Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann visited New Hampshire and clutched a teabag during a speech in Nashua, but at an earlier speech in Manchester, she Republican confused one of the basic facts of the Revolutionary War.

“What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty,” the potential presidential candidate said. “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history.”

Of course, the opening battles of the Revolution were actually fought in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

The gaffe is likely to go down as one of the larger blunders of the upcoming 2012 presidential primary season.

The remark also illustrates a lack of basic knowledge of New England geography and of grade school-level American history — the same history that her Tea Party backers drew from in forming the movement.

The story was first reported by RealClearPolitics.

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