Scores Killed, Hundreds Injured As Para-Military Extremists Riot

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Boston, April 19—National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed on April 19th by elements of a para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.

Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices.

The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order.

The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed widespread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons. Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week.

This decision followed a meeting in early April between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms. One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that “none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily.”

Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government’s plans.

During a tense standoff in Lexington’s town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists.

Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange.

Ironically, the local citizenry blamed government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces overmatched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.

Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor has also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops. Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as “ringleaders’ of the extremist faction, remain at large.
 
Gentlemen, a Tip O' the Stetson to both of you !
yo.gif


The Sons Of Liberty are alive.
 
Cato said:
Boston, April 19—National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed on April 19th by elements of a para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.

Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices.

The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order.

The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed widespread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons. Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week.

(snip).
Click to expand...


Nice try, but no go. Oh dear. It apears I have wandered again into Leonard Pinth-Garnell and another episode of Really Bad Alternative History.

Here I correct again.

News Flash:

-Gen'l Gage was not out to register and then confiscate anybody's muskets.

He was only after cannon, munitions, and supplies on April 19, 1775. He didn't have the manpower to go around rounding up everybody's guns, since there were so damned many of them in MA it would have been suicide to do so, since the local militias were all against him.

-The British troops weren't out to start a war, indeed, they were ordered to prevent a war from happening by seizing and destroying the above-named items so that the colonists could not use them against their own govt's troops, namely, the Redcoats.

-British soldiers were ordered not to fire on anybody nor to destroy private property, only military property.

-At Lexington, Capt. John Parker did NOT say, "Stand your ground; if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." That would have been utterly irresponsible- he had 77 men, the British advance force (detached from thge rest of the 700 man expedition) had 250. He really said, "Let the soldiers pass, don't molest them. Prepare to disperse. " We do not know who fired the first shot at Lexington. British soldiers however, thought they were being fired upon, and disobeyed orders by firing and bayonetting.

-At the North Bridge in Concord, several hours later, panicking, exhausted, outnumbered British troops, 94 from the 700, detached to guard the bridge, fired unallowed warning shots at the colonists advancing towards them. Other soldiers in the confusion thought the order to fire had been given and fired, killing two colonists and wounding a dozen others. At this point, Major John Buttrick, given command of the combined town militias present, ordered his men to fire back.

-This marks the beginning of the Battle Road, in which colonists fired at and attacked government troops all the way back to Boston (which the British were heading to anyway, but they wouldn't leave Concord for another three hours until they destroyed what they could find, and get lunch!)

This decision to fire back at British troops was the first deliberate resistance to British rule, and was known later in a song and poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson as the "Shot Heard Round the World".

General Gage was not, repeat, not, out to destroy or confiscate anybody's small arms that day.

Thank you.
 
95thFoot said:
Here I correct again.

News Flash:

-Gen'l Gage was not out to register and then confiscate anybody's muskets.

He was only after cannon, munitions, and supplies on April 19, 1775.
Click to expand...

I believe that who ever wrote this write up that I posted was exercising some poetic license.

However regarding muskets you are correct that Gage's intent was not to go door to door. However his intent was to seize a munitions depot. Muskets are munitions and were stored there by the colonists. They would have been included in any confiscation.
 
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Cato said:
I believe that who ever wrote this write up that I posted was exercising some poetic license.

However regarding muskets you are correct that Gage's intent was not to go door to door. However his intent was to seize a munitions depot. Muskets are munitions and were stored there by the colonists. They would have been included in any confiscation.
Click to expand...

And once they got the cannons and munitions, they most assuredly would have gone door to door for the muskets.

Thank God that someone, even if accidently, fired that "shot heard 'round the world".
 
No need to confiscate the cannon and muskets (initially). General Gage set out merely to secure the supply of gunpowder (without which the cannon and musket would be useless). In September, 1774, as he led his men up the hill to the powderhouse in Somerville (then part of Charlestown) General Gage was quoted to have said "My, this slope seems rather slippery".

His success in securing the common powder store in Charlestown led him to direct his men on other raids, none of which were successful due to the vigilance of the Sons of Liberty.

Facing criticism by both members of British Parliament and his own men of his "lenient treatment" of Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty , Gage ordered the arrest of Samuel Adams and John Hancock, political leaders who then fled Boston to the safety of Lexington. On April 18, 1775 he directed his troops to proceed to Lexington to arrest Adams and Hancock and also to Concord to secure the stockpile of weapons and powder located there.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

-Gary
 
To anyone who would like to know more about what happened and some of the other events of that time I recommend The Day The American Revolution Began by William H Hallahan.
 
Cato said:
I believe that who ever wrote this write up that I posted was exercising some poetic license.

However regarding muskets you are correct that Gage's intent was not to go door to door. However his intent was to seize a munitions depot. Muskets are munitions and were stored there by the colonists. They would have been included in any confiscation.
Click to expand...

No. There were no muskets stored in colonial armories in Concord. None were inventoried, although cannon were. None were listed as being destroyed by Gage's men. Few working muskets would have been kept in armories. The muskets were stored among the militias in individuals' homes. They were the responsibility of those who were issued them. People either bought their own on the open market (incl. fowlers, etc.), or were issued and sold surplus or private contract military muskets by the colony on the installment plan. The muskets were therefore the personal property of the men in the militias, and they were expected to maintain them in good military order. (No rust!)

The militias in those days were not the shambolic, rumbustious affairs of the 19th century. They took their jobs seriously. Every male from 16 to 60 HAD to be in the militia, even black slaves/freedmen and clergymen, by the time of the revolution, at least in MA. They knew they were often the only line of defense against "all enemies foreign and domestic", and they drilled when ever they could.

Some were even, using an old idea dating back to Indian war days, asked, if their town could afford it (Lexington could not) to volunteer for elite service, drilling several times per week into better trained sonmetimes better equipped companies, called "minute companies." These men were even paid! (one shilling a day, a lot of money in cash-poor colonial America) They literally slept on their arms, even though they were civilians, since they had to be ready as soon as possible.

The militia's response in April 1775 was not a spontaneous, individualistic country riot of people who had no organisation, but rather that of people who trained regularly, and consulted other towns and shires about coordinating defense. They took their job seriously, and drilled like soldiers. In April 1775, the job of the Middlesex County Militia was to guard the Bay Road, AKA Battle Road. This included Concord and Lexington.

After the French & Indian War, the last of 74 years on constant warfare between Great Britain and various European powers (France and Spain, mostly) and American powers (Six Nations, an aggressively expanding empire of its own) there were thousands of cheap muskets in America.

To use the antis' language, "the streets were literally awash in cheap assault weapons", which, in the technology available at the time, they were the equivalent of AK-47s. However, nobody went about robbing or killing anybody with them. Violent crime in MA has always been low, gun control or not.

What was strictly controlled in colonial America, esp. in Massachusetts, was storage of gunpowder. In MA, nobody could store more than a pound of gunpowder in homes, due to the very serious likelihood of fire danger. Lead shot was also expensive, so, people did not do as much target shooting as today. Both were therefore kept in armories out of safety and concern for expense, since that used by the militias was provided by the colony from local taxes and fees.

(We paid a LOT in local taxes in MA back then, BTW, but it was voted upon by the legislature.)

Therefore, besides cannon, usually too cumbersome to keep in houses, what would have been in powder houses, armories, etc., would not have been small arms, but the means of making them all work.
 
FPrice said:
To anyone who would like to know more about what happened and some of the other events of that time I recommend The Day The American Revolution Began by William H Hallahan.
Click to expand...

A better book, albeit not perfect, would be Paul Revere's World, by David Hackett Fisher. He goes into great detail about how the day unfolded, and the background behind it. He, like most authors, doesn't understand the British Army's role, though.

John Galvin's book, "The Minute Men", is a very good book in describing the origins and organization of the militias, but the book is utter horse hockey when it comes to going into the action of the day. Much of it is, "Well, here's what I as a modern American army general would have done", when he doesn't know what the minutemen did that day. The minutemen did not function like a modern army of today. The militias left many depositions and eyewitness testimony, but there are still lots of holes in our history of that day. Supposition doesn't help.
 
MrTwigg said:
Anybody else see a comparison between "Cannon" and "Assault Rifle" ?
Or at least what the media claims as "Assault Rifles". [thinking]
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A better comparison to cannon would be "weapons of mass destruction". these were pretty much the only way to kill large amounts of people on a battlefield quickly in the 1700s, mostly by solid shot or grape shot. (Howitzers and mortars were just coming into common use) The British REALLY feared the colonists using these WMDs against them, and wanted them destroyed ASAP.
 
The Sons Of Liberty are alive.
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Damn right! These guys knew they were committing both treason and murder, and were terrified that the British could come out and lay waste to the entire colony as a warning to any other colony, not to f--- with the British Empire, Still, though, these guys were willing to fight, die and kill, in the cause of one word: liberty. They wanted their civil rights as Englishmen back. It meant that much to them.
 
95thFoot said:
...What was strictly controlled in colonial America, esp. in Massachusetts, was storage of gunpowder. In MA, nobody could store more than a pound of gunpowder in homes, .... Both were therefore kept in armories out of safety and concern for expense, since that used by the militias was provided by the colony from local taxes and fees.
...
Therefore, besides cannon, usually too cumbersome to keep in houses, what would have been in powder houses, armories, etc., would not have been small arms, but the means of making them all work.
Click to expand...

I wonder if this is where the KEEP in "...keep and bear..." came from.
 
Great story, and thanks to those that made the clarifications and corrections.

Still a good story.

And as one of those that has stood with the Crown Forces during one war and opposite them in the next, I say "Hazzah" [smile]
 
Well sure as to the local area I suppose I am but at one time before I found out about the archaic firearms laws I was actually thinking about purchasing land there and moving my enterprises to that area.

I joined this board and then learned that I like the gun laws better where I'm at so YEP I'm a stranger to the board only been here since December O6 and have been to the local area on only 3 occasions.

reinbeau said:
You're a stranger 'round here, aintcha, son? [wink]
Click to expand...
 
Still, though, these guys were willing to fight, die and kill, in the cause of one word: liberty. They wanted their civil rights as Englishmen back.
Click to expand...

Actually, the people who decided to fight did not want to be Englishmen any more. They wanted their own separate country. They (the roughly third of the country who decided that it was no use trying to change the English government's mindset) realized by then, the time to be good Englishmen was past. It was time to stop being a colony and start being separate. April 19th provided the spark.
 
95thFoot said:
Damn right! These guys knew they were committing both treason and murder, and were terrified that the British could come out and lay waste to the entire colony as a warning to any other colony, not to f--- with the British Empire, Still, though, these guys were willing to fight, die and kill, in the cause of one word: liberty. They wanted their civil rights as Englishmen back. It meant that much to them.
Click to expand...

It's unfortunate, but as a people, we've turned into just a shadow of what those men were.
 
FPrice said:
Actually, the people who decided to fight did not want to be Englishmen any more. They wanted their own separate country. They (the roughly third of the country who decided that it was no use trying to change the English government's mindset) realized by then, the time to be good Englishmen was past. It was time to stop being a colony and start being separate. April 19th provided the spark.
Click to expand...

Not really. Up until that day, most were still loyal Englishmen. What they didn't want was the way-off meddling that was occuring from Parliment. The idea of war against the Crown was unthinkable by most, except for the few radicals.
 
95thFoot said:
No. There were no muskets stored in colonial armories in Concord. None were inventoried, although cannon were. None were listed as being destroyed by Gage's men. Few working muskets would have been kept in armories. The muskets were stored among the militias in individuals' homes.

Therefore, besides cannon, usually too cumbersome to keep in houses, what would have been in powder houses, armories, etc., would not have been small arms, but the means of making them all work.
Click to expand...

Gage was most certainly intent on confiscating and destroying fire-arms in Concord.

So called historians have differing opinions on many matters. Therefore I have always relied heavily on reading the writings of historical figures themselves whenever possible.

In this dispute I will refer you to Gage's written order which speaks for itself.



Orders from General Thomas Gage to Lieut. Colonel Smith, 10th Regiment ’Foot​

General Thomas Gage
April 18, 1775
Boston, Massachusetts​

Lieut. Colonel Smith, 10th Regiment ’Foot,

Sir,

Having received intelligence, that a quantity of Ammunition, Provisions, Artillery, Tents and small Arms, have been collected at Concord, for the Avowed Purpose of raising and supporting a Rebellion against His Majesty, you will March with a Corps of Grenadiers and Light Infantry, put under your Command, with the utmost expedition and Secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and distroy all Artillery, Ammunition, Provisions, Tents, Small Arms, and all Military Stores whatever. But you will take care that the Soldiers do not plunder the Inhabitants, or hurt private property.

You have a Draught of Concord, on which is marked the Houses, Barns, &c, which contain the above military Stores. You will order a Trunion to be knocked off each Gun, but if its found impracticable on any, they must be spiked, and the Carriages destroyed. The Powder and flower must be shook out of the Barrels into the River, the Tents burnt, Pork or Beef destroyed in the best way you can devise. And the Men may put Balls of lead in their pockets, throwing them by degrees into Ponds, Ditches &c., but no Quantity together, so that they may be recovered afterwards. If you meet any Brass Artillery, you will order their muzzles to be beat in so as to render them useless.

You will observe by the Draught that it will be necessary to secure the two Bridges as soon as possible, you will therefore Order a party of the best Marchers, to go on with expedition for the purpose.

A small party of Horseback is ordered out to stop all advice of your March getting to Concord before you, and a small number of Artillery go out in Chaises to wait for you on the road, with Sledge Hammers, Spikes, &c.

You will open your business and return with the Troops, as soon as possible, with I must leave to your own Judgment and Discretion.

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant
Thos. Gage.
 
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Yep, that's what he said. I think the confusion lies with what "Military Stores" he ordered destroyed actually contained.

As 95 has stated, few muskets and individual "small arms" would have been stored with the artillery pieces and powder. They would have been hanging over the fireplaces at home.

Fortunately for us, most of the actual orders were ignored and a large portion of the stores were recovered. The rest is history. [smile]
 
Jaxon said:
As 95 has stated, few muskets and individual "small arms" would have been stored with the artillery pieces and powder. They would have been hanging over the fireplaces at home.
Click to expand...

Muskets were hidden in various locations. A cannon was even hidden in the basement of Colonel Barrett’s house. Remember the Crown declared the Colonies to be in a state of rebellion in I believe February. But it might have been the previous December I would have to look it up.

It was clear that the colonists were to be disarmed. Importation of guns and ammunition was forbidden late the previous year.

In 1774 Boston considered banning possession of arms but this led to widespread protests. Gage confiscated a lot of gunpowder and arms destined to the colonists but denied it when challenged.

Soon after the events at Concord and Lexington Gage agreed that if the people of Boston would give up their arms they would be allowed to leave Boston and take all of their belongings with them. Then when many turned in their guns Gage double crossed them and announced that no Bostonian could leave. This should serve as a lesson to all of us to NEVER turn in your guns.

By June Gage declared martial law and offered a pardon to all who would lay down their arms. That is except for Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

Then the big break occurred in July 1775. This is when the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Causes of Taking Up Arms. This was drafted by Jefferson and Dickinson. The people now believed that since Gage double crossed the Bostonians the intent was probably to disarm all colonists in the future and that the Colonist should take up arms. In fact a report from London indicated that the colonists WERE going to be disarmed by a certain day.

Alright, I'll stop. I could go on and on.

In a few hours I think that I will celebrate Sam Adams. [wink]
 
FPrice said:
Actually, the people who decided to fight did not want to be Englishmen any more. They wanted their own separate country. They (the roughly third of the country who decided that it was no use trying to change the English government's mindset) realized by then, the time to be good Englishmen was past. It was time to stop being a colony and start being separate. April 19th provided the spark.
Click to expand...

With the exception of radicals such as John Hancock and Sam Adams, most of those who fought on April 19th 1775 did not wish to become independent. They still saw themselves as English yeomen, possibly more English than the Redcoats, whom they saw as the arm of a government gone wrong. The British government had suspended civil law in Massachusetts after the Boston Tea Party, closed the port of Boston, in an effort to stop the flow of sedition from Massachusetts to other colonies, and replaced it with General Gage.

No militias were permitted to train without permission, judges were now paid directly from London, certain accused criminals were sent back to England to be tried before Admiralty courts, public assemblies were forbidden, no elections or town meetings could take place without govt. sanction, and the Great and General Court was dissolved. There was even talk of the British government establishing Anglicanism (Church of England) as the state religion in MA instead of Congregationaism, the state religion (until 1830). It wasn't martial law yet, only because Gage was very reluctant to act with so few men.

Most members of the Provincial Congress (the old legislature, now in Concord)and the Continental Congress in this time still wanted to stay with Britain, even after the slaughter of Bunker Hill, petitioning George the Third with entreaties to come to an agreement with his subjects in America, making them on an equal basis legally with England, but still in the same Empire. That would have been a legal impossibility. since American colonies were designed to serve the home country, not be on a level basis with it.

Even George Washington's first army was called the Army of the United Colonies. Whose colonies? George the Third's. It wasnt until after the king was intransigent in his speeches before Parliament at the end of 1775, in which he said that there would be no bringing America back into the empire without severe punishment, and the stipulation of France that she would not aid a rebellion against a fellow monarch, but rather a fellow sovereign nation, that the pro-independence faction of the rebel cause began to take over. Suddenly independence, by early 1776, looked to be a better new game than a new deal from the British.
 
Cato said:
Gage was most certainly intent on confiscating and destroying fire-arms in Concord.

So called historians have differing opinions on many matters. Therefore I have always relied heavily on reading the writings of historical figures themselves whenever possible.

In this dispute I will refer you to Gage's written order which speaks for itself.



Orders from General Thomas Gage to Lieut. Colonel Smith, 10th Regiment ’Foot​

General Thomas Gage
April 18, 1775
Boston, Massachusetts​

Lieut. Colonel Smith, 10th Regiment ’Foot,

Sir,

Having received intelligence, that a quantity of Ammunition, Provisions, Artillery, Tents and small Arms, have been collected at Concord, for the Avowed Purpose of raising and supporting a Rebellion against His Majesty, you will March with a Corps of Grenadiers and Light Infantry, put under your Command, with the utmost expedition and Secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and distroy all Artillery, Ammunition, Provisions, Tents, Small Arms, and all Military Stores whatever. But you will take care that the Soldiers do not plunder the Inhabitants, or hurt private property.
(snip)
A small party of Horseback is ordered out to stop all advice of your March getting to Concord before you, and a small number of Artillery go out in Chaises to wait for you on the road, with Sledge Hammers, Spikes, &c.

You will open your business and return with the Troops, as soon as possible, with I must leave to your own Judgment and Discretion.

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant
Thos. Gage.
Click to expand...


Thanks for reminding me- I'd forgot that, although there is a draft extant in which he mentions this, and then he cuts it out, and sends Smith on his way looking for the cannon and munitions instead. Those were his real concern. It is the mistake of many gun rights activists who seize one part of this, forgetting the totality of the document, and try to fit it into modern political issues, but gun control was a difficult issue back then for the Founding Fathers, too. John Adams wrote later about how effective the militias had to be and how everybody had to keep the guns in their homes ready, but he worried about "brigandism" using them.
 

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