“The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”

Bradley Sidle

ED639 - 01

The Revolutionary War This lesson is directed to meet the

requirements of the Ohio Strands: American Heritage and World Interactions.

This lesson is directed to meet the requirements of the NCSS Themes: II. Time, Continuity and Change, III. People, Places and Environments and IX. Global Connections.

The Revolutionary War This lesson also secondarily meets the

Ohio Strands: People in Societies, Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities, and Democratic Processes.

This lesson also secondarily meets the NCSS Themes: V. Individuals, Groups and Institutions, VI. Power, Authority and Governance, and X. Civic Ideals and Practice.

The Revolutionary War

This lesson is constructed for a mixed 7th and 8th grade general social studies class.

The students have been studying the precursory events leading to the Revolutionary War, including the economic and political factors leading to colonial dissatisfaction with the British.

Objectives 1-3

The 7th or 8th grade social studies student will:1. Identify the date and location of the firing

of the “shot heard ‘round the world.”2. Explain why the British left for Concord

under cover of darkness.3. Draw a picture or map depicting some part

of the Massachusetts landscape where the conflict took place.

Objectives 4 - 6

4. Compare and contrast the fighting strategies of the British and the colonists.

5. Explain the development of the Sons of Liberty into the fighting force known as the Minutemen.

6. Discuss in a four- or five-paragraph essay the four Intolerable Acts, and how the student thinks they might respond in similar circumstances.

Factors leading up to War

The Boston Massacre Angered by increasing taxes, still without

representation, a crowd shouting insults became a mob throwing chunks of ice at British soldiers guarding the Customs office in Boston, Massachusetts.

Panicking, the soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five men. Paul Revere memorialized the event in an engraving.

Paul Revere’s Engraving of the Boston Massacre

Canyouseewhat’swronginthispicture?

Tea in Boston The Tea Act allowed the British East India

Company to sell tea to the directly to the colonists.

Colonial tea merchants were upset by being cut out of the tea trade.

Other colonists resented what they knew to be a “trick” Britain used to maintain the right to tax the colonists.

On Griffin’s Wharf, on the night of December 16, 1773, several colonists, dressed in Native American costume, boarded ships in Boston Harbor, and dumped the tea into the harbor.

Britain Responds - Intolerable Acts Port of Boston closed to all

navigation. Restriction of town meetings. Venue for trials of British

officers moved to England. The Quartering Act - colonists

were required to provide room and board (food) for British soldiers.

First Continental Congress

In September of 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia.

On October 14, 1774, they issued a proclamation denouncing most of Britain’s actions.

They encouraged each colony to establish a militia - a volunteer army.

For more information go to http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/resolves.htm

Minutemen

Minutemen begin training for armed battle.

British troops gather in Boston, now numbered at nearly 4,000 soldiers strong.

Minutemen are so named because they are trained to be ready to fight with only a minute’s notice.

The Massachusetts Provincial Congress voted to recruit 12,000 men for a militia (composed of American minutemen -- colonists prepared to fight the British on a minute's notice) and purchase 5,000 muskets and bayonets.

http://www.si.umich.edu/spies/timeline.html

Click on the year 1774 at the above link for additional information

Gage’s Response General Thomas Gage, the British commander, learned

that the minutemen had stored up arms in villages near Boston.

His intention was to march secretly to the town of Concord to seize the arms.

His plan didn’t work.

http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/MilSci/BTSI/abs_lex.html

At midnight, April 19, 1775, about 700 British soldiers left Boston in the dark. But they were watched by the Sons of Liberty.

As soon as they left Boston, the prearranged signal of “one if by land, two if by sea” was given, and the midnight riders were on their way to warn colonists of the approaching British.

http://eserver.org/poetry/paul-revere.html

Lexington - a British victory

70 minutemen, commanded by Captain John Parker, met the 700 British troops. Clearly out-numbered, and ordered to return home, the colonists began to leave.

“A shot suddenly rang out in the cool morning air.” No one to this day knows who fired, British or colonial. My money is on the colonists.

When the fighting was over, eight minutemenlay dead. http://www.nps.gov/mima/

British commanders scout the area around Concord

On to Concord The British soldiers moved on to the town of

Concord. This had been their destination all along. Lexington was a surprise to them, but they managed to withstand the 70 minutemen without a loss.

They arrived in Concord, and found it nearly deserted. The stores of gunpowder they sought were nearly gone. They burned what remained, and headed back to Boston.

They came with little care to the Old North Bridge which forded the Sudbury River.

Patriot’s Revenge

Better prepared for the battle, with 300 minutemen, and using the trees and hills for cover, Gage’s troops walked into the ambush that awaited.

As the British retreated, patriot sharpshooters took aim. The British counted 73 casualties, with another 200 wounded or missing. This first colonial victory seemed to determine the future course of the colonies’ development.

http://library.thinkquest.org/11683/HomeMain.html

Lexington and Concord were the beginning of the American Revolution. Peaceful means of resolving the conflicts between Mother Nation and Growing Colony could not be sought. As Bugs Bunny says in the old cartoons, “This means WAR”