CHAPTER X

REVOLUTION BEGINS

Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. While the colonists were awaiting their reply from England, General Gage

JOHN HANCOCK.

was still in command at
Boston trying to enforce
military rule. He heard
that some of the Ameri-
cans were gathering
army stores at Concord,
a near-by town, and he
therefore sent some
troops to destroy these
stores. As they were to
pass through Lexington,
he sent a secret detach-
ment to capture John
Hancock and
and Samuel
Adams, whom he termed
"arch-rebels."

The Americans were

watching every movement. That night they hung lighted lanterns in the tower of Old North Church and signaled to Paul Revere and William Dawes that the British were on their way. The horsemen started on their midnight ride and away over the country road they went, calling aloud that the British were coming. The Minute Men were ready and the alarm was sounded in every village by the clang of bells and the signal fires on the hill-tops.

By morning, when the British soldiers reached Lexington, they were met by a small force of Americans and were ordered by the British commander Pitcairn to disperse. When they refused to do so, Pitcairn ordered a volley to be fired, which killed eight Americans. The British hurried on to Concord and destroyed the stores, but on their return to Boston they were met by the Americans at every turn and fired upon from behind fences and barns. The British loss was nearly three times that of the Americans. This first battle of the Revolution proved to the British that the Americans were able to meet them on military terms.

Within the next week nearly sixteen thousand minute men arrived from all over New England, and the whole section showed itself to be prepared for the coming

war.

OLD NORTH CHURCH.

The battle of Lexington really opened the American Revolution, but war was not formally declared until the next month, when the Continental Congress opened its second session in Philadelphia.

Ticonderoga. On this day Ethan Allen and some "Green Mountain boys" from Vermont crossed over toward Lake Champlain and captured the British Fort Ticonderoga, guarding the road to Canada (1775).

Bunker Hill, June 16, 1775. In Massachusetts the patriots made preparations for the battle of Bunker Hill. The Continental Congress, having failed to receive any word from the British government, formally declared war and placed General George Washington commander in chief of the army.

Washington went on to Cambridge just outside of Boston and there took charge of the American forces on

July 3, 1775. In the meantime on June 16 of that year, Colonel Prescott, with one thousand men, took up a position on Breed's Hill, near Boston, and in the night threw up fortifications that placed his army in a fairly safe position. The next morning Generals Putnam and Stark arrived with three hundred men and got in readiness for the attack. They were determined to drive the British out of Boston and thus restore Massachusetts to its state of freedom. The British commanders, Howe and Clinton, with three thousand picked soldiers came out to meet the Americans and to dislodge them from their position.