Daily Herald opinion: Lexington and Concord: On today's anniversary, the lessons of ragtag militias are worth celebrating and remembering

Later this summer, the United States will celebrate with much pomp and circumstance its 250th birthday, an anniversary of the July 4, 1776 adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Among purists, there is some gratuitous debate about the exact date of the country's birth. John Adams thought July 2 would be the day of celebration because that was the day the Continental Congress voted for independence. Some might argue that it should be Aug. 2 because that was the day when most of the members of Congress got around to signing the declaration. Of course, America did not win its independence until British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on Oct. 19, 1781. And even that date could be disputed since the peace Treaty of Paris was not signed until Sept. 3, 1783.

But if we're going to get in the weeds about this, it is worth noting that today — Sunday, April 19 — is a red-letter day too. It marks the 251st anniversary of the event poet Ralph Waldo Emerson later described as the “the shot heard round the world,” the first gunfire in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

While there is even debate about which side fired the first shot and where, there is little argument that those opening skirmishes marked the beginning of the colonies’ armed resistance to British occupation and the start of the Revolutionary War that led to the nation's founding. Those engagements led to the creation of the continental army on June 14 and George Washington was named commander-in-chief the next day.

In assessing wars, it is easy to fall into a trap of assuming them to be simpler and more predictable than they are. Early on, U.S. forces seemed to make easy hay in the War in Afghanistan; two decades later, the Taliban returned to power. Early on, President George W. Bush declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq; the war dragged on for eight more years and 3,424 more American deaths. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, it was expected to quickly overwhelm the country; the war continues as a near-stalemate today.

And of course, of late, President Donald Trump declared that the war with Iran was won on its first day.

America's Revolutionary War was a case of similar misapprehensions. The British army, highly trained and professional, was considered to be among the mightiest in the world; it's Royal Navy was unmatched. Up against it at the outset were undisciplined and poorly equipped local militias. As the war began, few expected the colonies could win.

But what many did not appreciate was that the logistics of conducting and supplying a war across an ocean in an era without telecommunication put the British at a major disadvantage. Fighting an unconventional adversary with conventional means also undermined the presumed British advantages. To say nothing of the values of American resolve, of America's sense that it fought for a virtuous cause, of America's alliance with France; those things mattered too.

That America won the war is not just a cause for celebration today.

It also is a cautionary tale: Do not assume that technological superiority and military power alone is enough to achieve our ambitions.

More than anything, America's strength lies in its values, its sense of purpose, its status as a beacon of hope for the world.