April 19, 1775: The Shot Heard Around The World

On April 19, 1775, the opening shots of the American Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord—later immortalized as “the shot heard around the world”—gave way, almost immediately, to something more consequential than a single day’s fighting. As British regulars retreated into Boston under constant fire from colonial militia, the countryside did not simply quiet. Instead, it closed in. What began as a running battle hardened into a siege—an improvised but determined effort by New England militias to isolate British forces inside the city and challenge imperial authority in a sustained way.Boston, already a focal point of imperial tension, now became...