Gunfire rang out on the grassy common of this quintessential New England town just after dawn Saturday, signaling the start of daylong commemorations of the battles that opened the American Revolution.
Two hundred and fifty years to the day, tens of thousands of spectators watched reenactors replay the opening salvos here and in Concord.
In Lexington, British drums sounded from the east on Massachusetts Avenue. More than 50 stern-faced locals stood with muskets on Battle Green. Then a single shot rang out, just as it had from an unknown gunman in 1775.
In response, about 80 British reenactors discharged blank cartridges from their firearms, clouds of smoke and bursts of flame erupting on the green on a cloud-covered dawn. Eight of the Lexington militia dropped to the ground, depicting the first slain patriots in choreographed detail. Ten more were wounded.
On the British side in 1775, there was one casualty: a single, slightly wounded soldier. On Saturday, while the battle unfolded before them, an additional 260 British reenactors waited on Massachusetts Avenue in the line of march. Civilian reenactors also joined the drama, including women and children in period dress who represented families of the militia.
Lois Voisine, 66, of Nashua, had been in place on Battle Green since 1 a.m. Saturday, eagerly anticipating the commemoration of a skirmish in which, she said, the dead included several relatives.
“I’m moving to Myrtle Beach in the next few months, so it was now or never,” Voisine said of watching her first reenactment in Lexington. “This has been on my bucket list.”
The milestone reenactment launched a full day of events, both solemn and festive, to mark the semiquincentennial of the battles, which resulted in a colonial victory by day’s end and ignited an exhausting, eight-year conflict that secured America’s independence.
”This is about people who risked everything, and it reminds us of the American story,” Rosie Rios, a former US Treasury official who is chair of the nonprofit group America250, said before the celebrations.
Lexington officials estimated the crowd there at 20,000 to 25,000 people, some of whom stood 30 deep on the Green. They benefited from warm, dry weather on a busy weekend that has seen visitors streaming into the region. The 129th running of the Boston Marathon is Monday.
A smattering of protesters attended the events in Lexington and Concord, most of them quietly holding placards with slogans such as “No King! No Tyranny!” and “In America, the law is king,” a quote from Revolutionary activist Thomas Paine. The number of protesters in Lexington swelled to several dozen by late morning, but their criticisms of the Trump administration policies remained peaceful.
On Friday night, a reenactor playing Paul Revere left Boston to mark his historic, horse-borne warning that British troops were moving toward Concord. A few hours later, throngs of spectators began gathering in the dark in Lexington, ringing the battleground behind temporary fencing but close enough to watch the fight.
Clare and Christopher Hurley of Woburn took a specific, personal interest in the drama Saturday. Christopher portrayed Asahel Porter, a Woburn civilian who had been taken prisoner of the British during their march to Lexington and was shot dead 250 years ago as he tried to flee, Clare said.
Clare played Ruth Buckman, who owned nearby Buckman Tavern, which still stands adjacent to Battle Green. “We had a very busy night last night, as the Minute Men were coming and going, trying to determine if the British were on the way,” Clare said, assuming Buckman’s character in period costume, as she walked the Green before the reenactment began
A narrator told the crowd what was transpiring, and Stephen Cole, who portrayed militia Captain John Parker, once again urged his men to stand their ground while the Redcoats advanced.
After the British reenactors let out “huzzahs,” marched past the dead, and left the Green in formation, a colonial minister addressed the militia’s survivors.
“The lust of domination appears no longer in disguise,” he said to applause from the large crowd. He asked if the world would learn this lesson from the day: “that tyranny will not be tolerated.”
Following the reenactment, more drama unfolded in Concord, where bells at the First Parish church tolled Saturday morning as a warning that the British were approaching. On April 18, 1775, British General Thomas Gage dispatched 700 troops from Boston on an overnight mission to seize Colonial military stores that he was told had been hidden there.
A reenactor portraying Dr. Samuel Prescott, who escaped from the British patrol that had arrested Revere, rode to the North Bridge — where the embattled Redcoats were later repulsed by the rebels — to sound the alarm. The Concord Minute Men fired salutes there Saturday, and the Concord Independent Battery unleashed several volleys.
A crowd of thousands gathered by the bridge to celebrate the anniversary of the “shot heard ‘round the world,” as the 19th-century American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson described the conflict in his 1837 poem “Concord Hymn.” Colonial reenactors stood near a monument by the bridge in Revolutionary War garb, including tricorn hats.
“Go get ‘em, boys,” one passerby said.
Cannons were arrayed nearby, and reenactors pushed ramrods into their barrels shortly after 5:45 a.m. as spectators recorded the proceedings on their phones.
Speaking near the bridge, Governor Maura Healey and US Representative Lori Trahan drew parallels between the events of 1775 and the current state of the union. They did not mention President Trump by name, but their focus was evident.
“In Massachusetts, we have always lit the beacon,” Healey said. “We have always answered the alarm. We have always stood our ground – and we always will.”
“That is the legacy of this hallowed place,” she continued. “This is who we are. Now, it is our time to live up to this legacy. We live in a moment when our freedoms are once again under attack from the highest office in the land.
“We see things that would be familiar to our Revolutionary predecessors: the silencing of critics, the disappearing of people from our streets, demands for unquestioning fealty,” Healey said.
Trahan, a Westford Democrat, said the country’s founders feared that the greatest threat to the American experiment would come not from abroad, but from within. She railed against those who “drape themselves in flags while declaring themselves above the Constitution,” drawing cheers from the crowd.
“Every generation inherits the promise made here in Concord,” Trahan said. “And every generation must choose what echoes we will send forward.”
After the speeches, Healey participated in a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the Minute Men who fought on that day, and one for the British war dead. That was followed by a musket volley from reenactors lined up on the bridge and a cannon salute. There was a military flyover and a trumpet player played “Taps.”
A parade struck up following the ceremony, with reenactors from local towns that joined the fight: Carlisle, Acton, Boxborough, Stow, Marblehead. Boy Scout troops from Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, and New Mexico took part in the parade.
Two marchers dressed in Colonial garb marched on stilts. One group represented officials from other municipalities named Concord across the United States.
In Lexington, after Healey had participated in another wreath-laying ceremony there, the Army’s Old Guard ceremonial unit marched onto the field where the first shots of the Revolution were fired. Four members of the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team landed on the green after a drop of 4,500 feet.
And similar to the remarks at Concord, Healey and US Representative Katherine Clark, a Revere Democrat, spoke to frequent applause about summoning the resolve to defend American liberties.
“Freedom is, was, and always will be worth standing up for,” Healey said, specifically mentioning the importance to Americans of freedoms of speech and the press.
“Let’s ensure that our descendants will gather on this site and thank God that American democracy, in fact, did long endure,” Clark said.
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Original story HERE.