Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s April 20, 1775. I’m at the home of 19-year-old Billy Diamond, the drummer boy for the Lexington minutemen.
JG: “Billy, you were very brave to march into battle yesterday against the British army.”
BD: “Thank you, Mr. Gillespie, but I wasn’t brave. I’m called to fight for freedom. I can do no other. John Harrington… now, he was a brave man. He was hit in the chest by a musket ball. He crawled to the steps of his house where he died at the feet of his wife and his eight-year-old son.”
Eight fathers with twelve teenage sons at their sides fought in that battle at Lexington and eight Americans died.
An inscription on the Memorial to the Lexington Minutemen reads, “These men gave everything dear in life, yea, and life itself in support of the common cause.”
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
