"A Single Blow: The Battles of Lexington and Concord," Robert Orrison
Pre-Guest Speaker Notes
ARRT-R’s October 12, 2019 field trip
to the Norfolk/Great Bridge area has been announced.
ARRT-R’s next meeting is scheduled for
September 18, 2019 at Heilman Dining Center at the University of Richmond. Dinner
service begins at 5:30 p.m. and the speaking program begins at 6:30 p.m.
Author Biography
Robert Orrison has been working in the
public history field for more than twenty years.
Currently, Rob serves as the Historic
Site Operations Supervisor for Prince William County, Virginia. He is the
co-founder of Emerging Revolutionary War and his published works include A Want of Vigilance: The Bristoe Station
Campaign and The Last Road
North: A Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign, 1863.
“I have now nothing to trouble your
Lordship with, but an affair that happened on the 19th” –
General Thomas Gage
penned the above line to his superiors in London, casually summing up the shots
fired at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.
“A Single Blow” traces
the events from the winter of 1774 to the action of April 19, 1775. The book
serves as an historical narrative and a hands-on tour for the reader to visit
the historic sites and locations where these events took place.
General Gage arrived in
Boston in May of 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party. General Gage’s
mission was to administer the Coercive Acts while continuing to serve as
Commander-in-
Chief of the American
colonies.
There were three events preceding
the battles of Lexington and Concord that almost led to bloodshed:
1.
On
September 1, 1774, British regulars removed all the powder from the powder
magazine located in Charlestown. The event is known as the “Powder Alarm”.
2.
On
December 14, 1774, local militia occupied Fort William & Henry in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
3.
On
February 26, 1775, British troops raided Salem, Massachusetts in a failed
attempt to seize cannons and powder.
As General Gage began to
plan the raid on Lexington and Concord, he faced a highly efficient patriot
intelligence gathering operation led by men such as Paul Revere and Doctor
Warren. Revere rode out into the country on both April 9th and 16th
to warn the countryside of possible British movement.
In the years leading up
to April 1775, colonial forces had been re-organized to create both Minuteman
and the traditional militia units. While
the term “Minuteman” is widely used to describe all the patriot forces fighting
on April 19th, 1775, in fact eighty percent of the units who participated
in the fighting were regular town militia units.
Once the raid began on April 19, 1775, poor British planning and communications
allowed patriot forces to severely punish the raiding force.
--Noah Rogers
