by Zachary Belins

Created on: April 25, 2009

Lexington and Concord hold the distinct honor of being the first military engagements of the American Revolution. Both were connected in the general movement of an army of about 700 British troops, which marched from Boston to Lexington, on to Concord, and then retreated back to Boston.

The American dissidents had been storing arms, gunpowder, and supplies in preparation for what they saw as an inevitable clash with the British. General Thomas Gage, commanding the small British army in Boston, was aware of the militarizing of the colonists, but did not think he had enough men to do more than stay in Boston and await reinforcements.

Meanwhile, rebel gunpowder stores were being stashed in the town of Concord, some eighteen miles from Boston. The training of farmers and other citizens as "minutemen", or a militia capable of being ready for combat in a minute, helped prepare a force that would eventually meet the British army at both Lexington and the North Bridge, some short distance from Concord.

Short and bloodless "Powder Wars" marked semi-conflicts, months before Lexington, between the rebels and British in which the redcoats tried to remove military stores from patriot control. After an initial British victory, the rebels managed to retain control of the rest of their stores.

In order to organize and lead the militia the Massachusetts Provincial Congress was established in 1774 in lieu of an official government, which was outlawed according to the Intolerable Acts, particularly in the Massachusetts Government Act. It was led by John Hancock and first established in Concord, though it moved frequently to avoid capture by the British.

When General Gage received the orders to arrest rebel leaders and disarm the rebel forces, he dispatched 700 troops under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to Concord, where intelligence reported large rebel stores. The patriots, however, were informed well in advance that their stores might be in danger, and had thus removed most of the gun powder and firearms from Concord before the British arrived. They were also forewarned thanks to Paul Revere and William Dawes, who road through the night to warn the minutemen of the advancing British. Revere was captured by the British between Lexington and Concord, but Dawes managed to elude them and return to Boston. Also alerting the patriots was a group of twenty British scouts that acted peculiarly, asking colonists for the location of the rebel leaders after dark. Unsubstantiated rumors

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