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American Revolution - The Shot Heard Round The World


Westchester County


War of Independence North American Colonies British Parliament Minutemen of Lexington Continental Congress George Washington's Army  French Count de Rochambeau Independent Nation American Revolution - The Shot Heard Round The World

 
 
LEST WE FORGET


The Shot Heard Round The World
"On April 19, 1775, was fired "the shot heard round the world." It was the shot fired for freedom and democracy by the Americans at Lexington and Concord. In 1836, upon the completion of the battle monument at Concord;, the gallant deeds of those early patriots were commemorated by Emerson in verse.

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

"This is not the only shot for freedom fired by America and Americans. As President Wilson has said, "The might of America is the might of a sincere love for the freedom of mankind." The shots of the Civil War were fired for united democracy and universal freedom.

" . . . On April 6, 1917, the shot was heard again. The whole world had been listening anxiously for it, and was not disappointed.

"Those against whom the first American shot for freedom was fired in 1775 have now become the strongest defenders of liberty and democracy. Their country is one of the three greatest democracies of the world. Shoulder to shoulder, the Americans and British fight for the freedom of mankind everywhere. They fight to defend the truth and to make this truth serve downtrodden peoples as well as the mighty."

Lest we forget: world war stories was used as a source for The Shot Heard Round The World . This book "was written as a reading book or as an historical reader for the upper grammar grades. While great care has been employed to secure accuracy of fact and to select material of permanent value, the stories are written in a manner that will appeal to children."

Source: Lest we forget: world war stories by John Gilbert Thompson, Inez Bigwood (1918Silver, Burdett, Original from Harvard University)

The American Revolution, "American War of Independence"
The American Revolution, 1775-1783 was a conflict between 13 British colonies on the eastern shores of North America and their mother country, Great Britain. The colonies won the war against the British and became a separate nation called "The United States of America". Many historians also refer to the American Revolution as "The American War of Independence".

The American Revolution, ended two centuries of British rule over most of the North American Colonies, resulting in the formation of the United States of America. One of the causes of the American Revolution can be traced to the end of the French and Indian War, when Britain had succeeded in gaining territory from France at the expense of increasing its already enormous national debt. In an attempt to relieve Britain of its financial burden, British Parliament decided that the American Colonists would have to help pay for their own defense, despite the fact that a French invasion was no longer a real threat.

Toward this end, Parliament passed the first of several tax laws, the Stamp Act, which taxed all paper products in the colonies. The Americans declared it was unfair to tax them when they had no representation in Parliament, and protests eventually escalated to open hostilities in 1775, when the British Regulars fired on the Minutemen in Lexington, Massachusetts.

This conflict contributed to the formation of the Continental Congress (which directed the American war effort) and to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The first years of the war saw major defeats for American forces, who were outnumbered 3-1 by the British army, but the tide soon turned as nations such as France, Spain and the Netherlands offered troops and assistance, elevating the conflict to the status of an international war.

After eight long years of fighting, George Washington's army and a force under the French Count de Rochambeau trapped Lord Cornwallis, the leader of the British army, in Yorktown. This siege ended with Cornwallis surrendering his army of more than 7,000 men on October 19, 1781. However, it wasn't until the Treaty of Paris in 1783, a full eight years after the initial outbreak of violence, that Great Britain signed the formal peace treaty recognizing the former colonies as an independent nation.


Location: Westchester County

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