More on Lexington

After we'd taken our initial tour and had some lunch in Lexington, we decided to visit the Lexington Green, where the initial confrontation happened to start the Revolutionary War, and where British troops fell back after their failed trip to Concord.

In a nutshell, the British were coming to Concord to take a cache of weapons from the citizens, and no one was going to let that happen. By the time the British showed up in Lexington, everyone knew they were coming, and the militia was waiting for them. After a brief standoff, a shot was fired, and the British killed 8 Colonials. They proceeded to march on Concord, but didn't even get there before more militia confronted them and killed 2 soldiers. Knowing this wasn't going their way, the British marched back to Lexington, with militia taking potshots the whole way back. They met up with reinforcements in Lexington, talked it over, and figured Boston was a better place to be.

This was a marker commemorating where the first Colonials fell on the morning of April 19, 1775




This is a minuteman statue also commemorating what happened here. I had to giggle at his rather nicely carved backside.



We toured the Buckman Tavern, a gathering place leading up to the war. It was an amazing building, including a kitchen I would have killed for if I had been around then. You name it, they had it.



We also visited the Munroe Tavern, which is the only place in town that gives the British side of things. This tavern was used by British officers when they were figuring out what to do next.



They had a lovely native flower garden planted next to the tavern. This wasn't the prettiest flower, but it was the first one I found in my stack of photos.