Battle of Lexington THE AMERICAN STATEMENT in The Salem Gazette Salem, April 25, 1775. Last Wednesday the 19th of April, the Troops of His Britannic Majesty commenced hostilities upon the people of this province, attended with circumstances of cruelty not less brutal than what our venerable ancestors received from the vilest savages of the wilderness. The particulars relative to this interesting event by which we are involved in all the horrors of a civil war we have endeavored to collect as well as the present confused state of affairs will admit.