The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War unfolds a vignette from the beginning of the American Revolution. In the early spring of 1775, British army spies located four brass cannon belonging to Boston’s colonial militia that had gone missing months before. British general Thomas Gage devised plans to regain the cannon, while the Massachusetts patriots prepared to thwart the general’s mission—each side desirous of the weapons, but requiring their existence to remain a secret. J. L. Bell connects the cannon to the start of the war, tracing the theft to the “shot heard ’round the world” at Concord.
Video courtesy of C-SPAN’s American History TV
About the Speaker
L. Bell is a Massachusetts-based historian who specializes in the start of the American Revolution. He is the author of The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War (2016).