The Minute Man

The Minute Man is a fictionalized account of the events leading up to, and including, the Battles of Lexington and Concord which took place in April 1775. This story focuses on three sets of players. First, there were the scheming Boston Sons of Liberty, including Sam Adams, Paul Revere and Joseph Warren, which drove the authorities to distraction and missteps. The second group is the British Army, officers and men, led by General Gage who became the pointed end of London's stick. The last actors, for whom the book is named, are the townsfolk and farmers who made up the bulk of armed resistance the first day of the fighting. Both the agitators and the army brass had their vested interests, but the common man—both enlisted soldiers and villagers—bore the inevitable brunt of the conflict. The tale is one of not only of revolution, but of a nascent civil war, as a brother turns on his brother, and a wife betrays her husband. It is an emotional portrayal of what did, and what might have, happened in the character's lives over those days. While the book starts with the Boston Tea Party, it was unclear to the participants at the time that it would be the opening scene of the Revolutionary War, which did not cease till many years later in the South.