More than a year before Americans declared their independence, the Revolutionary War erupted with the “shot heard round the world” at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Convinced that Massachusetts was already in outright rebellion and that the other colonies would soon follow, royal officials decided to act.
In an attempt to collapse colonial resistance, 700 British soldiers, known then as “Regulars,” marched on the town of Concord to seize provincial military supplies and possibly arrest rebel leaders. Rather than end the rebellion, the events of April 19, 1775, triggered a war between Great Britain and its American colonies that raged for eight years.
The item is a photograph of a painting depicting Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775. The painting was created around 1825 by Timothy Martin Minot.
