Plate I. The Battle of Lexington, April 19th, 1775

Engraving on copper; colored. First advertised for sale in New Haven, Connecticut, on 13 December 1775. New York Public Library, New York, NY.

The four famous engravings executed by Amos Doolittle are the best documentary evidence we have of the Battle of Lexington / Concord. Doolittle, a Connecticut militia man, was not present during the battle, but he went there two weeks later and interviewed people who were present at the successive skirmishes.

Ralph Earl, a painter just starting his career and interested in landscape views, also visited Lexington and Concord. He probably created the preparatory drawings and may have colored some of the prints. Where Earl leaves off and Doolittle takes over can only be surmised — but Doolittle certainly created the engravings himself since that was his expertise.

[King] George was unswervingly loyal to people he trusted and ideas he believed to be true; and he behaved in ways that a modern psychologist might interpret as obsessive. As a young man he would, for example, eat virtually the same dinner every day of his adult life (bread, soup, beets or turnips, and mutton — varying only on Sundays, when he allowed himself roast beef). The regularity of his tastes bespoke a deeper hunger for order.

— Fred Anderson

Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754 - 1766 (2000)