 We're very fortunate to have Ken with us, an Apple Seed Sheet Boss, and we have Apple Seed Sheets out here close by in Wright City. Ken is in for me. They're going to be four Apple Seed Sheets in Wright City. That's I think the closest that they come to those of us who live in the St. Louis area. Ken is going to tell us about those. Anyway, I asked Ken to come up tonight and give us a little presentation about the events that took place on April 19th, 1775 and conclude with a little information about Apple Seed and some of the sheets that are coming up. Ken? All right, thanks Doc. And thank you guys for being here. And like Doc said, Apple Seed is a nationwide organization. We have shoots I think in all 50 states where we teach rifle marksmanship and American heritage. Like you said, particularly the events of April 19th, 1775. And I know how many people here have been to an Apple Seed. I recognize a few from them. And when you come to an Apple Seed, what we do is we teach rifle marksmanship. And at the end, we have a way to measure that marksmanship, whether we have what we call the Army qualification test, kind of a quick and dirty Army qualification test of 25 meters. And be sure to sort of score that we give you a rifleman test. I know we have at least two riflemen in here, Doc and Michael. So if you've been to one and you haven't shot a rifleman score, come back. We'll be happy to continue to teach and until you get that batch. Like Doc said, we go through the events of April 19th, 1775. And we go through those in what we call three strikes. And because even though we were kind of teetering on the edge of war at that time, actual fighting was hard to get started. And it took, when we call the three strikes, it's like the three strikes of a match, like if you have a strike anywhere match or what match will you strike it and you get a little spark, maybe a little smoke, I'm claiming, but it doesn't quite light. That's kind of the way things happen that day. The fighting kind of started and it actually took three strikes before the Revolutionary War actually started. Before we start, I usually like to ask if people know when or where the American Revolution was won. Some people say Yorktown, whatever. We actually have an answer directly from one of our founders. John Adams said that the American Revolution and the Revolutionary War, two separate actual separate things. He said that the American Revolution or actually said the Revolutionary War was the fighting part. That was a part that we just needed to convince the British to see it on the subject. The American Revolution, he said, was won in the hearts and minds of the people before the first shot was ever fired. And that's kind of the goal of Apple Seed is to win the hearts and minds and reawaken that sleeping American and everybody when they hear the story of April 19th and hear the sacrifices that were made and the choices they made that day. So leading up to that day, I mean, the Revolutionary War didn't just instantly start. There was there was a lot of things that led up to that point. I just want to go over real quick. I usually don't do this, because we usually don't have a lot of time. But I just want to let everyone realize what led up to that point. And the main nucleus of all this here was in Boston, Massachusetts. That's where that's where the heart of the of the revolution began is where the rebels, as I recall, were. The parliament had redcoats garrisoned in Boston since 1768. That means they had groups of professional soldiers there. And they weren't there to protect the people that were there to control them. So the citizens weren't particularly happy about that. In 1770, we know there was a Boston massacre where some of those soldiers in, you know, ended up shooting and killing five citizens. There was a Boston Tea Party, which was 1773, where, you know, some of the groups went through some whole shipment of tea overboard in Boston Harbor to protest the attacks. And soon after that, the crown needed was trying to find a way to squash this rebellion to get it under control. They passed what was called the Massachusetts Government Act in May of 1774. And basically what that did was that created martial law in Boston. They brought in General Gage as a governor of Massachusetts. Really, though, his control, he didn't have much control outside the city of Boston, because that's where that's where his army was. But what that did is that closed the port of Boston. So there's no more trade in and out of Boston. And the town meetings and assemblies were outlawed. So they didn't want they didn't want the colonists meeting amongst themselves and coming up with their own laws and stuff. They wanted to stop all trade until they were reimbursed for this tea. Another thing that they were wanting to do to kind of make this rebellion go away was they wanted to take to disarm. And the way they would do that then was they would have what they would call a powder raid. Most communities kept their gunpowder in a powder house outside of town. They owned it as a community. And for safety, they would keep it in a in a house outside of town just because it was it was dangerous to keep in your house. So what what the what Thomas Gage did was actually had a successful powder raid in Cambridge in 1774, where the Redcoats went and they took some powder from Cambridge and they they took it back to themselves and totally caught the colonists off guard. They were very upset. They had no idea that this was going to happen. And they said from this point on, we're not going to let this happen. They can't take our powder because there was no importation of powder and they didn't have their own materials to make it themselves. So so they needed that they needed to defend themselves. And they needed it. Just, you know, there's a way of life there and that's how they got their food is how they defended themselves. There was another attempt in Portsmouth in December of 1774. That was unsuccessful. Actually, Paul Revere warned the people ahead of time for that. They moved all the powder out. So when the Redcoats got there, there wasn't any there. And they had another unsuccessful one in Salem in February 1775, where people found out and there's kind of a almost like a stalemate that the Redcoats got there and there was kind of a group of people there. And they kind of turned around with that. So basically, Thomas Gage was needing he needed a big win. He needed something to show Parliament back across the ocean that he was in control and he could take care of this rebellious little group they had. He also needed one to show the colonists who was in charge around here. So he had this idea he heard from from spies and informants that there was military supplies and powder in the city of Concord, or the town of Concord, which is about almost 20 miles away from Boston. So we came up with a plan. He was gonna and this was going to be a big win for him if he can get out there. So he he had a plan of sending troops out there to to Concord to get any powder and military supplies that they could to keep this rebellion down. And while I was at it, two of the most influential leaders of the rebellion he knew from the spies were staying in Lexington, which is right on the way out to Concord, John Hancock and Samuel Adams. So his plan was to get a group out early in the morning, march out, arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock and Lexington go on to Concord, take any military supplies or destroy it in any powder and get back before anybody knew what was going on. Now General Gage was obsessed with secrecy. He only let his very top officers know the details of this plan. He knew that there were leaks and they got out before and it kind of made problems. So he secrecy was a big, big part of his plan. In spite of that, the entire details of the plan got leaked to the colonists. And and they knew they found out they knew something was going to happen. Anyway, they knew something big was going on because they see troop movements around Boston, they had lots of people in town that anything that would report troop movements. Anyway, all the details of this plan got leaked on the night of April 18. And so the colonists had three ways of getting this message out to the countryside so everybody could be ready. Boston is it's almost like at the time was like a small was like an island connected to the mainland through a small neck of land. So it was very easy to defend by land the the redcoats could set up a gate there and anybody coming or going out of the town through that way could be checked. So that was one way that they can get the message out through that land or you think another way to get the message out would be to go across Boston Harbor to the mainland. And yet a third way would be to signal someone from Boston that was already on the other side. And the colonists being who they were, they did all three of them. They sent a writer named William Dawes across Boston neck. He was a trader who went back and forth one who traded not a trader went back and forth across the checkpoint all the time. So the the centuries that were used to seeing him. So he got across Paul Revere was the one who went across went across back bay to the mainland. And then there was a third writer whose name was lost in history, who was was signaled by the the two lanterns in the in the steeple of the Old North Church. So what we have heard for years one of my land two of my sea and the two lanterns just it just meant that the that the redcoats are going to be themselves were going to be going across the harbor instead of going across Boston So once once we got the the notice out, we said, like I said, we sent all three writers out. And for whatever reason, Paul Revere stopped and notified every town between Boston and Lexington. And every time he would stop, he would stop and tell a couple of key people in the town who already through prearrangement would then go out and tell other people there might be signal fire might be church bells. This whole plan was very, very well organized and had already been thought out. Before this, William Dawes for whatever reason did not stop at every town and tell everyone he just went straight to Lexington as it turns out. And, you know, another thing is Paul Revere did not say that the British are coming the British kind of like you may have heard. Even though we refer to them as the British and the colonists at the time, they all they were all British they considered themselves British, the people that were marching against them was their own government. So they were British people with the British government. So they would he would say something like the regulars are out. I will use the word I will use the term British to, you know, differentiate between two loyalists versus the Tories. Yeah, well, the citizens, if you were on the side of the ground, we're considered the Tories. You were loyal. You were a Tory if you were actually a patriot. Yeah. And, and that's the reason there are so many spies. It's hard to tell the difference between two. So their performance that night within within six hours between midnight and 6am. By 6am on the 19th, there was over 14,000 people marching toward Concord. And if you think about that, there's a 1775. There's no, there's no email, there's no cell phones, there's no Twitter. And I think some people didn't even have regular phones. And it makes you know, it makes us wonder how we would do today, you know, I mean, I know, I have a hard time getting people coming out to an apple seed having 30 people, we have a hard time filling up this room for it for North Keepers meeting. So it just it makes you realize how well prepared they were and how well everyone took this this threat. So anyway, the British, the British March, the regulars, we're getting ready to leave around midnight as well. And because of the secrecy, they wanted they went across Back Bay, and we're going to land on a spot on the other side that was called Litchmere Point. And it was a spot particularly picked because it was sparsely inhabited. The reason it's so sparsely inhabited is because it was pretty much a swamp. So whenever they got over there, they didn't have enough boats. They were standing as they were getting their troops over there. They were standing in mud up to their knees for hours. The person in charge was a Colonel Francis Smith. And they had about 800 light infantry and grenadiers that they were that was going to make this march. And all just about everyone thought they were going on a training exercise. So they didn't take any expert provisions. They were going to be backed by the, you know, midday is what they thought. They only carry 36 rounds of all that was just a minimum of all in powder that they carried with them. But it took it took a couple extra hours because Colonel Smith being being the red coat officer that he was wanted to make sure that when they started marching that they were in perfect formation. And so it took a long time to get everyone ready and on the other side of the swamp in the dark. And so they it took a couple hours before they even got ready. So basically, they lost a lot of time there, which allowed us to get the word out. Okay, so meanwhile, our reviewer is the first one to reach Lexington. Maybe that's the reason he made all the history books. He got there first. He told John Hancock and Samuel Adams, eight people coming to rescue got them out of town. And and William dollars got there about 30 minutes later, they met back up and let the horses rest a little bit. And then they were ready to continue on to Concord. As they're on their way to Concord about one a.m. they run into somebody just in the middle of the night and wrote his guy. His name is Dr. Samuel Prescott. He had been out courting his fiance. And this happened to be on his way home that night. And he bumped into them. They started talking. They found Dr. Prescott to be a high son of Liberty would be more than asking if he would mind helping them on the countryside. And he said be more than happy to he was he was on their side. He was, you know, he was he was a good guy. So the three of them was on their way to Concord, and they run into a British patrol that was out there just for the reason to keep riders off the road. So they couldn't alarm alarm the countryside. So as patrol rides up, Paul Revere is captured. William Dawes gets knocked off of his horse and ends up heading back towards Lexington. And Dr. Prescott is the only one that gets away and gets the word off to Concord. So it was another one of those many things that they that was just luck, I guess you can call it maybe fate that they ran into Dr. Prescott who knew all the back roads, even how to get to Concord and and got the message off there. Paul Revere was he was interrogated by this is a group of of regulars out there. There was a major Mitchell really high strung guy. He holds a pistol of power beers head and says, What are you doing out here tonight? And what's your name? And our beer says, my name is power beer and I'm learning the countryside to the 800 regulars that are out headed to Lexington Concord. And this was a big surprise, the major Mitchell he didn't even know as many details as Paul Revere did. And, you know, Paul Revere in addition to that told a little white line says, By the way, there's 500 militia waiting for you at Lexington are waiting for the column of redcoats. And this really got major Mitchell upset. And he was a little skeptical about it. And about that same time, they hear a whole volley of musket fire in the middle of the night coming from the area of Lexington. So major Mitchell then knew that he that the surprise had been lost and that him and his group better get to the to the column and warn them that the surprise had been lost. So they leave power beer on foot that figures quicker to travel without a prisoner and and takes off to warn the warning the column. In the meantime, in Lexington, Captain John Parker is starting to muster his militia. Now, to think about this, the choice that these guys made, it's one thing to join the militia and go out and train with them, which they did. But to stand up and level your musket at one of the King's soldiers was basically in their eyes, you were committing the ultimate sin of you were basically a trader at point. And once the trader to the crown, always a trader. And that meant you're either going to fight to victory or until you were caught and tried for treason and home. So to these guys, the phrase liberty or death had some real meaning. We know now in hindsight, that this first step ultimately led to victory and it only took eight long bloody years to win this war. But they had no such. They didn't know that they thought some people thought that they could never win. Some thought that they might win, but they thought it might take 20 years. Some thought that it might take generations to win. But yet, they still did it. They're still willing to go out there. And that's how important freedom was them and not just their freedom. They knew that if they could get the freedom that they were fighting for that it would that would be for future generations for us is what they were in it for. So as it gets close to dawn, Captain Parker sends out a couple scouts because there's been false alarms before. So we just want to make sure the first scout comes back in an hour or so and says, there's nobody coming at Paul Revere guy didn't know what he was talking about. How that scout missed 800 troops marching up the road. I don't know. So Captain Parker, he says, alright, you guys are dismissed but stay nearby just in case. Well, just before dawn, the second scout comes back and says, Yeah, there's the British are coming. Redcoats, the regulars are coming in about a mile away and coming quick. So Captain Parker gets gets his militia out on to Lexington Green. And basically, they're just gonna their plan is to just stand there and be seen as a organized group. They were not they weren't planning on confronting this group of regulars going by. They were just there to show as a show of force, barely a show of force. I guess they they was a group of about 75 people with the column of 800 coming towards them. Captain Parker made sure that he told everyone to stand your ground. He said, do not fire unless fired upon. He said, we're not out here to start anything. He said, but if they want to war, let it begin right here. So as the as the column of red coats came up, the first group sees this season wish on Lexington Green instead of staying on the road towards Concord, they come and form up in a battle formation directly in front of them. And some of the officers come up waving their pistols and say disperse you damn rebels, lady on your arms and disperse. Captain Parker, he orders his men to disperse but he has advanced tuberculosis. His voice doesn't get out very much. Some people don't hear him. There's a bit of confusion. Some people they think maybe just wanted to stand there. So there's kind of confusion as people are starting to, you know, to be dismissed. And about that time about three shots ring out. Most people say at least two of them are from a pistol. We don't really know for sure. We know it wasn't from the rank and file of the of the redcoats. And it wasn't from the militia may have been from the officers may have been from some spectators. But regardless, there was three shots and fairly quick succession. And right after that, some of the the regular started shooting without orders. After there was a ragged volley of a few firing, then they started a full volley reloading and shooting. And even and this is all without orders. They're not ordered to do this, they weren't supposed to engage. And, and after all the smoke cleared after a couple of volleys, finally, Colonel Smith from it was in the rear of the column comes up, get some under control. And the smoke clears, there's eight people dead, and nine wounded, all of them from the militia. There was one very minor injury of the of the redcoats that maybe somebody got a shout off. But this is a I mean, for the small town of Lexington, this was a big deal. And Colonel Smith finally gets him under control tells his officers what the real objective is that day is to go on further another five miles down the road to Concord. And his officers are like you have got to be kidding. We've lost any element of surprise, as you could see, we've been hearing signal shots the whole way here. These guys obviously know about it. And if there is one thing, though, that a British soldier can do is follow orders and he intended to follow his orders to get to his objective, regardless. So in order to appease his junior officers, he allows everyone at Victory Valley, basically a shot in the air and let them do three his eyes before they they take off. So what the people in Lexington see is us sustaining here, we're come up and basically shot by this group of redcoats and then they cheer about it before they head on down the Concord. So this is the first strike of the match. Blood has been shed. There has been been some fighting. But right now, as of this point, if nothing else happens, we're still not at war. If nothing else happened that day, there probably would have been some hearings and, you know, like there was after the Boston Massacre, maybe a trial, you know, and some people may have may have been hung may have been, you know, maybe, but nothing else may have happened in the war might have ended right there. So that is the first strike going on to the second strike. Typically, we would take a break here, but heck, we're inside and we're not shooting. So we're going to move right on to the second strike. So the British regulars are leaving Lexington and on their way to Concord. There have been some messengers that heard about this and got the word to Concord. So they knew what was going on. They knew there was some shooting going on. And they knew there was a column of redcoats coming. So the militia was all meeting about what to do. And there's kind of three general groups. There was a young the minute minute of the militia. Then there's the the middle aged guys and there's the older veterans of French and Indian War. They're trying to decide what to do. The younger guys wanted to go out and ambush the column of British regulars before they got into town. The middle aged men wanted to just defend the town. So if they come here, we'll defend our town. And the older more experienced guys said, Why don't we go out of town, let our numbers grow people are coming in all the time. You know, the word was out and people are coming from nearby towns. And in the tradition of New England debate, they decided to do all three. So the young guys went out to ambush the column of redcoats coming into town. And as they were waiting, they seen them coming down the road. And this is about a half a mile long column, marching in perfect formation with 18 inch bayonets gleaming in the sun. You know, there were banners waving fives and drums playing. And these guys seen that and said, You know, maybe, maybe those old guys got a point, maybe we better head back into town. And once they got back to town, they realized that these older war experienced veterans are right that maybe so that they decided to all go outside of town up on a hill overlooking town and wait as our numbers grew from other militia coming in. So basically, this column of redcoats marched into Concord into an undefended town and started their their business. Colonel Smith split up split up the group. He had a group secure the North Bridge. There is a South Bridge of Concord. He had him secure that. And he had a group go beyond the North Bridge to a place called Barrett's Farm. That's where he heard all this military supplies were being stored. And he also had a group of grandadiers right there in town, just breaking, breaking into people's houses, looking for military supplies without any warrants or anything like that. One of the things they did was they cut down the town's liberty pole. And they found some in town, they found some wooden plates, a couple of cannon carriages and stuff like that. So they threw it all in big pile and started on fire just to get just to get rid of it. Meanwhile, up on the hill where the where the militia was as you know, as their numbers were increasing, one of the one of the nearby towns was called Acton and their their leader was Captain Isaac Davis. He was a gunsmith and a farmer. And he made sure that his the group and his militia was the best equipped out there since he was a gunsmith. He retrofitted everybody's musket with the bayonet, which is almost unheard of most people shooting their goose gun or whatever they're hunting their hunting musket. He had a range behind his shop where he made sure they trained, learned marksmanship. He was about 30 years old, with four kids. And that night, when he got the alarm and started getting ready, his wife was already up. Their four kids were sick. As a matter of fact, they were dying. They had had a disease that was called kinkarash at the time. I don't we don't really know exactly what that is might be scarlet fever, something like that. But it was it was a disease that was pretty much known to be fatal most of the time. So his wife was up with his sick kids. And she wrote in in her diary later on that as he was getting ready at night that he was quiet and reserved but but steadfast in getting ready. And just before he left to meet up with his men, he stopped on the porch like he was going to say something really important. And he turned around and all he could say was take good care of the kids and then walked off into the night with his group to go defend his town. And she said she wrote later that she had a feeling right then that she would never see him again. So anyway, he's he's one of the groups that's on this hill overlooking Concord. They're looking and they're seeing smoke from this fire or they're burning these carriages. And they can't quite see exactly what's going on. And somebody even says are we just going to stand here really burn our town they thinking thinking that maybe they're burning the town down. So the trying to think the man in charge of Barrett was the of Barrett's farm. He was he was in charge basically in charge of militia. And they said, you know what, maybe we'll go down to the North Bridge, we'll get a closer look, kind of see what's going on. He looked at Isaac Davis and said your men are the best equipped. You know, would you find leading us down to the North Bridge to look. And as the story goes, Isaac Davis pulled out his sword and says I have not a man that is afraid to go. So he him and his men in full military discipline led this group of militia down to the North Bridge to get a closer look. Now remember, this North Bridge is being defended by by a group of regulars. And one of the things that that Colonel Barrett told everyone is do not fire unless fired upon that was that was throughout everyone we we weren't out to start anything we were there to defend ourselves and but we did not want to start any any hostilities. So they go down to the bridge and the the regular seam coming and they they all scatter back across the other side of the bridge and start forming getting getting into formation. As our guys get closer on the other side of the water, a couple of the Redcoats fire warning shots and the wire into the water. Then that was followed by a full volley. Now most of the shots went high. As a matter of fact, the the British regulars at the time aim wasn't even in their in their thing, they would say stand ready, or they would say make ready, present arms and fire and when they fire to actually turn their head so the flash of the pan wouldn't get in your eyes. So, so the marksmanship wasn't a part of their of what they were taught. So most of the rounds went high whenever they shot. However, a couple went low, word low, and actually Isaac Davis was one of the first ones kill. He was hit right in the heart and he fell down with blood spraying everyone around him. And a couple others were even were hit. Finally, a major butchering said, fire for God sakes, fellow soldiers fire as fast as you can, which was the first time we've ever been ordered to fire on the on the King's troops. So we stopped and we fired well aimed volleys several volleys at the at the Redcoats. And when the smoke cleared from these volleys we looked and the the most well disciplined, bravest army in the world were turntail and and retreated without orders basically ran back to Concord. And we you know, when it happened, everyone was like was pretty much shot. They never that was almost unheard of. So what is actually I want to talk about this. The casualties among the among the British ranks was about 7%. The casually among the British officers was 44%. Our guys were trained to aim and shoot at officers. And the way they could do that was two reasons. One is officers, the British Army at that time had better, they had better jackets that better color. So as the enlisted men's would get faded and turned pink, the officers stayed nice, bright red. So your aiming out there and you see a nice bright red target. And by the way, the officers also had a big metal that came to across and was right here. A nice shiny metal right here. Also made a pretty nice target. So and so when you know, half your officers go down after a couple of volleys, I said the one thing that British armies know how to do is follow orders. Well, there's no one to give orders. It's mass confusion. That's the reason that they, they took off, you know, it's like you cut the head off the snake and the snake becomes harmless. So they run back to back to Concord, or you know, or they were still searching for supplies there. Our men decide to take up defensive positions for a counter attack that actually didn't come. When the group that was searched out at Barrett's farm, per dividing, they knew they had to get back to Concord. But they had to go directly across the North Bridge where our guys were on either side of it. So when they came back across the bridge, we did not fire upon them. We could have easily wiped out that entire group of regulars. But we didn't give the order to fire. Because in our mind, we still weren't yet at war. There's been more bloodshed. You know, we consider this the second strike of the match. They shot at us. We defended ourselves. So even I think at this point, nothing else would have happened. We still might not have been at war. There would have been some hearings and probably some hangings. And but the flame of the revolution could have died out right there. So that is the second strike of the match. So now for the third strike. Alright, the British are now in Concord. It's about lunch time. They know about the North Bridge. They've got wounded, they've got dead soldiers, you know, so the Colonel Smith, you know, once again, takes longer time than was necessary to make sure everybody's in perfect formate formation. They take they take a couple wagons of whatever they need to haul the they're wounded. And inside they better get back to Boston. And, you know, the first mile or so actually goes fairly calm. They see lots of militia on the hill top hill tops. They say they, they say it was like ants crawling across the hill. So many militia that they could just see all over the place moving around. Colonel Smith has a couple of flankers on either side to keep the militia out of musket range as they're marching. About a mile down the road, the road takes a sharp right and crosses a bridge at a place called Merriam's Corner. So the flankers had to merge back in with the column, and which allowed our guys to get a little bit closer. And then as they turn this corner to go across Merriam's Corner and cross this bridge, for some reason, the rear guard and the British turned around and fired at some of some militia that were following them. And be noticed to them, there was two companies in Malaysia on the north side of them that seen them fire their fellow soldiers. And they just and they open fire on the British column with devastating effect. Now these people and fired on the British there were not in any danger themselves. They weren't defending themselves. They saw their fellow countrymen being fired on. And they shot this is the third strike of the match. This is where the Revolutionary War begins at Merriam's Corner. This is the tipping point of hostilities, as you would call that, where for now on from this point, all the way back to Boston, the fighting was fierce and unrelenting. There was ambush after ambush on the on the British column. Every every place you know that there was more and more militia coming in from all over the place. And every time we had a chance all the way back to Boston, they were getting fired upon and receiving heavy casualties. As a matter of fact, as they were coming up on Lexington on their way back to Boston, just outside of town. Captain Parker had his men back out there, the guy that was fired upon early that morning. Some of these guys were in bandages that were wounded that morning or had you know, this time, when they met, it was going to be on very different terms, because this time, Parker's men were ready for them. And they such a devastating volley at him, this place was forever known as Parker's revenge. As a matter of fact, Colonel Smith is wounded is knocked off of his horse. He gets a leg wound discipline is starting to break down within the ranks. Because I mean, they're just they're just receiving fire. By now, they're, you know, it's it's getting later in the day. They haven't had anything to eat all day. And things aren't going well. When they get into Lexington, on the way back to things happen. One is that the British, the regulars sent a relief column under General Percy. So he as he's on his way, that's about as far as he gets, he gets a Lexington and he cures the gunfire musket fire. And he gets up overlooking town. And he sees this British column just come running from different directions, there's no discipline. So he gets a couple cannons up there to keep the militia back and receives the British column under Colonel Smith in and keeps everyone out and gives them time to rest. And that's pretty much doubled the number of the of the red coat column here. So General Percy takes over, lets his men rest, and basically probably saves Colonel Smith from and his group from probably total annihilation. Another thing that happens is on the the colonists side is that William Heath comes, comes on the scene William Heath is a Brigadier General for the militia. He is a, I think he describes himself as a portly 40 ish farmer who makes it his hobby. That's really more of like an obsession of study and military tactics. He has no combat experience whatsoever. Yet somehow he is like elected as Brigadier General of the of the militia. But he did this because he has studied military tactics so much he's done it by borrowing, borrowing books, buying books and just reading him. He always had a feeling that that the war is going to break out and he was making himself ready. He would also he would talk with British officers in a pub just to kind of pick their brain to kind of understand how it worked. And he came up with this plan of how to keep a moving column under constant fire. Well, I mean, talk about being at the right place at the right time just so happened there was a moving column. So when he gets there, instead of having people all come right to the column, he was sending people ahead of the column where they would be. And he came up this plan he called a moving circle of fire where he could send faster riders ahead that would always keep this column engaged with fresh, fresh militia and keeping the supplies ahead of them because they can move faster than this column. And even even Percy, when he's writing about this said no matter which direction we moved, we were always in a constant circle of fire. So as they as they start getting even closer to Boston, I mean, the fighting becomes more intense. And even as as they get closer, some of the houses are closer to the road. And the the fighting becomes like urban fighting, like very close. I mean, it was to the point where if a single shot came from a house, they were ordered to go in the house, put all occupants to death and towards the place. That's how that's how things were starting to break down. There would be colonists that would ride directly up to the column and shoot somebody at point blank range. No one that they were going to get killed. And you know, the the entire countryside, just all at this point, finally, it came to a head and that's that's what it was getting to. Well, at the last minute, General Percy knew that if he was going to if he was going to make it to Boston, that that he wasn't going to have he wasn't going to be able to take the same way that they took there. So at the last minute, he turns and takes a different route, he's going to go to Charleston, which is in a shape kind of like Boston, where there's a small area of land and that that leads to a place out in the in harbor and he thinks if he can get there, then they could be under the protection of one of the warships that's in the harbor. So he breaks through the moving circle of fire and starts heading toward Charleston neck. Well, General Heath knows there's only one group that is in position to stop him from getting across Charleston neck. And that is a group of militias led by Colonel Timothy Pickering. And he sends a messenger up there for him to stop them basically put a cork in the bottle at Charleston neck. And for whatever reason, Colonel Pickering didn't feel maybe that we were that we were at war, maybe he thought things could still be worked out. And he he dawdled and delayed. He waited in a tavern, his men said, if you don't march, march with us, we're going to march without you. So we started to go and even when he when he did take off, he kept taking breaks. And because of this delay, when by the time they got to Charleston neck, they were there just in time to see the last of the redcoats crossing Charleston neck into safety. So basically, the redcoats were, they were allowed to fight another day because of Pickering's delay. So they made it back to Boston safely with lots of casualties. Before April 19, General Percy had a very low opinion of the colonies. He said that they were only fit to be beasts of, you know, just to carry gear and stuff. And it has been widely quoted that someone I don't know if it was Percy or not that said that with one company of regulars, they can march from one end of the continent to the other. And, you know, and it would be no problem. After April 19, though, however, he had a different view. As a matter of fact, like the next day, he wrote a friend in England. And he said anybody who thinks that this is irregular mob is very much mistaken. So they have men amongst them that know very well what they were about. People like John Parker, Isaac Davis, they knew what they were about. They knew what the stakes were. And they weren't afraid to face them. And I like to finish this with a with a quote from Samuel or I'm sorry, from John Adams, who the next day, he was a lawyer, and he was, he was, you know, he was in the area. And the next day, he went down to what we call Battle Road now he went out to Lexington and Concord and was interviewing people. And he's seen the carnage and the death and was getting firsthand information he thought he thought maybe maybe we're in war, maybe this there we're going to be, you know, some trials and stuff. And what he wrote after this, he says posterity, you will never know how much it costs the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you'll make good use of it. If you do not, I will repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it. So what he's saying is posterity, he's talking us future generations. He's saying, I hope you, we all understand what it costs for the freedom that we have now. Hopefully, an apple seed and events like this, we start to understand we'll never completely understand what they went through, but hopefully we'll start to understand. And hopefully we do make good use of it. So that is third strike the match. And that is, that is the history and heritage part of our of apple seed. I do want to talk just a little bit about apple seed in general. You know, we're a nationwide organization, teach, teach rifle marksmanship, inherited smear effect. Some people even ask us, they say, are you preparing for war? You know, you're teaching people how to use military style weapons, you're telling stories about how, you know, a group of people fired on their on their own government to start a revolution. The answer I've heard that that I think sums up the best is like, we are already at war. But it's not a war of steel and guns and lead and shooting. It's a war for the hearts and minds of the American people. And we're hoping that here in this story, that we can get the hearts and minds of people to to become involved. They had a choice in 1775 between fighting a bloody revolution or living as slaves. We have a choice at the ballot box, because they made that choice. Our choice is much easier. And hopefully, hopefully, we're inspired to do that. At that time, learning to shoot was like a right of passage. It's kind of like driving a car is now everybody learns how to drive, generally taught by parents or somebody like that. Well, at the time, at their time, that's what shooting was shooting was just something that everybody had to learn. And it's a skill. It's something that can be learned when I was a kid, I always thought someone either a good shot or you weren't. I didn't realize so I started epilepsy that is actually a skill that you can learn and you can practice, and you can become become good at. Well, that's another thing that we do in epilepsy, we teach you to shoot as a, as a way to reconnect with the, with our heritage of the generations ago that learned to shoot all the time. So hopefully, it inspires everyone to get, get involved and be a active participate, participant in your government. That's really all I have. If, if anyone is interested in the story, the book, this comes from mainly is, it's Paul Revere's ride, David Hackett Fisher Fisher. So we found on Amazon.com. It's, you know, we just scratched on the surface. This really goes through a lot more. If you're interested in an Apple seed, like Doc was saying, at Right City, Advent Trust Rifle Club, we have four shoots this year. The first, the first one is on April 18 and 19. And if that date rings a bell April 19, it's, it's, we really go all out for it. We have special edition t-shirts. I think we have special patches this year, Patriots Day patches. We do some, we do some extra things on on April 19, protocols on the weekend. Also May 16 and 17, in October and in November, you could look on the Apple seed website for any of that. And what is, what is the cost now for the Apple seed? For a full weekend, for an adult is $60. So, you know, if anyone's taken any type of firearm class, you know, that is one of the best deals out there. Provided the ammo. In a weekend, we'll go through four or 500 rounds. You could, you could bring a centerfire or or 22. Absolutely works great. It's actually, it's actually set up for for semi automatic magazine fed rifle. So, which do you suggest that if you have both 22 and they are if you, if you got the money for ammo, bring the AR if you want to, if you, you know, if you want to save some money, you know, you know, you can shoot the 22, the skills are the same no matter what you're shooting. So if you want to shoot 22 until you, until you kind of get down some of what we show and then you want to move to find the 22 well, that's true. That's true. So it's out there. Yeah. And the website, the website is www.appleseedembow.com. I have I have a bunch of brochures here if anybody wants some. Yeah. Ken, thank you. I don't know if you realize it, but I mean, I've taken several firearms classes where I've paid $300 for like a one day class like a Saturday one day class $300. Alright, with Apple Seed, you get two full days of training is top notch professional training. They're just not a deal like that anywhere. And one reason for that is none of the Apple Seed instructors get paid a dime. Alright. And, and Kim, because I mean, you, you've amazed me with your dedication to Apple Seed. And he also brought out his how many you have three girls, or two or a boy and two girls? Well, no, I'm a boy and a girl. The other girl is a friend of ours. Like she comes every shoot. Well, anyway, he used to bring bring kids with them all the time. And he would, and not what I was an instructor, aren't chat, I'd be instructed before before I was an orange hat actually before Ken took an orange hat. And so I used to help and we just loved Kim because I mean, he would teach his own kids, you know, because kids require a lot of attention. And you have to watch them to make sure they're safe and everything. So he would bring three kids and he would he would teach those. But anyway, Kim, because of your dedication, you're willing to willingness to go out there, give up your weekends and all that, we just wanted to tell you we appreciate you, we appreciate that is very important work that you do not only teaching the marksmanship, but also teaching this American heritage, which is something that our schools are just neglecting. And one and that's one of the purposes of like you said of Apple Seed is the fact that we you know, these people would step out on their front porch and take a shot at British going by knowing that they were going to be it was instant death, but they would step out to get one shot off knowing that they were going to be died. All right, those people did not do it for themselves. They did it for us. They did it for future generations. A future generation does not have to live under the tyranny of the British Empire. Empire. Alright, and so here it is just a few generations later and American Soviet Americans have forgotten that. And so I think there's a tendency to take our liberties that these people died fought and died for the tendency for us to take those lightly because we don't realize, you know, what a sacrifice those came at. But anyway, Kim, because of your service, I got a couple of things to give you here a little sticker to put on your car and also an Oathkeeper tab that you can put on your your uniform. Alright, thank you very much. Thanks, thanks, yeah. about about the brochures, brochures, the website is appleseatinfo.org. And that's where you'll you'll see