The First Shots The American Revolution commenced with an explosive start in 1775, in Lexington, Massachusetts. Gunfire was exchanged between British soldiers and American militiamen, leaving men from both sides wounded, and for an unlucky few, dead. This event has been remembered throughout history, preserved in personal accounts and history texts, but what we have always been uncertain of is this: who fired the first shots? Accounts differ; some insist the British fired first, some say the Americans did, and some say they couldn’t really tell. However, because of personal bias in the accounts, pressure to argue for one side of the story due to who the accounts are being presented to, and how long after the event the account is being given, we can never figure out which side fired first. The first reason we cannot figure out who fired the …show more content…
Nearly every account from the Colonists says that the British fired first, and nearly every account from the British say that the Colonists fired first. John Robins, a member of the Lexington militia, said, “the foremost of the three officers ordered their men, saying ‘Fire, by God, fire,’ at which moment we received a very heavy and close fire from them . . . Captain Parker’s men, I believe, had not then fired a gun” (Doc I). Being a part of the militia, and knowing some of the people that might get blamed if people thought the Colonists fired first, could lead to Robins trying to shift the blame away from his own people and onto the British, even if it really was the militia that fired first. He specifically tries to defend the side of the Colonists in his last sentence, which may be a sign of