April 18, 1775...The Stage is Set in Boston

249 years ago, in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 18, 1775, the stage was set, and the long fuse of misunderstanding, tension and defiance that has burned for a decade was reaching its end. Lexington and Concord was one day in the future.

On April 14, 1775, British Governor General Thomas Gage in Boston received instructions from Secretary of State William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, to disarm the Massachusetts rebels and to imprison the rebel leader. Gage decides to act quickly on Dartmouth's order.?

The rebellion's leaders—with the exception of Paul Revere and Dr. Joseph Warren—had all left Boston by April 8, 1775. They had received word of Lord Dartmouth's secret instructions to General Gage from sources in London well before they reached Gage himself. Samuel Adams and John Hancock had fled Boston to the home of one of Hancock's relatives in Lexington, where they thought they would be safe from the immediate threat of arrest.

The colonists were also aware that April 19 would be the date of the expedition, despite Gage's efforts to keep the details hidden from all the British rank and file and even from the officers who would command the mission. There is reasonable speculation, although not proven, that the confidential source of this intelligence was Margaret Kemble Gage, General Gage's New Jersey-born wife, who had sympathies with the Colonial cause and a friendly relationship with Dr. Joseph Warren.

In the morning of April 18, 1775, General Gage ordered a mounted patrol of 20 men into the countryside to intercept rebel messengers who might be out on horseback. This patrol behaved differently from those that had been sent out from Boston in the past, staying out after dark and asking travelers about the location of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. This had the unintended effect of alarming many residents and increasing their preparedness. The Lexington militia in particular began to muster early that evening, hours before receiving any word from Boston.?

Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith received orders from General Gage on the afternoon of April 18 with instructions that he was not to read them until his troops were underway. He was to proceed from Boston "with utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, where you will seize and destroy ... all Military stores ... But you will take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property." Gage used his discretion and did not issue written orders for the arrest of rebel leaders, as he feared doing so might spark an uprising.

Between 9 and 10 pm on the night of April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren told Paul Revere and William Dawes that the British troops were about to embark in boats from Boston bound for Cambridge and the road to Lexington and Concord. Warren's intelligence suggested that the most likely objectives of the regulars' movements later that night would be the capture of Adams and Hancock. They did not worry about the possibility of regulars marching to Concord, since the supplies at Concord were safely hidden, but they did think their leaders in Lexington were unaware of the potential danger that night. Revere and Dawes were sent out to warn them and to alert colonial militias in nearby towns.

Dawes covered the southern land route by horseback across Boston Neck and over the Great Bridge to Lexington. Revere first gave instructions to send a signal to Charlestown using lanterns hung in the steeple of Boston's Old North Church. He then traveled the northern water route, crossing the mouth of the Charles River by rowboat, slipping past the HMS Somerset at anchor. Crossings were banned at that hour, but Revere safely landed in Charlestown and rode west to Lexington, warning almost every house along the route.?

After they arrived in Lexington, Revere, Dawes, Hancock, and Adams discussed the situation with the militia assembling there. They believed that the forces leaving the city were too large for the sole task of arresting two men and that Concord was the main target. The Lexington men dispatched riders to the surrounding towns, and Revere and Dawes continued along the road to Concord accompanied by Dr. Samuel Prescott. In Lincoln, they ran into the British patrol that had been out all day. Revere was captured, Dawes was thrown from his horse, and only Prescott escaped to reach Concord.?

Additional riders were sent out from Concord, triggering a flexible system of "alarm and muster" that had been carefully developed months before. This system was an improved version of an old notification network for use in times of emergency. The colonists had periodically used it during the early years of Indian wars in the colony, before it fell into disuse in the French and Indian War. In addition to other express riders delivering messages, bells, drums, alarm guns, bonfires and a trumpet were used for rapid communication from town to town, notifying the rebels in dozens of eastern Massachusetts villages that they should muster their militias because over 500 regulars were leaving Boston. This system was so effective that people in towns 25 miles from Boston were aware of the army's movements while British troops were still unloading from boats in Cambridge. These early warnings played a crucial role in assembling a sufficient number of colonial militia to oppose the regulars later that day.