‘Dawn of Liberty’ - Lexington, MA - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

In Boston, Massachusetts, April 19, 1775, began with the famous midnight ride of Paul Revere through the countryside warning the local militias that a British expeditionary force was marching to Concord to capture or destroy a cache of American weapons that had been hid there. Though tensions had been building between the Massachusetts Bay colonists and the British military for some time, open conflict had been avoided up to this point.

At about 9:30 in the morning, a contingent of British soldiers encountered several companies of local American militiamen just north of Concord at an arched bridge spanning the Concord River. Shots rang out and a certain Major Buttrick ordered his militia unit to fire on the British regulars. This clear act of treason is considered to be the official beginning of the War for American Independence and was immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as the “shot heard ‘round the world” in his poem “Concord Hymn.”

But these weren’t the first shots fired that day. Several hours earlier at Lexington (about 7 miles east of Concord) a small group of American militiamen confronted the approaching British troops on the town green. The assembled militiamen were told to disperse and though no orders to fire were given, shots nevertheless rang out and when the smoke cleared, 8 Americans had been killed. Today, Lexington and Concord are almost always mentioned together as the place where the American Revolution began.

Perhaps sensing the historic nature of the events that had just taken place, sketches were made of the various locations involved in the confrontations. Later artists made use of these early sketches to create paintings, engravings and lithographs for more widespread distribution or as memorials. One of these was a rather large, somewhat romanticized 1886 painting by Canadian artist/illustrator Henry Sandham depicting the skirmish at Lexington. It was used for the design of two US postage stamps commemorating the Battle of Lexington: one for the sesquicentennial in 1925 and this one, issued in 1975 for its bicentennial.

The town of Lexington acquired the Sandham painting, and it is now permanently displayed in the lobby of Isaac Cary Memorial Hall located in the center of town.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 19-Apr-1975 Denomination: 10c Color: multicolored Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: Not listed

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