Editing Concord, Massachusetts (section)

===Battles of Lexington and Concord===
{{main|Battles of Lexington and Concord}}

The [[battles of Lexington and Concord]] were the first military engagements of the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-american-revolution-begins|title=The American Revolution begins|access-date=June 21, 2018|work=[[History.com]]|date=November 13, 2009 |publisher=[[A&E Television Networks, LLC.]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324020541/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-american-revolution-begins|archive-date=March 24, 2018}}</ref> On April 19, 1775, 700 [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]] troops led by Lieutenant-Colonel [[Francis Smith (British Army officer)|Francis Smith]] marched from [[Boston]] to Concord to confiscate a cache of arms stored in the town. Unbeknownst to them, [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] leaders had moved most of the cache elsewhere. Around 150 Patriot [[minutemen]] from local towns, who had been forewarned of the Army's march by [[Samuel Prescott]] on April 18, quickly [[Muster (military)|mustered]] and confronted the British in [[Lexington, Massachusetts|Lexington]]. Though who fired the first shot is unknown, a firefight broke out and the British fired a volley at the Americans before dispersing them with a [[Bayonet|bayonet charge]], killing eight. The British proceeded into Concord and dispersed into company-sized formations to search for the cache. At 11:00am, 400 minutemen engaged 100 British troops at the [[Old North Bridge]], leading to a number of casualties on both sides and forcing them to fall back and rejoin the Army's main force.<ref name="LOC">{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr19.html|title=Today In History: April 19th|publisher=The Library of Congress|access-date=April 3, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070302164826/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr19.html|archive-date=March 2, 2007}}</ref>

After the British completed their search for the cache in Concord, they marched back to Boston, but were constantly attacked by minutemen in hit-and-run attacks, suffering more casualties before reaching [[Charlestown, Boston|Charlestown]]. The minutemen then blockaded the narrow land accesses to Charlestown, initiating the [[siege of Boston]]. Poet [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] subsequently described the shot fired by the minutemen at the Old North Bridge in his 1837 poem "[[Concord Hymn]]" as the "[[shot heard round the world]]".<ref name="Randolph">{{cite book|last=Randolph|first=Ryan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DItAX0GNQpwC&pg=PT85|title=Paul Revere and the Minutemen of the American Revolution|year=2002|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=9780823957279|via=Google Books|access-date=April 9, 2007}}</ref><ref name="Revere">{{cite web|last=Gioia|first=Dana|url=http://www.danagioia.net/essays/elongfellow.htm|title=On 'Paul Revere's Ride' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|access-date=April 2, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203195658/http://www.danagioia.net/essays/elongfellow.htm|archive-date=February 3, 2007}}</ref> In 1894, the [[Lexington Historical Society]] petitioned the [[Massachusetts State Legislature]] to proclaim April 19 "Lexington Day"; Concord countered with "Concord Day". Governor [[Frederic T. Greenhalge]] opted for a compromise, proclaiming the day as [[Patriots' Day]]. In April 1975, Concord hosted a bicentennial celebration of the battle, featuring an address at the Old North Bridge by President [[Gerald Ford]].<ref name="Ford">{{cite web|url=http://www.mass.gov/lib/|title=Featured Resource: Photograph Collection 374|publisher=The State Library of Massachusetts|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221042633/http://www.mass.gov/lib/|archive-date=February 21, 2007}}</ref>