Battles of Lexington and Concord

The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 were the first major military actions of the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Patriot militias from America's Thirteen Colonies. Day-long running battles were fought in Middlesex County in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge. The American victory resulted in an outpouring of support for the anti-British cause.

In the summer of 1774, Colonial leaders in Suffolk County, Massachusetts adopted the Suffolk Resolves in resistance to the alterations made to the Massachusetts colonial government by the British parliament in the Intolerable Acts following the Boston Tea Party. The leaders formed a Patriot provisional government known as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and called for local militias to train for possible hostilities. The Congress effectively controlled the colony outside of British-controlled Boston. On September 17, the First Continental Congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves. In response, in February 1775, the British government declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion.

On April 18, 1775, about 700 British Army regulars in Boston, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, were given secret orders to capture and destroy Colonial military supplies reportedly stored by the Massachusetts militia at Concord. Through effective intelligence gathering, Patriot leaders had received word weeks before the expedition that their supplies might be at risk and had moved most of them to other locations. On the night before the battle, several riders, including Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott, rapidly sent warning of the British expedition and information about British plans from Boston to area militias.

The first shots at Lexington were fired just as the sun was rising. Eight colonial militiamen were killed, including Ensign Robert Munroe, their third in command. The British suffered only one casualty. The militia was outnumbered and fell back, and the regulars proceeded on to Concord, where they broke apart into companies to search for the supplies. At the North Bridge in Concord, approximately 400 militiamen engaged 100 regulars from three companies of the King's troops at about 11:00 am, resulting in casualties on both sides. The outnumbered regulars fell back from the bridge and rejoined the main body of British forces in Concord.

The British forces began their return march to Boston after completing their search for military supplies, while more militiamen continued to arrive from the neighboring towns. Gunfire erupted again between the two sides and continued throughout the day as the regulars marched back towards Boston. Upon returning to Lexington, Lt. Col. Smith's expedition was rescued by reinforcements under Brigadier General Earl Percy. The combined force of about 1,700 men marched back to Boston under heavy fire in a tactical withdrawal and eventually reached the safety of Charlestown. The accumulated militias then blockaded the narrow land accesses to Charlestown and Boston, starting the siege of Boston.