The Battle Of Lexington P2

Interestingly, a month before the battle at Lexington, Governor Jonathan Trumbull of neighboring Connecticut had called for a day of public fasting and prayer…that God would graciously pour out His Holy Spirit on us, to bring us to a thorough repentance and effectual reformation…That He would restore, preserve, and secure the liberties of this and all the other American colonies, and make this land a mountain of holiness and habitation of righteousness forever.

Governor Trumbull had decided that the state would observe this particular day of prayer and fasting on “Wednesday, the nineteenth day of April”— the day on which unknown to him, the Battle of Lexington would occur. Providentially, God had an entire state praying on the very day the fighting began!

The American Minutemen, who faced an overwhelmingly larger British force that day, had been instructed not to fire at the British unless the British fired first. Captain John Parker, a member of the Rev. Clark’s church, specifically told them, “Don’t fire unless fired upon.”

After the battle, British General Thomas Gage, who was not at the conflict, claimed that the Americans had fired the first shot, but Pastor Clark, who had been an eyewitness, emphatically responded, “nothing can be more certain than the contrary, and nothing more false, weak, or wicked than such a representation.” He continued, “A cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), whose veracity (truthfulness) cannot be justly disputed, upon oath have declared in the most express and positive terms “that the British troops fired first.”

More on this next week for another American Moment.

Sourced From The American Story: The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton.