Parts of Battle Road have been restored to the rustic, unpaved condition of colonial times. Signs and monuments mark the sites of important events and skirmishes, and the Minute Man Visitor Center, halfway between Lexington Green and Concord Center, provides information and a rest stop. Roused from their beds by Paul Revere and William Dawes, minutemen gathered in the darkness on Lexington Green in Massachusetts early on the morning of April 19, 1775. Joined in Lexington by Samuel Prescott, the riders continued on their mission to warn the inhabitants of the country towns within 20 miles of Boston that the British were sending an expeditionary force to find and destroy weapons caches that the colonial militias had been building up in preparation for the inevitable battle with their British rulers. Finally, as daylight was breaking, the redcoats arrived.
Shots rang out.
Eight Americans fell. A few hours later, in nearby Concord, more shots were fired and two more Americans lay dead, but the British had lost a dozen. Fast forward to last year. The Rev. Gary Smith, senior minister at First Parish in Concord, was on the phone, applying for a corporate credit card for church expenses. Silence on the line.