Remember when the 49ers gold rush happened in Maine? How about when Dan'l Boone explored California? Do you remember when Lee surrendered his Confederate army in Fargo, North Dakota? Well, to those famous places with famous incidents we can add that great Revolutionary War battle of Lexington and Concord... Virginia. At least we can do so in the reckoning of one Jamie Fansworth of the CBS News blog "From the Road" because it seems our friend Farnsworth is a little fuzzy on where some of the most famous battles of the American Revolution were held.
Today, in the CBS blog post about McCain declaring "Energy Independence by 2025," CBS News' Jamie Farnsworth wrote the following (my bold for emphasis):
Las Vegas, NV -- Senator John McCain unveiled the name of his energy project in Las Vegas today as he wrapped up the western swing of his two week energy tour. Deemed the Lexington Project, McCain’s plan states the U.S. will be independent of foreign energy sources by the year 2025.
“For the town where Americans asserted their independence once before,” McCain explained of the plan’s namesake in Virginia. “Let it begin today with this commitment: In a world of hostile and unstable suppliers of oil, this nation will achieve strategic independence by 2025."
One teenie, weenie problem. The famous battles of the Revolution in question occurred in Massachusetts not Virginia.
In fact, Lexington, Virginia wasn't even founded until after the great Revolutionary War battle in Massachusetts. We know this because the battle in Massachusetts was what the town in Virginia was named after.
Here is a bit of help for Farnsworth.
The City of Lexington, originally known as Gilbert Campbell's Ford, was established as the town of Lexington in the Spring of 1778. The name chosen by the Virginia Legislature for the new county seat was in honor of the first great battle of the Revolutionary War, the battle of Lexington, Massachusetts, which had occurred three years earlier.
As Max Smart is wont to say, "Missed it by that much."
