"The Fork in the Road at Lexington Green: A Cautionary..." Topic

… Tale of Tactical Decision-Making at the Precipice of War.

"19 April was the 240th anniversary of the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. On that day in 1775, a British composite force of roughly 700 regulars and marines was dispatched from their Boston garrison to raid the Massachusetts colonial militia's stockpiled arms and materiel in Concord. The resultant clashes that morning at Lexington Green and North Bridge were but minor skirmishes compared to the series of engagements that occurred during the raiding force's afternoon withdrawal to Boston. The British raiders would have been annihilated had it not been for their timely reinforcement with a brigade of regulars on the return trip; the latter alone suffered an astounding 20% casualty rate during its several hours in the field. Whereas only 77 militiamen had met the British at sunrise, nearly 4,000 militiamen and elite minutemen from Boston's environs had either clashed with or were maneuvering against the Crown's troops by sunset. Just 24 hours later, Boston was surrounded by nearly 20,000 militiamen.[1] Many of these men would go on to form the nucleus of the initial Continental Army raised by the Second Continental Congress and commanded by George Washington.
While militarily insignificant in comparison to the afternoon's running battle, the Lexington salvo and its sequel at North Bridge could not have been more politically and morally decisive. In both cases, British professional soldiers fired first at Massachusetts citizen-soldiers even though the latter's organized ranks had not aimed weapons at the former's. The British thereby set the war-opening escalation precedents, with concomitant effects on public opinion in the colonies as well as in Britain (albeit aided by the American Whigs' vastly superior strategic communications efforts).[2] The American Whigs' passions for and commitment to their cause were galvanized accordingly; the same cannot be said of British popular (or Parliamentary) sentiments.
It's a given that an armed conflict of some scale between the Massachusetts Whigs and the Crown's troops was nearly unavoidable. The political objectives of the British government and the Whig-dominated Massachusetts Provincial Congress were fundamentally at odds, and the latter's de facto political control over the Massachusetts countryside represented a direct threat to British sovereignty over the colony. Nor could the British tolerate the Whigs' organization of the colony's militia units into a well-armed, highly trained, and quickly-mobilizable army controlled by and accountable to the Provincial Congress…"
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Amicalement
Armand

David Hackett Fischer's Paul Revere's Ride book does a wonderful job of weaving together that history with a narrative that sounds like a novel.

In the case of the raid though, I think it speaks more volumes about who was sent and the fact that they were armed for trouble – but not expecting the reply in kind. I think the remarks heard at North Bridge tell you of a situation that was rapidly spiraling out of control (the shocked reply of "they're firing ball!") on a nebulous mission at best. The regulars assumed incompetence on the side of the rebels and – I think – did not understand just how organized the colonies were. Remember that Yankee Doodle was a joke aimed at the "professional militia".

I think that the raid shows that leadership and control is always important, even more so in tense situations. I think it also shows that wearing the uniform and having a perceived elitism is not enough. You have to train and work to continuously prove it.

The Grenadiers and Lights carried the "weight" of their office but were not well trained in their jobs and quickly broke down into armed mobs and were on the verge of collapse when Percy arrived. They had gotten used to being armed and in uniform to be enough to command the situation.

I truly believe it is Percy that saves the day and makes the smart decisions that saved the raiders and the rescuers.
Larry

Yes, the grenadiers and lights were definitely not as good as they would become.

Well, at that point it was very much a peacetime army. Apart from senior officers and a few NCOs, there would be very few F&I vets in the ranks.

I think Brumwell talked about this in _Redcoats_. Mark Urban may have also in _Fusiliers_.

The Colonists had some experienced people on their side, but were similarly "not as good as they would become."