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The British were after a cache of gunpowder and several cannon they had learned that the colonists had at Concord. Along the way at Lexington they encountered the Lexington Minute Men drawn up on the town green, beside the road. British officers ordered the Minute Men to disperse ("Disperse, ye damned rebels!"). No one knows who fired the first shot. Fourteen Minute Men were killed, and no British, though one or two may have been slightly wounded. The British pushed on to Concord and found more serious resistance as Minute Companies poured in from all directions. The cannon and gunpowder had been hidden and were not found. The British burned several houses and started back for Boston. Their retreat quickly became a near rout, as the Minute Men took cover behind stone walls in fields beside the road and kept firing at the British. Then the Minute Men would scurry ahead and repeat the process. A relief column sent out from Boston met them on their return to Lexington, but all were harried the entire way back to town, and several hundred British troops were shot. The British entered numerous houses beside the road from which they claimed firing had come, and killed all persons found inside, and set many on fire. Lack of a coordinated effort and an overall commander prevented the complete destruction or capture of the entire British column.

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15y ago

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