Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 140, Lexington and Concord.

Major General Gage had, by 1775, been in North America for two decades. It had been 20 years since he took part in the Fort Duquesne expedition.

He knew the colonies better than a few of the British, and he spent the early months of 1775 clutching at straws in the desperate hope that the war would be easier than he expected.

He had given up thinking that there would be

no conflict at all. There would be fighting in Massachusetts. He just hoped that New York would

stay loyal, providing a stable platform for defence. Gage made what preparations he could. The Indian superintendents were to keep the Americans

from forming an alliance with them, and better yet, to have them ready to attack the frontiers

of troublesome colonies. Other officials were instructed to keep their eyes open. Captain William de Laplace noticed

American civilians displaying undue interest in his fort which controlled the route

between Canada and New York, Fort Ticonderoga. Troops were dispatched to various locations around Massachusetts. Officers would walk

around the countryside in civilian clothing, learning the lay of the land and preparing for long marches.

Massachusetts was a tinderbox, ready to be set out, and the place most people were expecting

to spark trouble was the provincial Congress of Massachusetts, which met initially at Cambridge

in February, and then later in Concord, a town 20 miles west of Boston.

The two men Gage wanted most, who had already been declared guilty of treason, were Sam Adams and John

Hancock, who were hiding in a farmhouse in Lexington, about five miles east of Concord.

Gage received his secret orders from London to take action, and a group of 700 men were

ferried across Boston Harbour on the night of April 18, 1775. Their target was a batch of military supplies the Americans had gathered at Concord.

They were spotted by a patriot in Boston who raised a signal that the British had begun to move.

Paul Revere and William Dawes, two trusted couriers, rode to Lexington with the news.

The British are coming, the British are coming. The message was passed along to Concord.

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