seize military stores at Concord,
and to arrest Adams and Hancock at Lexington. Paul Revere, a patriotic
engraver, rode far in advance of the troops to warn the people of their
coming. When the soldiers reached Lexington at sunrise they were
confronted by armed yeomanry drawn up in battle array. The British fired,
killing seven men. The War of the Revolution was begun. From near and far
the farmers hastened to attack the troops. Every wall concealed an enemy
of the British; from behind trees and fences a deadly fire was poured
into their ranks. Their track was blazed with dead and wounded, as they
hurried back from Concord, disappointed in the objects of their mission.
Gage heard of the rising, and hurried reinforcements to the assistance of
his decimated and almost fugitive soldiery, and with a loss of nearly
three hundred men they re-entered Boston. From all parts of
Massachusetts, from Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, the
provincials hastened to face the invaders, and an army of sixteen
thousand men of all sorts, conditions and colors, but most of them hardy
New Englander farmers, besieged Governor Gage in Boston. Joseph Warren,
John Stark, Israel Putnam and Benedict Arnold were among the leaders of
the patriot forces. Ethan Allen, chief of the "Green Mountain Boys,"
demanded and obtained the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga "by the authority
of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress" (May 10) and Seth
Warner captured Crown Point two days later.

The second Continental Congress met at Philadelphia the same day that
Fort Ticonderoga was taken. The Congress chose for its president John
Hancock, whom the British government wanted to try for treason, assumed
direction of the troops encamped at Cambridge, and called upon Virginia
and the middle colonies for recruits. George Washington was appointed to
command the American forces.

* * *

The battle of Bunker Hill proved to the British that the skill and
courage which had been displayed with signal success against the French
could be used with equal effect against British troops. General Gage had
determined to seize and fortify points in the neighborhood of Boston in
order to strengthen his hold upon the city, and to enable him to resist a
siege. This purpose of the British commander becoming known to the
Massachusetts Committee of Safety, the Committee ordered Colonel William
Prescott, with one thousand men, in