ABSTRACT
The skirmishes at Lexington and Concord were the first battles in the American War of Independence. More than a half century later, the opening salvo was dubbed the 'shot heard round the world' a phrase that came to be used repeatedly in history and popular culture long thereafter. Emerson, at the time a resident of Concord, may not have been the first person to employ the phrase 'shot heard round the world' to describe the battle at Lexington and Concord, but his poem cemented the description in the American consciousness and the influence of the event in world history. Although the fighting at Lexington and Concord was not a major conflict in terms of the number of casualties on either side or the military objectives over which it was fought, it was a huge victory for the patriot cause in that it sparked the open warfare that leaders such as Samuel Adams had been urging for some time.
