This hand-colored line engraving on copper is one of four by Amos Doolittle at the Albany Institute. They have immense historic value because they show contemporary views of the battles at Lexington and Concord. Doolittle, a member of the New Haven Company of Guards, visited the sites just after the battles and interviewed some of the participants, then made the engravings. This plate shows Lt. Col. Smith and his second in command surveying the terrain from the Concord graveyard. The 700 or so British troops they commanded are lined up through the center of town and—at the same time—they are shown throwing American military stores into the millpond in the background. The Battle of Concord proved pivotal for the upcoming War of Independence.