of the
patriots at Concord. Sergeant Monroe's caution against making
unnecessary noise, was met by his rejoinder, "You will have noise enough
here before long--the regulars are coming out."

Then he commenced his ride for life, or, rather, for the lives of
others. We all know the result of his ride, and how church bells were
tolled and signal shots fired to warn the people that the soldiers were
coming. It was a night of tumult and horror, no one knowing what
brutality they had to expect from the now enraged British soldiers. The
women of the towns, warned by the pre-arranged signals, hurried their
children from their homes, and fled to farm houses, and even barns in
the vicinity. Before daybreak the British troops had reached Lexington
Green. Here they found Captain Parker and 38 men standing up before
twenty times that number of armed troops, indifferent as to their fate,
but determined to protect their cause and their friends. The Captain's
words have passed into history. They took the form of an order to the
men:

"Don't fire unless you are fired on; but, if they want a war, let it
begin here."

History tells us of few such unequal contests as this. The troops fired
on the gallant little band, and seven of their number were killed. The
fight at Concord followed, when 450 Americans met the British troops at
the North Bridge, where

"Once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard around the world."

The British detachment was beaten back in disorder, but the main body
was too strong to be attacked. The minute men, however, made a most
magnificent fight, and at the close of the day they had killed 273
British soldiers, only 93 of their own number being among the killed or
missing.

Thus commenced the War of Independence, the event being described by Dr.
Joseph Warren in a document of sufficient interest to warrant its
reproduction in full.

"The barbarous murders committed on our innocent brethren," wrote the
doctor, "have made it absolutely necessary that we immediately raise an
army to defend our wives and our children from the butchering hands of
an inhuman soldiery, who, incensed at the obstacles they met with in
their bloody progress, and enraged at being repulsed from the field of
slaughter, will, without the least doubt, take the first opportunity in
their power to ravage this devoted country with fire and sword. We
conjure you, therefore, by all that is dear, by all that is sacred, t