Book Explains and Celebrates 250th Anniversary of Quest for Independence

America is marking the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution, and we are over a year in doing so. The famous “shot heard round the world” refers to the un-named British soldier or Massachusetts militiaman who first opened fire at the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775. Although we will never know whose musket started the American Revolution, author Jack Crowder has gathered much of the surviving first-hand information about what happened on Lexington Green and between Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, during the first day of the Revolutionary War. 

Mr. Crowder’s book The First 24 Hours of the American Revolution: An Hour-by-Hour Accounts of the Battle of Lexington, Concord, and the British Retreat on Battle Road, is nothing less than a documentary history of the people, places, times, and events that forever changed the course of our history–based on the writings of the participants and eyewitnesses. While no such story could omit the names of Paul Revere, John Hancock, Lord Percy and other notables, most of this story is told in the words of the common men and women of Massachusetts. Most of our militiamen, for example, were farmers and shopkeepers possessing virtually no military experience. Most were under thirty-five, and some were teenagers. Some, like Benjamin Balch and Samuel Payson, were clergymen. Prudence Wright from Pepperell, organized a group of women to guard the road that passed through the town, ultimately capturing two of the enemy.

Interspersing the sworn testimony of people who survived Lexington and Concord with his own narrative, Jack Crowder keeps us on the edge of our seat as we read about:

• The narrow escape of patriots John Hancock and Samuel Adams at 2:30 AM
• The regional alarms calling upon militiamen to advance upon Lexington
• The names of persons killed or wounded in Lexington, Concord, and in between.
• The Patriot defense of Concord bridge that protected the American arsenal
• Extraordinary acts of heroism on both sides, including by septuagenarians 

The author rounds out this meticulous account with numerous illustrations based on period paintings, photographs, and line drawings. There is also a town-by-town appendix of militiamen who were mortally wounded in the encounters.  A bibliography and a name index to all persons mentioned in the book concludes the work.

The U.S. will mark the important events of the War for Independence over eight years (2025-2033), commencing with hostilities at Lexington, Concord, and along Battle Road. There is no better time to reacquaint yourself with how it all started or to teach your children and grandchildren why freedom means so much to our countrymen and women. It’s all there in Jack Darrell Crowder’s The First 24 Hours of the American Revolution.  

Click here to view other Revolutionary War books by Jack Darrell Crowder