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WarRoom Battleground EP 750: 250th Anniversary Of The Battle Of Lexington And Concord
WarRoom Battleground EP 750: 250th Anniversary Of The Battle Of Lexington And Concord ...
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- [00:03]
Steve Bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. Reasons I got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people, the people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.
- [00:24]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
And where do people like that go.
- [00:26]
Steve Bannon
To share the big lie?
- [00:28]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul I w that any of these people had a conscience.
- [00:35]
Steve Bannon
Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
- [00:45]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
War ROOM here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
- [00:51]
Steve Bannon
Okay, Friday the 18th of April, year of our Lord 2025. Good Friday also the eve of the 250th commemoration anniversary of Lexington and Concord. And of course tonight, late tonight, the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Who's joined us as joins us on many of these occasions is the great combat historian Patrick K. O'Donnell. First Patrick, welcome back. Long time no see. Audience loves to have you on. First of all, I just want to even start off where do people go and get all your writings? Because every time we have you on, people go and they always come back to me and say we'd love Patrick's books. He's got such a breadth of, you know, World War II, Korea, the Iraq war, all the way back to the revolution. You kind of COVID everything. I want to make sure people get, they like you so much. You get invited to all these MAGA commemorations and warlord posse and I just get feedback, I just get feedback all the time.
- [01:57]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
And we have, you know, every book signing I've had in the last month, we've had about 400 people go. It's been amazing. And a lot of members of the posse I've had a chance. It was an honor to meet many people. My books you can get in any bookstore. They're best selling books, Barnes and Noble in particular. They usually put them up right up in the front. The unvanquished being the Civil War book the latest, the indispensables being the one before that on the American Revolution and Lexington and Concord, what we're talking about tonight and Revere's Ride, all of those things. Patrick kodonnell.com is my website and then at combat historian on X and Gitter is where you can go.
- [02:41]
Steve Bannon
You, you have, you know, you specialize in going back and doing archival work, looking at all the Writings, particularly as you can't do. You. You started in doing oral histories of the greatest generation because you had the idea, hey, if I don't do this, if somebody doesn't do it systematically, it's going to be lost to history. Your older books, obviously inability to interview you do amazing archival work. So talk to us. Why is this so important and we've made such a big deal about it, why? The shot heard around the world tomorrow in Lexington, Concord, and starts tonight, really with Paul Revere set the table for us. What was going on and why were these forces brought together tomorrow so explosive? That really did change the direction not just of American history, but of world history.
- [03:33]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
This is our most important history, Steve. This is the story about our founding. It's about who we are as Americans. It's a story about regular people, you know, using their personal agency to change the world. The founding generation changes the world. And it begins in many ways. The revolution begins in 1768 with the stamp act and, you know, fighting against the Crown, realizing that there's dependency for the Crown's goods. They're constantly bombarding us at this time with, you know, cheap imports. They stand up against the Stamp. Stamp Act. The Crown backs off, but it's really kind of one atrocity after another. Everything from impressment of sailors. I mean, for instance, I wrote a book called the Indispensables on the Marbleheaders. These are fishermen and traders. They go out with their boats. All of a sudden, the Crown pulls up with a Navy ship, and it's not a friendly meeting. They're there to impress people on board, and it's kidnapping for life with the Royal Navy. There's those incidents. There's taxes. There's a revolution that is spawned in 1773 and 74 where new ideas are formed about freedom and liberty. And this is groundbreaking stuff, Steve. That is the basis of who we are as Americans.
- [05:02]
Steve Bannon
But hang on a second. You got in 1773 and 1774 in the preamble of this, why do you say the new ideas? These are essentially Englishmen, or they're governed. Even if people come over from other places, they're governed as a colony of the British Crown. And Englishmen have certain rights that they have fought for and have, you know, representation in Parliament. The Crown is not. It is a constitutional monarchy now. Right. It's not like Henry viii. They just do what they wanted. So what are the ideas in 1773 and 1774 that start to come up?
- [05:44]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
It's the ideas of individual freedom and liberty. But also that they were not being represented property properly in Parliament. They didn't have a say, even though they were being taxed. But there's a lot of things that are going on where, you know, they're being forced to house British soldiers. For instance, there's a judge issue, and this is a really interesting one. They were being, you know, throughout the colonies for over 100 years or more. We were able to elect our own judges and put them in place. What was going on in 74 was the crown was installing their own judges. And this is a major problem. And then there's another thing that, you know, the Boston Tea Party takes place, and what happens is it's collective punishment for everyone that's in Boston. They shut down the port. Thousands are thrown out of work. They're not able to trade, and, you know, this collectively roils everything, and it's just one step after another. But the real trigger is on September 1, 1774, at a place called Somerville, which is in Cambridge. They had a powder magazine. And Gage knew that if he was able to take the gunpowder away from the Americans.
- [07:04]
Steve Bannon
That was Thomas. That was. That was Thomas Gage, the British general, Right?
- [07:10]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
That's exactly right. And I think this is another thing.
- [07:12]
Steve Bannon
In charge Britain, the Great Britain basically has a royal governor, but the governors are overwhelmed. So Britain sends essentially an expeditionary force. Because it's a colony, they send an expeditionary force of British regulars. And at the time, the British regulars is a small army, but a highly professional army, not a militia. Right. These are pretty hardened guys. Eventually, they'll be deployed into many places. This is the army that breaks Napoleon later, right? In what, in 1812. But this is a pretty hard.
- [07:45]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
That's exactly right, Steve.
- [07:47]
Steve Bannon
These are pretty hard. They come from Ireland. They come from Northern Ireland, come from Scotland, come from England. And just like the Royal Navy was the dregs of society, but some of the best fighting men in the world. These are pretty hard folks, right? These are.
- [08:00]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
These are tough.
- [08:01]
Steve Bannon
I mean, Wellington used to call. Wellington called his army the scum of the earth, right? But some of the greatest fighters.
- [08:07]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
These are really tough guys. And experience, in most cases, they have at least 10 years of experience on average that had been in combat. So these guys know what they're doing. They're well trained, they're very well disciplined, engaged senses. Remember I talked about dependency? Dependency at this time was gunpowder could fight all. You know, if you don't have gunpowder, it doesn't matter how many guns you have. You're defenseless. And they recognize this because what happened is after the French and Indian war, the British deliberately took our gunpowder industry away, but it was also market driven forces because it was cheaper to outsource it to India at the time. So the United States, or I should say the colonies, had no organic production of powder and the British went after it. That was the killing seal.
- [09:01]
Steve Bannon
Hang on, hang on. I want to make sure the audience understands this. It's the reason the second amendment was so important to people at that time.
- [09:09]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Absolutely.
- [09:10]
Steve Bannon
Let's go back to here. The Brits were not the empire they set up. And the system. Well, no, but they're smart. Look, they're building a global empire from an island, right. At the same time keeping Europe at bay. So you gotta be tough, you gotta be hard. You gotta think ahead. And they realize that, hey, the colony's made up of a bunch of Englishmen who were kind of surly, right. Americans are always bitching about their rights. Hey, I got my rights as a free man. They understood. What they didn't want them to do is have rights to tied with weapons and gunpowder. That was. And we see that tomorrow play out. So that's why gunpowder was so important. Weapons are so important to go to an arsenal. Keep. Whatever you do, keep these Americans away from firearms, because this is a. This is a group with a chip on their shoulder. They've got an attitude and we don't like it. We like. We want order. We don't want. We don't want them telling us what to do. Essentially. That's why September. Your point's brilliant. The 9-1-17 was a 70. 75. No, 4.
- [10:17]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
1774.
- [10:18]
Steve Bannon
Yeah.
- [10:19]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
And then what you have is a series of these surgical raids that take place. There's another one that takes place at Fort William and where you. Where the first shots arguably of the Revolutionary War are fired and a man is wounded, A British provisional troop is wounded, but they seize the Americans, actually seize the gunpowder. Fort William and Mary, which is in New Hampshire. And then there's another raid at Salem. And it goes on and on and on until Lexington and Concord. And it's a traitor within the Patriot ranks, a guy by the name of Benjamin Church, who's one of the. He's on the highest councils in the. In the Patriot ranks. They have a series of council of safety, a council of supply. And Church is Gage's best spy. He tells Gage exactly where all the weapons. There's several cannons that are being hidden. There's musket balls, there's powder. They're being stashed in Concord and other farms nearby. And Gage decides to mount a raid beginning on April 18th. They sail out of Fort William, which is in Boston Harbor. 750 men under a guy by the name of Smith. And these are the elite troops within the British Army. They're Royal Marines and light infantry, and they're assembled on boats. They sail in and they come in and then they start to march, you know, towards Lexington and Concord.
- [11:51]
Steve Bannon
Well, hang on for a second. Let's go back to the makeup and the structure of Gage's expeditionary force that they essentially come to impose essentially some form of martial law on the colonists in Boston. And Boston was really where this. The revolutionary spirit. You had Hancock, you had Adams, you had. That would be Sam Adams, not John Adams. You had a lot of people stirring the pot here. Right. And Gage's expeditionary force. Give me the structure of that expeditionary force.
- [12:21]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
There's about 3,000 men that are in Boston, and then there's another several couple thousand in Canada and in South Carolina. And most of these men are, you know, regular, very disciplined, trained troops. 10, 15 years experience in many cases. A lot of the troops are the light infantry. These are. This is sort of an invention from the French and Indian War, where they learn how to fight as in sort of a Native American fashion, where it's not necessarily linear tactics on the European battlefield, but they, they, they have these lighter troops that are able to mane and work quicker on the battlefield. And it's this, this is the force that is put together for this raid to the British's disadvantage. Many of these men had never actually fought as an entire unit together. They took multiple companies from several regiments and put them together for this, this force that Smith was leading to seize the. The gunpowder, cannon and other military supplies.
- [13:28]
Steve Bannon
Before we get to the actual movement of the troops and the going. What was it about Paul Revere? And people knew something. It's not that they were on a hair trigger, but this was all building up to something. Right. They understood that the Brits, that the British wanted to make sure that they. They disarmed the colonists. They didn't want the colonists to have weapons, and they didn't want them to have gunpowder. They knew that that would lead to a bigger insurrection. Correct. So this was all out there. You had these spies, you had people turning in colonists, you had them turning in plans. How does Paul Revere. How does the night before the eve, why does it all come together on the 18th of April and then leading into the confrontation we see on the next day?
- [14:12]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Paul Revere is a key Member of the Sons of Liberty. He's a key member of some of the councils that I mentioned. He's one of the leading fellows. But he's also built sort of this alarm, you know, one is by land, two by sea, where the, how the British are going to attack the supplies. And there's this, you know, series of the, the lantern in the, in the, in the church tower. And then he rides out, you know, beginning around 11 o'clock on the 18th and they start to, they start to move towards Concord. And meanwhile the head, the leadership of the Patriots are all assembled that night. They're meeting at the Black Horse Tavern in Arlington, Virginia. Arlington, Massachusetts. I'm sorry. And then also near Concord itself. And it's revere that. That basically alarms them and lets them know that the British are coming.
- [15:18]
Steve Bannon
Tell me about the Sons of Liberty. What is the Sons of Liberty? Why is it such a controversial group? Why haven't the British. What are the British trying to do to infiltrate it or to shut it down?
- [15:31]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
The Sons of Liberty are, you know, they are formed during the years of the Stamp act in the late 1817, 60s and this is to fight British taxation. And this includes some of the key members such as Samuel Adams, who's considered a real rabble rouser, but he's a beacon in many ways, a real thought leader of the time. There are others. John Adams, Elbridge Gary from the Marblehead Regiment, for instance, future Congressman and later Vice president. Many of these men are Sons of Liberty. This is kind of the core group of resistance members, if you will. It starts at the Stamp act and it continues to flourish and expand right before the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. And they set up, in many ways these core members of the Sons of Liberty will set up the shadow government of these different Committees of Safety. Committees of Correspondence submit, Committee of Supplies where they start to prepare in the event that the British attempt to disarm them and kill them.
- [16:57]
Steve Bannon
The Committees of Correspondence. Because we've often told the Warren Posse that in particular being force multipliers and information warfare, you know, frontline folks that are sharing this information that you're analogous to the Committees of Correspondence and the Sons of Liberty. Talk to me about the Committees of Correspondence and how they interact with people like the Sons of Liberty.
- [17:20]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
They form various committees that meet. These are individuals that are trusted individuals, but in most cases they are considered trusted individuals. But you have. What I think most people don't realize is that not everybody was on board with the American Revolution at the time. I mean, the typical analogy is that there was one third Patriots, one third undecided, and then one third that were Loyalists. It's hard to really break down those numbers. But what you have is the first American Civil War that is raging at the time of 1774 and 1775, where the two camps are divided and military defeats, as well as atrocities on the battlefield will shape the ebb and flow of where those camps move and people move from one camp to another. And it's. It's really quite a miracle that the American Revolution succeeded against the greatest empire at the time. And it's. It's really a story about grit. It's about a story about an idea, the idea of America, freedom and liberty, which is stronger than anything that you can have, really on the battlefield. And it's that idea that would persist and pervade for, you know, over eight years and then longer, and then change the entire world as a result.
- [18:58]
Steve Bannon
So when you say one third, one third, one third, and people actually use the number 3% actually did any fighting. But what was it in the lead up? Because clearly two thirds of the people are not with you. And this is why I say the boredom all the time. Hey, if it starts out and the odds are long, you'll change the odds if you're just determined. So essentially, in the nicest swath you can take it, 2/3 of the people were not with the patriots. And quite frankly, they thought of the patriots of being radical and out of step and dangerous because they were drawing America into a confrontation with the British Crown. One third of the people were Tories. They supported the British Crown and didn't think anything. Didn't think the British Crown was doing anything actually wrong. In fact, if they were doing anything wrong, it was because of the instigation of people like Sam Adams and John Hancock and others. And Sam Adams and John Hancock, correct me if wrong, were kind of also people that are up against the monopolies that the Crown had given monopolistic power to. And that would be the British East India Company. These guys, I don't want to call them smugglers. But the whole confrontation on the Tea Party, et cetera, was a confrontation not so much with the British Crown or as much with the British East India Company, which had monopolistic powers for trade in the colonies. But why was it in your thought that given all the intellectuals we had given the committees on correspondence, and enough people like The Wurrumpasi, still 2/3 of the people, approximately, were not convinced it was worth taking the fact it was dangerous. The people in the middle were just sitting there going, hey, we don't want any part of this. We're going to see which side wins. But the Tories, there were one third that were pretty adamantly opposed to this. Patrick K. O'Donnell.
- [20:47]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Yeah, these loyalists were very determined. And that's. That is a, you know, this is not the story of the oil paintings that we, you know, we all see. There's a much richer, deeper, more nuanced story of the, you know, the various. It's a very vicious and violent war as it unfolds. But what you see is just determination of a small group of people. In many cases, like you said, 3%, probably more than that, but not too many more would actually do the actual fighting and be around. They were just persistent, their grit. And then it was a situation where people saw their lives really in danger and at risk, and they saw what the Crown had done to other, you know, any other. Any other insurgency or force the Crown went against. It always. It destroyed or it tamped down. It was always victorious.
- [21:56]
Steve Bannon
Paul Revere, how does he get tipped off? How does tonight is the night, you know, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, made famous by the poem that every American school kid at one point in time had to know. How does he flow into this as sons of Liberty? What is he going to be a. Is he a spy? Is he somebody that's part of the militia's intelligence group? Why has he come in and why is his ride that triggers everything so important?
- [22:21]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
He has a number of people that he or that are informants that inform him. And he is aware that Smith's force is assembling, and he sets about to alarm the entire countryside. They have an alarm system that's already set up, you know, the lanterns in the. In the church tower. And then pretty much as soon as he rides out, he alarms every house that he encounters. And he tells. It basically tells everyone to start ringing the town bell, church bells, anything to let people know that the regulars are on the move. And he does an amazing job. But as he's riding, Gage wisely puts out numerous cavalry patrols to try to round up men like Paul Revere. And he and another guy by the name of Dawes and Prescott later joins them. They're rounded up, the British, actually, these cavalry patrols, they run into them and Revere is captured initially. And the British officer comes up to him and says, you know, sir, may I have your. Your name, I'm craving your name. And Revere. And Revere just says, my name is Paul Revere. Just like that. And the officer's jaw literally drops because this is the man that he's hunting and Revere. They put a gun to his head and he says there's no need for that. I will just tell you the truth. And he tells them more details about the expedition than these men actually know because their cover story is they're just rounding up British deserters. And he says to them, look, within a matter of minutes you will be surrounded by thousands of my fellow countrymen and your lives will be the ones that are in great danger. And you know, this goes on for, you know, several minutes. He tries to tie them up because he knows that John Hancock and other and Joseph Warren, other members of the patriot leadership are not far down the road and he wants to do everything he can to delay these men and the column from reaching them. So they engage in some conversation but shots ring out and this British cavalry decides to just basically ditch their prisoners. They take their mounts and then they, they make them walk on foot. And Revere and two of the other men make their way through a swamp through a sort of a, a shortcut. And they get to, to Hancock and Joseph Warren before the main column is arriving.
- [25:09]
Steve Bannon
Joseph Warren, that's a famous name. Why don't we hang on right there. We're going to ask Patrick K. O'Donnell the question he's going to answer on the other side and we're going to talk about the day of Lexington Concord. But what, what is the. What was the signal? One if by land, two if by sea. We're gonna be back in a moment with Patrick K. O'Donnell to get an answer on that. We're taking a short commercial break. Want to thank our sponsor Birch Gold. The Rio the Rio reset is what they call it. The BRICS nations are meeting in Rio de Janeiro On I think the 6th of July, a couple of days after the our celebration on the 4th. And they're there to talk about the end of the dollar empire. Have you heard that that's a series we've been working on for the last four years. You can all get it free. Go to birchgold.com Bannon get the end of the Dollar Empire. Once you understand that it's now six free installments, you can get them all. Once you understand this the process of why central banks are buying gold at record rates, you too will start to understand why the price of gold is hitting all time highs, I don't know, 25 times this year. It's not the price of gold's important. It's the process of how it got there. That's what you need to understand. Birchgold.com ban and the end of the dollar empire. Or the simpler way, maybe just a cut to the chase, is to get take take your phone out and text Bannon B A N N O N at 989-898 to get a free brochure. The ultimate guide to Investing in Gold and Precious Metals in the era. Trump do that today. To kick things off, talk to Philip, Patrick and Team Short. Commercial break Patrick K. O'Donnell one if by land, two if by sea next in the War Room, what if he had the brightest mind in the War Room, delivering critical financial research every month? Steve Bannon here War Room listeners know Jim Rickards. I love this guy. He's our wise man. 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- [31:16]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
War Room.
- [31:17]
Steve Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Banner. Okay, Patrick K. O'Donnell. One, if by land, two if by sea. What's my answer?
- [31:29]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
They come by sea and they start.
- [31:33]
Steve Bannon
So that was the warning. That was the warning. You were going to have lights up in the church tower that it'd be one light if they were coming by sea and two, if they were coming by land. Why would they come by sea? They were right there in Boston.
- [31:44]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
I thought they, they wanted to obtain a slight element of surprise by coming by sea. They thought they could kind of distract things and then also cut Off a few, a little bit of their, their march to. They make it a little bit shorter so they wouldn't have to go right through the heart of, of Boston. They come up, they actually landed at a. At this loyalist farm outside of Cambridge. And then they start to march and they're marching first they march through Arlington and then they march towards Lexington and Green. And it's at 2am that John Parker and about 70 of his militia are out at Lexington Green because they hear Paul Revere's alarm bells.
- [32:36]
Steve Bannon
Paul Revere starts before midnight. By 2am they've already got the. By 2am the colonists already know something, they're coming. So they muster at Lexington. They muster at Lexington Concord, 2:00am wow. They do.
- [32:52]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
And this is important because it's the, it's. It's sort of the, the green is near the crucial crossroads which is on the way towards Concord. They muster there and it's here that they meet, you know, this, this long kind of centipede of scarlet.
- [33:11]
Steve Bannon
So hang on, just the audience understand they're going to the armory at Concord. Lexington just has to be on the route to go there. Correct?
- [33:19]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
It's correct. It's not even an armory, Steve. This is just a bunch of houses, farms that have cached supplies, military supplies of gunpowder. Many of the, it's the marble headers, the indispensables that have, that have, that have, that have obtained it from Portugal and Spain. There are several actual cannons, trunnions for the canyons and then there's muskets and musket balls, tens of thousands of them. Engage's men are there to surgically remove them. They're not there to plunder anybody's houses or anything else. At least that's in the orders. Doesn't work out that way. They're just surgically remove the supplies and get out. But what happens is the, the countryside is alarmed. They then run into Parker's men and they're told to disperse. Parker says to his man, hang on.
- [34:20]
Steve Bannon
Hold up, hang on. They get to Parker and his men rally at 2am by dawn the British. And this is a 3,000 man expeditionary force. British regulars. Correct.
- [34:34]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
This is a force of 750 British regulars, specifically the light infantry and the Royal Marines. This is a pick force.
- [34:46]
Steve Bannon
Pick force and pretty tough hombres. They get to what around 5, 6 and what time they actually arrive at Lexington at the Commons where Parker's sometime.
- [34:57]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Around 2 to 3am that they arrive and then they are told to disperse. And you know, Parker says his famous words Stand your ground. You know, the men. Some of the men are, you know, questioning. There's only 70 of us and there's this long column of 750 British regulars. A number of words are exchanged. Tells his men to not fire unless fired upon. And then he says the famous words, but if you want a war, let it begin here. And then what happens is a shot rings out, and we don't know to this day who fired the first shot. And at that point, the British regulars begin to fire and start to massacre many of Parker's men. They fire back, but in. Parker's men get the brunt of it.
- [35:54]
Steve Bannon
Why don't we know. Why don't we know who actually fired the first shot? Why is it still. Why is it still a debate in history of who actually fired the first one?
- [36:06]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Because you've got just hundreds of people and individuals, and they. They still don't know exactly who fired that first shot.
- [36:14]
Steve Bannon
Isn't it clearly. Patrick, Patrick, you've gone to the archives. Isn't it pretty clear? It's one of the militia guys. They're a little nervous. You got British regulars there telling you to get the hell out of the way, disperse. Parker and a handful of these guys don't do it. Some guys do disperse. They stand right there. Somebody's itchy.
- [36:36]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Because here's why, Steve. Because literally within hours from this, there's another engagement at Concord Bridge where the.
- [36:47]
Steve Bannon
Exact same scenario takes place. But hang on, hang on. Don't get ahead of. Don't get ahead of the wagon train here. I'm gonna get to Concord in a second. Was an order given? Who is the field officer in charge of the 750? They are adamant that they gave no order to fire. Smith did. Smith was adamant because they had a board of inquiry about this. He was adamant. He never gave an order to fire. Correct?
- [37:12]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Correct. But what happens?
- [37:15]
Steve Bannon
British regular. Are British regulars in the business of firing? Unless they get a direct order because they got a whole thing that they line up, boom.
- [37:22]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
It's just like anybody else. They can. You can. When you got your hands near the trigger. It's possible. So you don't know, but, I mean, it's quite possible.
- [37:31]
Steve Bannon
My money's.
- [37:32]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
My money's on a.
- [37:34]
Steve Bannon
My money's on a common.
- [37:36]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
I'll get to this.
- [37:38]
Steve Bannon
I may be going down, but I'm taking one of these guys out with me.
- [37:42]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Do what the founders knew, the information war. And I'll get to the narrative in a bit.
- [37:49]
Steve Bannon
Okay, go. So what happens after the shoot? It's a Melee. Then what happens? And how do we get to Concord?
- [37:56]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Then? It's open season on the colonists, and many of Parker's men are either mortally wounded or killed. The British actually run bayonets through multiple men, Smith and Pickhorn. He starts to wave his sword in the air to cease fire. He has to literally. He loses control of his men. Steve, that's a very important point. You were just making the point of how disciplined these British regulars were. He lost control of them there that night. And these men started to basically fire at will. And they were bayonetting. They have to literally go into the melee, order everybody to cease fire. What happens then is some of the remaining Americans then disperse into the hills. And Smith then continues his original mission, which is destroyed the supplies of Concord. But his officers around him, many seasoned officers, say, look, it's madness to continue. The Americans are alerted. The entire countryside, they saw what happened during the Summerville powder alarm. Literally 10,000 people descended upon Boston Common. They're now alarmed for their. They're worried about their lives. But Smith says, I have my orders. And he continues to look towards Concord.
- [39:23]
Steve Bannon
So they marched toward Concords with his other officers, saying, hey, we're going to get chewed up here, because this.
- [39:31]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Is.
- [39:34]
Steve Bannon
So the ward's out now, and this is where the militia are coming. They come up on Concord Bridge. They have to cross Concord Bridge to get to the farmhouses where the arsenals are. Correct. Or the weapons. Correct. That's what happens.
- [39:47]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Where the weapons are stored. Yeah. What happens next is, is they come upon the place that they feel that most of the weapons are stored, which is a tavern in Concord. Smith and several of his officers then storm the tavern. The door's locked. They break it down, storm in, and then they put a pistol to the owner and tell him, ask him where are the cannons hidden? And the guy initially refuses to talk. And he says, I'll blow your brains out if you don't talk. They then, he then the tavern owner then leads them to four buried cannons or 24 pounders. They unearth them, and then they spike the guns. And then they start to search the town for any other weapons and supplies. And what happens is they start to build a bonfire in the middle of the town to start burning all this stuff. What happens next is kind of interesting. The fire catches on a townhouse nearby, and a bizarre scene takes place. The British soldiers and the Americans that are in Concord itself literally form a bucket brigade and try to put out the fire. But meanwhile, Parker's men and others are surrounding the Town in the nearby hills and see that they believe the town is being burned to the ground. So they then mass near the bridge and demand, you know, the fire be put out and everything else is. They don't know really what's going on. But at this time, British soldiers are then taking whatever they can find, which is not much because Revere and other patriot leaders had warned them days earlier that these supplies might be raided. So they've moved a lot of this stuff into the surrounding fields. They buried it. I mean, there's one great story where the guy that's the leader, Barrett, who's a leader near Concord Bridge, his farm is two miles away from Concord town center. His farm is raided, but he, days before, with hundreds of patriots, had literally cleaned out the entire area. And in the morning before that, they literally plowed the field, and they were putting muskets down as they were, you know, as they created a furrow to cover things, and they found very little supplies. But as this is going on, the militia mass at the bridge along with the regulars. And it's here that the famous shot heard round the world takes place. The British tell the militia to disperse. Barrett basically says, stand your ground. And what happens next is that the British regulars fire the first shots. Two shots are fired by British regulars. They open fire. And what happens is the Americans stand their ground. And what's it's really remarkable is that these seasoned elite troops begin to break, and they start to fall back from the bridge.
- [42:52]
Steve Bannon
I want to repeat that this was so shocking. It was shocking in the field reports they sent later. Of course, they get slaughtered on the way back, but right there in front of one of the toughest armies in Europe, the Americans, who are basically a group of farmers and mechanics, refuse to break a Concord bridge, right, and actually break the British ranks.
- [43:12]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
They do. They start to waver. Smith then realizes what happens is that they break, and then there's a dispersion from both sides that takes place. And Smith then resumes his march back to Boston. They are really, at this point, running and marching for their lives because they realize the entire countryside is alarmed, and there are thousands of militiamen in the surrounding hills, and they're flanking the road as the British march. And they encounter, at one of the angles, they encounter John Parker. It's called Parker's Revenge. At one of the hills, the British light infantry storm the hill. They disperse the men, only to realize that there's another hill filled with hundreds of Americans. And then they just continue this long march and bloody march down this Gauntlet.
- [44:13]
Steve Bannon
From the foot, hang on. From the foot of Concord Bridge back to safety, back to Cambridge, back to Boston. Boston back to Boston is how many miles roughly?
- [44:25]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
We're talking about 15, 12 miles or so. It's a long road.
- [44:32]
Steve Bannon
You've got militia. You've got militia behind every rock and tree. They've got to go back. This elite force of 750 that goes out basically at midnight to get to the arsenal or Concord or the houses at Concord that have the weapons. They're under complete onslaught for hours in the withdrawal. And folks, if you want to think about it, this is a 250 years ago. This is Black Hawk Down. You're surrounded by people who don't want you to be there. Right there was Mogadishu right in, I guess the 1990s here. It's Lexington and Concord outside of Boston. But how many casualties did they take of that elite force of 750 by the time they actually get back to Boston?
- [45:15]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
They take scores of casualty, killed and wounded. And you know, we also sustained a number of casualties. It's one of my family members, Amos Mills, who's actually killed on, near the road. The. As the British continue to push forward, though, just literally militia just surround, you know, swarms in from all sides. The light infantry kind of does flanking maneuvers where they charge out and, and then, you know, stabilize things as the main line continues to move forward. And they did a really remarkable job trying to get out, making their way out. It's near Arlington that they have some of the toughest fighting and there's a number of, of homes that are still there. The Russell house, for instance, was a slaughterhouse. There were bodies stacked up inside and there was literally, you know, an inch of blood on the floor from American bodies as well as some of the British troops that went in there. But as the British are pulling, you know, they're withdrawing towards Boston, they start to plunder all the houses that they encounter, even, you know, churches, going against Gage's direct orders. They're stealing everything pretty much in sight and then they're, they're bayonetting people. It's really vicious combat on both sides. There's a great story about Samuel Whitmore, who's this 78 year old man that, you know, he will not yield his house and he has a sword and a pistol in hand and, you know, kills a couple British regulars. The meantime is bayoneted multiple times and shot, somehow survives to the ripe old age of 96.
- [47:06]
Steve Bannon
Wow.
- [47:07]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Yeah.
- [47:07]
Steve Bannon
No, he's a hero. Erik Prince talked about that the other day and by the way I think he was the same age as Trump is today when he grabbed those two pistols from the French and Indian War. Before I let you go Patrick K. O'Donnell I want to thank you so much in this Thomas Gage and the British if they and these are some of the toughest guys in the world. They knew when the sun set that night that they had a fight on their hands. Everything that led up to this they realized then that was a major military encounter and the Americans were going to give as good as they got. Folks that is a year before theover a year before the expeditionary force came to New York City right after the fourth of July. As Patrick and I always talk about that amazing the amazing series of battles there. O'donnell I need people to know where to go to get all your writings. You will Patrick K. O'Donnell puts you in the moment at the time. This is not like written hundreds of years later. He puts you in the eyes of the combatants at the time. That's always such a great combat historian whether it's Korea, whether it's the Iraq war but particularly these books you've done of the revolution you can't put down so and you're unvanquished on the Civil War coming from God's country of the Commonwealth of Virginia can' be better. And plus it's got my it's got what Fremont it's got one most prominent women in American history is one of the stars Fremont's wife Mrs. Fremont. I love her. She was so in Lincoln's face. He said he put it on the train back to Missouri said I don't want to see that one again. Where do people go to get your.
- [48:51]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Writing sir to get the unvanquished or any or the indispensables which at this the stories in or the Washington's immortals go to Barnes and Noble or Amazon. My website is Patrick kodonald.com email me or at combat historian on getter as well as X is where you can find me and I've got a lot of book signings and things like that. You can come visit me. I love meeting everybody that's part of the posse so you know great getting to know everybody over the last 12.
- [49:25]
Steve Bannon
Or 13 years and the posse turns out big for Your book signs three and four hundred people. Patrick Hay O'Donnell we love you brother. The whole audience loves you.
- [49:33]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
Love you too.
- [49:33]
Steve Bannon
Thank you so much for being on here. Kicking off kicking off.
- [49:36]
Patrick K. O'Donnell
It's an honor.
- [49:36]
Steve Bannon
Thank you. Always an Honor to have you on here Paul Revere's ride tonight. Tomorrow for two hours we're going to be at Lexington. We're going to take Lexington and Concord of 250 and tie it to today and why you're the equivalent of the sons of Liberty and how you from every patriot's grave back to 1775. You're absolutely connected. Okay, we're going to leave you with something very special. We used to play this a couple of years ago during the beginning of the search of the stolen election of 2020. Remember that in those dark days of 2021. Here we have a poem written by Emerson. It was commemorated they were putting a stone at Concord Bridge in memorial memory of of in the first 100th anniversary. We're going to take a We'll see you Tomorrow morning at 10:00am we're going to be live. We're going to leave you now with the Concord hymn. This is the the poem set to music. Health isn't just a personal issue. It's a family issue, a community issue. We're living in unpredictable times. Supply chains can break down, hospitals can get overwhelmed. And let's not even start on the natural disasters. These aren't hypotheticals. They're happening. You see it here in the war room and we all know it. The question is simply, are you ready? That's where Jace comes in. This isn't just a kid. This is a Jace case. It's a lifeline. It's a personal supply of prescribed emergency medications that puts the power back in your hands. Whether it's an unexpected illness or a global disruption of supply chains, you can act fast and protect yourself and your loved ones this February. Show them you care in a way that really matters. Be prepared. Get the Jace case today so you'll have the right meds on hand the moment you need them. Visit jacemedical.com and use the code Bannon B A N N O N at checkout for a discount on your order. That's jacemedical.com promo code Bannon. Get the Jace case and do it today.
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