Capt. John Parker led 77 members of the Lexington, Massachusetts militia into battle against 700 British regulars on April 19, 1775. The firefight that ensued, including "the shot heard ‘round the world," ended up being the catalyst for the American Revolution.

Parker had been elected captain of the local militia — the Lexington Training Band, otherwise known as minutemen. They were farmers, blacksmiths, cordwainers and wagon makers.

On the morning of April 19, 1775, Parker’s small band of volunteers faced a terrifying sight: 700 well-armed and well-trained Redcoats descending on Lexington with the intent of quashing colonial rebellions in nearby Boston. Their goal was to seize a cache of colonial weapons and rebel leaders John Hancock and Sam Adams.

When given the command by British officers to throw down their weapons, Parker and his men defied.

The first shots of the American Revolution were fired in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775. Print shows line of minutemen being fired upon by British troops. Engraving, circa 1903. (Getty Images)

“Stand your ground, do not fire unless fired upon,” Parker told his men. “If they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

— Captain John Parker

Parker hoped to avoid a fight and delay the Redcoats long enough to allow more minutemen to gather and confront the British force somewhere later and from a more advantageous position.

The shot that followed on Lexington Common, that ignited the American Revolution, remains a mystery to history, but when the smoke cleared, more than a dozen Americans lay dead or wounded. Nearly one-third of the 77 men who stood on Lexington Common would be killed or wounded once it concluded, including the captain’s cousin, Jonas Parker.

PARKER’S REVENGE

The British, with only a few of their men wounded, left the fallen in their wake and made their way toward Concord, seven miles to the west.

But Parker’s stall tactic had worked.

As the residents of Lexington tended to their wounded on the common, over 200 men from Woburn’s militia and minuteman companies arrived in Lexington. The Woburn militia halted their march and assisted the Lexington residents in caring for their wounded and moving the fallen into the meetinghouse. Afterward, the Woburn men reassembled and resumed their march toward Concord. Thousands more minutemen began to arrive from communities from all across Massachusetts.

These armed American citizens turned back the British soldiers in Concord and began chasing the troops towards Boston, picking them off along the way.

Somehow, Parker was able to gather his remaining troops. They lay waiting to ambush the British as they fled to Boston, some wearing bandages stiff with the blood of wounds suffered that morning. The day ended in an incredible victory for America's citizen soldiers.

The British, suffering around 300 killed and wounded, retreated to Boston, where thousands of American militiamen laid siege to them for nearly a year before the Redcoats finally fled on March 17, 1776. Massachusetts had won its rebellion against the British Empire while the American Revolution moved to other colonies.

Patriots’ Day

John Parker succumbed to tuberculosis on Sept. 17, 1775. He was only 46 years old. And while his heroic actions on Lexington Common would give rise to the Declaration of Independence the following year — and eventually to the birth of the United States of America, John Parker saw neither come to pass.

No portrait of Parker exists. But his image lives on in the American consciousness as the inspiration for the famous Minuteman Statue on Lexington Common; in our nation's faith of an armed citizenry as a bulwark against tyranny, encoded into our Second Amendment. The U.S. Army Reserve motto, "Twice the Citizen," pays deference to the stand of Parker and the 77 that morning, while its official logo, a man in colonial headgear, is known as The John Parker.

The stand of Parker's 77, and the larger Battles of Lexington and Concord, are celebrated each year as Patriots’ Day, statewide holidays in Massachusetts and Maine, on the Monday closest to April 19.

Our Tribute

The Children of Fallen Patriots’ logomark is our way of paying our own tribute to Captain John Parker, inspired by his selflessness in rushing to the aid of his nation in need. It is because of Patriots with Parker’s spirit that we are able to continue to aid the families of our nation’s fallen.

Our mission is to provide college scholarships and educational counseling to military children who have lost a parent in the line of duty.

We are dedicated to serving the families of servicemembers from all branches of the armed forces who have died as a result of combat casualties, military training accidents, service-related illnesses, suicide, as well as other duty-related deaths as ruled by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Our vision is to ensure that every child of a fallen patriot receives all necessary college funding. To help us achieve this goal, please consider making a donation.