But all British activities were carefully watched by the patriots, and William Dawes and Paul Revere rode out to warn people in the countryside that the British were coming. He hoped to catch the colonists by surprise and thus to avoid bloodshed. On the night of April 18, 1775, he dispatched nearly 1,000 troops from Boston. When Gage heard that the colonists had stockpiled guns and powder in Concord, he decided to act.
Gage received orders to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock, rumored to be near Lexington. The American Revolution and Its Era, 1750-1789 On the other hand, his officers disdained the colonists as fighters, thinking they would flee with any show of British force. He thought his army too small to act without reinforcements. But General Thomas Gage, commander of British troops in Boston, had been cautious. The Continental Congress had approved of preparations for defensive fighting, in case the British made an aggressive move.
Next Section Creating a Continental Armyįor some months, people in the colonies had been gathering arms and powder and had been training to fight the British, if necessary, at a moment's notice.Previous Section The Colonies Move Toward Open Rebellion, 1773-1774.
