Click here to listen to recording of the in-person talk, held September 17th, 2025, and take a tour down Battle Road to discover the “Shots Heard ‘Round the World…”
Bullet Strikes from the First Day of the American Revolution – In 2013, Joel Bohy began a collaboration with conflict archaeologist Dr. Douglas Scott to better understand the ammunition found during archaeological investigations on former battlegrounds. This morphed into live-fire research and the study of the extant battle-damaged structures and objects from April 19, 1775.
From the Elisha Jones house in Concord, through Lexington and the Jason Russell house in Arlington, Massachusetts—where Dedham soldiers fought—the two carefully studied all the surviving bullet strikes and bullet-struck objects. Using modern forensic techniques adapted to historical studies and live-fire validation, Bohy and Scott tell the story of the brutality of the fighting on the first day of the American Revolution as British forces retreated to Boston. The fighting turns out to have been much fiercer than had previously been thought.
Joel Bohy is the owner of J. Bohy Historical Consulting, he is an arms & militaria specialist at Blackstone Valley Auctions, and an appraiser on the PBS TV series Antiques Roadshow.
This talk was filmed by C-SPAN for their America 250 series, and by DedhamTV; the link for the latter recording is above.
The Speaker Series talks are held at the Museum, 612 High Street, Dedham.
The talks begin at 7:00 p.m.