We are only one year removed from the Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the birth of our country, on July 4, 1776. But before and after that signal event there were many more milestones that prepared the way for, and vindicated the cause of independence.

The Department of Political Science at the University of Alaska Anchorage is keeping an eye on those milestones and will be commemorating them for the next eight years, which mark the length of our Revolutionary War, ending with Great Britain’s formal recognition of our independence by the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Two important events will be held soon, and we cordially invite the public to come.

At 5:30 p.m. on Friday, April 18, in the atrium of Rasmuson Hall on the campus of UAA, we will hold a vigil commemorating the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, when he warned the patriots of Massachusetts that the British were coming. The next day, at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 19, in the atrium of the ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building, we will honor the patriot militia who met British arms, first on Lexington Green, then at Concord Bridge, 250 years ago.

Europe had her cathedrals, but our cathedrals were these men. It was easier for them to die than to surrender their liberty.

When Paul Revere and William Dawes alerted the Americans to the approach of British forces on April 18, 1775, the patriot militia might have stayed home. Great Britain had just won a major, global war over France. By her military and economic might, Great Britain was the supreme power in the world. Behind Boston, the British display of their overwhelming force could have been enough to excuse a prudent resignation, to excuse just letting them march on, unopposed.

But upon the arrival of an advance guard of 400 British troops at Lexington, 77 Americans stood firm on the green and refused to lay down their arms at the command of British Major John Pitcairn. “If they mean to have a war, let it begin here,” Captain John Parker encouraged his New England men.

Although it is not clear who fired the first shot, the result was disastrous for the Americans. The British broke their ranks. Eight Americans were killed, among them, John Parker’s cousin, Jonas Parker, bayonetted to death. Mortally wounded, Jonathon Harrington crawled back to his home next to Lexington Green and died on his own front doorsteps. Among the American dead was Prince Estabrook, a black freedman.

What would you do, if you were living in those neighborhoods at that time? We might like to say that we would fight, but in such circumstances, few continue resistance.

After Lexington, the British regrouped and resumed their march to achieve their mission, to seize American arms and ammunition stored at Concord. When they turned left to cross Concord Bridge, a forest of angry muskets awaited them. From that moment, the British regulars began their long day’s retreat back to Boston, decimated.

Yes, our fathers were brave. But brave men defying odds and risking and losing their lives in battle, can be found on all sides in the annals of military conflicts, and sometimes we can recognize genuine military bravery even on behalf of truly wicked powers.

We ought to remember and honor them not merely because they were brave nor because some of us may be descended from their blood, but because what made them brave was what made their cause great and good, and what made them the fathers of all of us who are Americans, notwithstanding our descent from any precinct on earth. Their education in the principles of freedom was grounded in their piety and had been carefully inculcated in New England for 150 years of prior colonial development.

Europe had her cathedrals, but our cathedrals were these men. It was easier for them to die than to surrender their liberty. And so that refrain henceforth became a common American refrain. All that we most value in this world, a free way of life and self-government, we owe to these men who “stood to” when the first shot at Lexington was heard around the world.

Please join us in remembering them on April 18th and 19th. For questions, please contact Professor Forrest Nabors, fanabors@alaska.edu.

The views expressed here are those of the author.

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