Battle of Lexington and Concord – Historical Record Shows Pitcairn Fired The First Shot

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – I found a pamphlet that was written in 1827 by the Reverend Ezra Ripley.  It is called “A History of the Fight at Concord on the 19^th of April 1775.”  The reason that this is important is because in his introduction, Reverend Ripley says that he had no idea, the citizens of Boston at the time had no idea that anyone ever held the belief that the Brits and Pitcairn did not fire the first shot.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

 

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  Jeff in Mississippi, Jeff, rescue me.  Tell me about Lexington and Concord for just a moment.

Caller Jeff:  Hey, Mike.  Good morning.  I told you I’d call you back today and give you some more information on the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Mike:  Which is today, April 19^th.  Apparently the new Battle of Lexington and Concord is going on inside Boston, inside Watertown, Cambridge, Arlington —

AG:  Belmont, Brookline, Cambridge, Waltham, and Watertown.

Mike:  There you go.  Apparently the new Lexington and Concord, the 2013 version of the shot heard round the world is happening right in front of our very eyes, Jeff.

Caller Jeff:  What goes around comes around, huh?

Mike:  I don’t know.  We have no idea of motives or anything like that.  We’ve got to go quick here.  Just a brief rundown of what happened today, on this day in history.

Caller Jeff:  After the battle, immediately after the battle, John Parker’s militia unit, who was trained specifically by Pastor Jonas Clark — Parker was the head elder of the church, which we don’t see very many churches standing up like that one did.  They retreated off the green out of rifle shot.  Then as soon as the British left, Parker’s men regrouped and went back and captured six of them.  Within a day or so after this battle, the King’s Court, which is significant — those judges were crown-appointed judges.  They took depositions of eyewitnesses of the actual battle.  There was between 50 and 70, depending on how you do the counting, because they did some by individuals and some by groups.

What they did was took sworn depositions of all these people, including the British prisoners they had captured, two of which were officers.  Every single eyewitness swore under oath that it was the British that fired the first shot.  The colonists did not know that it was specifically Pitcairn that fired the shot because they didn’t know exactly who he was.  With the few colonists that did shoot back that day — there was four or five of them that got a shot off — they shot the horse out from underneath Pitcairn because they knew he fired the first shot.  Later they determined the guy’s name.  The significant thing about that court report was they rushed it to a ship so that they could get their report to England faster than General Gage could get his report back to England.  They beat the British ship carrying Gage’s letter back to England by two weeks.

We live in a modern era where we have revisionist history.  We hear today all the time that nobody knows who fired the first shot.  That’s the British report from General Gage trying to CYA, of course, as they would be wanting to do.  The true history of it was that the King’s Court itself, the official report of the incident with 50 to 60 eyewitness sworn testimonies, every single one of them say that it was the British that fired the first shot and that that guy was later known by name as Major Pitcairn.

Mike:  Here is what I had to bring to this discussion here on April the 19^th, 2013.  I found a pamphlet that was written in 1827 by the Reverend Ezra Ripley.  It is called “A History of the Fight at Concord on the 19^th of April 1775.”  The reason that this is important is because in his introduction, Reverend Ripley says that he had no idea, the citizens of Boston at the time had no idea that anyone ever held the belief that the Brits and Pitcairn did not fire the first shot.  Then a pamphlet had been published six months prior to this pamphlet.  It says that at the Battle of Lexington, it was the colonists that had fired the first shot.  As the Reverend writes:

[reading]

We had no idea that any persons ever would or could seriously entertain a different opinion. We had supposed that public records, numerous historical sketches, and common consent were sufficient to perpetuate material facts and prominent characters. When therefore, the “History of the Battle of Lexington,” appeared in 1825, we were surprised. Nothing could have been more unexpected. That pamphlet has made impressions on the minds of many, unfavorable, in some respects, as we believe, to the truth, and to some worthy and patriotic characters. The same causes which originated these errors, have given rise to opinions and publications in Great Britain and the United States equally erroneous. A large portion of the people do not possess the means of better information; and those who do,  have been unwilling to come forward in a controversy very unpleasant and attended with many difficulties.

We feel our obligations to the generations yet to come, to transmit to them, as far as possible, a fair and correct statement of facts respecting those events and transactions, the happy or unhappy consequences of which will descend to them and their successors.

[end reading]

Mike:  He proceeds to tell the story that you just told, that it was indeed Pitcairn that fired the first shot that fateful day.  Jeff, I gotta run.  You know I love the history and I appreciate it, brother.  God bless.

End Mike Church Show Transcript