THE REVOLUTION BEGINS
General Thomas Gage, an amiable English gentleman with an Amer- ican-born wife, commanded the garrison at Boston, where political activity had almost wholly replaced trade . Gage’s main duty in the colo- nies had been to enforce the Coer- cive Acts . When news reached him
that the Massachusetts colonists were collecting powder and military stores at the town of Concord, 32 kilometers away, Gage sent a strong detail to confiscate these munitions .
After a night of marching, the British troops reached the village of Lexington on April 19, 1775, and saw a grim band of 77 Minutemen — so named because they were said to be ready to fight in a minute — through the early morning mist . The Minute- men intended only a silent protest, but Marine Major John Pitcairn, the leader of the British troops, yelled, “Disperse, you damned rebels! You dogs, run!” The leader of the Min- utemen, Captain John Parker, told his troops not to fire unless fired at first . The Americans were with- drawing when someone fired a shot, which led the British troops to fire at the Minutemen . The British then charged with bayonets, leaving eight dead and 10 wounded . In the often- quoted phrase of 19th century poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, this was “the shot heard round the world .”
The British pushed on to Con- cord . The Americans had taken away most of the munitions, but they destroyed whatever was left . In the meantime, American forces in the countryside had mobilized to harass the British on their long return to Boston . All along the road, behind stone walls, hillocks, and houses, militiamen from “every Middlesex village and farm” made targets of the bright red coats of the British soldiers . By the time Gage’s weary detachment stumbled into Boston,
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it had suffered more than 250 killed and wounded . The Americans lost 93 men .
The Second Continental Con- gress met in Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, on May 10 . The Congress voted to go to war, inducting the co- lonial militias into continental ser- vice . It appointed Colonel George Washington of Virginia as their commander-in-chief on June 15 . Within two days, the Americans had incurred high casualties at Bunker Hill just outside Boston . Congress also ordered American expeditions to march northward into Canada by fall . Capturing Montreal, they failed in a winter assault on Quebec, and eventually retreated to New York .
Despite the outbreak of armed conflict, the idea of complete sep- aration from England was still repugnant to many members of the Continental Congress . In July, it adopted the Olive Branch Petition, begging the king to prevent fur- ther hostile actions until some sort of agreement could be worked out . King George rejected it; instead, on August 23, 1775, he issued a procla- mation declaring the colonies to be in a state of rebellion .
Britain had expected the South- ern colonies to remain loyal, in part because of their reliance on slav- ery . Many in the Southern colonies feared that a rebellion against the mother country would also trigger a slave uprising . In November 1775, Lord Dunmore, the governor of Vir- ginia, tried to capitalize on that fear by offering freedom to all slaves who
would fight for the British . Instead, his proclamation drove to the rebel side many Virginians who would otherwise have remained Loyalist .
The governor of North Caroli- na, Josiah Martin, also urged North Carolinians to remain loyal to the Crown . When 1,500 men answered Martin’s call, they were defeated by revolutionary armies before British troops could arrive to help .
British warships continued down the coast to Charleston, South Car- olina, and opened fire on the city in early June 1776 . But South Car- olinians had time to prepare, and repulsed the British by the end of the month . They would not return South for more than two years .