the fact that he was writing in his diary, he would have little reason

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Approximate Word count = 730
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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