Lexington and Concord

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polska

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I don't know why everyone keeps saying the British were coming to take our firearms because they were not. They were coming to take ball and powder. Interesting, sound familiar? Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it.
 
I don't know why everyone keeps saying the British were coming to take our firearms because they were not. They were coming to take ball and powder. Interesting, sound familiar? Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it
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Why did they bury firearms then?

From the above posts link
The British Gather Munitions in Concord
They came first to Colonel James foorett’s home, assuming that there was ammunition to be found in the home of the leader of the American militia. What they did not know was that Colonel foorett’s sons had previously plowed crops and buried the weapons there.
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It ain't (Southern expression to show emphasis) what they are going to do, it is what we are going to do.

Seems as though the British did not get the ball and powder.

We just need to get some balls and keep Lady Liberty happy!
 
actually, they did not say the british were coming, as they were British. They said the red coats are coming. Modern day it would be similar to, the militay is coming.

I also understood it to be a cache of powder, bullets, and cannons.
 
The one account I read, said Paul Revere banged on the door of one acquaintance-at about 0100-when the man angrily demanded to why Revere was creating such a disturbance he said:
"You'll have your disturbance soon enough ! The Regulars are out !"
 
If the colonials only had a dozen Accuracy International AICS bolts in .338 LM and a few thousand rounds each :D
It would have been interesting to see a rank and file infantry deal with leadership out of the picture....
 
Lord.

What if Spartacus had a Piper Cub?

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I just watched a documentary on this.

“The British are coming” is not a phrase that would have been used during that time, because they were all British then.

Most likely it was something like “the Regulars are coming”.
 
It would have been interesting to see a rank and file infantry deal with leadership out of the picture....
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Many of the American militia were veterans of the French and Indian War. Some of them saw first hand the results in events like the Battle of the Monongahela, aka Braddock's Defeat, where the French and their Indian allies targeted British officers. The British casualties amounted to about 65% of their force, and many of those appear to be the result of the rank and file not having officers to organize and control them.

On the road back to Boston, after the fights at Lexington and Concord, the Americans fought from cover and targeted British officers, causing a lot of confusion among the British. The highest American casualties came at the end of the day when British reinforcements came out from Boston with artillery. The cannon caught Americans clumped together at long range.

The Americans did the same thing at the follow-up Battle of Bunker Hill (which took place on Breed's Hill). They targeted British officers. The British thought this was not at all sporting. The reason the Americans lost that fight was they couldn't move gunpowder up to their fortified position fast enough. They had to retreat, but the casualties were very lopsided, with the British having 55% to the Americans' 32%. Nathanael Greene said "I'd like to sell them another hill at the same price."
 
The casualty count was the highest suffered by the British in any single encounter during the entire war.
General Clinton, echoing Pyrrhus* of Epirus, remarked in his diary that

"A few more such victories would have shortly put an end to British dominion in America"



*
Ne ego si iterum eodem modo vicero, sine ullo milite Epirum revertar.
 
"I don't know why everyone keeps saying the British were coming to take our firearms because they were not. They were coming to take ball and powder. Interesting, sound familiar? Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it."(OP)

In the mid 80's, visiting family in Downeast Maine, my uncle showed me one MINT revolutionary war era flintlock rifle that he had. Several had been located beneath the floorboards of the town hall, hidden from the British back in the day. Flash forward to modern day; during reconstruction, the rifles were located, each of the Town selectman kept one, hence my Uncle getting his. It shined as it had been packed in some kind of grease, looked brand new. Powder and ball were located as well.
I'm pretty sure the rifles were hidden for a good reason... fear of confiscation. Don't believe everything you read.
 
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