Schedules US State Dept. Joined in Lexington by Samuel Prescott, the riders continued on their mission to warn inhabitants of 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, Mass., 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.