Battles of Lexington and Concord, 1775

British troops marched from Boston towards Concord on 19 April 1775 to seize colonial military stores and arrest leading opponents of royal authority. Militia confronted them at Lexington, where the first shots were fired, and resistance intensified at Concord’s North Bridge.

During the retreat to Boston, militia companies attacked the British column along the road, inflicting heavy losses. The fighting mobilised New England forces and led directly to the Siege of Boston.

For books and historical fiction, Lexington and Concord combine intelligence networks, alarm riders, local militia, confused orders and the irreversible passage from political resistance to war. Nathaniel Philbrick’s Bunker Hill follows the people and communities drawn into the conflict by the day’s events.