The fighting on April 19, 1775, is one of the best-documented battles of the American Revolution

On April 19, 1775, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress started collecting the fighting participants' dispositions after the battles at Lexington and Concord were over. Colonial leaders were professionals in public relations and realized that if they wanted to win a revolution, they had to control the story of what happened in Lexington and Concord. They thought General Gage and the British soldiers were agitators and aggressors, and they understood it would be crucial to depict them as such as they sought to win over other North American colonies. In the hours, days, weeks, and months following the battles, dozens of these interviews were performed. These interviews' transcripts, which number in the hundreds of pages, are still accessible today.

Similarly, a little later, British officials also collected dispositions from their soldiers. Both sides spent a lot less time gathering testimony from combatants as the war dragged on. These narratives from both sides following Lexington and Concord provide historians with valuable information about the events of April 19, 1775, one of the best-documented battles of the American Revolution.