The Shot Heard Round the World

245 years ago, On this Day—April 19, 1775—the American Revolution begins with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Minute Men and militias rush to confront the British Regulars early that morning.

Robert Munroe is one of the first eight Patriot casualties in that opening engagement of the Revolutionary War—and the first officer killed on Lexington Common.

He is a soldier from Cambridge Farm who was born in 1712, who later had moved to Lexington, Massachusetts. Robert married Anna Stone on July 28, 1737, in Lexington. They have 6 children. Their first and last children did not survive childhood.

Robert is one of the 77 men present when the Company meets the British on Lexington Common. He is the third-highest ranking militia officer in the action there.

At the time of his death, at 63 years of age, he is one of sixteen Munroe's who are members of Captain John Parker's Company of Minute Men, and holds the rank of Ensign, the lowest infantry officer rank.

His wife, Anna, passes away four months later, on August 27, 1775, in Lexington.

“Among old Lexington families, the Munroes stand second to none. In civil life or in time of war, they were always found at or near the front.”

—Proceedings of Lexington Historical Society, 1857

#OTD