All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S07E16.The.Shot.Heard.Round.the.World.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Tonight, the
battle that ignited

America's Revolutionary War.

Massachusetts is on edge.

4,000 Redcoats,

15,000 citizens at
each other's throats.

The British are
about to move toward

these Patriot strongholds
in the countryside,

but then when they
get to Lexington,

there's colonial militia
waiting for them,

ready to get into a fight.

250 years later,

there are still questions
that have never been answered.

Number one, how did
the Patriots know

the British were coming?

That tip, the most important
piece of intelligence

in American history,

where did it come from?

The legendary battle
also left behind

another baffling mystery.

On the Patriot side,
you're face to face

with the most powerful army

in the world, but then
a shot rings out

and there's complete bedlam.

We don't know who fired
first at Lexington,

but with that shot,

the course of human
history changes.

Now, we explore the
top theories surrounding

the start of the
Revolutionary War.

Who warned the Patriots that
the British were coming,

and who fired the shot
heard 'round the world?

It's a
spring day in Boston

and the office of
Dr. Joseph Warren

is buzzing, not with patients,

but a parade of
visitors bringing news

of British military
movements in the city.

Boston in April of 1775
is a pressure cooker.

This is a small, colonial city,

only about 15,000,

but suddenly they have 4,000
British soldiers in the city.

But it's not the
soldiers who are on edge,

it's the Colonists.

For the past year,

Massachusetts suffered
under what Colonists call

the Intolerable Acts,

laws passed by
Britain's parliament

as punishment for
the Boston Tea Party.

One of the acts
requires Colonists

to house British troops.

People were sick and tired

of being harassed
by men in red coats.

What the British are doing
will lead the colonies

more and more down
this path of defiance.

There is a feeling
that the next step

could well be revolution.

Dr. Joseph Warren

doesn't just practice
medicine in Boston,

he also plays a central
role in the Patriot cause.

A member of the Sons of Liberty,

a secret society formed
to resist British rule,

he became chairman of
the Committee of Safety

following the Boston Massacre.

This is a group of people
who are being watchful,

they are gathering information,

and it puts Dr. Warren in party

with people like John
Hancock and Samuel Adams.

When the Sons of Liberty
come to the attention

of the British Crown,

some of the leaders
become wanted men.

Sam Adams and John Hancock
wind up fleeing Boston

in order to avoid being captured

and possibly put on
trial by the British.

When that happens,
Dr. Warren becomes

the de facto leader of the
Sons of Liberty in Boston.

He is the central hub,
he is the nerve center.

Information is coming into him

and he's getting it from
a variety of sources,

and what's interesting is he's
also trusted by the British.

Dr. Warren is a
supporter of the Patriot cause,

but he also has to keep those
beliefs sort of under wraps

and that put him
in a rare position,

dealing with leaders
of the revolution,

while at the same time
dealing with people

who are tried and
true loyalists.

Warren has multiple
sources of information

that are informing him

that not only are the
British consolidating forces

in the Boston area,

but that there's some kind of
a big operation in the offing.

On April 18th, 1775,

the vigilant Dr. Warren learns

a fateful piece of information.

The British
are planning to leave

that very night to march
first to Lexington,

where they will arrest
Adams and Hancock,

and then they will
continue on to Concord

where they will seize or
destroy Patriot munitions.

He knows that this
could spell the end

of the nascent Patriot movement.

It demands action.

That raid
begins moving forward

during the pre-dawn darkness.

Dr. Warren is aware that
it has been set in motion

and he is therefore
able to sound an alarm.

Warren quickly
calls on one of his

most trusted friends,
Paul Revere.

Now, Revere is a silversmith,
but he's much more than that.

He is a dispatch rider

and he is dispatched
to ride to Lexington,

and then Concord to
warn the Patriots.

Another rider, William Dawes,

is dispatched by
a different route.

The route that Revere
follows is first by boat,

and crosses the harbor,

gets off the boat,
climbs onto horseback,

and then rides
into the interior.

This is Revere's
famous midnight ride,

sounding the alarm as he goes.

As soon as Revere and Dawes
warn anyone in any town,

that individual has the
responsibility to notify

the rest of the
local inhabitants

and send messengers

to as many other towns
or villages as possible.

Revere and Dawes are
letting people know,

you've gotta stand.

Now's the time to stand,

and people are
answering the call.

Sometime after midnight,

Revere is the first
rider to arrive

at the house in Lexington,

where Adams and
Hancock are staying.

As the story goes,

a sentry posted outside
the house yells down at him

to stop making so much noise

and he responds, reportedly,

that there's going to be a
hell of a lot more noise soon

because the British are coming.

It turns out that
Warren's information

is absolutely correct.

There are roughly
700 British regulars

that are making their
way to Lexington.

For the
British, the idea is

to make it to Lexington
and then Concord

without arousing the alarm.

But that didn't happen.

In Lexington, on the Green
assemble about 70 militia men.

Now these are ordinary men.

They're farmers, tradesmen,

but not professional soldiers.

The colonial militia is

under the command of
Captain John Parker.

When Parker assembles the
company in Lexington Green,

he doesn't want this
to erupt into a battle.

He wants it to be
a show of force

that will discourage this column

of regular infantry from
pursuing this mission.

They're certainly
nervous, they're resolved,

and one thing has been made
abundantly clear to them.

No matter what, do not
be the first to shoot,

or we lose the
moral high ground.

The idea is that
because the British have

already failed to capture
Hancock and Adams,

they might turn back to Boston
without a shot being fired.

Around 5:00
AM on April 19th, 1775,

700 members of the greatest
fighting force in the world

arrive at the Green, to
find the colonial militia

standing in their way.

John Parker gives them
these now famous words,

"Stand your ground.

Don't fire unless fired upon.

And if they mean to have
a war, let it start here."

The British, led
by Lt. Col. Francis Smith,

know that they have lost
the element of surprise,

but the British surely
intend to carry on

to Concord to seize
the Patriot munitions.

British Redcoat Major Pitcairn

is confronting the
American militia

and he orders them to disperse.

"Throw down your
arms, ye villains, ye rebels."

That is met by lots of
profanity and insults.

They clearly transmit
this signal of like,

"Oh, no, we're not
gonna disperse."

But the
Americans can count.

They know they're
outnumbered 10 to one.

On the one hand, they don't
really want to back down

and be seen as
easily intimidated.

On the other hand, if
violence breaks out,

it will go very badly for them.

Parker actually orders
the militia to disperse,

but they don't throw
down their weapons

and they don't exactly disperse.

Both sides are just hurling
profanities at each other

because what's about to
erupt at Lexington Green

has been building for years.

Suddenly...

A single gunshot rings out.

And nobody knows
where it comes from,

and what happens next can
best be described as a melee.

There's no doubt that
first shot triggered

a massive volley from
the British troops.

Eight Americans are
killed in the volley.

There are bullets
flying through the air

and it's mass chaos
and confusion.

That first
gunshot would come to be known

as "The Shot Heard
'Round the World."

No British soldiers
are killed at Lexington,

and so they decide to
march on to Concord,

where they meet a
very different foe.

By the time the
British get to Concord,

around 2,000 militia have now
descended upon Concord, angry.

Now they've heard these
rumors of bloodshed

that happened in Lexington,
they're ready to fight.

There's a decisive
and now famous engagement

at the Old North
Bridge at Concord

that begins a process of
driving the British back,

withdrawing toward Lexington.

As they're retreating,

the Colonists are attacking
them guerilla warfare-style.

They're retreating through
this strange wilderness.

They're being attacked
all along the way.

On the British side, the
casualties are 273 total.

On the colonial side, the
casualties are less than 100.

The fights at
Lexington and Concord will

become known as the
first two battles

in America's war
of independence.

Dr. Joseph Warren's
timely warning played

a critical role in preparing
the Patriot militia.

Without the tip, the
British might have captured

Adams and Hancock at Lexington.

They might have destroyed the
munitions cache at Concord.

They would have,
in so doing, gutted,

at least temporarily,
the Patriot movement.

And so the question of
course is about that tip,

the most important
piece of intelligence

in American history.

Where did it come from?

The identity of the informant is

a secret Warren
took to his grave.

He dies at the Battle of Bunker
Hill just two months later.

But it could be that this
key piece of information came

from a specific group
within the Patriot cause.

Within the Sons of Liberty
is a group of spies

known as the Mechanics.

Chances are,
Dr. Warren received

information about
British movements

from several members
of the Mechanics

because they were so
widespread throughout the city

and they had so many
day-to-day interactions

with British Redcoat personnel

that they would've picked up

tidbits of information
here and there.

The Mechanics had among them
one exceptional individual

who is reported to
have been a leader,

and that leader was Paul Revere.

According to anecdote,

Revere overheard a
British officer saying

there will be, quote,
"hell to pay tomorrow"

in reference to an
upcoming operation.

So it could well
be that it is Paul Revere

that tells Dr. Warren
about the British movement.

But many historians
have looked to people

who had direct access to high
ranking British officials,

and this was not something
that Revere had access to.

In April 1775,

battles at Lexington and
Concord in Massachusetts ignite

what will become the
Revolutionary War.

The Patriots' surprise victory
over a British sneak attack

quickly becomes the
talk of the colonies.

Rumors swirl around
the potential identity

of the informant who gives
Warren the information

about British troop
movements that night.

Now of course, to the British,

this person would be a traitor.

To the Patriots, this
person is a hero.

There is a
recognition that if the Patriots

are going to
prevail in this war,

they're going to have
to form a proper army.

That leads to the creation
of the Continental Army.

George Washington
is then subsequently

chosen to command it

and he will lead it through the
next seven years of conflict

that will ultimately end
in a British surrender

and American independence.

In 1788,

five years after the war's end,

the first history book

about the American struggle
for independence is published.

The Reverend
William Gordon publishes

an exhaustive,
multi-volume account

of the history of the
Revolutionary War.

And in that account,

he refers to the informant
who tipped off Warren.

He refers to her tellingly

as a daughter of liberty,

suggesting that Warren's
man on the inside

was in fact a woman.

Gordon referred to the
informant of Dr. Warren

as being unequally yoked
in the point of politics.

And what that might mean is

that she might have
had certain sympathies

for the rebel cause,
despite holding

a position directly
tied to the British.

Suspicion quickly turns

to the wives of
British officers.

Wives are frequently
ignored, frankly,

and yet these women
would have been present

at high level conversations
among British leaders,

would've been privy to
the type of information

that somebody like Warren
needed to alert the Patriots.

General Thomas Gage was a
pretty no-nonsense commander.

He was sent into
Massachusetts to bring order

that was starting to
spiral outta control

with the Sons of Liberty.

And so General Gage
was sent in there

to put them in their place.

Even in 1775,

the British believed
that General Thomas Gage,

the man commanding all
British forces in Boston,

was betrayed by
somebody close to him.

When Gordon's
book was published,

there was substantial
speculation

as to who the
informant might be,

but then a name emerged:

Margaret Kemble Gage,
wife of General Gage.

Mrs. Gage
was born in New Jersey

and that may have given
her some kind of leaning

towards the American cause,

even though she was married
to a British officer.

She absolutely
would have had access,

if she heard her
husband discussing

with other officers
what they intended

for Lexington and Concord.

As Gage recalls,

there were only a few
people in that room

who knew what he intended to do.

They didn't even
tell the soldiers.

Warren is a physician.

He's treating people
on both sides.

That would give him
unprecedented access

to somebody like Gage
and also to his wife.

The evidence supporting this
is entirely circumstantial,

so we don't have a smoking gun

pointing to Margaret
Kemble Gage.

But when you
consider the strength

of the circumstantial case here,

that is that Dr. Warren
had to be 100% sure,

he had to have actual,
hard military intelligence

that he could depend on.

Dr. Warren
absolutely would've trusted

the wife of General Gage.

She may have given him
other valuable information

in the past that proved true.

But the other part
is he would've known

that her sharing that
type of information

could have been a very
real risk for her.

Warren would've protected her

as the source above and
beyond all other sources,

because she was his direct
line to what Gage was thinking.

And Warren never betrays that.

Warren never says who it is,

and I think all that does
is point us straight back

at Margaret Kemble Gage
as potentially being

the source of the information.

For centuries,
there have been rumors

that the good doctor was having
an affair with Mrs. Gage.

Now the doctor was
known to be young,

handsome, dashing, charismatic.

He was 33, she was 40,

seven year age difference,

but that is much closer in age

than the 40 to 56 age difference

between Mrs. Gage
and her husband.

So there might've been
some compatibility there.

If they were indeed
having an affair,

they would've had
regular contact.

She would've been someone
not only who he trusted

but had knowledge
that could be trusted.

While there's never
been any hard evidence

to prove that she was an
informant to Dr. Warren,

she had expressed sympathies

towards the Patriot
cause multiple times.

Mrs. Gage
remarks that she hopes

her husband will never be

the instrument of sacrificing
the lives of her countrymen.

So this is showing
this American leaning

that she still maintains

despite being married

to the most powerful British
man in America at this point.

What happens when you discover
that your wife is a traitor?

Well, chivalry probably prevents
you from revealing this,

not only bring
dishonor to your wife,

but to you as well.

Not long after
the disastrous incursion

into Lexington and Concord,

Mrs. Gage and all of
her belongings are

put on a ship back to England.

It would've
made him look bad

to have a wife who
was betraying him,

and so it would be better
for him and for her

to just ship her off to England.

This was common practice,

that British officers sent
their wives back to England

during the conflict.

And others note that far
from being estranged,

when Gage returns to England,

they give birth to
three more children.

Margaret Gage never
came back to America,

nor did she ever claim credit

for any role she might have
played in the revolution.

Since the end
of the Revolutionary War,

historians have been
trying to identify

Dr. Joseph Warren's
secret source,

the person who informed him

that the British
were about to attack.

Many historians still believe

that it was Margaret
Kemble Gage that provided

the information to Dr. Warren,

but some have questioned this

because of the absence of
truly compelling proof.

It's a circumstantial case.

There were also people
who would provide

information to you if
you paid them for it,

and many believed that
it was cold, hard cash

that got that information.

The idea
that Dr. Warren employed

a paid informant appears

in a largely overlooked
historical account

of the Revolutionary War,

written in the late 1700s

by a man named Jeremy Belknap.

Jeremy Belknap is a respected
clergyman and historian.

During the Revolutionary War,

he decides to follow a group
of New Hampshire soldiers

to try to write the history
of the war firsthand.

Jeremy Belknap
begins collecting

firsthand accounts from people

who eye-witnessed what happened
in Lexington and Concord

on the day of the shot
heard around the world.

And in the course of one
of those conversations,

an interesting figure emerges,

a Mr. Waters.

This Mr.
Waters seems to know

an awful lot about the events

leading up to the
battle at Lexington,

including information
about the identity

of the informant,
who he refers to

as an individual kept in pay,

otherwise known as
a paid informant.

Belknap just
tells us about Mr. Waters.

He doesn't even give
us a first name,

and Mr. Waters doesn't
say who the informant was.

So the question then becomes

why was Mr. Waters in such
a position of knowledge

about the intelligence
information being fed

to Dr. Warren right before
Lexington and Concord?

In order to try to determine

who Waters referred
to as the informant,

we'd have to first
figure out who Waters is.

In 2024,
historian J. L. Bell publishes

an analysis of Belknap's diary

in which he identifies the
man he believes is Mr. Waters.

Bell contends that
Belknap wouldn't record

the name of somebody
that didn't seem

like they were particularly
well plugged in.

And the person who probably
fits the bill best

is Josiah Waters Jr.

Now what we know
about Josiah Waters

is that he was
indeed plugged in.

In fact, he was
cousins with Dawes,

who was one of the riders with
Paul Revere on April 18th.

He's someone who would've known

a lot about what was
going on during this time.

Josiah Waters was

a well-known captain
of the militia

in the area around Boston.

He had worked with Dr. Warren.

He was also known and
respected by Sam Adams.

Josiah Waters is connected
to the Sons of Liberty.

He's one of their messengers.

He would be a credible source

from the Patriot side of things.

So after Bill was
able to identify Mr. Waters,

who would potentially
have been the tipster,

he then set to work
to try to figure out

who the informant
himself would've been.

During his research,

J. L. Bell learns that Josiah
Waters had been collecting

stories for his own
account of the war.

In that 1853 publication,

the informant was
identified as a Mr. Jasper.

As Bell dug through the records,

he found one potential match,

a knife maker in Boston
named William Jasper.

In addition to making knives
and surgical instruments,

Jasper apparently makes
weapons for the British.

In fact, he boards a
British soldier in his home.

The 1853 account states

that this officer
came to trust Jasper

and then confides in him
on that fateful night

about the British march
towards Lexington and Concord.

This is an early example
of that old adage,

"Loose lips sink ships."

You've got a chatty
British officer

who's willing to drop some
important information.

There's probably
people out there

who want to hear that

and may be willing to
pay you to pass it along.

And so Jasper is
then able to inform

Mr. Waters of the
impending British attack.

So it's possible
that they have

identified the paid informant.

After the
Revolutionary War,

Jasper stays in Boston,

and this provides a
noteworthy piece of evidence

that proves he may
have been supportive

of the revolutionary cause

because, why else
would he stick around

after the war was over?

Other historians
have disagreed

with Bell's interpretation.

Jasper and his wife
were not quartering

a highly placed British officer

so much as a junior
company commander,

and as such, he may
not have been privy

to particularly
important information.

It's believed that
Gage almost single-handedly

planned British operations
at Lexington and Concord,

so this was not something
that was widely known.

You would've had to have been
not just in the inner circle,

but very close to its center
to have overheard these plans.

So how is it that this
lowly British officer knows

what so many others do not?

There are other
historians who believe

that the story of
the paid informant

is more or less camp gossip.

There's really no
heavy duty evidence

that would say one
way or the other

that the informant was paid.

So we're left with a wide
variety of possible informants.

It might have been a spy,

it might have been
a paid informant.

It might have been
the general's wife,

but we just don't know

who Warren's key source
of information might be.

Who informed Warren the
British were coming?

It's believed that information
from a clandestine source

led to the confrontation between
Patriots and British soldiers

on Lexington Green in
the Spring of 1775.

But this intel alone
didn't spark the war.

The standoff between the
two sides might have ended

peacefully, if not for a
mysterious first gunshot.

The first shot that's fired
there on Lexington Green,

we still don't
know who fired it.

And it could simply
be that this incident

is colored by something that
we've come to know quite well,

and that is the fog of war.

There were many other
Colonists milling about

Lexington Green that day,

many of them armed,
some of them drinking,

especially around a building
known as Buckman Tavern.

Colonists had gathered
at the Buckman Tavern

where they were able to hide
behind it, poke their guns out.

So on both sides, they
don't know what's going on.

Everything's on
razor's edge right now.

So it's not just the British
regulars versus the militia.

You're kind of being
watched on all sides.

Is someone gonna pop up from
a window and shoot at you?

Who's your friend,
who's your foe?

In short, it's anarchy.

Parker actually orders
his men to disperse.

He does not have them show
any signs of surrender

so much as just walk away

from a potentially
volatile situation.

As men are screaming across
Lexington Green at one another

and in the middle
of all of that,

one musket shot is fired.

And there's complete bedlam.

More shots ring out
as militiamen flee.

By the end of it, eight men

are laying dead on the
field, all militia.

That initial
gunshot will go down

as the start of the
Revolutionary War.

Both sides will claim the
other actually fired it.

Americans know how
important propaganda is.

They know that they've
gotta control the narrative.

So the Americans
take eyewitness accounts

from over 100 people
who were there,

and they all say that it was
the British who fired first.

To understand the mindset

of the British officers and
their men that fateful day,

some look to the
long, all-night march

the troops made from Boston.

The British
soldiers are annoyed

at the very necessity
of this movement.

It's going to be a long
day anyway you look at it,

it's 12 miles each way.

They're tired,
they're probably hungry,

and now they're faced
with something else.

Soldiers report
hearing gunfire in the distance,

but what it is,

is members of the
Patriot militia sending

signals to one another.

The British are now aware

that the Colonists
know they're coming.

The calculus has changed.

The few British officers who
did know what the plan was

were expecting to have
the element of surprise

on their side.

Despite this, they continue on,

and as they approach Lexington,

they're hearing constant gunfire

and they're hearing
church bells ringing.

A British lieutenant says

that before they even
get to Lexington,

an American Colonist jumps out

from behind a stone wall
and tries to shoot him,

but his gun misfires.

That is
an indication that

they're about to engage in
a violent confrontation

with people who are
willing to fight and die.

The British soldiers
are deeply frustrated

and that deep frustration
could lead to a mistake.

The British officers hold
the Colonists' militia

in complete and utter disdain.

When Pitcairn demands that
the Americans throw down

their weapons and disperse,

there's an awful lot
of them that seem

to just kind of
sullenly stick around.

It's almost like
they're daring Pitcairn

to actually take action.

So from Pitcairn's
perspective now,

you've given the
orders to stand down.

They refuse, this could be
seen as an act of escalation,

even an act of war,

something that you
have to react to now.

Some sources even claim

that it's Pitcairn that
fires that first pistol shot,

and some sources even record

that Pitcairn himself turned
and said, "Fire, by God, fire."

But he profusely denies
that he ever fired a shot.

He actually says he tried to
restrain his men from firing.

British officers were
trained for this sort of thing.

They were cool under fire.

They had command of their men.

Their men listened to them.

So going with this
line of thought,

some believed that if indeed
the British did fire first,

it wouldn't have
been an officer.

It was someone much
lower in the command

of Captain Pitcairn.

This isn't the first time
that Colonists have faced

potentially hostile
British troops.

The British soldiers
understood what could happen.

They remember what happened
at the Boston Massacre.

British forces in 1770 fire
into a crowd of protestors,

wounding many and
killing a number.

That the military would
fire on civilians was

very real for the Colonists

and also very real
for the soldiers.

Any British
soldier at Lexington might

very well have
fired out of panic,

out of fear, out of error,

or out of being threatened
by an American Colonist.

The British regulars are

stepping into a complex
and confusing situation.

Many of these soldiers had
not been tested in battle.

The officers, yes,
but the soldiers, no.

And what they encounter is

very unlike any of their
training exercises.

The armies of Europe fight
in a very orderly fashion.

With Lexington, you're
in an urban environment.

There are people milling
about on the periphery

who are also armed,
some of them drunk.

It's an uneasy situation.

Clearly, in an
environment like that,

it wouldn't take
much for someone

to lose their composure.

It could be something as simple

as standing across the
field from someone,

looking 'em in their
eyes, and they twitch.

And the next thing you
know, a shot's fired.

After the battles
of Lexington and Concord

touch off the Revolutionary War,

the two sides are
also fighting it out

in the court of public opinion.

The Colonists want to get word
back to the British home isles

about the events at
Lexington and Concord.

And in that account, they
intend to paint themselves

as the helpless victims
of British aggression.

The British don't want to
seem like the aggressors either.

They also don't
want to seem inept.

Like, how is it that you
could have lost 273 men

to this army of
farmers and laborers?

The Patriots quickly
collect and package together

dozens of affidavits.

All of them named the
British as the aggressor.

Captain Parker
claims that it was

the British who fired

without any provocation
whatsoever at the Patriots.

General Gage sent
regular dispatches back

to London, and he didn't
see any reason to rush

the next messages
being sent back,

whereas the Patriots were
very primed and ready

to send their messages
on the fastest ship

that was headed back to London.

Unfortunately for the British,

the American news
gets there first

and spreads like wildfire.

The British are the ones
who are the aggressors.

The regulars fired first.

Of course, the Colonists
couldn't have fired first

because Captain John Parker
said they didn't fire.

The American Colonists score

an initial propaganda victory.

The initial accounts that
appear in English newspapers

suggest that, effectively,

British troops
marched to Lexington,

opened fire on a group
of unarmed Colonists,

marched onto Concord
and did the same,

and provoked an
uprising in the process.

The American account includes

a statement from British
Lieutenant Edward Gould,

who was held as a prisoner

after the events at
Lexington and Concord.

Lieutenant Edward Gould

says that although a captive,

he's being treated with
the greatest of humanity.

Gould also says that he
doesn't know who shot first.

Skeptical historians point out

that the testimony of
British POW Lieutenant Gould

could easily have been coerced
by his Patriot captors.

An historian named
Derek Beck publishes

that Gage interviewed
almost everyone

that was under his
command that participated

in Lexington and Concord.

And on the basis of
those interviews,

it provides a very
compelling case

that it wasn't the British
who opened fire first,

but rather it was the Colonists.

Beck bases a
lot of his conclusions

on the fact that the
British testimonials were

remarkably consistent
about a lot of events.

The British
soldiers readily admitted

that when they got to Concord,

they fired first,
against orders.

Beck questions then,

well, if they were
quick to admit

how they fired first at
Concord later in the day,

why would they not admit to
firing first at Lexington

earlier in the day?

However, if the Patriots
opened fire first,

why would they do that?

What fool would open fire

on a force that outnumbers
you so powerfully?

Historians,
including Beck,

suggest that first shot
could easily have been

an accidental discharge.

The Patriot
militia didn't have

the type of training you
find in a professional army.

Their weapons were not
properly maintained.

These were weapons that had
been stored in men's homes.

So you've got a pistol or a
musket primed and ready to fire.

So any number of things
could have caused a misfire.

Just off the
Green is Buckman Tavern.

The men are gathering there,

preparing for this
British force to come up,

and some soldiers may have
had too much to drink.

When they
assemble on Lexington Green,

some of them might
have been less cautious

than they normally would.

Some of them might have
been more passionate.

Alcohol does that to people

and as a result of inebriation,
maybe they made mistakes.

With all of these
factors, inexperience,

drunkenness, anger, fear,

it's very easy to assume

that an American could
have fired first.

It's also totally possible

that the militiaman with
his musket pre-primed

could have accidentally
fired a shot

and all hell broke loose.

Even some of
the British who claimed

that the Colonists fired first

believed that the
firing was accidental.

The fact that the
colonial militias scattered

after that shot provided
some very compelling evidence

to them that the shot may
not have been intentional.

Some experts suggest

that the Patriots'
weaponry itself

may also have played a role.

The unintentional discharge
may have resulted from

a firearm that was not
adequately cleaned,

a firearm that was not
in functional condition.

Maybe somebody was monkeying
around with the hammer

on their weapon and they
allowed the hammer to fall.

The way that the
trigger mechanism worked

is a flintlock system.

So you would've had a hammer,

and on that hammer it would have

a little, small piece of flint.

The flint would fall,
striking the pan.

It creates a spark and the
spark ignites the gunpowder,

which fires the bullet.

If the hammer is cocked and
then accidentally dropped,

that can cause a discharge.

If you've ever heard the term
"going off half-cocked,"

it's a reference to a weapon
accidentally discharging.

There are others who speculate

that it wasn't an
accidental discharge,

that it was a deliberate shot.

250 years after
the Battle of Lexington,

Buckman Tavern still
stands on the Green

in the center of town.

The place where patriot
militiamen spent hours awaiting

a British attack
has not changed much

in two and a half centuries.

Buckman Tavern still
stands to this day.

It is now a museum,

and it's one of the
only original buildings

that stood at Lexington Green

during the time of the
attack in April of 1775.

But Buckman Tavern might
be more than just a monument.

It could be that it holds

the key to one of the great
mysteries of American history:

who fired first at Lexington.

Many of the British
accounts claim

that the shot came
from the American side,

but not from the militia.

Rather, it was fired from a
large house next to a church,

which would only
be Buckman Tavern.

It's not hard to believe
that someone might have taken

a shot from Buckman Tavern
towards the British.

Behind Buckman Tavern is

a stone wall that
still stands today.

There may
have been somebody

on the other side of that wall

not assembled with the
formation under Parker

in the middle of
Lexington Green,

who fired that shot from
the sidelines on purpose,

because he wanted war.

By 1775, many Colonists
were radicalized by decades

of what many believed to
be oppressive British rule.

Just because
Captain Parker gave the men

this order not to open fire,

it doesn't mean that they
all obeyed it to the letter.

As historian
Derek Beck puts it,

the Green was surrounded
by hostile, armed,

and possibly drunk Colonists.

You've been drinking
in the tavern

with lots of your friends.

You kind of have
beer muscles now.

You're thinking this
might be a good idea

to stick one to the British.

In that circumstance,

where you believe that
war is inevitable,

maybe at least
one person decides

that they're gonna start
the war on their own terms.

The British story
of a lieutenant being

potentially shot at by
an American Colonist

during the march to Lexington

could have resulted in
the first shot of the war

if it weren't for
a faulty musket.

It certainly
calls into question

this idea that maybe the men
that were under Captain Parker

were the more rational
and reasonable men,

and that the countryside was

full of other people who
were ready to start this war.

In the 18th century,
it would've been very popular

for someone to step
forward and say,

"I was the one who
took the first shot."

You'd think that the
person who did this

would want to take
credit for it.

People are constantly
taking credit

for all sorts of deeds they
never did in this war.

No one's come forth and said

that they took the first shot
at the Battle of Lexington.

And so that adds more mystery
to this already deep mystery.

In 1825,

in celebration of
the 50th anniversary

of the start of the revolution,

new depositions are taken

from Patriot veterans of that
fateful day in Lexington.

They all stick to their story
that the British fired first.

Now interestingly, there
is an account that says

that it was a Patriot who fired

from the side, from
Buckman Tavern.

Now, whether that's true

or had been influenced
by storytelling

that had built up around
this mythical moment

in American history,
we'll never know.

I'm stunned in
1825 somebody didn't try

to take credit for it.

On the other hand, the
individual that fired

the first shot might
very well have perished

in the fighting of the
entire Revolutionary War.

The historian David
Hackett Fisher will go on

to point out that it could be

that a number of
shots were fired

almost at the exact same time.

And that the various
reporters who recorded

personal accounts
of the incident,

they told their truth, and
that to them, it seemed

like it came from
the British side,

or it came from the
Colonists' side.

That is why we are now left

with this pile of
personal accounts

that cannot be reconciled
against one another.

To this day, the
towns of Lexington and Concord

argue about who
should be given credit

for the shot heard
'round the world.

Citizens of Lexington say,

"Well, of course
it should be us,

because the first shot was
indeed fired at Lexington."

But people in Concord say,

"No, no, no," because
the famous poem,

"Shot Heard Round the World"
by Ralph Waldo Emerson,

was written about Concord.

There is a big fight

at the Old North
Bridge in Concord

during which Patriots
push the British back.

In 1836, an obelisk is put
there to memorialize the action

and a poem is written

as a part of the
dedication of that obelisk.

And it includes the words

"the shot heard
round the world".

But the first shot of
the American Revolution

was fired at Lexington.

To this day, researchers
continue to search

archives for new evidence

that might shed light on that
initial gunshot in Lexington

and the other mystery
of the battle,

who informed the Patriots

that the British were coming?

250 years later, they're still

some of the most intriguing
unanswered questions

from America's origin story.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
History's Greatest Mysteries.