Battles

The Battle of Lexington-Concord took place on 19^th April 1775 in Boston, Massachusetts against the British Troops and the Militia of Massachusetts.  It is agreed by historians that the shots fired during the Battle of Lexington-Concord were the first shots of the Revolution and was the result of the building Anglo-American tensions. The tensions were a result of acts and events that directly affected Massachusetts as well as the other colonies such as the stamp act. Boston, the sight of the Boston Massacre of 1770 and the Boston Tea Party of 1773 was a main point of resistance and as a result King George III increased the military presence in Boston and put in place the Boston Port act which closed the port of Boston until they paid for the tea that they had dumped overboard in the Tea Party. Powder Alarms were also a cause of tension in which minutemen, soldiers who were ready to find at moment’s notice, were mobilised during a series of war scares in 1774 which involved General Gage seizing gun powder stores.  The ‘tinderbox was lit’ (Thompson) when General Thomas Gage, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, order British troops to march on Concord where a large amount of gunpowder was stored.

On the morning of 19^th April the British arrived at Lexington. These troops were met with a group of 77 men and boys who formed a part of the colonial militia on the village green. The commander of these men was Captain John Parker, a veteran of the French and Indian War, who allegedly told his men ‘Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here’. Due to the hindrance of the colonial militia the British captain ordered his men to adopt an attack formation and then called on the rebels to disperse and Parker ordered his militia to retreat. Some, reportedly, began to retreat until a shot was fired which prompted gunfire from both sides. The British advanced and killed eight colonial militiamen; only one British soldier was wounded. The Warning systems of the local Committee of Safety sent news of the fighting to Boston and in Concord the militia soon became fully aware of the British advance. The first English platoons arrived at 7:30 am and began searching the area for weapons and gunpowder but with little success. During the search the church was accidently set on fire which led some colonials to believe that the British were torching the whole town. A large number of militia gathered and started shooting at the soldiers who returned the fire before being ordered to retreat to Boston. During the retreat to Boston the soldiers were met with ambushes from the colonial militia as well as an occasional sniping from civilians. By the end 130 men were dead, a majority of them being British soldiers. On the 20^th April General Gage woke up to find Boston surrounded by a 12,000-strong militia who had arrived overnight and were intent on revenge after hearing about the battle of Lexington Concord. Massachusetts was now in ‘a state of war’

Due to the militia that surrounded Boston the Charlestown peninsula and Dorchester heights lay abandoned. See this as an opportunity to make the British ‘masters of these heights’ General Gage planned to seized these positions before the colonists did so. News of this filtered across from Boston and New Hampshire on 15^th June. In possession of this intelligence the Massachusetts Committee of Safety orders General Artemas Ward, commander of the militia surrounding Boston, to capture both Bunker Hill and the Dorchester hills before the British did. The next day Ward ordered Colonel William Prescott to take and fortify Bunker Hill. Unknown to the British Prescott and his troops arrived at the Charlestown peninsula the same night. Prescott decided to bypass Bunker Hill and gave order to march to Breed’s Hill. The British woke on the 17^th June to newly erected defences that the colonials had toiled during the night to make.  During the day British ships bombarded the colonial militia as they worked and Colonel Prescott walked the bulwarks to raise morale. In the afternoon, over 2,000 British soldiers commanded by General Howe landed on the shore of Charlestown. Snipers fired at the British as they marched and General Howe ordered a combustible shell to be launched on Charlestown. From rooftops and hilltops spectators watched as Charlestown burnt. The British troops started uphill and the colonials help their fire until the troops were 50 metres away. The gunfire decimated British ranks during both the first and second attacks. After the third attack, however, the colonial militia were running short on ammunition and were overrun by the British. The battle of Bunker Hill was a pyrrhic victory for the British with 226 dead and a further 828 wounded. Despite the British control of the peninsula, colonial forces still trap the British in Boston. As supply shortages become an issue the British prepare for further military commitment to defeat the colonies, during this the colonies assemble more soldiers. British replaced General Gage with General in October 1775 and two weeks after the battle George Washington arrived in Cambridge to take command of the Continental Army.

The revolutionary idea that is evident in both the battle of Lexington Concord and the battle of Bunker Hill refers to the natural right of life and the right to exist without the threat of death. In a speech by the Committee of Safety to several towns in Massachusetts it says that ‘the barbarous murders committed on out innocent brethren…have made it absolutely necessary that we immediately raise an army to defend our wives and children’. The fact that innocent people were killed went against the natural right of life and also created an incentive for the colonies to fight.