Paul
Revere was captured along the way, but William Dawes and Samuel
Prescott continued the midnight ride from Boston's Old North Church to
warn the inhabitants of Concord that British troops were coming to seize
their guns.
In
early dawn, APRIL 19, 1775, American "Minutemen," as poet Emerson
wrote, fired the "shot heard round the world" by confronting the British
on Lexington Green and at Concord's Old North Bridge.
The conflict began that in eight years would end in independence.
New England celebrates this as "Patriots' Day."
Also on APRIL 19, in the year 1951, Five-Star General Douglas MacArthur retired from 48 years of patriotic service.
One
of the most decorated soldiers in U.S. history, MacArthur served in
France in WWI, was Superintendent of West Point and the youngest Army
Chief of Staff.
General Douglas MacArthur was Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific in WWII and received Japan's surrender.
He commanded UN forces against North Korea, but was dismissed by President Truman for not fighting a limited war.
Douglas MacArthur said:
"Like
the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and
just fade away, an old soldier who has tried to do his duty as God gave
him the light to see that duty."
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