“Throw Down Your Arms! Ye Villains, Ye Rebels.”-- Patriots' Day

That is the command that a British officer shouted to the Colonial militiamen at the Lexington town green at dawn on April 19th, 1775.

It was not obeyed. The war was on.

By the way, most colonials would have regarded themselves at the time as British citizens. Riding about, shouting "the British are coming" would have made no sense. The alarm was passed quietly.

My early childhood was lived in some of the towns where fighting took place. When people spoke of "the war", they were referring to either the Revolutionary War or World War II. That little brouhaha to the south in the middle of the 19th Century wasn't paid much attention.