Lexington Green, Battle of Lexington

The first skirmish of the American Revolution took place in Lexington, Massachusetts. This engraving was made by Amos Doolittle (1754-1832), an American from Connecticut whose engravings depicted scenes from the war.

As members of the Governor's Second Company of Guards, Doolittle (a silversmith from New Haven) and Ralph Earl (a portrait painter whose life spanned 1751-1801) were given permission to investigate what happened at Lexington and Concord. During early May, 1775, they visited both towns.

Doolittle interviewed colonials who had fought while Earl sketched four different landscapes. Although historians have determined there are some inaccuracies (in the four works which the pair created), they are the only pictorial record of the Lexington and Concord battles produced by a contemporary American.

Click on the image for a much larger view.