Name:______________________________________ Date:________ CLUES TO MYSTERIES IN HISTORY Page 1 Name:_________________________________________________ Date:_______ HISTORICAL QUESTION: WHO FIRED THE FIRST SHOT AT LEXINGTON? Its time for some detective work: The first shots of the American Revolution occurred when the minute men meet the advancing British soldiers at Lexington. The British were marching to Concord in the hopes of securing weapons from the town. The conflict was small with the minute men running off, but this was the beginning of the American Revolution. Even to this day historians debate who fired the first shot! Use the documents as clues to support your answer. WHO FIRED THE FIRST SHOT AT LEXINGTON? You are now on the case! CLUES TO Disciplinary Literacy in Writing Page 2 MYSTERIES IN HISTORY Name:_________________________________________________ Date:_______ What were Thomas Gage’s orders? Document 1: Order Given to Lt. Colonel Francis Smith from Thomas Gage Head Note: This was the original British orders given to Thomas Gage to march on Concord and seize or destroy weapons the colonists were storing. Sir: Main Idea Main Idea Having received intelligence, that a quantity of Ammunition, Provision, Artillery, Tents and small arms, have been collected at Concord, for the Avowed Purpose of raising and supporting a Rebellion against His Majesty, you will March with the Corps of Grenadiers and Light Infantry, put under your command, with the utmost expedition and Secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and destroy all artillery, Ammunition, Provisions, Tents, Small Arms, and all Military Stores whatever. But you will take care that the Soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants, or hurt private property. You have a Draught of Concord, on which is marked the Houses, Barns, &c., which contain the above military Stores. You will order a Trunion to be knocked off each gun, but if its found impracticable on any, they must be spiked, and the carriages destroyed. The Powder and flower (flour) must be shook out of the Barrels into the River, the Tents burnt, Pork or Beef destroyed in the best way you can devise. And the men may put Balls of lead in their pockets, throwing them by degrees into Ponds, Ditches &c, but no Quantity together, so that they may be recovered afterwards. If you meet any Brass Artillery, you will order their muzzles to be beat in so as to render them useless. Main Idea You will observe by the Draught that it will be necessary to secure the two bridges as soon as possible, you will therefore Order a party of the best marchers, to go on with expedition for the purpose. A small party on Horseback is ordered out to stop all advice of your March getting to Concord before you, and a small number of Artillery go out in Chaises to wait for you on the road, with Sledge Hammers, Spikes, &c. You will open your business and return with the Troops, as soon as possible, which I must leave to your own Judgment and Discretion. I am, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant Thos. Gage. Excerpt modified for student use from Order Given to Lt. Colonel Francis Smith from Thomas Gage April 18, 1775. Could this order have granted Colonel Smith the authority to start a conflict in Lexington? CLUES: Mysteries in History _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Lexington _ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _ Page 3 Name:_________________________________________________ Date:_______ How would the author answer the historical question? Document 2: John Pitcairn Head Note: John Pitcairn was a Major in the British army. Here, he describes what happened when British soldiers marched into the town of Lexington on their way to destroy the colonist’s weapons. Sir, Main Idea ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ Six companies of Light Infantry were detached by Lt. Col. Smith to take possession of two bridges on the other side of Concord, near three in the Morning, when we were advanced within about two miles of Lexington, intelligence was received that about 500 men in arms were assembled, determined to oppose the Kings troops, and retard them in their march. On this intelligence, I mounted my horse, and galloped up to the six Light Companies. Main Idea ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ When I arrived at the head of the advance Company, two officers came and informed me, that a man of the rebels advanced from those that were assembled, had presented his musket and to move forward, but on no account to fire, or even attempt it without orders; when I arrived at the end of the Village, I observed drawn up upon a Green near 200 rebels; when I came within about 100 yards of them, they began to file off towards some stone walls on our right flank. The Light Infantry, observing this, ran after them. I instantly called to the soldiers not to fire, but surround and disarm them, and after several repetitions of those positive orders to the men, not to fire, etc. Main Idea ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ Some of the rebels who had jumped over the wall fired four or five shots at the soldiers, which wounded a man of the Tenth and my horse was wounded in two places, from some quarter or other, and at the same time several shots were fired from a meeting house on our left. Upon this, without any order or regularity, the Light Infantry began a scattered fire, and continued in that situation for some little time, contrary to the repeated orders both of me and the officers that were present. I am, Sir, Your Most Obedient Humble Servant John Pitcairn Excerpt modified for student use in a letter from John Pitcairn an officer in the British army. April 26, 1775. Judgments Based on the evidence, give a reason to trust the author and a reason to doubt the author. + ______ - ______ CLUES: Mysteries in History Lexington Page 4 Name:_________________________________________________ Date:________ How would the author answer the historical question? Document 3: Minutemen’s statement Head Note: Colonists rebelled against British control by forming small groups of soldiers (also known as minutemen). In this testimony, a group of 32 minutemen told their story about who fired the first shot at the Battle of Lexington. Main Idea ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Main Idea ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ We Nathaniel Mulliken, Philip Russell ……….…(32 total colonists) All of lawful age, and inhabitants of Lexington, do testify and declare, that on April 19th, at about 1 or 2 am, we were told that there were British soldiers marching from Boston towards Concord. We were ordered to meet at the field at the center of town on Lexington Green, where we were told by our captain to go back home, but to be ready to come back when we heard the beat of the drum. We further testify and declare that about 5 o’clock in the morning, hearing our drumbeat, we returned, and soon found a large body of troops marching towards us. At that point, some of our group were making their way toward Lexington Main Idea ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ Green, and others had reached it. Our men began to leave. While our backs were turned on the British troops, we were fired on by them, and a number of our men were killed and wounded. To our knowledge, not a gun was fired by any person in our group on the British soldiers before they fired on us. The British continued firing until we had all made our escape. Excerpt modified for student use from a sworn statement by 34 minutemen, before three Justices of the Peace. Lexington, April 25, 1775. Judgments Based on the evidence, give a reason to trust the author and a reason to doubt the author. + ________ - ________ CLUES: Mysteries in History Lexington Page 5 Name:_________________________________________________ Date:________ Mysteries in History Detective Log Sheet Historical Question: Who fired the first shot at Lexington? On each primary source document you are to do the following 1. Answer the historical question at the top of the box. 2. Put the main idea of what the author is describing in the main idea box. 3. Make judgments about the reliability of the authors writing in the bottom box. There must be one positive reason to believe the author and one negative one. 4. Does the author back up what they are saying with facts or examples? Put a box around their facts and examples that support their argument. 5. Create a time line below to analyze the significant dates during this time in history and how the documents dates fit into the larger time line. List name of document Who wrote the document? What type of document is it? When Date Why was this document written? Does the document say who To whom was it written? fired the first shot? Who? Document 1 Document 2 Document 3 6 Name:_________________________________________________ Date:________ Now it is time to use your detective skills! After you have completed your detective log and analyzed the primary source documents you are to complete the following questions that any good detective would ask. You will use these answers to help you later write up your detective report. Questions to consider: 1. What document do you trust the most and why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What document do you trust the least and why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. On what points do the accounts/documents differ? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Describe the difficulties in developing an accurate account of historical events like the Battle of Lexington? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CLUES Page 7
