Page 30 - ASM Book 9/2020

24
An April Morning in Lexington and Concord
1775
• FEBRUARY 9 - BRITISH ACTION: Parliament declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion.
• MARCH 30 - BRITISH ACTION: King George III endorsed the New England Restraining Act that required all New England colonies to trade exclusively with England, and banned fishing in the North Atlantic.
• APRIL 14 - BRITISH ACTION: Military Governor General Thomas Gage
received orders to enforce the Coercive Acts and to suppress “open rebellion” among Massachusetts’s citizens by all necessary force.
• APRIL 18 - BRITISH ACTION: Military Governor General Thomas Gage ordered 700 British soldiers to march to Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts, to destroy the patriot weapons depot.
• APRIL 19 to MARCH 17 - AMERICAN ACTION: The siege of Boston began after Lexington and Concord when militiamen from all over New England encircled Boston. • APRIL 23 - AMERICAN ACTION: In response to the fighting at Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress ordered 13,600 soldiers to march to Boston to join the siege.
T The War Started in Two Small Villages
he first shots fired between the American militia and the British Redcoats took place on April 19, 1775, in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
British Major General Thomas Gage ordered Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to march 700 Redcoats to Concord to destroy muskets and pistols, power and musket balls, and cannons reportedly stored there by the patriots. They left Boston early on the morning of April 19. They would march through Lexington on their way to Concord.
Paul Revere and other riders warned the citizens that night about the approaching Redcoats. In the predawn hours, beating drums and peeling bells summoned 38 men and boys to the Lexington Green to join their commander Captain John Parker. They lined up and nervously waited for the British soldiers to come.