Resisted (1773).
Resistance / \
punished by | Five Intoler- | Continental
| able Acts. | Congress called(1774).
\ /

CHAPTER XI

THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

[Illustration: Statue of the Minute Man at Concord]

%129%. When the 10th of May, 1775, came, the colonists had ceased to
petition and had begun to fight. In accordance with the Massachusetts
Bill, General Thomas Gage had been appointed military governor of
Massachusetts. He reached Boston in May, 1774, and summoned an assembly
to meet him at Salem in October. But, alarmed at the angry state of the
people, he fortified Boston Neck,--the only land approach to the city,
and countermanded the meeting. The members, claiming that an assembly
could not be dismissed before it met, gave no heed to the proclamation,
but gathered at Salem and adjourned to Concord and then to Cambridge. At
Cambridge a Committee of Safety was chosen and given power to call out
the troops, and steps were taken to collect ammunition and military
stores. A month later at another meeting, 12,000 "minute men" were
ordered to be enrolled. These minute men were volunteers pledged to be
ready for service at a minute's notice, and lest 12,000 should not be
enough, the neighboring colonies were asked to raise the number
to 20,000.

[Illustration: Map of Country around Boston]

%130. Concord and Lexington.%--Meantime the arming and drilling went
actively on, and powder was procured, and magazines of provisions and
military stores were collected at Concord, at Worcester, at Salem, and
at many other towns. Aware of this, Gage, on the night of April 18,
1775, sent off 800 regulars to destroy the stores at Concord, a town
some twenty miles from Boston. Gage wished to keep this expedition
secret, but he could not. The fact that the troops were to march became
known to the patriots in Boston, who determined to warn the minute men
in the neighborhood. Messengers were accordingly stationed at
Charlestown and told to ride in every direction and rouse the people,
the moment they saw lights displayed from the tower of the Old North
Church in Boston. The instant the British began to march, two lights
were hung out in the tower, and the messengers sped away to do
their work.[1]

[Footnote 1: The ride of one of these men, that of Paul Revere, has
become best k