n an enemy's country. Houses and shops were burnt
down in Lexington; private dwellings along the road were plundered,
and their inhabitants maltreated. Their march became more and more
impeded by the number of their wounded. Lord Percy narrowly escaped
death from a musket-ball, which struck off a button of his waistcoat.
The provincials pressed upon him in rear, others were advancing from
Roxbury, Dorchester, and Milton; Colonel Pickering, with the Essex
militia, seven hundred strong, was at hand; there was danger of being
intercepted in the retreat to Charlestown. The field-pieces were again
brought into play to check the ardor of the pursuit; but they were no
longer objects of terror. The pursuit terminated a little after sunset
at Charlestown Common, where General Heath brought the minute men to a
halt.

In this memorable affair the British loss was seventy-three killed,
one hundred and seventy-four wounded and twenty-six missing. Among the
slain were eighteen officers. The loss of the Americans was forty-nine
killed, thirty-nine wounded, and five missing. This was the first
blood shed in the revolutionary struggle. The cry went through the
land. None felt the appeal more than the old soldiers of the French
war. It roused John Stark, of New Hampshire--a trapper and hunter in
his youth, a veteran in Indian warfare, a campaigner under Abercrombie
and Amherst. Within ten minutes after receiving the alarm, he was
spurring towards the sea-coast. Equally alert was his old comrade in
frontier exploits, Colonel Israel Putnam.{3} A man on horseback, with
a drum, passed through his neighborhood in Connecticut, proclaiming
British violence at Lexington. Putnam was in the field ploughing,
assisted by his son. In an instant the team was unyoked; the plough
left in the furrow; the lad sent home to give word of his father's
departure; and Putnam, on horseback in his working garb, urging with
all speed to the camp.

{Footnote 3: [Israel Putnam was a soldier of native growth. He had
served at Louisburg, Fort Duquesne, and Crown Point; had signalized
himself in Indian warfare: been captured by the savages, tortured, and
rescued from the stake at the eleventh hour. Since the peace he had
resided on his farm at Pomfret, in Connecticut.]}

The news reached Virginia at a critical moment. Lord Dunmore, obeying
a general order issued by the ministry to all the provincial
governors, had seized upon the military munitions of the province.