Lexington, Mass., Battle

of, April 19, 1775. On the night of April 18, 1775, 8,000 British regulars were secretly dispatched from Boston to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock at Lexington, and to seize the military stores collected at Concord. News of their approach was spread through the intervening towns by Paul Revere, and at daybreak, when the British arrived at Lexington, they found fifty minute-men drawn up on the village green. The advance guard, under Major Pitcairn, fired upon them, but they held their ground until the main body of the British, under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, appeared. They then gave way, and the regulars pushed forward to Concord.; Here they were unable to discover any military stores, and while they were committing some depredations affairs took a sudden turn. 200 regulars, who guarded Concord bridge, were routed by some 400 minute-men who had hastily collected from neighboring towns. The position of the British thus became perilous. About noon they started for Boston, subjected to a galling fire from all sides. Exhausted by. their march of eighteen miles and their fast of fourteen hours, they fell into a disorderly flight, and were saved only by the timely a istance of Lord Percy, who came from Boston with 1,200 reinforcements and two cannon. Seven miles from Boston their pa age was for a while disputed by a force of militia. The whole countryside was out against them; once more their retreat became a rout, and at sunset they entered Charles town under the welcome protection of the fleet, on the fall run, just in time to avoid an encounter with Colonel Pick ering and goo E ex militia. The lo of the British was 273, that of the Americans ninety-three. In the first place the battle showed that the colonists could not be frightened into submi ion. It also showed the | efficiency and promptne of the town militia. Twenty-three towns | were represented among the wounded and slain, and by the end of the week 16,000 men were besieging Gage in Boston. Lexington, Mo., a aulted and captured August 20, 1861, by | 28,000 Confederates, led by McCulloch. Mulligan, with a National force cf 3,000, held the town. Repeated attacks were made and thirteen pieces of artillery were brought to bear upon th: besieged, but the latter held out bravely for a long time. Finally ‘ae Confederates constructed movable breastworks of hemp bales, and, rolling these before, them, they compelled Colonel Mulligan to surrender unconditionally,; the water supply of the town having given out and he being severely, wounded,; Leyden, an inland city of Holland, where the Pilgrims, after leaving England and living for a time in Amsterdam, settled in May, 1609. They were about roo English men, women and children. A church was organized in 1611 and for a time things went well. But controversies arose and they could not accommodate themselves to the conditions of life in Leyden. In 1617 Carver and Cushman were dispatched to London to negotiate with the Virginia Company for settlement on | their territory. An agreement was speedily concluded. In July, 1620, a small ship, the ‘‘ Speedwell,” was bought and fitted out in Holland, and the Pilgrims left Leyden for Delft haven, thence to embark for Southampton, where the ‘‘ Mayflower”? awaited them., Libby Prison, a large building in Richmond, Va., named for its: owner, who used it as a ship-chandlery before the Civil War. During the war it became famous as a Confederate military prison, in which many Federal soldiers were confined. In 1892 it was removed, brick by brick, and set up in Chicago as a museum, but the enterprise proved a failure. Liberal Republican Party, an abortive offshoot from the regular Republican party in 1870-72. Its origin was a reaction from the coercive measures to maintain the newly-granted rights of the negroes and suppre the Ku-Klux organizations. A union of the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats was first formed with considerable succe in Mi ouri in 1870-71. They advocated universal suffrage, universal amnesty, a reform of the tariff and a ‘‘ ce ation of the unconstitutional » laws to cure Ku-Klux disorders.’’ A general convention a embled at Cincinnati in May, 1872, and nominated Horace Greeley for President, whom the Democrats also nominated. He was defeated because many Democrats refused to vote for him. B. Gratz Brown, of Mi ouri, war the candidate for Vice-President. 402