Colonial militias were groups of civilian soldiers, like farmers or merchants, protecting the colonies and fighting the British. The soldiers in these militias were sometimes called minutemen, since they were said to be ready to fight on a minute's notice.
Minutemen
The Massachusetts militia stored arms and ammunition at a town called Concord.
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British general Thomas Gage had orders to seize weapons from the Massachusetts militia and arrest the leaders.Gage and his army began to make their way from Boston to Lexington, a town not far from Concord.
British general Thomas Gage
A colonist saw the British troops exiting Boston and alerted the Sons of Liberty, who sent Paul Revere and some others to warn the colonists at Lexington and Concord that The British are coming!
THE BRITISH ARE COMING!
Paul Revere
When the British troops arrived at Lexington, there were only about 80 minutemen awaiting them. The minutemen were about to give way to the redcoats, when somebody, it's not known who, fired! When the shooting ended, eight minutemen had died.
BANG!
After the American troops retreated from Lexington, the British marched to the nearby city of Concord. While some British soldiers burned a few weapons that they found, the others were faced with awaiting minutemen. A short battle later, the British took heavy losses and began to retreat back to Boston, but the colonists had more surprises up their sleeves. They hid behind trees on the British troops' ride home and fired! 73 people died, and 174 or more were wounded.