Paul Revere's Midnight Ride
After the Continental Congress, Great Britain (England) was more determined than ever to get the colonies to obey British law. British troops were sent to the city of Boston to confiscate (take) weapons that the colonists had gathered to prepare for a fight. On the night of April 18, 1775 British troops were preparing to march on the city of Concord to confiscate weapons the patriots had gathered. Upon hearing this news, Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott rode out from Boston to warn the armed patriots, known as minutemen, as they were ready for battle in a minute’s notice. “The British are coming!” they screamed as they rode from town to town awaking the minutemen. This would later lead to the battle of Lexington and Concord.
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The Battle of Lexington and Concord
Several hours after the warning from Samuel Prescott and Paul Revere, the British troops marched into a line of waiting minutemen. It was early morning on April 19, and neither side wanted to fire the first shot. In an instant, a gunshot rang out, known as the “shot heard round the world”. To this day, no one knows who fired the first shot, but this led to both minutemen and British soldiers firing upon each other for several minutes and in the end 8 Patriots lay dead. The Minutemen then retreated to the town of Concord to regroup with the British advancing behind them. As they retreated, more and more minutemen joined the group and they soon outnumbered the advancing British troops. They took up a position at the edge of town at a place known as the North Bridge.
The minutemen then took up positions behind trees and began to fire on the British as they tried to cross the bridge. The British were surprised by the number of minutemen who joined the fight and soon began to panic. They then began to retreat as the minutemen continued to follow and fire upon the retreating British troops. Using guerrilla warfare, the patriots fired from behind trees and continued to kill British troops until they retreated all the way back to Boston. The first battle of the American Revolution was over, and the Patriots had won.
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