On April 19, 1775, British and American soldiers exchanged fire in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington? and Concord?. On the night of April 18, the royal governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, commanded by King George III? to suppress the rebellious Americans, had ordered 700 British soldiers, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith and Marine Major John Pitcairn, to seize the colonists' firearms. A system of signals and word-of-mouth communication set up by the colonists was effective in forewarning American volunteer militia men of the approach of the British troops. At Lexington Green the next morning, the British were met by 77 American Minute Men led by John Parker. At the North Bridge in Concord, the British were confronted again, this time by 300 to 400 armed colonists, and were forced to march back to Boston with the Americans firing on them all the way. The American Revolution had begun.
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