A bit of dusty history for "Ol' Red" Asner:
On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British regular troops marched northwest from Boston to the town of Concord, their objective being the seizure of weapons and ammunition held by the Provincial Congress in the armory located there. The British forces were composed of 10 elite light infantry companies as well as 11 grenadier companies; approximately 700 soldiers in all. Having been alerted to the threat by lanterns placed in Boston's Old North Church, Paul Revere and others such as William Dawes rode out on horseback to sound the alarm. Colonial militiamen, numbering about 80 and armed primarily with muzzle-loading flintlock musket quickly began mobilizing to intercept the Redcoats. A confrontation on the Lexington town green ignited the battle, and soon the British were hastily retreating under intense fire. 8 Americans were killed at the battle of Lexington.
When British troops arrived at Concord, Lieutenant Colonel Smith ordered them to search for American military weapons and ammunition but most of the military supplies had been hidden or destroyed before their arrival. A British company of around 90 men under Captain Walter Laurie was confronted by around 400 American patriots at Concord’s North Bridge. A brief exchange of fire ensued which saw the first instance of Americans firing to deadly effect on British regulars, who were forced to withdraw. Famous American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson called the first shot of this skirmish the “shot heard round the world†in his 1837 poem “
Concord Hymnâ€.
*During the retreat to Boston, British troops were fired upon continuously from hidden positions by Americans, whose numbers kept enhancing as more militiamen kept arriving from neighboring towns. During the course of the battles, the British suffered 273 casualties to the colonists' 95.
The American Revolution, as we all know, was fought to establish American independence from Great Britain. It began proximately as an effort to prevent the British army from seizing Americans' firearms.
*citation:
https://learnodo-newtonic.com/battle-of-lexington-and-concord-facts