In my last blog post, I reviewed the segment of the HISTORY Channel’s Sons of Liberty which encompassed the “Midnight Ride” of Paul Revere and William Dawes. In this post, we’ll look at the segment on Lexington Green.
When we left off, Paul Revere had gallantly ridden away from Lexington to distract the Redcoat patrol away from Hancock and Adams. I did mention that this didn’t happen, right? Well, when we get to Lexington Green, blood may shoot out of my eyes.
Blood shot out of my eyes. . .
The next scene is of men running through Lexington, supposedly the Lexington militia? Maybe? Seems logical as they’re running with their muskets in their hands. And the camera backs up and we see the town and the alarm bell ringing and finally, as the camera pulls back even more, the Green itself. It is portrayed as a huge open field some ways from town.
Which it wasn’t.
In this drawing, you can see that the green was the center of town. The road from Boston to Concord ran from right to left, toward the northwest. At the meetinghouse, the road forked and the north road ran on the east side of the green, passed by Buckman’s Tavern. Then at the “top” of the green, another road ran east. This road was “residential” in that there were homes/farms along this road. The men who lived here simply crossed the road to get to the green.
So, please get the picture out of your mind that the Battle of Lexington Green was fought way out of town.
Next we see the Redcoats – maybe fifty or so – I’d have to go back and count – please don’t make me – taking their place on the green. And we have the “men of Lexington” running onto the green, muskets leveled at the Redcoats. Major Pitcairn (without Scots accent) demands that the “men of Lexington” bring out Sam Adams and John Hancock. Words are exchanged. Muskets leveled on each side (notice the lack of bayonets on the Redcoat muskets) and then MAN OF LEXINGTON tells his men to let the Redcoats fire first. Much shooting ensues. Lotsa Patriot bodies . . .
Sigh. Can we talk?
It didn’t happen that way. . .
Before I go further though, throughout this silly series, we see the same characters just moving from place to place as the day progresses. Here, on the Green, we see this MAN OF LEXINGTON who is the focus of the scene. In the series, he’s one of Sam Adam’s buds named Kelly. He leads the Lexington men, gives them their order not to shoot first, then becomes a martyr to Pitcairn’s torture. Balderdash!!!
In part 2, I’ll tell you what really happened.