Parker was the commanding officer of the Lexington militia and he was alerted by Paul Revere that The British were coming...As dawn broke at Lexington on the morning of April the 19th, 1775, Parker's militia was badly outnumbered by the British (10 to 1). Parker told his men to "Stand your ground, don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war let it begin here!" And it did begin here...No one knows who fired the first shot but 8 Americans were killed in this initial engagement of what becomes the American Revolutionary War. There is a statue at Lexington that stands in his honor.

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